francoflyers

Reader's Question—French Customs Clearance

Tug Wilsons writes:

Hi Sue,

I am planning a trip from Plymouth in England to France and on to Italy. Could you tell me which GA airfields have customs in France?

Also, will I need customs when I leave France for Italy and again on my return?

Regards

Tug

Sue's Diary—2 more PPL successes

In early March, my family visited for 6 days to celebrate my birthday and I was anticipating a few days of idle relaxation.

However, the family had other things in mind and set about realising my long-standing ambition of a cross-country riding course on my own land.

My sons, daughter and her boyfriend spent every available minute cutting down trees and building this dream course for my birthday present.

When it was finally finished on the morning of their departure, I was requested to try it out even though I have not jumped anything since I arrived here over six years ago.

So, with a small amount of trepidation, I saddled up 'Woody' and set off—I had forgotten how much I enjoyed this sport prior to my life as a flying instructor, and it was a marvellous feeling,

Thanks to all of my family for this unusual present.

Life has been hectic recently as Meg gave birth to 10 new puppies which are one week old today.  Mother and babies are doing well with the puppies gaining weight on a daily basis.

Incidentally, Meg’s father (Hungergunn Bear It'n Mind) reached the Grand Final of Crufts last Sunday—22,000 dogs competed at the show.

Spring seems to have arrived early this year.  With superb flying weather and a temperature of up to 22 degrees, this has made it possible to fly long hours and I am arriving home later each evening.

Roll of Honour

Firstly, congratulations to Esteban Dwarka who passed his PPL a couple of weeks ago.

As mentioned previously, Esteban’s native language is French though he lived in England for a long time and chose to train for his PPL in English.  He has now realised his long time dream and I am delighted with his success.

One of my recent successes was Marco Rossi who completed his PPL with me last year.  Marco has now finished his ATPL examinations at Oxford and will shortly complete his training in Arizona.

Paolo Rossi is following in his brother's footsteps and passed his PPL 'skill test' on 19^th March after only 40 hours of training—we then went for a 'jolly' to Sarlat, Brive and Perigueux to make up the 45 hours required for the issue of a PPL.

Paolo first came to me last November when he completed 11 hours of training and achieved his first solo.

He booked annual leave for the whole of March to finish the PPL at Limoges but actually achieved his goal in 9 days by flying an average of 4 hours a day.

Paolo is now back in Italy and will be aiming for his ATPL in the near future.

Well done Paulo!!

Reader's Question—English Language Proficiency

John Bachelor writes:

Hello Sue

I have a UK PPL and am now resident in France, flying from Alencon.

What is the position regarding language proficiency?

I have a stamp in my licence to say I am proficient in English but do I need one for the French language too?

It should not be a problem but no-one seems certain.

Reader's Question—Microlight get-together

Andy Hillyer writes:

Hi,

I fly a 3-axis microlight from Frejus in SE france.

Any other English speaking flyers fancy meeting up at airfields in the area for lunch / discussions etc..

The warm season is now starting—I'd like to explore the region a bit more !

The best phone call that I ever made

For quite some time I have had the dream to get my PPL. But, due to business commitments and other circumstances I could not find the time to do the training or find the right training school and instructor.

However, following a search on the internet I came across the site NearlyHeaven and contacted Sue, and that was the best telephone call I have made so far in respect of flying.

Following my telephone conversation with Sue who was very friendly, warm, understanding and courteous, I immediately took the decision to do my training with Sue in France.

Well, doing my training with Sue has been a real pleasure. She was very active in using opportunities for me to extend my knowledge and skills. She was always keen and positive and that attitude transfers to you and with Sue next to you, it makes flying easy and enjoyable.

She has an excellent ability to discreetly pay attention to detail without making you nervous. She is observant, but at the same time she has the ability to communicate with you clearly and in a friendly manner. She is very good in anticipating your needs and I feel she has exceptional understanding of me or her students as individuals, as I have had the opportunity to sit at the back with fellow students.

Sue has this outstanding skill to gain our confidence and co-operation. Even when we do not do things correctly, she is always tactful and courteous and gives prompt and efficient professional assistance. In my view she is always calm and effective in all situations.

One of the key questions is why did  I particularly choose to learn to fly with Sue in France as opposed to doing my PPL in the UK. Well, given below are some of the reasons:

1. Flying in France and particularly with Sue who plans your flying lessons well, you have the freedom of the sky and you increase your knowledge and skills by the hour.
2. You can concentrate on real flying with minimum stress as there are hardly any restricted areas to worry about.
3. You do your radio in English and the staff at ATC are always understanding and patient knowing that you are a student pilot.
4. Believe it or not, on a number of occasions you would get priority over Ryanair or Air France.
5. You can do as many circuits and touch and go's as you wish at Limoges International Airport, there are no landing fees or anything extra fees to pay.
6. You get individual supervision, support and help from Sue at all times.
7. You do not have a different instructor for your lessons as Sue is your personal instructor from start to finish, which means there is continuity and a full understanding of your progress.
8. Learning to fly with Sue is also fun and no stress at all.

Sue, thanks to you now I have got my PPL, and I will enjoy flying for many years to come.

Readers' Question—English-speaking GA Airports

Hervé Laoureux writes:

Hello,
 
Sometimes ago I have registered your website as my homepage not to forget
to visit it often.

I am resident in the UK, live in Germany and hold a South
African PPL.

A friend of mine who is doing his ATPL in the UK sent me the
following request.

I have never flown much in France due to their regulations
and thought you might be of better advise. Here is his message: 
 
We may be doing a ferry flight of a Cessna 182T from the UK to Nairobi and we
would need to fly through France to Cannes.

I am not sure where the best places to stop on the way might be.

I would want to avoid the largest airports but I think we would also need to avoid the small aerodromes where only French is spoken!

Can you think of some good general aviation airports where they have ATC and
we can speak English between the UK and Cannes? 
 
Thanks for your help.

 

Limoges Holding Points

I am always being asked about holding points which, for some reason, are not published on the Limoges airfield chart.

Here they are marked on a photograph by Stuart Morton,

NB Click on picture for a larger image.

You can also view a full-sized and 'clean' version of the original picture here

Limoges (LFBL) Local Area—part 2

Following-up Sue's original article on the subject here, we have a new set of Limoges 'Reporting Point' pictures taken by Stuart Morton who is a professional photographer—see his stunning pictures of short-field landings here

After some initial training elsewhere, Stuart is currently working towards his PPL under Sue's guidance.

To make these useful reference articles easier to find, I have introduced a new category of 'Reporting Points' on the sidebar of this blog—hopefully, this might stimulate some contributions relating to other airfields.

As usual, you can click on the pictures below to display a larger image—however, Typepad limits the size of images displayed on this blog (to save space) so I have provided separate links to the full-sized images, some of which are really quite spectacular.

Note the appearance of countryside and lakes compared with the original article—ground features can change quite a lot with the seasons. 

The up-to-date Limoges area chart to go with these pictures is available at Limoges Area Chart

Whiskey-Alpha (Position: LMG 038º / 4 nm)  

  

Full-sized image here

 

Full-sized image here

Whiskey—Saint Victurnien (Position: LMG 355º / 4 nm)

Full-sized image here

  

Full-sized image here

 November-Whiskey—Oradour sur Glane (Position LMG 002º / 7 nm)

   

Full-sized image here

St Pardoux Lake

Unofficial reporting point marking the North-Western corner of the Limoges CTR 'stub'.

   

Full-sized image here

  

Full-sized image here

Echo-Alpha (Position: LMG 067º / 12 nm)

 

Full-sized image here

 

Full-sized image here

Echo—Saint Priest Taurion (Position: LMG 077º / 16 nm)

 

Full-sized image here

Sierra-Alpha (Position: LMG 107º / 9 nm)

 

Full-sized image here

 

Full-sized image here

Sierra—Solignac (Position: LMG 109º / 11nm)

 

Full-sized image here

 

Full-sized image here

 

Full-sized image here

Sue's Diary—Shirtsleeves in February

Last week was amazing with temperatures up to 18 degrees centigrade, no wind, excellent visibility and millpond conditions—I cannot believe that I have been flying in short-sleeved shirts during February.

First, my congratulations to Stuart Morton who completed a faultless first solo on his third day of flying with me.

Stuart is a professional photographer, lives in the South of France near Toulon and has a long-held dream of obtaining a Private Pilot Licence.

Several years ago, he did some training in Scotland and restarted last summer with a local French flying club.

However, he soon realised the difficulties of learning to fly in a foreign language and visited me at Limoges to combine a few days' holiday with some English-language PPL training.

Having previously flown from a small uncontrolled airfield, it was a bit of a shock to fly from an international airport where he shared the circuit with Ryanair, an Alphajet and several other military aircraft practising IFR approaches.

I am delighted to say that he has gone from strength-to-strength and had no problem when we swapped the long runway at Limoges for the tiny tarmac runway of Saint Junien.

We also did a practice Navigation flight to Ancenis (LFFI), a charming airfield situated in the TMA of Nantes to the Northwest of Limoges.

This gave Stuart the opportunity to visit his Uncle and Aunt before they emigrate to Australia in a few weeks.

We offered a spare back seat to Matt Galvin who played his usual role of photographer for the day.

We had an excellent 40-minute flight to this very friendly airfield where we were obliged to decline the offer of refreshments from the local aeroclub CFI, as we were whisked off to town for a superb leisurely lunch with Stuart's relatives.

The flight home was delightful, the scenery was superb and we didn't see another aircraft during the entire journey.

I arrived back at Limoges in time to fly a renewal test with Gerry Bolger who works in the UK but owns a house in the Limousin.

Gerry had a lapsed PPL and was eager to renew his licence—happily, he sailed through his test and is keen to fly the Robin solo when he returns.

On the home front, Miracle is doing well and growing at an alarming rate. We have some new miniature sheep for the Pet’s Corner, donated to us by the English owners who have returned to the UK.

Meg is also growing, outwards rather than upwards and is due to give birth in mid-March. Co-incidentally, on the same date as our litter born last year.

Minature Sheep

 

Meg's Favouite Chair

Meg always insists on sitting in her favourite chair, even if someone else is sitting in it.

,