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Cote d'azur by ultralight

Hi,

I would like to fly to the South of France this Wednesday. I flew over the Cote d’azur already a couple of times on my way to Corsica and Italy but this time I would like to visit this part of France. Most pilots fly to Cannes, since this is in the perfect location but it’s a no go for ultralights. In Frejus there is a little private airport but this is only for home based pilots.

Right now I was looking at Aérodrome de Fayence-Tourrettes LFMF, but it’s quite far from the coast, so I would have to find some car rental nearby or use a (probably very expensive) taxi.

Does anybody on here knows LFMF or any other alternative in that area?

BTW: I visited Le Castellet before but this is a bit to far out of the way for the area I want to visit this time.

Thanks in advance

Jens

EBMO, EBKT

Re Fréjus: yes, they are known for not being keen on visitors, but totally closed to visiting ULMs? Did you talk to the president of the club yet? Maybe, if you are nice and promise not to make any undue noise etc., they will accomodate you. There is a Europcar agency close-by.

Re Fayence: not really geared towards visitors either, but they are “ouvert à la CAP”, so they have to accept you. There IS a car rental outfit just a few km from the aiport, UCAR in Tourettes, where some people have successfully rented a car.

Cuers-Pierrefeu (LFTF) is a bit closer than Le Castellet to where you want to go. Ouvert à la CAP as well, but again, transport is a problem.

Anyway, if you do speak some French, I really recommend you register with Drivy. Very good rates, and cars almost anywhere, even in rural France. I had a very good experience with that last year, and might use them again shortly.

Not really useful in terms of transport, and quite far away from the coast, but if you really want to get an exciting little airstrip in your logbook, then check out the ULM-Strip “Cipières Alpes d’Azur” on FFPLUM. It’s located on a ridge, north of Nice.

Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany

boscomantico wrote:

Re Fréjus: yes, they are known for not being keen on visitors, but totally closed to visiting ULMs? Did you talk to the president of the club yet? Maybe, if you are nice and promise not to make any undue noise etc., they will accomodate you. There is a Europcar agency close-by.

This field would be really perfect, I emailed them and they told me not open to visitors only home based, they told me Fayence could be an alternative. Maybe I can try calling instead of emailing tomorrow.

boscomantico wrote:

Anyway, if you do speak some French, I really recommend you register with Drivy. Very good rates, and cars almost anywhere, even in rural France. I had a very good experience with that last year, and might use them again shortly.

I didn’t know this app, I’ll check it out!

boscomantico wrote:

Not really useful in terms of transport, and quite far away from the coast, but if you really want to get an exciting little airstrip in your logbook, then check out the ULM-Strip “Cipières Alpes d’Azur” on FFPLUM. It’s located on a ridge, north of Nice.

Cool, maybe I’ll do this on a next trip when I have a bit more time to fly around.

Last Edited by jvdo at 27 May 17:09
EBMO, EBKT

Just a quick update;

I contacted Fréjus again like you suggested but the answer was still no. Le Castellet had no rental cars left and the rental company at Fayence was closed on Thursday.
So in the end I didn’t go to the Cote d’azur.

Instead I visited Lyon and Avignon, 2 cities I passed a lot of times before, but until now I didn’t visit them.
It was Mistral so the arrival into Avignon was a bit sporty, but as mentioned in the Skydemon pilot notes the wind during mistral is in the runway access.

It seemed like it was a top week / weekend in France since I couldn’t find a rental car anywhere, but we had a great time visiting the cities itself and some villages nearby by electric bike.

I tried to use Drivy, but I didn’t find a lot of available cars with a good acceptance rate. I tried to book a car once, but it got rejected.

Full trip: EBMO – Dijon Darois (LFGI) – Lyon Bron (LFLY) – Avignon (LFMV) – Macon (LFLM) – EBMO : 7h18 flight time

Last Edited by jvdo at 03 Jun 18:41
EBMO, EBKT

I can get you from/to LFMF to LFMD with an aeroclub plane if we can find a suitable time… I am based in lfmd and do some wingly regularly. I feel sorry to not have seen your message before, now that your plans have changed.
You can also try wingly website for short plane transportation like this, it’s a flight sharing website and there are some pilot based there (I am one of them).

Last Edited by greg_mp at 03 Jun 19:02
LFMD, France

@jvdo: thanks for the update. Did you try the Instant Booking option with Drivy? Then you can open the car with their app and get an instant approval for your rental request. The suggestion of Drivy is great. I am using a similar solution for The Netherlands regularly (MyWheels) and in The Netherlands, it works great, but I only rent Instant Booking cars as that way I don’t have to deal with an “owner” saying yes or no. It is more private. In case people want to sign up for Drivy, you could use this referral code for a £20 credit. You don’t have to use the referral code, but it is there and both would benefit.

As for Lyon and Avignon: both places are very nice. Lyon Bron is convenient as you can land there at night, park on the GA apron and exit the airport to sleep at the simple but very nearby Kyriad Hotel just 200 meters away from the GA apron. The hotel is very simple, but the breakfast is great (for what you could expect), good espresso, fruits and fresh croissants. We have friends living near Avignon so visit that area regularly.

Who knows, next time you will make it to the Cote d’Azur.

EDLE, Netherlands

AeroPlus wrote:

Did you try the Instant Booking option with Drivy?

I saw the option but we had no instant booking cars available in the area at that time :(
Next time I’ll just book a car a bit in advance at Le Castellet to go to the Cote d’Azur, I think that’s the best option for me.

BTW, Avignon has a Best Western hotel 300m from the terminal which makes it a great stop when flying to Corsica or Italy / Elba.
I’ll be back for sure :)

EBMO, EBKT

@jvdo: another option in the Drivy app is to introduce yourselves so the car owner gets an idea of who is trying to rent his car. I added there some info about me and the family, what kind of work I do and where we come from. I think this might help in getting the rental accepted. And I think I remember that hotel at Avignon at the roundabout. Good tip indeed!

Last Edited by AeroPlus at 04 Jun 07:33
EDLE, Netherlands

AeroPlus wrote:

@jvdo: another option in the Drivy app is to introduce yourselves so the car owner gets an idea of who is trying to rent his car. I added there some info about me and the family, what kind of work I do and where we come from. I think this might help in getting the rental accepted.

Thanks for the tip, I’ll try this next time.

I wonder why airports like Lyon-Bron and Avignon have no cars you can book as a pilot and automatically open via the app. I guess at least 50% of the people visiting the airport want to rent a car?
Even tiny airports in Denmark I visited had this :)

EBMO, EBKT
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