I started the French “qualification montagne” at Megève in 2013 and did the checkride last year. The qualification is valid for life, and entitles the holder to use all altiports (big mountain aerodromes like Meribel, Corlier, Chamois, etc) and smaller altisurfaces (like St Roch, Valloire or Tignes).
For the time being, it is a French national qualification, albeit recognised by other European countries which have restricted-use mountain landing sites.
When the DGAC submits its conversion report to EASA (supposedly by 2018) the qualification can be entered on a foreign Part-FCL licence as the new “MOU” rating.
If you train at Megève they will probably give you a site authorisation after a couple of days so that you can fly to and fro in your own aeroplane, but most of the training will probably be in one of their D140 Mousqetaires. That said, I did the checkride in my Maule.
ATB, Peter
Jacko: did you only do the mountain rating on wheels part or also the on skis part? Do you speak French? If no, was that any problem?
Just wheels, so far.
I’m more or less bilingual, but I wouldn’t regard that as essential at Megève where the instructors speak good English.
When flying in France, or even in Quebec, for instance, there may be other pilots who do not speak good English. Mountain pilots don’t say an awful lot on the radio, but the essential vocabulary for crossing narrow passes and for airfield circuits is simple enough to pick up as you go.
My own feeling is that it’s a matter of politeness to make an effort to speak a bit of any local language, even if the result seems pathetic to the extent of being counterproductive at first.
Peter
That would be interesting, the french mountainrating recognized as the easa mountainrating in 2018! I did not find a site of the azroclub in megeve, is there any?
Why did you choose for them? Would you take them back if you could do it again? How was the availability? Only a positive expierience or did you found also something less positive? How many hours / days took the mountain rating?
I did my site rating for courchevel also in a D140, and a mountainrating is something i am very interested in.
I did my Courchevel site rating at … Courchevel and did some work on the wheels-only mountain rating there, but would be interested in an alternative for getting a wheels-only mountain rating at Megeve.
I chose LFHM because of personal recommendations and because it was easy and pleasant to commute daily from a friend’s hangar at Annemasse. I found the atmosphere friendly but professional, the food good, the aeroplanes plentiful and well maintained. I did one morning on skis and I will go back for more if and when. They don’t have a website but the French Air Force seem to send their pilots there for training, and I think they have and deserve a good reputation. That said, I haven’t tried any of the other alpine schools, so they might be even better.
Probably fair to allow a couple of weeks for the mountain qualification, according to ability and weather. If you have a few hundred tailwheel landings under your belt it may “click” quicker. Also allow a few days to organise the checkride, because there is some bureaucracy involved…
PJ
I agree with Jacko. I really enjoyed Megève and had a good impression of the people there. A few pics here.
I’d be interested to know where else though. In theory Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Italy and Spain might also have mountain schools. Or perhaps an aeroclub in the Pyrenees – something to check on an outing fron Carcassonne?
http://www.iaopa.eu/mediaServlet/storage/gamag/jun10/p35-37.pdf
I think if you look to the places they describe in the Pyrenees in this article, you should find something to start with.
