Not a pretty picture but I saw this poster on the club wall and did my best to get a shot with the phone, which could be read. The problem was reflections.
Its basically a history of the main aircraft used within French clubs for training at a particular era.
Apologies for interrupting all the pretty photos but I thought it is interesting and didn’t think it worthy of a thread.
It is worth a thread 
I wonder if any other country has such a centrally organised GA scene? Especially that amazing insurance policy.
Funny, I also thought this poster was neat when I saw it – the picture’s not better but the white out is in a different place so between the two shots, we got everything covered 😁
Peter wrote:
I wonder if any other country has such a centrally organised GA scene?
We got NLF, but NLF has nothing to do with which aircraft are used. NLF is many different things for different parts of GA and aerosports in general. NLF is mostly a political or community kind of organisation. The exceptions are perhaps glider. There the gliding part of NLF is the competent authority according to EASA, just like any national CAA. For UL it’s also the “CAA”, sort of, but in a very different way.
I would rather prefer such organisations stick to community/political lobbying only. But on the other hand, this leaves too much responsibility/work to governmental bureaucrats, who increasingly are paragraph riding lawyers instead of hands-on persons with knowledge and experience.
FFA has nothing to do with which aircraft are used either. Clubs make their own choices of their fleet. They do organise to save or even buy airfields threatened with closure. They do organise insurance schemes. They do get involved in political matters affecting aviation.
They do provide support for clubs. What they do not do is tell clubs what to do.
@Peter, the Italian Aero Club seems (from a distance) to be similar to the French setup, including for example licensing UL pilots under delegated authority.
My understanding is that development of the Rallye series was originally government sponsored, for the national clubs? Same with the Partenavia P.64/66 in Italy, but I could well be wrong. This was a long time ago in the 60s, but it would regardless be interesting to know the history of government sponsored light aviation and aircraft in both countries.
For me, the peak in aircraft desirability in the poster occurred around 1970.
I thought the Ralleye was originally a response to a FAF basic trainer requirement, wasnt it??
For me it is the 1932 MS 315 Morane Saulnier. There is one at one of our local airfields in a club which just maintains and flies old training aircraft.They also own several others in the top half of that poster. Iwas fortunate to have a flight in the MS315. I loved the sound of that engine.
Robin DR400 (all the variants) for me initially… Still a great plane for shorter runways I think and pretty forgiving for learning…
Our PA17 spent its early years in France, based at LFPN with the Aero Touring Club de France – registered as F-BFMZ.
It was exported directly to France from Lock Haven in 1948 and was imported to the UK in 1969 when presumably the club decided to modernise the fleet.
I have some old French aircraft logs, and some old photos somewhere which I will dig out and post.
