Why did I choose France?

Virtually everyone I meet asks “Why did you choose France”?

To answer that, I must go back some 20 years to my reasons for learning to fly.

My introduction to flying was a little different to the ‘conventional’ aviation enthusiast who probably started at an early age by making Airfix models and graduating ‘up the ladder’ with a passion for aircraft and flying.

In fact, my childhood passion was horses though my family had no equestrian connections and worked hard at running their own newsagent shop.

When I bombarded and cajoled my parents into having riding lessons at the age of four, they decided that it was easier to just give in and sent me to the local riding school once a week. Little did they know that I was on my way to a future career.

As money was short, I was not born to be one of the privileged few who could have any horse that I wanted and my first pony, loaned to me by the local Horse Protection Society, was 24 years old

The next was a foal bought in the local auction market for £20 guineas and transported home in the back of an old van.

I moved up the ladder and, after a childhood of successful show jumping, I fell in love with horse racing and eventually became a point-to-point rider. In fact, I was one of the first lady jockeys allowed to ride in steeplechases previously exclusive to men.

I was totally consumed by my racing passion for 18 years though horse racing is a dangerous sport and the falls finally took their toll. Broken bones and disc problems forced me into retirement.

Devastated by this, I moped around feeling very sorry for myself until my eldest son rather scathingly asked what I was going to do now for an adrenalin buzz.

This ‘stung’ me and my first thought was “I will SHOW HIM”. When I asked myself what would be the greatest challenge to me, a voice in my head said “flying a plane” which was a bit odd as I have never liked heights and climbing ladders fills me with horror.

Having booked a trial flight at my local airfield in Gloucester (Staverton),  I was very nervous after take-off and wondering how this little plane could stay in the air.

However, after my 45 minute flight, I was truly hooked and could not wait for my next lesson.

Six months later, I proudly showed my new PPL to a very surprised family.

I knew immediately that I wanted to be an instructor and set about achieving this goal by first gaining ‘Night Rating’ and ‘Instrument Rating’ qualifications.

Sadly, circumstances thwarted my ambitions as my home life was in turmoil and a divorce was on the cards.

As I had four children to support, professional flying was put on the ‘back burner’ and, for several years, I did just enough to keep my PPL current.

Everything changed on September 2nd 1998 when I suffered a serious riding accident .

At the time, I was managing a team of Endurance competition horses which involved exercising them on a daily basis.

That morning, I had several horses to exercise and rode one horse while leading another as I had done many times before.
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Suddenly, the horse which I was leading spun around and galloped for home dragging me backwards out of the saddle.

The horse I was riding received a huge jolt in his mouth as I was pulled backwards, causing him to rear up and crash over backwards, pinning me to the ground.

Suffice it to say that my one and only flight in a helicopter was in the air ambulance!

I was rushed to hospital with a broken femur, shattered pelvis and torn knee ligaments together with various lesser injuries.

Upon returning from hospital, I found that I no longer had a job or a place to accommodate my own horses.
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It took some three years and several further operations before I could walk again.

During this period, I studied the CPL correspondence course and, despite my limited talent for technical matters, I finally gained my Commercial Licence which was the hardest work that I have ever done.

As I was now in a critical financial position, I realised that I needed to drastically change my lifestyle if I wanted to keep my horses.

After some internet research, I found this farm in France with six hectares of land for the price of a tiny cottage in Worcestershire.

I arrived here on my own, except for 6 horses and a pregnant Vizsla dog .

I did not learn French at school, so I was somewhat bereft of language skills.

They say that “every cloud has a silver lining” and, in the event, moving to France proved to be the best decision I ever made.

Were it not for the accident, I doubt that I would ever have realised my dream of becoming a flying instructor and living in France is just the ‘icing on the cake’.

How did you come to take up flying or to live in France? — let us know with a comment to this post

Comments

[mike driscoll]

Hi my name is Mike Driscoll, i'm 57, I live in a small village called Espedaillac in the lot which is only 5 minutes away from Figeac/livernon airfield
I moved here with my wife Sarah 2 years ago and we have built a house.
For twenty years I flew hang gliders and spent a lot of time in France flying [better weather higher mountains etc.]
Then I was given a trial flight at Manston in Kent and I was hooked. After 7 hours instruction I went solo and got my PPL in 1996 after 40 hours 25 mins. Half way through my IMC rating and night rating a divorce put paid to further flying.
I have flown several times in the club plane at Livernon [a Cessna 150] and want to revalidate my licence now I have more time.

[sue virr]

Hi Mike

Thank you very much for your message posted here on the francoflyers site.
I have flown over Figeac several times, in fact one of my pupils lives about 15 minutes drive from there.it is a lovely part of France.
You are also lucky to have the beautiful town of Cahors not too far away from you.

I have flown into Cahors many times and I have always had a warm welcome and lots of help from the locals, they have a good restaurant on site which is always an added bonus.

I am happy to help you re validate your licence,i expect that you will need to have a few flights with me to get back into the swing of things. Do you need a flight with an examiner? or just a flight with an instructor? We can supply the remedy to either of these options.We have a CAA registered examiner at the Aero Club de Limoges, I am a British registered ground examiner and can sign your paperwork for the CAA, just advise me of your requirements and we can take it from there.