I’m not an expert by any means but didn’t the French club structure there start in the 50s and 60s, when individual wealth was not as it is, as a product of government funding? There aren’t a lot of countries in which the government has paid for aircraft designs (e.g. Rallye) intended to operate within a government sponsored club structure. Russia and Italy are the two others I can think of, for powered aircraft (with Yaks and the P.66 respectively).
There have been many posts, by French pilots, all over forums, for many years, stating that there are very few private owner-pilots there, that nearly all flying is short local hops within the aeroclub scene, etc.
However you don’t need to spend 7 years on EuroGA to learn that only a French pilot is allowed to say that 
Being an international forum is probably the principal mod challenge!
From my many trips, it does amaze me how GA culture varies across Europe. I suppose it is no more a reflection of the broad national culture, but the factors driving it aren’t obvious. France is hardly a “poor” country, so it isn’t just wealth. I have known personally (met) a number of pilots in France who do a lot of “distances” but nearly all of them were not actually French; they just live there. This is perhaps why the FFA is for clubs only; there is little demand for a broader coverage. Otherwise, an organisation would always take anybody’s money; all money is good 
and owner-pilots should have the most. Or it could be that owners think the FFA is a waste of their time; a bit like most UK owners feel about UK AOPA.
And ultimately these differences prevent (or at least make it hard) to have a single “AOPA” for Europe, which is really little more than a number of different countries, different cultures, different languages, sharing a common border. In the US the different States also have different cultures (well, Wiki says so ) but in the end if it comes to the crunch 99% will say they are Americans. In Europe, if it comes to the crunch, 99% will be national. As indeed the coronavirus PPE crisis has shown.
The FFA, the last I saw, has somewhere between 40, 000 and 50000 licence holders. When you join an aeroclub,if you want to fly a club aircraft, you also need to join the FFA which provide/ arranges insurance for both the club and pilot along with an assistance service to get you and your passengers home in tye event one has to leave the aircraft somewhere due to weather or technical malfunction and to reclaim the aircraft at a later date, including arranging for an engineer to attend. For UK its a bit like the AA/RAC for motorists. Like the EAA and IAOPA it also arranges discounts on things like car hire.
The FFA also has several other missions including judicial aid, leading the fight against airport closures and fighting the French aeroclub cause both within France and internationally eg with EASA and Eurocontrol.
In Europe FFA is represented within the European Flying Union (EPFU) and Europe Air Sport to increase their voice at the European political level.
2 other big GA groups in France are the FFPLUM which serves a similar purpose to the FFA but for ULM pilots most of whom are aircraft owners. The last figure I saw for them was between 30, 000 and 40, 000 licence holders. Since many of them are also members of clubs and a fair proportion are also FFA members there is regular consultation between the 2.
A third, quite large association is the RSA. Pilots with collectors aircraft, old warbirds, orphans, experimental, homebuilts tend to be a member of this. I don’t know how many members they have or what services they provide, although I do know many members and their is a lot of discussion between pilots of all 3 groups.
There is an AOPA France but even when I was an aircraft owner I heard littlemor nothing about it. I also do not know anyone who is a member. I believe in this part of France there are more members of the UK PFA than there are of AOPA France. The only figure for members I ever saw was a figure of 1000 some 10 years ago. Otherwise I don’t know who represents owner pilots of certified aircraft in France.
Silvaire wrote:
There’s your lesson.
You got a point perhaps, but neither EAA nor AOPA is a major player in Europe, and Europe is NOT a single country. That is your lesson As a long term member of the EAA, I would say though, that all the major organisations in Europe would feel right at home there, no matter which country they are from. The AOPA is a very different kind of organisation, but it becomes what the members want it to be I guess (especially when loosing members) – and that could be different in each country.
In Norway we have NLF, bigger than AOPA and EAA put together when taking into account the size of the country. NLF is under FAI, the largest aviation organisation in the world. It do however have lots of other stuff beside single engine piston planes, for good and for worse.
In the US, EAA and AOPA cooperate usefully. In Europe people discuss which is more individually important in the US There’s your lesson.
I believe AOPA just built up an RV-10 and did the interesting comparison with Cirrus.
LeSving wrote:
AOPA doesn’t DO anything except politics
LeSving wrote:
EAA has more political muscle than AOPA
Not true for the US.
AOPA US is very active in promoting aviation safety. They have hundreds of courses and videos related to training and safety, including the Air Safety Institute. They are very active generating interest in aviation with both pilots and the public at large, including organizing fly-ins across the country. They are also able to intervene and provide support to pilots on individual and specific legal and medical issues.
As you mention, EAA and AOPA have a different focus but in general AOPA has more political influence than most lobbying groups in the US government and have permanent representation in Washington. EAA’s political influence is very concentrated on FAA matters. AOPA’s is very broad, going far beyond just the FAA.
Since Europe is so fragmented, neither EAA nor AOPA national affiliates have the same clout as either of them in the US.
Mooney_Driver wrote:
AOPA calls itself the Airplane Owners and Pilots association. In Europe, with their often very tinted idea of entitlement to ownership this may keep a lot of renters off, even though that would be quite stupid
AOPA is a political organisation for owners of certified aircraft only. Then we have EAA, which is open to everyone interested in aviation. AOPA doesn’t DO anything except politics, while EAA has countless courses and all kinds of opportunities for everyone to participate in almost everything related to aviation. Still, EAA has more political muscle than AOPA, all things considered. European organisations have much more in common with EAA than AOPA. I don’t see the use for an organisation than do not cover ALL of aviation, or at least all of GA.
Peter wrote:
In fact I wonder whether the whole “individual owner-pilot” versus “aeroclub renter” balance is very different in the US versus Europe.
Absolutely that is a major thing. AOPA calls itself the Airplane Owners and Pilots association. In Europe, with their often very tinted idea of entitlement to ownership this may keep a lot of renters off, even though that would be quite stupid. AOPA Switzerland has been quite active but they are also not too vocal about their accomplishments which often means people think they do nothing.
The other bit is that in the US there is mostly ONE organisation who represents all of GA and that is AOPA, where as here, there always has been the national aeroclub scene who traditionally are the local GA lobby vs an international organisation. So in most countries the Aeroclubs claim the birthright of being those who will negotiate with politicians and the CAA about issues and would the others shut up please. AOPA is seen and also often actively decried by some of them as a “competition” which of course is total bull… but it shows yet again how fragmented the GA representation in Europe is.
IAOPA and its European branch were instrumental in getting the IR problematic moving at the time, that much I know. Also, without AOPA Greece, Bulgaria and some others in those regions, flying to either country would be a much more expensive exercise, they do a lot there to keep GA possible at all. Here, AOPA is to my knowledge a fully acknowledged stakeholder in GA process and they also have a representation within EASA, which for Switzerland is quite important.
I fully agree however that a unified European AOPA would be very desirable as well as that the competition between Aeroclubs and AOPA needs to stop and they should concentrate their efforts. That is a main issue in the whole problem.
Thanks
There is IAOPA which you are a member of, I think, if you are in US AOPA, or any other AOPA.
They hold regular lunches for the various AOPA heads They also send out an email newsletter which sometimes has interesting stuff. I am sure they try to apply pressure here and there…
I have been a member of AOPA (USA) for about 10 years. I really admire what they achieve in the US, such as medical self declaration legislation recently, their “Rusty Pilot” program to get lapsed pilots back in the air and their battles to keep airports open and honest. And theirs is the only hard copy aviation magazine that I read
As regards Europe, I don’t even know if I am a member of AOPA here. I had always assumed that as a UK based member of AOPA US I would be somehow counted as an affiliate of AOPA UK or AOPA Europe if there is such a thing. But they have never contacted me. I guess this goes to show how ineffective AOPA Europe is. Surely anyone belonging to the mothership AOPA USA, but with a European address, should be automatically made a member of the relevant European AOPA?
Also, I am vaguely aware that there are a number of European country AOPA’s here, UK, Germany and Greece to name a few. But surely this is way too splintered to be effective. There should be one continent wide AOPA which combines the total muscle of the total pilot pool to pick off one or two key lobbying topics each year.
Does anyone know how AOPA Europe, or the country AOPAs, work and what their relationship to each other, and to the US umbrella is?
I guess I rely on PPLIR to lobby on my behalf of European issues, though I am not sure I completely trust their motivations sometimes.
As far as my favourite pilot forum in Europe, it has become EuroGA in recent years. Well done Peter! And thank you.
