francoflyers

Sue's Diary—Privileged Pilots

At this time of year, I hear many different English voices on the radio as many intrepid aviators are flying in France, presumably during their annual holidays.

It is noteworthy that the English radiotelephony is of a very high standard.

I have always found the French radio controllers to be extremely efficient and helpful, therefore do not hesitate to ask for help or information when necessary.

Do remember that the military areas are normally active during weekdays and inactive during weekends/ bank holidays.

If in doubt, your nearest FIS will advise you of the status of individual military areas.

Whilst flying in France, you will discover the OLIVIA terminals at most large airports. These enable all aviators to obtain relevant information pertaining to their flights.

This system requires a code, which is on the FFA (Fédération Française Aéronautique) membership card—FFA membership is compulsory at most flying clubs as it also covers the French public liability insurance requirements.

This FFA code is also used to access the 'Meteo France' weather service and various other aviation facilities.

For more information on the FFA, go to www.ff-aero.fr or phone them on 01 44 29 92 00.

Prior to your flights, particularly at weekends and bank holidays, it is wise to enquire if the tower of your prospective airport is operating or if it has closed for the weekend and has therefore reverted to air to air telephony in French only.

Sometimes, but sadly not always, this information may be found on the ATIS channel of your chosen airport.

Last Sunday, I had a most interesting flight with landings at international airports and several uncontrolled grass strips, where I was able to practice both French and English radiotelephony.

The day dawned dull but CAVOK which was a pleasant surprise as the previous-evening forecasts suggested heavy rain throughout the day.

Matt and I set out in the DA40 with the object of improving his navigation skills and to provide a variety of landings, from a 2-mile runway to a short grass strip.

One of the benefits of flying in this part of France is that the skies are mainly unrestricted and it is very rare to see another aircraft except at an airfield.

We set off for the first Touch and Go at Angouleme (LFBU), the air was still and the wind was surprisingly calm at all of the airports which we visited throughout the day.

The tower was closed at Angouleme so I made blind calls to warn other aircraft of our presence, however we had the place to ourselves and did not see anyone at all. (incidentally, Angouleme is now receiving Ryanair traffic from Stanstead but obviously not on that day!)

Next stop was Chalais (LFIH), a little grass strip about 29 minutes south of Angouleme.

Initially, it was rather difficult to locate the runway but, after changing frequency, I discovered that a small plane was conducting circuits at the field so I commenced speaking in French.

However, upon hearing my English accent, he changed to English so we made a bit of history with two French aircraft in the circuit speaking English in this very rural part of the Charente!

We continued south to the Bordeaux terminal area and the delightful field at Libourne (LFDI). However, the circuit was very full and we decided to leave the area and continue to another charming grass field at Saint Foy le Grande (LFDF) for another Touch and Go.

This field was situated on an escarpment with a row of trees in front of the strip and required a steeper approach than usual with some considerable skill to touch down on such a steep runway with an immediate take off.

The Diamond landed easily and we had an audience waving to us from the ground which was very heart-warming.

Our next destination was Bergerac for a full stop landing and a bite to eat. We were cleared for a direct downwind landing with the request to cut the circuit short as Flybe was on an IFR approach just minutes behind us.

Flybe landed and taxied past a few minutes later and we received a big wave from the crew of G-JECV as we were leaving our aircraft in search of much needed sustenance.

Bergerac is expanding and we had to weave our way through building works to get to the restaurant.

Sadly, not all change is for the better, a few years ago we could land at Bergerac and get a wonderful lunch with a huge variety of choices. I remember the breast of duck being the best in the region, now it is more like a cafeteria and seems to have a more standard British menu which is most disappointing in the heart of France.

After nourishment, it was off to the wonderful little Sarlat (LFDS) which is a  gem of a strip, situated in the beautiful Dordogne countryside and close to the medieval walled town of Domme which sports some excellent shops and restaurants which are always full of  tourists of all nationalities.

Another wave to the locals and off to Brive for the last touch and go before returning to Limoges.

The countryside is outstanding in this part of France and one can see why so many British people have chosen  to live in this area for a very long period of  time.

On route to Brive, we again flew over the proposed new Brive International Airport and I must report that very little progress has been made since our last visit. They are still working on the runway but, to date, they have no buildings on site.

The final touch and Go at Brive (LFBV, normally controlled by Brive Tower but in French language only) was conducted to the tower initially in French but the controller then repeated everything back to me in English!!

We flew home to Limoges with smiles on our faces, two very happy pilots who had enjoyed a perfect day's flying in a superb aircraft in beautiful French countryside.

For more information on French Radiotelephony, see our article at French Radio Calls

Sue's Diary—The Perfect Present

Normally, in this part of France, we have pretty good weather which is superior to the UK.

This last week, it has felt to me that the UK has moved to the Limousin. In fact, each time I walk into the Aero club, a Frenchman will groan at me with the words ”it is English weather again today”. The forecasts have been totally wrong most of the time which has resulted in a week of flying which was a bit like playing ‘Snakes and Ladders’.

My first lesson on Sunday was a surprise birthday flight for Robert, an English resident of France, who had done 10 hours flying at Blackpool some 20 years ago but had not flown since that time.

Rob was thrilled and excited to find that his girlfriend had managed give him the ideal  birthday present and was amazed that she had kept this a secret for some time.

He was surprised that he was going to fly in such a smart new aircraft (DD is only 3 years old) and was delighted that he could use a stick control for the first time.

I was amazed that he had not forgotten any of his earlier training and he was soon flying the Robin easily whilst trying to photograph his home and point out all of the familiar landmarks.

It was heartwarming to hear his non-stop comments on how wonderful it was to be flying again and how the Robin was so responsive in flight.

My next lesson was also with someone who had done some training a long time ago and had never finished his PPL.

In fact, this was his third attempt at doing the ground examinations so we have made a pact that he will finish with a PPL in his hand this year!

By popular demand, I am trying to arrange some flights between Limoges and England to provide greater opportunities for experience of international flying.

Watch this space for more details and reports.

On the home front, everything is going well, the horses are in training and, sadly, the puppies are leaving us. We only have two left now who are waiting to go to their new homes and they are accompanying me on walks around my property with the older dogs.

Yesterday, one rather bold pup ran into the swimming pool and, with trepidation in my heart, I had to rescue him from drowning.

He came out wet but unphased and continued galloping around as though that happened every day.

Sue's Diary—Fear and confidence

There is a saying in the horse world, “fear travels down the reins”.

I have found this to be absolutely true. Horses (and other animals) instinctively recognise fear and act accordingly.

Therefore, anyone who is nervous and wishes to learn to ride a horse will have more difficulties in achieving this than a more confident student.

I firmly believe that you could apply this statement to any kind of sport or discipline in all walks of life,

As mentioned in a previous article, I came into flying after a long and successful career in the racing  world.

After an accident, I set myself a new challenge and found to my great surprise that I was 'hooked' on flying.

I was very fortunate to find a flying school, with a dedicated instructor who was also a superb pilot so I found no major difficulties in gaining my PPL.

Sadly, this is not the case for many pupils. Time and time again, I find that students come to me in desperation, having lost confidence in themselves due to a multitude of reasons including the lack of structured training programmes, frequent bad-weather cancellations and 'bossy' instructors.

We all can remember our schooldays when inspired teaching produced excellent results but only moderate marks were achieved with teachers who were either intimidating or boring.

The same applies to flying—we can all excel if inspired but not if we are bored, scared, or nervous.

Much later in my life, while working through my 'commercial' training, my confidence was shattered when told by an instructor that ”I would never pass my CPL".

Having recently completed ground examinations which were the most difficult undertaking of my life, I was looking forward to the flying test until totally devastated by this thoughtless remark.

Luckily, I met Tizzie, a wonderful lady instructor, who told me “there are no bad students, only bad  instructors” and got me through the CPL with only 10 hours of additional training.

I later achieved my ultimate goal of the Instructors Rating and vowed that I would always use positive teaching methods in order to give my students confidence.

Two years ago, I was contacted by a man in his sixties who, as a teenager, started flying Tiger Moths with the Air Training Corps but was totally discouraged by a bombastic lady instructor who constantly shouted criticisms in his ear (the Tiger Moth has tandem seating so he got it in stereo).

Consequently, he gave up his dream of a PPL before even going solo and this failure haunted him for the next 40 years, despite his great success in business.

Then, as a birthday treat, his son paid for him to try again which is when he came to me for two weeks training with the simple goal of flying and landing the aircraft which he did very well. Only strong crosswinds prevented from going solo at the end of the holiday and I am delighted to report that he went home a very happy man.

Confidence is the key to the enjoyment of flying. We can all enjoy the wonders of flying if we are relaxed and confident.

My advice—please don't give up or you may miss the best experiences of your life.

Best wishes

Sue

Sue's Diary—A dream come true

I received a text from a pupil yesterday which read “Thank you for making my dream come true”.

This really touched my heart because so many people from different walks of life, who wish to become pilots, make many sacrifices to achieve their ultimate goal.

This student, who originates from Italy, had passed all his ground examinations in England and set off to the USA to get a 4 week PPL

Sadly this  turned into a bit of a disaster owing to circumstances which I shall not dwell upon.

He returned to his base in the South of France and continued his training with a French instructor who spoke English.

Once again, he ran into difficulty, this time with the DGAC who would not accept his English ground examinations.

Luckily, they gave him my name and telephone number and he duly arrived in Limoges to finish his training and to gain his JAR PPL (British issue).

When I first spoke to Marco, he was very concerned that I may not be able to help him as he had tried to find a solution to his problem for a very long time.

I was delighted to see the look on his face when he passed his flight test on Saturday morning.

Most young people who wish to have a successful career can go to university to obtain their training.

Sadly, this is not so for the person who wishes to become a professional pilot.

They must be totally dedicated in their ultimate goal, as the road to becoming an employed commercial pilot is expensive and very demanding.

Thankfully, the airline industry seems to be booming worldwide, particularly in India, and the demand for new pilots should be strong.

I have spent a lot of time this week flying in the DA 40, which is always a pleasure for me.

Matt and I went on a navigation to the beautiful airport at Aurillac. This airport which is south east of Limoges is set in fabulous countryside with snow-capped mountains in the distance.

The town is very interesting and has some good restaurants. The aero club on the field has recently opened its own restaurant and the reports from other pilots are all positive.

The airport has a controller who only speaks French therefore anyone wishing to join the pattern at Aurillac should 'brush up' their French telephony on this site.

On our return to Limoges, we flew to another spectacular airport, Ussel. This time we had the place to ourselves and practised a few touch and go landings before returning home.

The countryside in this area of France is wonderful and completely unspoilt. It is such a pleasure flying for miles and miles without seeing another plane or having to worry about violating restricted airspace.

Yesterday, again in the DA40, I flew to the south of France to Aixe les Milles airport near to Marseilles and, of course, the ocean.

The most noticeable thing about the flight was how busy the airspace was when approaching the coastline.

The military airfields were unusually active for a Sunday and we photographed a huge transport plane flying underneath us.

The flight took two hours twenty minutes (in a car it takes more than 9 hours) and we cleared the mountains at FL 95.

The weather was very hot and the airport was bustling with many light aircraft.

We had an excellent lunch on the terrace of the airport restaurant, chatting to many pilots of various nationalities before changing pilot and heading for home in near perfect weather conditions.

However, my day was not finished on arrival at Limoges. A quick change of aircraft and then off to Angouleme to practise more touch and go landings with Carl who was here on a weekend visit from England, for his PPL  training.

Finally, at the end of a very long and satisfying day, I drove home  to sample the longed-for Gin and Tonic and to watch the puppies playing in the paddock before coming in to their beds.

Best wishes

Sue

I am always happy to receive your questions and comments, as follows:

Questions for publication on francoflyers.org: questions@francoflyers.org
General queries not for publication: sue@francoflyers.org
Questions related to existing articles are best published as comments to those articles

Sue's Diary—Brive Encounter

At last it is raining so I can find the time to write my piece for the diary— I now have a new computer which should speed things up considerably.

I must thank Les King (Francoflyers Site Administrator) for coming over to France, solely to get me and the new PC running perfectly.

He spent most of his time over here setting up a 'foolproof' system to keep me from getting my messages into a mess.

I hope to now stay on the 'straight and narrow' and not even think of doing anything to encounter his wrath.

On his last day, Les managed to fly the DA40 for the first time is several months, prior to catching his flight back to the UK.

The cloud base was particularly low that morning so we left Limoges under 'Special VFR' rules.

Our route alongside the beautiful Vienne river led us to the very pretty town of Confolons, which is a particular favourite of mine.

We then circled and photographed a nearby grass strip before heading back to Limoges for some intensive circuit training.

Les enjoyed the variety of landings (flapless, EFATO, glide approach, low-level circuit, etc) which I threw at him—At Limoges, we can generally cope with an engine failure after take-off by landing straight-ahead on the 2500 metre runway and the glide approach is usually begun (with ATC permission) by flying a crosswind leg over the middle of the runway and then closing the throttle. 

All of this intense activity worked up a good appetite which enabled him to once again sample the excellent food in the new Airport restaurant, before flying back to Stanstead.

My flying week has consisted of a lot of basic training in and around the airport together with some long distance flights to interesting destinations.

The most popular destination for long flights is the wonderful Millau Viaduct which is about one and a half hours flight from my home base.

This flight was piloted by Tony who normally flies microlights in England and relishes his time in the left hand seat of the Robin DR400/180.

He also keeps me amused with his very dry sense of humour.

After the usual photograph session, we were gasping for a cup of tea and hopefully a sticky bun to go with it. We therefore landed at the excellent Millau airfield and strolled the few hundred yards to the large hotel/cafeteria which is adjacent to the runway.

Alex now took the left hand seat and we headed for home by a different route, enabling Tony to photograph some of the spectacular scenery in the region.

The following day, I again attempted the flight to Millau in the DA40 with Matt. Unfortunately, we had to turn back at Rodez owing to low cloud.

On the return flight, we went to investigate the new International Airport at Brive. This airport was scheduled to open in January 2007 but, thusfar, has an excellent runway in place without any of the ancillary buildings ...watch this space!!

When the new Brive Airport opens, the original airport will close permanently.

On the return journey to Limoges, we flew over the town of Pompadour which is a fascinating place to visit if you are in the area.

The chateau and the National Stud is open for guided tours each afternoon.

The racecourse is delightful and is a place to go armed with a picnic and a bottle of champagne.

For the equestrian lover, there is a calendar of events throughout the summer months—more information on Pompadour.

Each time I see the racecourse, I reminisce about my days as a jockey. At Christmas parties, we always used to play 'Jockey's Knock' which is a bit like 'Postman's Knock' but with more Horseplay.

I have replaced that passion with flying and I certainly cannot regret it as I have a wonderful life here.

It is a privilege for me to fly in France.

On Sunday, I headed for the International Dog Show at Limoges, taking 'Visions of Success' and the young English import 'Meg'.

I was delighted to win 'Best of Breed' with Visions and 'Best Young Dog' with Meg.

We were pounded with storms for all of Sunday so I could relax knowing that I was not missing any flying.

The puppies are growing quickly and are turning into individuals who never cease to amuse me with their antics.

Best wishes

Sue

 

I am always happy to receive your questions and comments, as follows:

Questions for publication on francoflyers.org: questions@francoflyers.org
General queries not for publication: sue@francoflyers.org
Questions related to existing articles are best published as comments to those articles

Sue's Diary—March Hares and April Showers

Life is always busy here (who said come to France for a quieter lifestyle) and was frenetic last week which is why my diary is a bit late.

My first topic must be the magnificent response to the Ryanair photographs on the blog, which generated over 5000 page-views in 3 days.

The 'Ryanair' incident closed the runway for a couple of days so I had an enforced rest until the aircraft had been recovered and flown away from Limoges.

I think that the pilot did an excellent job in dreadful weather conditions—we have all experienced 'aquaplaning' in a car and can imagine the nightmare of doing it in a large aircraft.

On Good Friday, I landed at Poitiers airfield where I was thrilled to see 10 Easter Bunnies playing on the grass adjacent to the taxiway (actually, they were mad March hares).

I have never seen so many hares in one place at the same time.

On the way home to Limoges, we did a PFL at a private strip which just finished the day nicely for me.

It has been a very positive week. Matt successfully completed his qualifying cross country (150 nautical miles), Limoges—Angouleme—Poitiers—Limoges. He commented that everyone was very friendly and he had no problems getting his X-country certificate signed.

Indeed, a controller came down from the tower to sign it for him.

Incidentally, one of the controllers at Poitiers is an English guy with a terrific command of the French language. It is always a pleasure to talk to him when I am in his FIS area.

Our Site Administrator, Les King, has been staying here for several days, enjoying the flying and the wonderful food, which is one of his main motivations for flying in France.

We managed several flights in some very changeable weather conditions, doing some navigation trips to Perigueux and Brive with 'touch and go landings' at both airfields.

At Perigueux, I asked the controller if he wanted us to come and pay for the landings and he just said that they were "gratuit" today which is one of the nice things about flying in France.

Our next trip was to La Rochelle where we sampled the delights of the restaurant 'Andre' in the old port area of the city.

This is our favourite eating place in La Rochelle where the seafood is perfection itself. I chose the sea bass and Les chose the swordfish. Both were excellent and the desserts were 'to die for'

The trip out was rather interesting with Les navigating around heavy showers and landing against a 25-knot headwind.

Returning home with a strong tailwind, we had a ground speed of 148 knots and arrived back at Limoges in record time with huge smiles on our faces.

This was flown by Alex who is one of Les's old flying-syndicate colleagues.

What more could we ask for; excellent food, fabulous aircraft, wonderful countryside and a warm welcome everywhere.

At home, the horses are enjoying fresh spring grass at last.

The puppies are thriving and adorable. I am trying to choose their pedigree names which must all begin with a D this year, so all suggestions are welcome!

Les also took the opportunity to sample the new Limoges Airport restaurant (twice) and reports that it offers excellent food at very reasonable prices—a very good way to while away an hour after checking-in for the flight home.

The restaurant is called les Helices and is located above the ground-floor bar/newsagent.

Best wishes

Sue

I am always happy to receive your questions and comments, as follows:

Questions for publication on francoflyers.org: questions@francoflyers.org
General queries not for publication: sue@francoflyers.org
Questions related to existing articles are best published as comments to those articles

Sue's Diary—Tired but happy

This has been a busy but satisfying week for me, despite extremes of weather and the temporary closure of Limoges Airport owing to the Ryanair incident (see report elsewhere).

I am now getting lots of questions about flying in France though some of these are beyond my knowledge and have been referred to the CAA or DGAC. These organisations are not best-known for their speedy replies but we should get answers to every question in the fullness of time.

At the beginning of the week, we had excellent visibility, blue skies and few clouds. However, a strong wind, gusting at around 25 knots, was coming from the NE.

Matt had some free time from school and I used this opportunity to give him a Navigation practice to some of the excellent small airfields north of Limoges.

The first day, I chose a route to Le Blanc/Argenton/Gueret/Limoges. We headed North to our first airfield La Blanc and the wind was virtually down the runway which made the landing much easier.

I wanted Matt to have experience of flying into short runways. We have such a long runway at Limoges that we can forget what 'ordinary' runways are like.

The area around Le Blanc is very beautiful, a 'mini Lake District'.

The airfield is well maintained. In fact, it is pristine.

After a Touch and Go, we headed East to Argenton which is not too difficult to find, being adjacent to a tall radio mast.

Another excellent landing was performed and then we continued SE to Gueret over higher ground and spectacular countryside.

Gueret was a little more tricky with a strong crosswind which required some accurate flying. We turned for home with a feeling of intense satisfaction.

Excellent countryside, interesting flying and a job well done.

The three airfields which I had chosen were all uncontrolled so my French R/T was essential.

In fact, we had the skies to ourselves and did not see another aircraft during the 2-hour flight.

The following day, we chose the route from Limoges/Angouleme/Riberac/Bergerac to do our navigation exercise.

It all went well and the added bonus was the Touch and Go on the grass strip at Riberac, deep in the Dordogne countryside.

I awoke on Thursday with great trepidation and 'butterflies' in my stomach (which I have not experienced since my racing days).

The reason for such nervousness was that I had been invited as Guest Speaker at an English ladies luncheon party, to address the topic of "Why did I become a Pilot/Instructor".

Mavis collected me from my home, en-route to the Aero club. We flew to Angouleme and were then ferried deep into the Charente countryside to our final destination.

My audience ranged in age from 27—87 and included one gentleman who had begged to attend.

They proved to be highly-interested in my story and bombarded me with a lot of questions following my 'speech'.

I have been invited again in the summer, to either Angouleme or Riberac, where husbands and friends are invited and there will be trial flights on offer!!

We flew back to Limoges in near perfect weather, still as a mill pond, and I felt a great satisfaction that the day had gone really well.

My peace was short-lived as, upon returning home, I realised that "Blanchette" was in the first stages of labour and had decided that my bed was her chosen 'nest'.

Eventually, she agreed to compromise and chose the corner of my bedroom to have her litter.

Eventually, after a long night and an even longer day, she finished producing a litter of seven healthy pups.

I am still trying to make up for the loss of one nights sleep, which never bothered me as a teenager but has certainly taken it's toll now.

Best wishes

Sue

I am always happy to receive your questions and comments, as follows:

Questions for publication on francoflyers.org: questions@francoflyers.org
General queries not for publication: sue@francoflyers.org
Questions related to existing articles are best published as comments to those articles

Sue's Diary—Stormy weather

Last weekend was very special for me as my family arrived on the Saturday (courtesy of Ryanair) to celebrate my birthday.

Their arrival was a birthday present in itself, as it is a treat for me to spend precious time with my 'kids'.

I never seem to have sufficient free time to spend with them. Christmas seems to be the only time in the year when we all manage to get together for any considerable time.

My daughter had bought her boyfriend a trial flight voucher for his Christmas present so, as soon as they arrived at the aero club, they all  wanted to fly and we took the larger Robin DR400/180 which can easily accommodate four passengers.

Sam had never even been close to a light aircraft and had never travelled in anything smaller than a 747 therefore he was a little nervous at first. He turned out to be a “natural” and took to flying like “a duck to water”.

In fact, he spent the rest of the weekend reading my PPL books and firing umpteen questions at me about taking the licence. I have no doubt that he will be flying with me again at his earliest opportunity.

During this flight, I took the opportunity to show my family the infamous village of Oradour sur Glane which is only 9 kilometres from the airport (in fact, it is our official reporting point, November Whiskey).

Towards the end of the Second World War, the Germans, wrongly believing that Oradour was an active cell of resistance fighters, surrounded the village and killed over 600 inhabitants.

They rounded up the women and children and shot them all in the church. The men were shot in the houses and barns with only a few inhabitants managing to escape from this dreadful fate.

Afterwards the village was completely burned by the Germans.

The French people have left the village untouched since the incident. The burnt-out cars, lorries prams and sewing machines still  remain in  the buildings. The aspect from the air is decidedly eerie.

I am told that birds and wildlife are never seen in the vicinity of the old village. This historical site is viewed by thousands of visitors per year including some German people.

It stands as a grim reminder of these atrocities and may hopefully act as a deterrent to future generations.

Last Friday evening was my first lesson of the week and the weather was near perfect, therefore Matt used the conditions to his advantage and clocked another hour of solo circuit time towards his PPL.

Luckily, we do not have to pay landing or 'touch and go' fees here at Limoges Airport though I heard from a student this week that some UK are now charging a £9.00 fee for go-arounds which seems ludicrous.

Perhaps some of you could advise me if this is really true and keep me up to date with the unusual extras charged by British airfields.

We had hoped to use this Saturday to do some serious flight training including a long navigation exercise.

The morning was perfectly flyable but the forecast was for a storm coming in from the south with winds gusting up to 35 knots.

Consequently, we set off relatively early and landed at Bergerac on the first leg of the navigation exercise,  with the dream of finding some hot coffee and a couple of warm croissants.

Sadly, luck was not with us as everything was closed, including the terminal who where obviously not expecting any low-cost international flights on that particular day!

We decided to visit Perigueux for a touch and go then on to Brive before turning for home.

As weather deteriorated rather earlier than forecast, we did a touch and go at Perigueux and headed straight back to Limoges before the storm broke. We arrived in record time with the strong tailwind giving us a ground speed of 148—153 knots.

KT was snugly back in the hangar when the storm arrived at Limoges and I headed for home in driving rain, grateful that we had managed two hours of flying which is always better than none at all.

It was my student's first taste of flying in turbulent conditions which did not phase him at all.

The most popular topic of conversation at the Aero club this week seems to be the new ICAO rules regarding International Radio Telephony in English.

The French authorities have agreed to comply with the rules for their Professional Pilots but are not presently enforcing this rule for Private Pilots.

Some club members have discussed this subject with me and virtually all would like to be proficient in English RT to enable them to fly confidently in Europe.

With this in mind, our next project is to provide an RT audio file in English to aid our French friends when flying in Britain.

As flying is not possible today, I shall use the time to give the dogs a long walk in the woods and, if the rain eases, I shall move the electric fence to provide better pasture for the horses.

Life is never boring at Nearlyheaven!!

Happy landings

I am always happy to receive your questions and comments, as follows:

Questions for publication on francoflyers.org: questions@francoflyers.org
General queries not for publication: sue@francoflyers.org
Questions related to existing articles are best published as comments to those articles

Sue's Diary—Never too young, never too old

At last I have returned to the right hand seat after my enforced convalescence following an operation in January.

My respite from the Aero Club has given me the time to work on the Francoflyers blog and to answer the many questions which continue to arrive on a daily basis from all of you intrepid pilots hoping to fly in France,

I am delighted to be of help to you all. Of course, I don't know everything which is why the blog offers everybody the opportunity to share information.

I shared my convalescence with my newly-purchased Hungarian Vizsla puppy, who also had an operation to repair a torn cruciate ligament. She was confined to her 'cage' for 6 weeks, which was a nightmare for both of us as her energy levels grew to bursting point.

Thankfully, she is fully recovered and enjoying her freedom again.

My other bitch is pregnant and due to have her litter of puppies in 2 weeks time. She is huge now so I dread to think what size she will be prior to the birth.

If anybody fancies a Vizsla puppy from 'championship' bloodlines, I am taking reservations now.

It felt so good to be flying again and my student Matthew had a wide grin on his face when he arrived for his lesson.

His younger brother decided to ride in the rear seat during the flight but didn't seem too thrilled by the experience. Everyone is different, 'horses for courses'.

On the subject of horses, my hospital consultant has banned me from horse riding for 3 months which is a blow but, thankfully, I have her permission to fly.

I would have been impossible to live with if my flying had been curtailed for that length of time.

I saw a lot of Matthew during the last week of February as he came daily to my home to do his compulsory week of 'work experience' as part of his school curriculum.

We used this time to cover some tuition on the ground subjects and I am delighted to announce that he finished the week by passing three exams with excellent marks.

As mentioned in a previous article, Matt came to me, at the age of 15, with the ambition to become an airline pilot.

He has always worked hard and diligently towards his goal so I was proud to send him solo after only 8 hours of tuition (NB minimum age for solo flight is 16, mimimum age for issue of a PPL is 17).

He is hoping to pass the PPL on his 17th birthday and then his sights will be set on the ATPL.

Teaching young students who want to become airline pilots is extremely rewarding as they are all highly-motivated, focussed and very quick learners.

My youngest student came to me at just 13 years old, knowing more aircraft types than I did, thanks to his passion and his computer.

At the other end of the scale, I have several customers in their 60's and at least one septuagenarian.

You're never too young and never too old to enjoy flying.

Best wishes

Sue

I am always happy to receive your questions and comments, as follows:

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