Hello everyone,
In Germany, the use of private land for regular aeronautical activities with ultralight aircraft is generally subject to very strict conditions. I am trying to find out if similar regulations exist in France, or if one can freely use private land (my own or with explicit consent of the owner) to take off and land an ultralight for non-commercial purposes, perhaps three or four times a year. I’m looking to understand what the criteria or restrictions might be associated with such activity. If anyone has information or personal experiences to share, it would be very helpful to me.
Thank you very much for your help and feedback!
Hope you speak French? From a very quick glance, it looks like if it is “permanent”, one needs authorisation from the local préfecture. However, you seem to be more interested in “non permanent” usage.
The actual regulation: https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/loda/id/LEGITEXT000006075019
Article four says that “occasional” use must be declared to the municipality, doesn’t say “authorised”. Doesn’t define what the exact limit is.
Guide by the ultralight federation https://ffplum.fr/images/reglementation/Guide_de_creation_plateforme_ULM.pdf
Guide by the CAA https://www.meurthe-et-moselle.gouv.fr/contenu/telechargement/15274/107665/file/Guide_de_creation_plateforme_ULM_DSAC.pdf
Each département seems to have a page on procedures, forms, etc; here a few:
Apparently you need a mayor declaration even for occasional use.
And occasional probably means something like less than 10 movements per year, but that’s up to interpretation. If you feel you can defend that it’s occasional in front of a judge, I would say you don’t really have anything to fear. If you plan to fly there / from there every other weekend for months, it’s probably a better idea to make it permanent with the Préfecture procedure. The same would go if you invite multiple other ULMs several times per year. The way I understand it, the Préfecture can’t forbid it without a proper justification, and by default should allow it.
I inquired about a plane recently whose owner is living on his own (shared) airstrip. This is Saint Médard de Presque LF4627, indicated here. https://basulm.ffplum.fr/PDF/LF4627.pdf
LF4627_pdf
May not be easy but that is clearly possible, and they are using it – wouldn’t say often, but they do. They have ULM and a C172.
Driving round the back-country recently, I came across an airstrip in a totally unexpected place, near the village of Puget Rostang way up in the hills. I was pretty surprised, and by chance I met shortly afterwards the owner of the land, doing his day-job as a shepherd. Apparently someone in the village had an ULM and was complaining about the cost and hassle of keeping it at Gap. So between them they built the airstrip – just grass – on the only flat land for miles around, with a hangar for the plane.
It looks extremely tricky, surrounded by terrain and with trees on both ends. He told me it was 300m but I measured it on Google Earth and it was a lot less. Evidently it is/was tricky, because he clipped a tree with the wing of the ULM. The ULM is no longer with us; the pilot was injured but is OK now.
An private airfield (not a BasULM) field needs permission from mayor, prefect and DGAC.
A ULM can land on any field with the permission of the owner.
But if the land is to be used regularly or is open (even PPR) to others it needs permission from the owner of the land plus a permit from mayor (a politician) plus permission from the prefect (a sort of civil servant).
As the land is more than likely to be "agricultural " land you need a permit to build any sort of permanent hangar on it.
There are a number of grey areas and does rely on the agreement or non objection by the neighbours.
Please note there are 6 categories of ULM and some are easier than others to gain permissions.
For instance a guy up the road from regularly takes off in his paramotor from his garden. There are several residences in the hamlet and as AFAIK no one cares and so the mayor doesn’t really want to know.
gallois wrote:
plus a permit from mayor (a politician) plus permission from the prefect (a sort of civil servant).
Haha 
I wouldn’t have put it any other way
Surely, you can there are 2000 of these around, it’s easy as long as it’s private and you don’t make any ‘aviation money’ out of it
The distinction between Avion, ULM, Drones, FlyingCars…in blurry now in French aviation rules regarding operation of private strips !
The laws were overhauled recently with consultation was closed in 2023: mostly to allow flying taxis, drones…
I am surprised most pilots, aeroclubs, FFA…missed this, maybe they are living on another planet? or covid?
It’s moot anyway as clubs operate under licensing rules that require licensed AIP/VAC runways !
Anyway, if your Ultra-Light is ULM (Guepard), you need ‘Platform ULM’:
See guide: https://ffplum.fr/images/reglementation/Guide_de_creation_plateforme_ULM.pdf
*for ULM occasional private use, you need mayor declaration and land owner permission
*for ULM regular use or money making or club, you need more signatures from prefet, taxes, douanes, police…as well as local dgac
If your Ultra-Light is SEP (VL3), you need to get ‘private aerodrome, or ‘private aerosurface’, the form for one-off landing or creation of private strip for SEP is here,
https://www.ecologie.gouv.fr/sites/default/files/cerfa_15479-01_demande_creation_aerodrome_prive.pdf
You need land owner permission, the mayor opinion (not approval) and stamp from DGAC
You don’t need an airport inspector to survey the runway, however, DSAC will not approve request for SEP with length under 600m
Under NCO: pilot owns runway state and length, he does not need licensed surface and distance to operate SEP under 5700kg
The advantages of new laws: less involvement of Prefet, Police, Customs in creation, however, they have all have the powers to ban the strip. The disadvantages of new laws: more environmental rules and the creation and operation of ‘helisurface’ is now very tightened…
AGAIN, as I said keep it no Aviation €€€: very quiet, no pilot training, no aeroclub, no landing fees, no maintenance, no aircraft rental, no fuel storage or trading…you can open other non-aviation related business like fishing, restaurant, hotel, chicken factory…in other words, you are supposed to do it for the love of it
In a nutshell, as long as it’s private aircraft (ULM or SEP), private land with plenty of length surrounded by happy neighbor and mayor and no money, no club, it’s an easy process !
maxbc wrote:
Apparently you need a mayor declaration even for occasional use. And occasional probably means something like less than 10 movements per year, but that’s up to interpretation. If you feel you can defend that it’s occasional in front of a judge, I would say you don’t really have anything to fear. If you plan to fly there / from there every other weekend for months, it’s probably a better idea to make it permanent with the Préfecture procedure. The same would go if you invite multiple other ULMs several times per year. The way I understand it, the Préfecture can’t forbid it without a proper justification, and by default should allow it.
There is no clear number of movements neither for ‘Platform for ULM’ or ‘private AD for SEP’
However, if you need guidance, you can look at the rules for ‘occasional helisurfaces’
- Max 200 movement per year
- Max 20 per day
https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/jorf/id/JORFTEXT000045697168
The fines on helicopter off-airport landing were tightened recently,
https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/loda/article_lc/LEGIARTI000032790140
This also gives one what to expect for fixed wings,
