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VFR France for Dummies (me in this case)

johnh wrote:

One occasion where I’ll rush to Europe’s defence, because this is equally true in the US. Except in the US
I’ve no doubt your statement is true, but I get always the impression from YT and pilot reports, that US airfields often have courtesy cars. Not only on the bigger airports with FBOs, but also the midsized ones. At least it seems a less deal to get to your final destination, but maybe the US-YouTubers have fooled me.

Enterprises picking you up at airfields seems also pretty US-style. I’ve sometimes asked accomodations to pick me up at an airfield, but often they refused or didn’t have the manpower to do so. Hitchhiking might be more successful in Europe.

Nonetheless, Germany had a pretty good App2Drive network in the past, which was unfortunately decreasing since Covid came into our world. I really miss such an offer in France. On the other hand: Germany is indeed even worse when it comes to GA airfields with public transportation nearby. Taxis are however often fast and easily accessible. Not cheap, but also not as expensive as France.
Last Edited by Frans at 10 Feb 18:43
Switzerland

For one, many US pilots never leave the airport. At least as many as here. Reason being: there is usuallly nothing interesting to see in the vicinity. For the most part, the US are just dull.

Then some pilots are „money no object“ and get a shiny rental car delivered right to aircraft by the FBO. Think $$$ per day.

And yes, in some cases, pilots benefit from crew cars. But usually, these are limited to a few hours a time, so not good for „travelling“, but only good to get lunch somewhere. Usually something from a fast food chain.

The two continents can hardly be compared.

Last Edited by boscomantico at 10 Feb 19:08
Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany

@johnh, we have a light rail stop at the transient ramp of my US base

@Frans, we have a very high density of airports in the US, on a recent local flight I flew over at least a dozen where I could have landed. Some have big, fancy FBOs, some have literally nothing, no people, no buildings. So you pick one to suit your needs.

I’ve yet to pay a high rate to have a rental car delivered to a US GA airport – its been the same rate as if they didn’t deliver it. Some FBOs will drive the car to the plane for you as a fun dramatic gesture (I’ve had that experience at Paso Robles KPRB) but at most the rental car company leaves it in the parking lot. Yes, Enterprise is more helpful than most.

Uber also works if the destination is populated. I’ve never used an FBO crew car, but I guess I might some day. At one of our favorite local places for fly-out lunch we call a resort nearby and they send an SUV to get us (for the price of a tip only), returning us to the airport when we’re finished. The climate there is completely different to where we live, so its nice in winter.

Our recent pilot visitor from Germany (who left yesterday) apparently enjoyed his visit and some local flying with me. We had a great time in absolutely perfect weather, our good luck. He walked on the beach in warm weather and flew to see snow in the same day, and he surely wasn’t bored. He’s now thinking of flying his Mooney Bravo over via the Oshkosh Fly-In and leaving it for a while, returning periodically by non-stop commercial flights to do his own GA flights with family around the western US. At 180 kts they could cover some ground and see a lot. He’s meanwhile developing business locally and I suspect he’s thinking he can write off the aircraft expenses if he opens a small office here. I’ll be looking for a hangar and we’ve already got a guy who could maintain the plane and make sure its ready to go. Creativity is good

The reason I initially started on EuroGA was that at the time I had two planes and thought I’d ship my Luscombe to Italy for a year in a container, not unlike my friend’s plan with his Mooney but in reverse and with a smaller radius of operation. In retrospect and with more knowledge, I know it would not have gone well for me. I like travelling in Europe on a motorcycle, have made more trips than I could count but the previously unimagined hassles with aircraft maintenance, airspace, airports and bureaucracy would be a lot more than I’d enjoy and I think the distances are usually not far enough to justify me traveling by GA unless I were based on an island as the OP is.

Last Edited by Silvaire at 10 Feb 20:57

Uber too works in France, but for some remote airport this could be an issue.

Last Edited by Arun at 10 Feb 21:18
EDMB, Germany

we have a light rail stop at the transient ramp of my US base

Lucky you! I didn’t say EVERYWHERE is like it. But there are lots of little airfields where you are truly in the middle of nowhere. New Jerusalem (1Q4) comes to mind – it;’s not THAT far from Stockton or Tracy, but way too far to do anything without a car. Rinse and repeat and repeat and repeat…

As far as cars and FBOs go, we used to go often to San Luis Obispo (KSBP). We would rent a car through the FBO, at exactly the same price as in the passenger terminal. Sometimes they’d drive it out to us, sometimes they’d take us on a golf cart to the car. Once or twice we even had to walk 100 feet or so (shock horror).

LFMD, France
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