francoflyers

Sue's Diary—Gathering PPLs in May

This week, I have either been flying intensively or, for the last two days, not flying at all.

However, I am heavily-booked from this weekend so I am enjoying the days off while I can.

I am delighted to report that Fiona Renton passed her skill test last Sunday after a few days of very intensive training here in Limoges.

Fiona and her husband live near Nimes in the South of France and she started her training with a French instructor who spoke a little English. After a telephone discussion with me last year, Fiona went to England and took her British ground exams.

She then came to Limoges, for several short visits, to continue her PPL training with me.

Initially, she found the transition from grass strip to massive hard runway rather daunting but, with a great deal of determination and admirable support from her husband (a retired airline pilot), she continued to improve on a daily basis and worked extremely hard to perfect her flying ready for the dreaded ‘skill test’.

Sunday dawned bright and sunny which set the mood for my trip to the Milleau Viaduct in the PA28 Archer while Fiona joined Mike Grierson for the skill test.

I meanwhile flew to Milleau with English pilot, John Gough, and two companions.

John had been looking forward to this holiday after reading of other pilots’ flying experiences on the FrancoFlyers blog!

He particularly wanted to visit the Milleau Bridge and then to fly the coastal route to La Rochelle and the Ile D ‘Yeu.

The scenery on that route is spectacular with wonderful gorges, mountains and lakes which can only be truly appreciated by air.

Luckily, the weather was equally good on the Monday and John realised his dreams of lunching at La Rochelle and flying over to the lovely Ile d’yeu before embarking on the home journey to Limoges.

France by air is spectacularly beautiful with diverse scenery throughout the country.

Many people do not truly realise how large this country is; for example, the journey from Limoges to La Rochelle takes more than three hours by car but less than one hour by plane.

The drive from Limoges to Aixe en Provence can take nine hours by car but can be flown in a mere two hours and forty minutes by routing over the mountains.

The success of my Radiotelephony class was proved to me last weekend when I heard two of my French students speaking excellent English in the circuit at Limoges.

On the home front, sadly, a fox killed most of the hens and ducks the other night. He gained entry by tunnelling under the pen, despite the fact that  the wire was buried 9 inches underground.

The only survivors were a duck who was sitting on eggs together with one hen and two chicks who were nesting in a hidden corner.

Sadly, without the birds, the place seems like a ghost town, not to mention the fact that I can no longer have a freshly-laid egg for breakfast !

At present, the girls are making a chicken pen built along the lines of Fort Knox (Fort Fox!!) and I will restock with poultry and ducks when it is finished.

Today, we are looking forward to the imminent arrival of Birgit who was here on a working holiday last summer. This visit is only for one week and she intends to do lots of riding, to meet the new puppies and, of course, to make friends with the orphan foal ‘Miracle’.

The horses are all doing well, growing fat and sleek on the fresh spring grass. Many of the guests have enjoyed hacks through the woods where they can see an abundance of wildlife from deer to wild boar and the numerous birds of prey which are very common in this area.

Phoebe has been schooling the young horses everyday and they are now jumping my new cross country course.

On the subject of wildlife, I have recently seen a variety of animals on the runway at Limoges.

The first was a large hare who sat transfixed on the centre line and did not move as I hurtled towards him. Luckily, I rotated about 20 yards in front of him or it would have been ‘hare today and gone tomorrow’.

Later on, a fox casually sauntered across the runway just prior to my departure and, finally, I was about 100 feet up on my final approach when I narrowly avoided a large heron who was intent on commiting suicide by flying straight at the aircraft.

Reader's Question—Channel Islands Customs procedures

France to the Channel Islands (Iles Anglo-Normandes)

I am keen to pop into the Channel Islands when flying France to the UK so I can pick up cheap fuel.

If someone could advise where to find the info on customs/immigration for that trip (and the opposite direction) I would like to know.

Alternatively:  How do I purchase duty free fuel when leaving France?

I will be flying HA-YAB which I wrote about in an earlier article.

Robin DR400—Syndicate members wanted

PH-SVE is a 1980 Robin DR400-120 with Mode C Transponder, 760 channel radio, VOR and GPS.

VE is a capable 2+2 with excellent all round performance including a cruise speed of at least 105 knots at 25lt/hr. The aircraft has performed faultlessly during the five years I have owned her. She is the fourth aircraft I have operated either myself or with others since I obtained my PPL in 1985.

Currently, VE is based at the lovely Chauvigny grass field, East of Poitiers and readily accessible from the Limoges area. While VE remains Dutch registered, I am investigating the possible advantages of changing to either English or French registration.

Due to the well-known problems with obtaining Robin spare parts last year (now resolved), the Certificate of Airworthiness could not be renewed before compliance with the spar AD but can readily be restored in a timescale of about 4 weeks now that an STC has EASA approval.

In order to help fund this work and to make future flying as economic as possible, I would like to share the ownership and operation of the aircraft with up to three like minded pilots who would have equal rights and obligations including the right to sell a share at any time all set out in a simple agreement.

My plans are quite flexible and I am open to suggestions but as a guide anticipated costs based on a 4-member syndicate would be:

Share Price:                          €3500

Monthly charge:                     €100 (maintenance, hangarage, insurances, 
                                                     miscellaneous, no motor replacement fund )
 
Hourly Flying charge:             € fuel/oil at cost only
 
For further details/viewing:      richardjuliaclub-internet.fr@club-internet.fr  

Telephone:                            0033 549 85 45 08

 

Reader's Question―Paramotor exams in English

Jaap Butter writes:

I am about to start my training for Paramotoring in Spain.

I am a Dutch National but live in France.

I know that I have to get a license to be able to fly in France.

Is there a English written exam available?

Where do I have to go to get this license.

Any help is welcome!

PA28 Archer joins the Aéroclub de Limoges fleet

I am pleased to announce that the Aéroclub de Limoges has added a new aircraft to its fleet.

N30385 is a Piper PA28-181 which was built in 1982 in the USA. It was privately owned in America and then it was bought by the‘Auberge De Savoie‘ Limoges who flew it from America to France in two days, flying two lots of 12 hours.

N30385 is the first Piper to be added to the Aéroclub's fleet and, along with F-GUVE, is the only aircraft that is not a Robin.

Unlike the Robins, N30385 will be aimed at pilots who have already obtained their PPL and are now looking to build their hours and travel further afield. With its inbuilt DVD and music player, the longer flights will certainly go by fast for you and your passengers.

I personally flew N30385 for the first time yesterday. It was the perfect day to fly; sun, beautiful clear blue skies and very little wind.

I had invited Esteban to come and sit in the back, as he is also interested in flying the Piper and even purchasing something similar.

So Esteban and I pulled it out of the hanger and up to the fuel pumps where we refuelled and completed the pre-flight preparation and checks.

We were then ready to venture into the large cabin to have a look at the cockpit and start the internal checks. The cockpit is very crowded and complicated compared to those of the Robins, as the aircraft has TCAS, a weather radar, two types of GPS, DVD player, and music input so all of this equipment means that there are quite a lot of little buttons.

Anyway, once I had worked out what everything was and how to use it, we started it up and taxied to S2 for a runway 21 departure.

Previously, I had only ever flown the Robins and the Diamond which are fairly light aircraft so, at 1156kg, N30385 is heavy and quite a large aircraft. As soon as you start taxiing, you immediately notice the effects of the extra weight as quite a lot of power is required to get the aircraft rolling, However, once you have got it going, it feels a lot more stable.

The pre-takeoff checks were completed and we were cleared to takeoff on runway 21. I applied full throttle and, despite being 180 hp like F-GMKT, it obviously has to carry twice the weight and was fairly slow off the mark. However, the speed soon came up and we were rolling down the runway,

Compared to the Robins, which are rather wobbly and needing a lot of rudder to keep straight, N30385 was stable and needed very little rudder to stay on the white line.

We hit the 60 kts takeoff speed and tugged back on the yoke before getting it off the ground. This was a new experience for me as you can take-off by pulling back the control column with one finger on the Robin. However, with the Piper, it was more like trying to get a tank off of the ground.

However, once we were up, the Piper performed really well and climbed easily to 3000ft.

At first we just flew around the local area so I could get a feel for the aircraft before heading over to Gajoubert, where Esteban is building a new home next to a private strip, for a few steep turns and Practice Forced Landings.

Again during the flight it was incredibly stable, hardly ever moving. We completed a few Practice Forced Landings where, unlike the Robins, the aircraft came down like a ton of bricks once the throttle was closed. We then did a few ‘Go Around’.

We then tracked the Limoges VOR (LMG) so I could see how the instruments worked and needed to be operated. We arrived at LMG and asked for rejoining instructions to complete the training in the circuit with a few touch and go’s, including glide approaches.

This was hard work as the aspect from the cockpit is so different from the other aircraft in the fleet and a lot of force was needed on the yoke to manoeuvre the aircraft at low speeds.

However it was all great fun.

Finally, we finished on a flapless landing and taxied N30385 back to the apron after an hour and a half of flying.

Fortunately, the previous owner of the aircraft was at the aéroclub and kindly explained anything I had not fully understood as we ran though all of the instruments and equipment again.

I really enjoyed flying the Piper and cannot wait to fly it again. However, I think this aircraft will come into its own when being flown on a long journey and then you could not find a better aircraft.

Specifications:

Horsepower: 180

Top Speed: 129 kts

Cruise Speed: 125 kts

Stall Speed (dirty): 49 kts

Gross Weight: 2550 lbs

Empty Weight: 1416 lbs

Fuel Capacity: 48 gal

Range: 565 nm

Rate Of Climb: 667 fpm

Ceiling: 13236 ft

Takeoff

Ground Roll: 870 ft

Over 50 ft obstacle: 1210 ft

Landing

Ground Roll 925 ft

Over 50 ft obstacle: 1390 ft

Sue's Diary―Pups Leaving Home

Unfortunately, the weather was not too kind to Jason and Nicole during the last week of their holiday though they managed to complete quite a lot of their training and passed several ground examinations.

However, a gusting crosswind prevented them from completing their first solo flights so I shall look forward to their next visit sometime in the near future.

NearlyHeaven is certainly becoming a school with an international flavour and my most recent student is a Turkish lawyer who works in Strasbourg for the Court of Human Rights.

Ugur has done some previous PPL training with a French instructor but soon realised that his language skills were not good enough for the ground examinations and therefore decided to complete his training with me as he is fluent in English.

After training at a small, uncontrolled, airfield, Limoges International airport came as a bit of a shock but a few hours of flying with me has made him confident with flying in Class D airspace.

I am delighted with his rapid progress during the last few days and, as well as going solo in the circuit, he has just completed his qualifying cross-country in fine style.

Sadly, he must return to Strasbourg this weekend but he is almost ready to take his PPL 'skill test' and has managed to pass all of the ground exams this week.

As Strasbourg is a nine-hour car journey from Limoges and Ugur has no more holidays available, we will continue his training at the weekends―to make life easier, I will arrange to collect him from his home airfield for the next scheduled training session.

This might sound like an upmarket 'school run' but it is quite easy to arrange as I fly all over France with my Limoges-based students.

Last week, I boarded Ryanair for a whirlwind UK visit to renew my Class One Medical which is a bit more difficult to arrange here in France,

Normally, I use this enforced event to spend time with my family and friends but with good weather and eager students awaiting my return, I completed the round-trip in a couple of days. Upon arrival at Limoges, I literally got out of a Boeing 737 and jumped into a Robin DR400―after passing through immigration, of course.

The Aéroclub de Limoges have added another aircraft to their fleet, a PA28 Archer which is fully IFR equipped.

I have spent several hours this week introducing our pilots to the fun of flying a different aircraft so all UK pilots who refer the PA28 to the Robin have no reason not to visit.

The other good news is that, thankfully, the DA40 Diamond Star is back in service after waiting several months for a spare part!

Later in the year, I am hoping to arrange some flying trips from Limoges to perhaps Spain, Italy or Portugal so all suggestions are welcome.

The puppies are now eight weeks old and three have just left for their new homes, with more going this weekend.

We are all sad to see them leave but confident that they are going to excellent homes.

There are, incidentally, two male puppies still unsold―females always seem to go quicker―so it's not too late to buy one.