Sue’s Diary—Happy New Year

A Happy New Year to you all.

I hope that you all had a good Christmas and that you all manage to fulfil your flying dreams in 2009 despite the ‘credit crunch’.

I spent a week in the UK for Christmas, having a wonderful time with my family including two granddaughters, Natalya (2½) and Ilana (10 months).

What with shopping and Christmas cooking, the time just flew by.

I was delighted to receive an invitation from Phil Matthews (CFI) to pop in for a mince pie and a drink at Cotswold Aero Club where I learned to fly 20 years ago.

However, the ‘mince pie’ turned out to be a sumptuous spread so I spent a lovely Sunday afternoon drinking, eating and chatting to club members, old and new.

I returned home on Boxing Day to continue flying with my students in perfect weather with blue skies, little wind and no turbulence whatsoever.
 
I have found that January often has first class flying weather and, for the last few days, I have had the circuit to myself while most of the French pilots are addressing the more-pressing issues of eating and drinking.

Indeed, it seems that the only GA aircraft to come out of the hangar this last week are those flown by my students and myself. 

It is now 12 months since I launched www.francoflyers.org and I never guessed that it would become such a success—more than 46,000 page-views at the year-end.

We have made lots of friends and fans, both French and English, and I hope that I have helped English-speaking pilots to feel confident while flying in France.

My initial aim was to dispel the myth that English pilots were not welcomed in France and that French Air Traffic Controllers just ignored the English speakers.

I have lived here for over six years and feel very privileged to teach flying in this beautiful unrestricted part of France.

In my experience, French controllers are helpful and understanding so I have absolutely no complaints.

I cannot think of an airport in Britain where a controller would hold up Ryanair because a student was undertaking his first solo though this happens regularly at Limoges.

Flying in Class D airspace is never a problem here so long as you have a radio and a mode C transponder.

Recently, I was flying south to Carcassonne and the FIS Controller suggested a climb of two thousand feet to take advantage of the weaker headwind at that level—I cannot imagine that happening in the UK.

One reason for lack of the expected response from Controllers is that some large airfields revert to being ‘uncontrolled’ during weekends, bank holidays and (most importantly) lunchtimes.

In most cases (see relevant airfield chart), GA aircraft can still use the airfield but pilots in the local area communicate air-to-air in order to announce their position and intentions, in French.

Even if an individual airfield is uncontrolled, there is usually an English-language FIS service available for the region.

We have a couple of articles covering the subject of uncontrolled airfields in more depth:

Uncontrolled Airfields

French Radio Calls

“So what is so wonderful about flying in France?” I hear you ask.

• Usually, the weather is far superior to the UK

• The huge chunks of unrestricted airspace

• The large selection of pristine airfields, most of which do not charge landing fees

• The fantastic ever-changing scenery

• The friendly pilots who offer to help if assistance is needed—I have often been driven into town for lunch by a local pilot, without any thought of reward

• The fantastic meals at popular prices (i.e. cheap)—many airfields will call the local restaurant who are pleased to send transport, completely free of charge

Many thanks for all the people who have enquired about our orphan foal ‘Miracle’.

He is doing well and has now forsaken the bottle feeding for a bucket, much to Lucia’s relief—she can now sleep at night.

He is now drinking about 25 litres of milk per day; his uncle ,’Woody’, has sole charge of him and they are the best of friends .

Miracle receives discipline from Woody who has reminded him that he is a horse and not a human!

Comments

[Helen Holliday]

Hi Sue,

I hope you can help me. I am hoping to fly into Riberac end of May and staying locally for 1 week, but am having difficulty in contacting them for PPR. Any ideas?

Kind regards