Air France, But Not Quite: A Tecnam P2008 Flight Over Picardy
Think of Air France, and, understandably, you will probably think of a mixture of Airbuses and Boeings trundling between Paris and destinations both near and far. However, in the quiet and peaceful countryside that surrounds the French capital sits two organisations that are somewhat affiliated with France’s flag carrier. These are the flying clubs Aéroclub Air France Nord and the slightly larger Aéroclub Air France. The former is based at the small airfield of Le Plessis-Belleville, located around forty kilometres to the northeast of Paris. Meanwhile, Aéroclub Air France is based at Toussus-le-Noble Airport which sits to the west of Paris near the famous town of Versailles. Both clubs serve as flying clubs for employees of Air France, their friends and relatives, offering recreational flying lessons in single-engined piston aircraft, whilst members with all the relevant licences can rent aircraft from them and head off on their jollies.
In January 2020, I was offered the opportunity to go flying with one of Aéroclub Air France Nord’s members, an Air France Purser with a passion for light aviation. Seizing this opportunity, we put a date in the diary and, getting very lucky with the temperamental winter weather, this ended up going ahead as planned, reporting to the clubhouse at 1000 on a chilly Saturday morning.
Being taken inside the clubhouse, this was a two-story building, and was everything you would expect from a lively airfield clubhouse, filled with pilots and their friends swapping stories, whilst the walls were richly decorated with an array of photographs, articles and memorabilia from throughout the flying club’s history. The main reason for Air France having two flying clubs around Paris is that Aéroclub Air France Nord started its life as the flying club for Union de Transports Aériens, more commonly known as UTA, rebranding when this was absorbed into Air France in the early 1990s. Today, the club operates an eclectic fleet of light aircraft Cessna 172, Diamond DA40, the Piper PA28 Cadet, Piper Cub and the Tecnam P2008. Initially, the plan was to spend an hour flying around the skies of Picardy in the mighty Piper Cub, however, with this grounded and in the hangar that morning, we ended up having to switch to the much more modern Tecnam P2008.
Whilst I was absorbed in the flying and did not have time to write a full report, you can find all the photos of my experience below.
