Where to go for airworthiness paperwork, register lookups, and the wider Fournier community.
Look up any UK-registered aircraft directly, including current ownership and technical record.
Airworthiness, permits and licensing for UK-registered aircraft, including permit-to-fly types.
Maintains many Fourniers on Permit to Fly; the LAA type support scheme is often the first port of call for maintenance queries.
Relevant for Fourniers operated or maintained under BGA oversight as self-launching motor gliders.
The independent sites and forums that keep this history alive — several predate this club and deserve credit for it.
The CFI United Kingdom and CFI France chapters below are part of Club Fournier International, the umbrella organisation for Fournier owners worldwide. Their logo is used here with their kind permission.
A full, searchable backup of the legacy CuteCast-based Fournier forum from sbeaver.com — 1,118 threads and 7,749 posts across 16 boards, covering everything from maintenance and engines to individual aircraft histories. Captured before the original forum became inaccessible, hosted here so the knowledge isn't lost. Search runs entirely in your browser across every subject, author and post.
A long-running independent reference for UK-registered Fourniers, including its own summary of the UK register.
The UK national chapter of the international Fournier owners' club — history, rally news, and the register survey this site's own register page is seeded from.
The original French club and the source both CFI-UK's and this site's history pages ultimately trace back to. Still active — its 2026 rally at Montbéliard is the most recent event on record — with a members' area holding digitised RF plans and per-type inventories (RF1/2, RF3, RF4/RF4D, RF9).
The US chapter, with a well-organised set of type-by-type pages and technical photos worth comparing against this site's own.
The current CFI Deutschland site, with German-language RF history, fleet information and club contacts. Older direct links to its former document archive are no longer used here.
We're working to consolidate two older Fournier community forums into a single searchable archive before their content is lost. Not yet published — get in touch if you'd like to help.
EASA-held documents covering the RF-series and its licence-built variants.
EASA.SAS.A.376: covers the RF3, RF4, RF47 and RF6B under restricted certificates of airworthiness.
EASA.A.348: RF3, RF4D, RF5, and the SFS 31 "Milan" / RF5B "Sperber" derivatives, held by Sportavia-Pützer TC-Services GmbH.
Search the EASA type certificate library directly for the current issue of any document before relying on it for maintenance decisions. The RF9 and RF10 sit under separate, narrower Specific Airworthiness Specifications (EASA.SAS.A.544 and EASA.SAS.A.077 respectively); standalone type certificates that once existed for the RF47 (EASA.A.307) and RF6B (EASA.A.375) have since been revoked.
Where the incident notes on each type's page and the register actually come from.
The primary source for every UK accident report cited on this site — search by aircraft type or registration for the original investigation.
Independently compiled accident summaries, useful for cross-checking dates, locations and outcomes against the official AAIB record.
The UK's central database of reported occurrences since 1976, covering both formal accidents and lesser incidents that never reach AAIB Bulletin level. Extracts are the source for the type-level incident patterns noted on the RF3, RF4, RF5 and RF6 pages — request a search directly from the CAA for anything not already covered here.
Incident notes on this site are compiled for general awareness and airmanship, not as a maintenance or airworthiness reference — always go to the primary AAIB or CAA source for anything safety-critical.
Original manufacturer documents, where they're publicly hosted.
The former direct PDF link is no longer used; this now points to the current CFI Deutschland site, where the club can direct owners to current technical material.
German-language operations manual, hosted by CFI Germany alongside a wider downloads archive of technical bulletins and POMs by type and date.
The former direct German download has been replaced by the current CFI Deutschland site rather than leaving a potentially dead document link.
Based on the FAA-approved AFM-200-24-FAA (Rev. 14, 17 July 2007) — key V-speeds, glide ratio (31:1) and Rotax 912S data, summarised by Parrish Aviation.
Older German archive links have been retired from this page where they were no longer reliably reachable. Use the current CFI Deutschland site for the latest route into German technical material.
Issue 01, 12 December 2018 — not a pilot's manual, but the closest thing to an official technical reference for the RF9 that's freely downloadable, including airworthiness directives and mandatory service bulletins.
For UK Permit to Fly aircraft — the LAA holds a numbered Type Acceptance Data Sheet (TADS) for the Fournier RF series, with Mandatory Permit Directives attached (the RF4 main-gear-fork replacement is a known recurring item). We haven't been able to confirm the exact TADS number through open research — if you have it, or can ask LAA Engineering at Turweston, that's a gap worth closing.
| Type | Pilot / flight manual | Official airworthiness doc |
|---|---|---|
| RF1 / RF2 | None found — only 1 and 2 built respectively | — |
| RF3 | Found — current CFI Deutschland | EASA.A.348 / EASA.SAS.A.376 |
| RF4 / RF4D | Found — current CFI Deutschland | EASA.A.348 / EASA.SAS.A.376 |
| RF5 / RF5B | Found — current CFI Deutschland | EASA.A.348 |
| RF6 / RF6B | None found openly — construction plans exist via CFI France (members only) | EASA.SAS.A.376 (RF6B only) |
| RF7 | None found — only two built, never certified | — |
| RF8 | None found — sole example is a museum piece | — |
| RF9 | None found openly | EASA.SAS.A.544 |
| RF10 | None found for the original French RF10 specifically | EASA.SAS.A.077 (Annex II / cancelled) |
| Ximango / Super Ximango | Found — AMT-200S reference, Parrish Aviation | FAA AFM-200-24-FAA |
| RF47 | None found — only 5 built | Former EASA.A.307, since revoked |
If you hold a manual, POH, or maintenance schedule not listed here — even a scan — the contact page is how it gets added for the rest of the fleet.
Fournier coverage in the aviation press, old and new. Where an issue isn't freely online, the reference alone is often enough to request it through a library.
The best single English-language history of the whole family — RF1 through RF47, plus every derivative including the SFS 31 Milan, the Slingsby T67 and the Aeromot Ximango.
A hands-on pilot report covering handling, spinning and aerobatics, with quotes from the flight manual.
A documented amateur restoration under an LAA Permit, recovering an RF4D in Oratex fabric — practical, current, and exactly the kind of write-up this club exists to collect more of.
The opening part of Bob Grimstead's five-part RF6B restoration saga: sampling the well-known yellow G-BKIF at Staverton before buying the derelict G-BLWH instead. The full series, hosted here, continues through the recovery of the actual 1974 RF6B prototype from France — see the Magazine Shelf and the RF6 page.
Quantitative performance testing (minimum sink ~210 ft/min at 52kt; L/D max ~28 at 62kt), hosted free by the Touring Motor Gliders Association, and noting that pioneering UK glider instructor Derek Piggott flight-tested the first Super Ximango to reach Britain, G-RFIO.
A period type-review by Neil Harrison, pp. 669–670, on Flight's own archive — one of the earliest English-language write-ups of the RF4D.
pp. 974–977, also on Flight's free archive.
Covered the RF7 prototype's public debut, praising the finish of the aircraft despite its early-build status. See the RF7 page.
A feature nominating Fournier as the year's aviation personality on his 100th year.
Centenary tribute.
Marking the 50th anniversary of the RF1's first flight.
Interview with CFI president Michel Leblanc, who put the club at around 250 members representing roughly 250 of an estimated 500 airworthy Fourniers worldwide, based mainly in the USA, Great Britain, the Nordic countries, Germany, Poland, Benelux, Switzerland and Italy.
On the RF8 prototype's arrival at Espace Air Passion. See the RF8 page.
A biographical tribute co-written with members of the Académie de l'Air et de l'Espace and corrected by Fournier himself — probably the single most reliable biographical source available.
Confirms Fournier was alive and turning 103 in April 2024. Useful as a status check — worth searching for anything more recent before treating it as current.
A seven-page pilot report and type history, catalogued in the French Ministry of Defence's digital library.
A French-language type feature, also catalogued in the French Ministry of Defence's digital library.
A fly-in report covering surviving RF4D and RF5-family aircraft, with pilot and airframe histories.
pp. 66–68, 73–75 — covers the Portuguese Air Force's four RF10s alongside the rest of its inventory.
A compact history, performance data and specifications page, cited as a source by Wikipedia's RF5 article.
Even this expanded list is a fraction of six decades of coverage. If you have an old cutting, scan, or citation — French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, English, anything — the contact page is how it gets added.
National chapters and communities beyond the UK, France, Germany and America already listed above.
Not Fournier-specific, but holds an extensive Ximango and Fournier archive, including flight-test reports and the Mira Slovak transatlantic account.
National chapters confirmed to exist alongside CFI-UK, France, Germany and America, per CFI France's own membership figures. We haven't yet tracked down working links for all of them — if you have one, please share it.
Where to find existing Fournier photography online, for reference and inspiration — not for copying into this site without permission. See a UK type's own page for its photo gallery, which is built for owner contributions instead.
Multiple UK and European examples, including recent LAA Rally appearances.
A per-airframe photo index in the same style as most serious spotter archives.
A UK-focused spotter archive with good coverage of RF6B and other British-based examples.
Photos and captions sourced from René Fournier's own personal collection.
All of the above are individual photographers' copyrighted work — ask before reusing. The best long-term source for this site's own galleries is simply members' own photos of their own aircraft.
René Fournier's own autobiography (Éditions SIER, 2003) — the fullest first-hand account of the designer's life and the company's repeated financial struggles. Translated into English by Bob Grimstead as My Dreams and My Aeroplanes. Available through CFI International.
The account of Gérard Moss's 2001 round-the-world flight in a Super Ximango motor glider. See the story on the RF10 page.