I don’t go looking for these. I was just happily flying a job to a French airfield in OnAir, but encountered this when I arrived. I couldn’t believe it at first. I circled it a couple of times, looking for another airfield nearby, as this couldn’t be my destination. But it was. So I brought my M20R in as slow as possible from the north and landed…just barely! Another 20 feet, and I would have rolled off the cliff at the south end. I would suggest you bring an XCub or something similar if you try landing on Mont Aiguille airstrip (ICAO: LF79). And I would suggest you approach from the south, as the field runs downhill towards the south, so the uphill incline from a southern approach will help you get stopped. Taking off will be a little easier, but before you do that, I would suggest flying to AF79 from a nearby airfield just so you can appreciate what you’re about to attempt, and how ridiculous it really is.
After my flight ended, I Googled it to see if it was real, and here is what I found…
On 27 August 1957, the stunt pilot Henri Giraud landed a Piper J-3 Cub on the summit of Mont Aiguille, utilizing an 80 m (260 ft)-long, 20 m (66 ft)-wide runway which had been built earlier that day using materials and men lifted to the summit by helicopters. In the following 18 years, he staged a further 51 landings on the summit before his final landing in 1975, many carrying paying passengers, and often made using skis.
This is my candidate for the most extreme airstrip in the world, bar none…lol
A legend for all mountain pilots in France. He was the 1st pilot to land on the Mont Blanc (yes, with a plane, not a helicopter). He totalled around 40000 flight hours, and I think he inaugurated half of the French “altisurfaces”. These are mostly not-too-bumpy fields, steep enough to allow your plane to stop before the cliff. One of them (Villard Notre Dame, facing LFHU) was even too steep for the brakes and didn’t allow you to stop, you had to turn back at the top and take off while your plane accelerated.
Villard Notre Dame is closed and not in the sim, but you can try Notre-Dame-de-la-Salette (yes, there are a lot of “Notre Dame” in the French alps, which is a pious nickname of the Virgin Mary. When each winter you survive seems a miracle, you become a believer).
My final opinion on Mt Aiguille is that it is a kind of easter egg :
There is no airstrip IRL on top of Mt Aiguille.
Henri Giraud landed several times on top with a 150HP Piper Cub, but the strip he used was much shorter and steeper than the one presented in MSFS. There was never a certified “altisurface” on top of Mt Aiguille. In MSFS, you can probably land a Baron (didn’t try).
It’s a full 3D object, much more accurate than any other moutains in the world, if we except those which appeared with the USA update (Mt Rushmore, Devil’s Tower, Monument Valley).
Do you have a flight plan to take people to this airstrip which you could share on World Tour Flights? We have a “Landing Challenge” category which this sounds like it would be good for.
Sure. Let me take a look at your other flight plans for landing challenges, and I’ll put one together for you. Be back in touch later this evening. Cheers!
LF79 is a good challenge ! Had to use 3 attempts, got lost once… the wheather is misty up there
Third was a good approach, switched off the engine before landing because I forgot the flaps… nearly rolled of on the other side… it got logged 1, lucky me
This was the final stop on a group bush flight I did this past week. Was quite a surprise, and really spectacular! We were all in Savage Grravel’s and after we landed were “base jumping” our planes off the edge! LOL
