So much seems to have happened in the two weeks since I wrote my last diary.
On the first Saturday, the weather was poor so I decided to saddle up Khan and go for a long ride with the dogs in tow.
The countryside around here is remarkably unspoilt and natural so I rode for miles in the woods, over the rivers and around the pasture fields.
In fact, I was enjoying the experience so much that it seemed like a good idea to go for a fast gallop up a long field, temporarily forgetting that I am not so young and fit as when I was a steeplechase jockey!
So off we went with the dogs running happily behind us when the surge of excitement went straight to Khan's head causing him to give three huge bucks, depositing me on the ground, before galloping off at full speed in the direction of home.
So my golden day had turned a little sour as I was forced to walk up a very steep hill and then wade through rivers on my homeward journey.
I finally arrived home to find that everyone had gone out looking for me on bicycles, horses and in cars.
Luckily, I was not badly hurt though a little bruised in both body and pride.
I have done a lot of flying recently, some of which has been quite interesting.
Elroy, Kate and their boys arrived for an Easter break and with the intention of seeing a lot of France by air.
One of our destinations was Nevers, to the North-East of Limoges.
Upon transiting the Avord area on the way there, the flight controller warned us that the winds were very strong at our destination airport.
We arrived to find a strong, gusting, crosswind but managed a good landing and then climbed to the tower to pay our very small landing fee. The controller spoke excellent English and gave us good advice regarding the best eating establishments in the immediate locality.
After an excellent lunch, we returned to our trusty Robin and flew south to the Clermont Ferrand area,
On the homeward leg, we crossed the huge Lac Vassiviere and then turned for Limoges.
We did not see another aircraft during the whole day.
Last Saturday, I went to the Limoges International dog show where 'Leko' won the open class and 'Blanchette' took third place in the female open class.
I was delighted to see one of the puppies from last year’s litter obtain her very first prize for her French owner. It poured with rain during the whole day so I did not even feel guilty for taking time off from flying.
During this week, I have been flying with Ben who arrived here for a flying holiday,
Ben had completed some PPL training in England so our first flight was to familiarise hm with the Robin DR400 and to view the reporting points around the Limoges CTR.
The Robin is very light and responsive compared to the Cessna and Piper aircraft Ben had previously flown and it also has a stick rather than a yoke. Pilots need to be very gentle with the aircraft though students usually become 'hooked' after a few hours as the DR400 is a delight to fly.
Ben was accompanied on our next flight by his father, Barrie, who is also pilot and the proud owner of a Stearman, a Yak and a Husky.
We set off to see the famous Milleau Bridge but were forced to turn back, about 40 miles from our destination, when we encountered severe turbulence over the mountains. At times, we seemed to be doing aerobatic manoeuvres over the gorges.
On the way home, we had a thirty knot tailwind ands also required a bit of a detour to remain clear of a thunderstorm.
In all, we had an exciting day of flying despite feeling a little nauseous in the turbulence.
The following day was bright and calm without any turbulence so we enjoyed a gentle flight to La Rochelle where we had a superb lunch at a famous seafood restaurant in the old port.
Reluctantly, we returned home shortly after lunch because I had a student booked for the late afternoon slot.
As the French PPL syllabus is conducted completely in French, this causes some problems to French Pilots, when flying to Britain or other European countries, as the international language of aviation is English.
Many of the French club members have discussed this problem with me so I decided to help them by running a series of one hour English-language lessons every Saturday morning.
Today, with a certain amount of nerves and trepidation, I presented my first English Radio Telephony class for the French students and Pilots at the club.
I was helped by Andrew Vine who is English but speaks excellent French which enabled us to get all of the information to the students without difficulty.
When Les King visited a few weeks ago, he kindly helped me to prepare the written course and audio recordings for which I must say "thank you Les" because today’s class was a great success.
The puppies are five weeks old today and now into the exploration stage—when the weather is warm they go outside into their run for a few hours of exploration, fun and play fights.
Tomorrow I start an intensive four-week PPL course with a husband and wife who are arriving from the Netherlands—life is never dull at NearlyHeaven.
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