Setting up an association and creating infrastructure
Setting up the association
Associations 1901 website: http://association1901.fr/droit-des-associations-archives/
To be affiliated to FFPLUM, your club must be constituted as a so-called "Association Loi de 1901" (non-profit association).
This form of association, the most common one for people coming together to pursue a purpose other than sharing profits, is extremely flexible but nevertheless imposes a number of constraints
Let us recall a few principles of the 1901 Act
- An association is a contract between at least two people
- Established to pursue a specific purpose: this is the association's corporate purpose, which prevents you from doing anything you have not declared. If your club's purpose is to fly microlights, you cannot organise a cycle race or a charity sale!
- Established for a certain period
1901 association and non-profit management
A special mention goes to one of the most important principles: a 1901 association is forbidden to share or distribute profits for the benefit of its members.
This does not mean at all that the association cannot make a profit (which can also be politely called an 'operating surplus')! It simply means that such surpluses must be used by the association to finance its activity and the resources it provides for that purpose.
Your association's founding documents
To help you set up your club, FFPLUM offers you
You can draw on them fully or partly to draw up your own club documents.
Creating the infrastructure
If you are not based at an aerodrome, you will have to create a microlight strip or a microlight seaplane base. The regulations in force are the orders of 13 March 1986, which you can consult below:
- Order setting the conditions under which motorised ultralight aerodynes, or microlights, may land and take off elsewhere than at an aerodrome
- Order setting the conditions under which seaplanes may land and take off on a stretch of water other than a seaplane base
Please note: these documents (which are quite old!) are available only as fax images. Once you have reached the requested page on the Légifrance website, click the 'view the facsimile of the document' tab at the bottom of the page to see the text of the order.
The DGAC Air Bases department (DGAC/STBA) has published a Technical Instruction on Civil Aerodromes, which sets out the characteristics to be met when creating a microlight strip.
