francoflyers

Shepherd's pie at Saucats Airfield

Bonjour à tous,

Je tiens à remercier tous ceux qui ont fait le déplacement pour notre évènement du 27/09.

Le repas mensuel anglais de Saucats aura lieu le 25 octobre à 12H00 (heure locale).

Après le curry et le rosbif, cette fois ci le "Shepherd's Pie" (hachis parmentier) sera à l'honneur.

Une participation de 7 € sera demandé aux participants. Les boissons sont à régler directement au bar de l'aéroclub.

Il est demandé aux pilotes de ne pas rouler sur l'herbe, et de stationner de préférence au nord du bureau de piste.

Inscriptions par retour de mail, sur Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/events/370785856412111/)
ou par téléphone au 06 77 63 68 41

Dear Pilots,

The monthly English meal will be taking place at Saucats Airfield on 25/10/2014 at 12 noon local time.

This month's English specialty will be a good old fashioned shepherd's pie.

Price per person - 7 € (drinks can be bought directly from the club bar).

Please avoid taxying on the grass and park where possible on the hard standing just north of the "bureau de piste".

Sign-ups by e-mail, Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/events/370785856412111/) 
or phone: 06 77 63 68 41

Best wishes,
James
Dassault Aéroclub
Aérodrome de Bordeaux Léognan Sauicats (LFCS)

 

Quelques photos du repas du 27/09:

 

For Sale: French Property on Private Airfield

A very large plot of land (2.4 hectares = 5 acres = 24000 square metres) in a very secluded part of a private airfield called the Aerodrome de Gajoubert (LF8753) situated about half-way between Limoges and Poitiers. The road leading to the land is tree-lined and is only used by the owners as it is a cul-de-sac and it serves only our property.

On the land you have the following properties:

1. A hangar of 450 square metres in which one can comfortably park 5/6 PA28 or Cessna 172 aircraft. In the hangar, there is an apartment which is habitable, consisting of an en-suite bedroom, open plan lounge/diner/kitchen and another wc.

2. A house ( 225 square metres ) — recently built — The walls, roof and windows are finished as per photo, but further interior works are required to make it habitable.

3. There is a plan approved for a third property which is to be built. Electricity, water and septic tanks are in place.

Access to the runway is 24/7 and 365 days of the year. The runway is owned and maintained by Mr & Mrs Fort who live next door, and the service charge is only 70 euros per year.

The land is linked to the runway by a private taxiway which is part of the land. The runway is 700 metres in hard surface and parallel to this runway is a 1000 metres grass runway. For a pilot, apart from the asphalt runway which can be used all year round, you can take off and land as many times you wish and you have freedom of the sky. On landing, you vacate the runway by your own personal and private taxiway that leads to your hangar, and above all at no cost for parking and no landing fees.

Friends can fly in and visit you any time throughout the year, and park in your hangar or on your land in front of the hangar.

You can fly to Paris in 1.5 hours or 50 minutes to La Rochelle which is an excellent seaside resort or to Barcelona in 2.4 hours.

Guide Price c£350,000.

For further enquiries, please contact Esteban on:

Tel: +44 (0)7415735125

Email: estebandwarka@googlemail.com

The Road to Rouen

The North Weald Flying Group organise several fly-outs each year, enabling it’s members to expand their flying experience while sharing the ‘duties’ and costs of longer flights—www.northwealdflyinggroup.co.uk

The final daytime fly-out of a very successful 2011 season was planned for Rouen in Normandy, over the weekend of 15th/16th October. I'm pleased to say that the weather was amazingly kind, given the time of year, and the 24 participants in nine aircraft had an excellent time.

The NWFG aircraft, plus G-BSVB and participants, were joined by regulars Gordon Horscraft and Chris Stratford in the Robin G-GEEP. Ian Brierley and friends also came along in Ian's C172 G-BOYP. This was also the first outing for our new acquisition to the fleet, the C172 G-NWFS which was in the very capable hands of Stewart Braddon and Kieran Hardiman, who amazingly got a weekend pass from the very pregnant Mrs H. Thanks Liz for letting him come out to play.

Included in the trip was our C150, G-NWFA, which was bravely piloted over quite a long non-stop leg by Malcolm Jarvis and George Tunks. Joining the other usual NWFG trip suspects on their first fly-out were Dave Longhurst and Rob Tyler. Welcome gentlemen.

The weather forecast was extremely good in the run-up to the weekend which is not usually a good sign. However, this time it held. With all of the advance notifications sent in a few days before, it was merely a question on the Saturday morning of getting the aircraft prepared and the flight plans/General Declarations in. With clear TAFS all the way to Rouen, it looked very promising. John did a splendid job of getting all aircraft fuelled in good time and the NWFG line was a frenzy of activity as the aircraft were loaded with pilots, passengers, overnight bags, life-jackets and, probably, a kitchen sink.

FA made an early take-off to try and get to Rouen around the same time as the rest of us, especially as they intended to cross the channel at it's shortest point—Dover to Cap Gris-Nez. Most of the other aircraft, including Phil Fellows and myself, were crossing the water from Lydd to the Abbeville VOR (ABB) via 'Aleso'. This would give a slightly shorter sea crossing than the most direct route but was mainly chosen so that there was an opportunity to view some of the lovely French countryside. In VB's case, this was also designed to hopefully give Mrs Bazire something nice to look at and avoid the inevitable "Are we there yet?" after about an hours flying.

From Abbeville, it was a straight track SW to the city of Rouen nestling as it does in a valley with the River Seine winding through it. The outbound trip was a delight from take-off all the way to landing. No cloud, blue sky and great visibility. VB even had an opportunity to complete a planned air-to-air photo session with FS on the way. The only downside was quite a strong headwind which added about 20 minutes to what should have been around a 1 hour 45 min trip. The route was very straightforward in terms of a navex and the radio work was reasonably simple but great experience for our newer members. Calls to Lille Info, Paris Info and then Rouen Approach, all with their easygoing but efficient helpful controllers, underlined once again what a pleasure it is to fly in France.

With the latest info from the ATIS and a call to Rouen Approach, we were told to continue inbound and report the field in sight. Joins were to be expected to be left-hand downwind for R04. The airfield LFOP 'Rouen Valle de Seine' sits to the south of the city on a hill at 512ft asl and soon came into view from 20 miles out. Joining direct onto the downwind leg, as instructed, gave us a great view of the city out to our right-hand side before turning base leg. Given the number of our aircraft as a group, we were nicely separated and this made the circuit very straightforward With landing, our clearance received, we had a great view on the approach although we did have a reasonably brisk crosswind to contend with.

As expected, getting fuel was a bit of a faff as we had to wait for the refuelling man to come out in a van and deal with the aircraft in front first. That shouldn't have been a problem but, after dispensing fuel, he had to drive back to the terminal to do the paperwork each time. Still, there were lots of people throwing themselves out of a perfectly-good aeroplane at great height over the airfield to keep us amused.

Malcolm and George arrived in a now rather thirsty FA, quite some time after everyone else, despite having left much earlier, and joined the now rather long fuel queue. Still, this was a blessing as it allowed Malcolm time to gently unfold George and prise him out of the cabin after being in one position for so long.

With the aircraft all wrapped up and put to bed, we headed off into the terminal to pay our landing and parking charges. An outrageous 10 euros. I love flying in France! The terminal was full of people involved in parachuting that weekend and parachutes were being laid out and repacked in one corner of the building. Once through the melee, we eventually managed to get enough cabs to the airport to take us on the 20-minute journey to our IBIS hotel close to the river in Rouen. The IBIS was up to the usual standard, functional but with quite reasonably-sized clean and comfortable rooms.

After a quick freshen up, it was off to explore the city. Although parts of Rouen are quite industrial, the old part of the city is a delight with fantastic narrow streets of half timbered buildings dating back hundreds of years. The IBIS was an easy 10 minute walk from this area and the whole skyline is dominated by the city's two huge Cathedrals. Rouen has a very long and bloody history including being the place where Joan of Arc was burnt at the stake in 1431. In recent history, the city was heavily damaged by allied bombing in WW2 prior to and during the Normandy landings in 1944. This is still very evident on some of the Churches and public buildings where bomb shrapnel damage has been left unrepaired and is clearly visible as a lasting reminder of the conflict to this day. If you should consider visiting, it is well-worth reading about this city's long and turbulent past.

Wandering through the old streets revealed many architectural gems as well as high-range shops in lovely settings. Unbeknown to us, this was Normandy gastronomical weekend and we stumbled upon a very large open market stretching over three streets and a square with the multitude of stalls selling local produce including a lot of Calvados, Cider, Escargot, Foie Gras and delicious looking crepes.

Dinner that evening for our 24 intrepid travellers was in the appropriately named Brasserie Paul in a square next to the illuminated Notre Dame Cathedral; a great setting. A reasonably large choice from the set menu had us tucking into various starters including, I'm pleased to say, quiet a few sampling the very good Escargot. One item on the main course choice was a little suspect, quiet a few of our number tried the 'Sirloin Flap'. The origin of this was never established, despite quizzing the waitress. To Linda Winstanley and Stewart Braddon's horror, I convinced them that it was probably the loser in the 3.30 at Deauville racecourse that afternoon. Come to think of it, I was probably right. With a few little beerets and bottles of local wine taken care of, it was time to wander back through the quite streets to our hotel.

Pulling back the curtains the following morning, the view of the Cathedral spire was somewhat obscured by a thick fast moving mist. This had been forecast to clear later and we had planned for another tour around the city before departing for the airport around lunch time. Once again, the guys meandered off into the surrounding streets and the old buildings took on a strange milky glow with the mixture of heavy mist and sunlight above. The temperature was also pretty cool as we walked along the banks of the Seine.

With the mist finally lifting, we headed back to the airport by cab. With the flight plans in and the aircraft prepared, we donned our life jackets for the return leg. The forecast was for clear weather with no significant cloud over France but the possibility (Tempo 40) of a 1400ft cloudbase back in the Essex/Stansted area. As we were making our final preparations for departure, a long line of cloud could be seen approaching from the East but it was still sunny and very warm on the apron.

After listening to the ATIS, we called for start and were told to standby due to the parachuting taking place. After the last parachute was down a good 10 to 15 minutes later, we got our clearance and taxi instructions. Our lady controller was now referring to us over the radio as the 'British Squadron' which was rather sweet!

Departing from R22 with a right turnout gave us another great view over the city and we turned onto track back towards ABB. As we headed further east and changed to Paris Info, the band of cloud was above us at around 3000ft and the air underneath was on the rather murky side. As the cloud was well- broken and there was no problem with airspace, most of the group elected to climb on top into the bright sunshine. Skimming across the top still gives me a buzz, even after all these years. There we stayed until mid-channel when the cloud just melted away giving us a great view of the south coast ahead of us. With no sign of the forecast cloud, it was an easy cruise back into North Weald in near perfect conditions.

This really was a great trip, especially over a whole weekend at this time of year. Many thanks to all in our large group who made it, as usual, a very entertaining and humorous couple of days away. Excellent flying with excellent company. A special mention to Malcolm Jarvis for all his efforts in dealing with the PPR and advance customs notifications and Phil (Fish) Fellows for being our weather guru. Rouen is a very interesting City with a very helpful airport and is a relatively easy flight. It wouldn't present any problems even for quite inexperienced pilots. It's a good next step up from the cross-channel hops to Calais and Le Touquet. For those that haven't done it, give it a thought for next year.

French Airfields Highly Recommended

Les

May I mention for your Francoflyers web site a couple of airfields in France that I can highly recommend.

1. CHOLET (LFOU) in the Pays de la Loire
   
   A very large runway (see photo) right on the edge of town. English spoken on the radio and a very warm welcome.
   
   Great restaurant, no parking fees charged for my two day visit and a minimal landing fee.
   
   Fuel and hard standing available.
   
   


2. Argentan (LFAJ) in Lower Normandy.
   
   A grass strip in the middle of nowhere but a great base to visit Normandy.
   
   I have landed there on several occasions and have never been charged any landing or parking fees.
   
   No ground radio, just land and visit the open club house to book in.
   
   Here you will find a phone number to call if you require fuel, someone will arrive 15 minutes later, cash only.
   
   No English spoken.

 

Things looking-up at Calais

Received from Paul Bazire (North Weald Flying Group)

I was in at Calais the other day and would like to report that the airport restaurant which opened at the end of last year is actually rather good and the very pleasant owner is really trying to attract pilots into the airfield for lunch.

Calais is a nice easy cross channel hop and with a 9 euro landing fee is very reasonable. Visiting has been made that much easier as the previous 24 hour faxed Customs notice has now been reduced to 2 hours and can be filed online on the Calais Airport website .

Calais used to be a bit of a desolate hole with tumbleweeds blowing around the place but the new cafe/restaurant has made it somewhat more appealing.

There is a long running NOTAM about cross channel drones flying from Calais with a temp restricted zone. It's not that often but you need to contact the ATC Manager to check. The numbers are on the plate.

It's very late notice but Calais are night flying this evening (Saturday) . All landing/circuits are free and the cafe will be open until late.

The downside is there will be no ATC so all calls are to be made blind and in French only^**.

Hopefully, this will be a regular event.

** If you need help with this, our article on French Radio Calls should help.

Spanish Practices

I recently enjoyed a great flying trip from North Weald, through France to Asturias in Spain and back to the UK via the West Coast of France and Guernsey.

This was organised by the North Weald Flying Group whom I joined in earlier in the year.

Everything went pretty-much to plan until our 7-aircraft formation stopped-off to refuel at Santander.

Despite the City's association with finance, the local fuelling company don't take credit cards which wouldn't be too bad were it not for the fact that they have a big bureaucratic problem will handing cash.

Before any fuel can flow, an extensive form needs to be completed with names, addresses, passport details, inside leg measurement and (wait for it!!) a tax or VAT number.

The last item caused some consternation as few individuals remember to take VAT numbers on holiday and nobody was quite sure what was actually meant by a tax number.

This procedure was apparently required by 'money laundering' regulations though I doubt that the 'rotters' who indulge in this practice would choose the method of buying aircraft fuel in £100 lots.

After various National Insurance Numbers were tried and rejected by the fueller's hand-held computer, a valid VAT number was obtained with a quick telephone call to the UK, and then used for all 7 aircraft.

It appears that any valid VAT number will serve the purpose as nobody seems to care whether it relates to the individual buyer.

Bureaucratic honour having been satisfied, the process of filling in the form, entering the data into the computer, fuelling the aircraft, generating the invoice and taking cash payment took the 3-man fuelling team about 30 minutes per aircraft.

Refuelling at Asturias a couple of days later was a lot easier―it was the same fuelling company but we had our trusty VAT number and a single fueller was able to accomplish the same task in about 10 minutes per aircraft.

At San Sebastian, credit cards were taken (no VAT number, etc, required) though the fueller insisted on filling all 7 aircraft before repairing to his office to prepare the bills individually.

I now have a much better understanding of the expression 'Spanish Practices'.

Castillo d'Abbadie
(photographed shortly after take-off from San Sebastian)

 

PSSST!! Anybody want to buy a VAT number.

 

Le Touquet―Ouch

Yesterday, I flew to Le Touquet for the first time in several years.

Weather was brilliant and we enjoyed a lovely lunch in this very pretty town, followed by a couple of hours lounging in a beech bar which wasn't there last time around.

My passenger was well-impressed with Le Chat Bleu and bought 4 chocolate cats for the ladies in his life―first time I bought one of those, the head didn't survive the landing at Redhill and had to be welded back on.

Return to North Weald was via Cap Griz Nez and Dover with a quick tour around Canterbury for some impressive views of the cathedral.

French air traffic (Lille/Le Touquet) operated with their usual relaxed efficiency but I was particularly impressed by the vast improvement in UK low-level radar services since I last flew here on a regular basis 5 or 6 years ago.

Only downside was Le Touquet's 25€ landing fee which is well in line with UK standards but rather more than you would normally pay in France.

By the way, another UK pilot told me that Calais have replaced their venerable vending machine with a very nice airfield restaurant.

 

Aero-Club de Saint Dizier “Robinson”

As I am actively looking to leave my present French flying club and ‘take my business elsewhere’, I immediately noticed this possible alternative in the August edition of ‘Today’s Pilot’.

St Dizier lies to the East of Paris, about half-way to Nancy and to the South-East of Reims.

According to the article, the airfield dates from 1913 and a civilian aeroclub was first established in  1931.

Today, the aeroclub shares the airfield with two operational squadrons of the French Air Force—guess who uses the grass runway!

The club atmosphere is described as “friendly, kind and generous” in addition to which they promote a diverse range of aviation activities including a separate aeromodelling section and a small aviation museum whose prize possession is a SEPECAT Jaguar simulator.

There is an interesting fleet of aircraft ranging from a TB9 to a Piper Cub which served in the Normandy landings (it’s been repaired now)—there is also a brand-new clubhouse with a spacious dining-room.

The airfield is adjacent to the largest man-made lake in France and the local area looks quite picturesque

I could go on but you really should read the original article to get the whole picture.

In these ‘hard times’, I was particularly interested in the published flying prices which look rather attractive, particularly compared with UK rates:

Aeroclub de St Dizier Rates (Euro per Hour)
TB9	101€
Robin DR400	89€
Cessna 150	62€
Piper L4 (J3)	62€
Instruction (additional)	12€

As far as I can see, this is ‘a club which has everything’ so I emailed them today for more information which I will happily share once they respond. 

As price was one of the main drivers for myself and many UK pilots to fly in France, it would be good to share information on what different clubs and flying groups are currently charging—any comments on the subject will be most welcome. 

Links

Today's Pilot Magazine 

Aeroclub de Saint Dizier   

Saint Dizier Aero Retro (Museum)     

Cool Cannes

For several months,I had been hoping to arrange a trip to the airfields of  Cannes and Cuers in the South of France; however,circumstances had always prevented me from actually arranging the flight.

Several of my students and ex students live in the south of France and they are often asking me to come down to do some flying with them.

I also have pilot friends in this area, so I have been looking forward to a chance to fly down south, however pressure of work in Limoges has not enabled me to turn the dream into reality.

When my daughter Kirsty informed me that she and her boyfriend were holidaying in Antibes in July and could I come down to spend some time with them, the idea started to take shape.While at the aero club I happened to mention this to Stine and Matthew and they immediately said Ok let's fly there, so our adventure was about to begin!

Stine is nearly at the end of her PPL training and she is hoping  to gain as much flying  experience as possible before returning home to Norway. The prospect of a flight over the mountains, and to fly in airspace that is more restrictive than she has encountered at Limoges had her "champing at the bit “and ready to go.

Matthew is always looking to gain knowledge in new flying environments as his long term aim is to be a Professional Pilot, so we began to arrange the flight.

Upon hearing of the proposed trip Stuart Morton (one of my students  who lives near to Cuers) sent  a message that he wanted to fly as many hours as possible when I was in his area, he would provide the accommodation and transport if I would supply the training.

Matt offered to plan the trip on the Monday afternoon; therefore, all I had to do the following morning was to arrive at the club ready to fly.

Tuesday saw Stine, Matt and I at the club early in the morning, we had chosen the Robin F-GMKT DR400/180 which is fast and very comfortable for long journeys.

The weather forecast was excellent for the whole trip so we chose the direct route over the mountains en route to Cannes.

Stine chose to fly this first flight, she had not flown over the mountains before and she was pleasantly surprised at the deep river gorges which reminded her of her native Norway.

We enjoyed cloudless skies until we were midway between the VOR's of Saint Flour and Montelimar then we were forced  to climb to avoid cloud between the mountains. This was also a new and exciting experience for Stine.

When we reached Montelimar the clouds vanished and we continued our flight over the high ground, passing the impressive Mount Ventoux (6263 ft) until we were abeam Vinon  (LFNF) now we descended to follow the valley between the hills which would lead us to our destination Cannes( LFMD).

During the flight, we had not seen another aircraft; however, that was soon to change as we neared our destination airfield.

Cannes tower was very busy, however, the controller was friendly and helpful, we were asked if we wanted to join long final from the north which we readily accepted and we landed behind a sleek business jet arriving from Beirut.

After landing we changed to Cannes ground frequency they directed us to the  park via runway 04, we were soon parked on the grass and waiting for the minibus to shuttle us to the terminal.

Matt could not keep his eyes away from the wonderful selection of business jets lined up adjacent to the terminal. This was a different scene to the last time that I had landed at Cannes two years previously when the airport was almost empty,obviously,everyone had arrived for their summer holidays ---- no sign of the credit crunch here!

After an expensive taxi ride into town we met Kirsty and Sam at a charming cafe and enjoyed a light  lunch outside on the terrace.

After lunch, it was time to wander the streets of Cannes in the hope of seeing some of the rich and famous,sadly we did not recognise anyone in  the expensive cars which roared by.

We explored the old part of town and finally said our goodbyes and returned to the airport for the 40 minute flight up the coast to Cuers.

The journey to the plane only takes three minutes but it is forbidden to walk across the airport to the parked aircraft.

This time we had a long  wait  for the minibus, so we were twiddling our thumbs in the heat for over 45 minutes.

Aircraft were departing every two minutes, therefore the controllers were really working hard.Upon start up, it was heartwarming to hear the same controller say "hello again" when I asked for taxi instructions to the active runway

Incidentally, the landing fee here was 12 euros for the first three hours and 25 euros for the full day inclusive of handling charges.

Upon landing, we noticed Stuart waving to us,after we secured the aircraft we were whisked  to his house nearby, We were introduced to his French wife Luce and his delightful two and a half year old son Thomas.

We related the day's adventures over a glass of excellent local rose wine, while Stuart cooked dinner.

We had a lovely evening, however were were all exhausted by the end of a long day, so it was not long before we were heading for our beds and oblivion.

The following day we made plans over breakfast, Stine decided to join Luce for a trip to Marseilles followed by spending some time relaxing  on the beach.

We headed to the airport and while the others prepared the aircraft, I went to find my friend Pierre Crozet.

After a distinguished career as général de l'armée d'air, Pierre now devotes his time to teaching flying to handicapped students.With help from the government and specially adapted aircraft, he trains his students for the PPL and then guides them to train for the CPL or for careers in other fields of aviation.

I have met several of his students over the last few years and I have seen the transformation in their confidence when they have achieved their goals. Many have been able to obtain useful jobs such as flying aircraft which spot fires or aerial  photography, others go into jobs which are aviation related such as compiling maps and charts or aviation journalism.

Pierre and I discussed the best options for the days flight and he suggested that we should go to Gap (LFNA) which is situated in the mountains surrounded by lakes.

When he also informed me that this field has an excellent restaurant  we did not need any further persuasion, a restaurant on the field is always a bonus.

We were warned that GAP was very busy, with parachute dropping and gliding in operation, Pierre explained the best way of entering the circuit and the use of the reporting points,so armed with this useful information we set off on our adventure.

The area surrounding Cuers has a minefield of military areas,however the controllers were helpful and guided us through without any problems.Stuart was flying this leg and although he had not sat in a plane for six months he was soon relaxed and handling the controls with ease.

Our route took us up a valley between the mountains some reaching nine thousand feet,we followed the riverbedwith it's fertile valley, a brilliant green contrasting with the austere mountains on each side of us.

We arrived a little too early for lunch, so we continued up the river until we came to Lac de Serre Poncon a beautiful lake set in a basin between the mountains,this was obviously a holiday destination,as we watched the numerous boats and water skiers in action below us.

We returned to Gap, we were sent on a rather unusual downwind leg to provide clearance for the parachutists who were landing on the field at that moment.

The airfield was idyllic, such a beautiful setting, everyone we met was helpful and friendly. We discovered a pilot shop but did not linger owing to severe hunger pangs.

The airport has reasonably priced accommodation and a swimming pool so perhaps we shall be returning for a slightly longer stay next time. 

We enjoyed an excellent light lunch on the terrace with views of the parachutists who were regularly landing just in front of us. We paid the exorbitant landing fee of five euros and it was time for the next flight.

Next destination Carpentras (LFNH) we followed the Sisteron valley and then climbed to seven thousand feet to cross the mountains, Stuart wanted to do some circuit practise at this uncontrolled airfield, upon arrival with a 15 knot crosswind blowing he had to change his technique!

That evening we chose to walk into the village to a local restaurant  French food with a hint of the exotic, as the owners were from the French island of Reunion. We sat outside next to the beautiful old church, Thomas spent most of the evening exploring the immediate area and giving his parents a few worries with his adventurous spirit !

We strolled back through the village, replete, content and basking in the afterglow of a wonderful days flying.

Our final day and we were in a quandary what to do as the forecast towards the north and  at Limoges was for  thunderstorms and it seemed that later in the day the weather was going to improve.

We decided to do delay our departure until later in the day hoping for an improvement in the forecast for the homeward trip.

We chose to do a  a local  sightseeing flight and to meet up at the restaurant on the field  for lunch with Pierre Crozet.

We  were very intrigued to fly over the home of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, their home was only five minutes flight from Cuers airport.

We were not disappointed, the house and the surrounding vineyards were enchanting situated in a very quiet area and well worth seeing.

Matthew who is our honorary photographer did the honours once again, it was a memorable flight.

We then continued to Saint Tropez and flew close to La Mole (LFTH) this the airport close to the coast ,the chosen  destination for the stars to land ther private jets. I understand that the landing fee is 80 euros.

The bay at Saint Tropez was full of yachts and boats of all sizes and shapes, many had their own private swimming pools and helicopters on the deck.

The place was teeming with boats, windsurfers and sunbathers, personally it was better to view Saint Tropez from the air rather than to be on the over crowded beaches.

We flew up the coast towards Cannes and Stuart pointed out the houses owned by Royal families and film stars, as we were approaching the Cannes CTR we turned around and headed further up the coast,once again passing Saint Tropez, then  negotiatingthe narrow passageway ( P63) between the prohibited areas close to the presidents summer residence, we viewed Cap Negre where Carla Bruni has her summer home, which is just  just 5 minutes drive from the presidents  summer palace.

The scenery was quite  stunning, soon we changed to Toulon approach and they kindly directed us past Hyeres (LFTH) airport and we headed back to Cuers by a circular route.

The outside air temperature was in the 40's so it was a relief to sit in the shade and have our final meal in the South of France.

We said our good byes and headed home, We needed to do quite a lot of climbing to negotiate clouds around the mountains.

Special thanks must go to Matt who was doing the navigating at that time, his navigation skills made the task of flying  over and around the mountains much easier for the pilots in the front of the plane.

Thankfully, upon arrival at Limoges the thunderstorms had dissipated and we landed in brilliant sunshine, however, the temperature was 20 degrees lower than at Cuers and we all felt rather cold and shivery!

Finally a message from Stuart, if any pilot's are coming to  his area he can offer a warm welcome,a glass of rose wine,plus a place to stay overnight if required.

 

Photographs courtesy of Stuart Morton and Matthew Galvin.

 

 

 

 

Flying Adventures in France

Now that I am back in England with the British summer as per normal with wind and pouring rain, I can reflect on my recent trip to Limoges with my two colleagues from the same wet village as myself.

 

It all started with Sue Virr sending out her diary blog from her Franco Flyers site, when after having read a couple of these tempting articles , I decided that I also wanted to sample flying in France.

 

So arrangements were made for bookings at Nearlyheaven (which it truly is) and for the flight to Limoges by Ryanair.

 

The day arrived for us to embark on our trip, as expected the rain was falling quite heavily as we set off for East Midlands Airport. Upon landing at Limoges to our great surprise the rain seemed even heavier there!

 

Undaunted we found our hire car and duly set out for Nearlyheaven, somehow we managed to get lost.... navigation is so much easier by air! 

 

We eventually arrived at Nearly Heaven and settled in quickly, then off to find food with Sue's easy to follow directions, we found the bar and restaurant but the food was off  that evening only a ex pat run fish and chip van parked on the car park,  So we sampled them and they were very good.

 

Friday dawned with much of the same weather, so under grey skies we were off to a Martyr village called Oradour-sur-Glane, and spent most of the day visiting the ruins left by the SS during WW2 the three of us found this quite moving ,and well worth the visit.

Food was once again on the agenda so off we went to find a local cafe and enjoyed the local specialities.

Oradour-sur-Glane

Saturday saw an improvement in the weather although it was not yet suitable to venture too far, so a flight around the Limosin area was taken and we all we surprised by the breathtaking views so close to Limoges airfield, the flight ending with the crowning glory  a invitation to a hog roast  at the farm next door to Sue's home.

Sunday saw the dawn of wall to wall sunshine, so with a bounce in our step off we went to Aeroclub de Limoges.

 

We arrived expecting to have to pull the aircraft out of the hanger and refuel however the plane was fuelled and ready to go. We booked to take the clubs newly acquired PA28 Archer, so after a full pre flight check and boarding we were ready to begin  the long haul flight to the Millau Viaduct (1.7 hrs) via some of the most beautiful scenery I have had the pleasure to fly over, with high mountains and plateau’s and in total contrast deep tree lined gorges with rivers, large lakes, and magnificent château’s,(how the other half live) with comments like look at that and wow coming from the back seat.

 

We arrived at the viaduct about lunch time and orbited over the bridge for a photo shoot

 

Millau Viaduct

 

Then to the airfield of Millau which is yet another example of the way the French love their aviation because there in the middle of nowhere was a immaculately kept airfield, we landed after advising every one around our intention and as it was lunchtime this was done in French with perfection by Sue (well done) as we clambered out of N30385 we were buzzed by two military helicopters a fitting tribute to a wonderful flight.

A short walk to a nearby hotel and a superb lunch set us up for a return trip to Limoges.This time by a more westerley route.The scenery on this leg can only be described as stunning.France is such a huge country and its scenery can only truly be appreciated by air.

 

Monday was our final day and a trip to the coast for lunch was planned also taking in a few Islands including a landing at Ile d'Yeu, a small island situated about 25 miles off the NW coast.

 

Today, we had to move a couple of aircraft to enable us to get the PA28 out of the hangar and a quick pull to the pump for refuelling, then off we went on our trip towards La Rochelle, we diverted slightly to enable us to overfly the islands of Ile d' Oleron and Ile d' Re via the overhead of Fort Boyard .Next it was into La Rochelle in search of nourishment.

After passing through the airport security  we took a short taxi ride to the old  harbour where lunch was served outside ,we sat enjoying the warm spring sunshine and watched the numerous yachts in the harbour.

 

Next, the trip back  to N30385 and out over the sea to Ile d` Yeu, where after a strong 90 degree crosswind landing we arrived safely on this charming island. We paid our minimal landing fees, took a few photographs, then back to Limoges and the end of our trip..

 

We returned to the UK on Tuesday, upon arrival we found that England was as we had left it WET Nothing new there!

 

John Gough

More Wanderings of a Flying Instructor

Having headed north on our last two long distance trips, this year it was time for myself plus Bob and Lesley Hart to head south. Carcassonne in the foothills of the Pyrenees was our chosen destination.

The trip was planned for three days during the last week of May, which produced some uncharacteristic hot weather over England and eventually wall to wall sun over France as well. As it turned out the first half of the first day of the trip suffered from the aftermath of a weak frontal system that crossed the UK and northern France. This generated an almost continuous layer of stratus between 1500 ft and about 3000 ft from the south coast of England to central France. Once we’d got past this though it was sun and warmth all the way there and back.

Outbound our planned route was via Goodwood VOR, Deauville VOR, L’aigle VOR and Amboise VOR with a stop at Poitiers for fuel for both ourselves and the plane. Then a direct track from Poitiers to Carcassonne.

Day1: Our trusty PA-28 Arrow G-OMNI is duly fuelled and loaded, weather, Notams, Royal Flights, and RA(T)s all checked and we’re ready to go. As we wanted to get to Carcassonne by mid afternoon an early start was required. So engine start at 0725 local and an indemnity departure from Gloucester.                     

So, with a left turn out off runway 27 we set course  south-eastwards at 3000 ft. There was some patchy stratus around but plenty of gaps to give us views of the South Cerney lakes, and Swindon. As we approached the Goodwood area the gaps in the cloud began to close up and shortly after coasting out we climber to FL55
and cruised along in the sun above a solid layer.   

                   South Cerney Lakes

ATC that early in the day was fairly quiet. We made a brief call to London Information shortly after getting airborne to get our flight plan activated then transferred to Brize Radar and subsequently Solent. After passing Winchester we were handed off to London Information again and stayed with them to the FIR boundary. Our first encounter with French ATC involved Deauville Approach, who kept an eye on us till south of L’aigle. It was then Seine Radar, Tours Approach and finally Poitiers. Due to the lowish cloud there wasn’t a great deal of VFR traffic about so RT-wise it was fairly quiet. All the controllers spoke reasonable English and each ATC unit gave us a squawk. Crossing airspace boundaries in France is in fact a lot easier than some of the maps might suggest. 

So with a continuous cloud layer below us there wasn’t much to see other than watching the plane march across the   GPS screen and note various condensation trails above us.

                Contrail L'aigle VOR

Our track inbound to Poitiers had set us up for a straight in approach from about 20 miles but ILS traffic took priority and we ended up having to dogleg southeast to effect a base leg join. So we followed a Puma in for a landing on runway 20, slight down hill slope and a slight tail wind so we floated a bit, but plenty of runway as it is nearly 2000 metres long.

After refuelling the plane and ourselves and discovering that Graham Watson was on the airport record as being the last person to take G-OMNI to Poitiers it was time for leg 2.

It was still runway 20 for departure, which pointed us in the right direction anyway, just a small right turn to pick up track. We elected to stay below the cloud to take in the scenery so we settled at around  1600 ft. Our track took us towards Perigueux, passing west of Limoges and east of Bergerac. From there it was southeast to Gaillac VOR (some 20 miles northeast of Toulouse) and then to Carcassonne.

After passing Limoges the cloud finally dispersed to allow the sun uninterrupted access to heat things up. The heat of the day generated some strong thermals and coupled with a fairly stiff wind created quite a turbulent ride.

 

             Cahors on the River Lot                          Walled city of Carcassonne

Carcassonne was moderately busy with DGAC operated aircraft conducting flying training and both Ryanair Boeing 737s and Air France ATR 42s coming and going. Turning finals we got a good view of the old walled city where we would be staying for the night. After landing we were directed to the GA parking area, which is somewhat remote from the terminal, and surprise… we park next to a Gloucester based Cessna Citation. Four and a half hours flying so far.

 

       Pyrenees from the walled city                    Entrance to the walled city

So now we became tourists for a day. Got a taxi to the old town, checked into our hotel and then retired to a café for an afternoon snack. It was then time to stroll around the town and take in the sights. The city can trace its origins back to 118 BC but most of what we see today has it’s origins in the 11th and 12th centuries, with an extensive restoration of the buildings and fortifications beginning in 1850 and continuing to this day.

Sight seeing continued the following morning and by lunchtime we had complete the walk round the city wall and took a well earned lunch in typical French café style – outside under a cloudless sky. It was then time to hail a cab and return to the airport for the next leg of our trip.

 

G-OMNI in the GA park at Carcassonne           Ryanair B737 we held up!!

Citation behind is Gloucester-based!            

On arrival at the airport terminal we found the information desk and sorted the landing and parking fees. Upon enquiring about how to regain access to air side, the girl on the desk said ‘follow me’. She promptly parted a 737 size queue of passengers waiting to go to departures for a Ryanair flight and fed us through security into the departure lounge. We then had a short wait whilst a 737 taxied onto a stand and then we were escorted airside to the edge of the main apron and left then to our own devices to walk about 1/3 mile back to the GA park.

Our plan today was to fly from Carcasonne to Limoges via the Millau viaduct, about 1 hour 45 minutes flying. Having started and obtained taxy clearance we proceeded to the holding point, pulling over to one side, thinking we’ll leave room for the Ryanair 737 to go first if necessary (there’s only one taxiway access to the runway). The controller however, still thought that Mr. Ryanair would have trouble getting past so insisted that we went out first, much to the disgruntlement of the Ryanair crew.

Millau is about 30 minutes at Arrow speed northeast of Carcasonne. The viaduct spans a valley a couple of kilometres wide in terrain that extends up to 3000’ above sea level with the centre span standing just over 1000’ above ground. An impressive sight and worth the detour for a look. It was then northwest for an hour or so to Limoges.

                   ,   Millau Viaduct

Along the way we spoke to Toulouse and Rodez with the track taking us east of Rodez and west of Aurillac. Between Millau Viaduct Aurillac and Limoges we had good views of the Massif Central off to the east.

It was runway 03 at Limoges with a moderate crosswind, which got a little squeak from the undercarriage warner as the legs flexed sideways on landing. Air France was loading up at the terminal so we had a 20 minute wait for fuel. Once the plane was sorted it was time to retire to the café for a cold drink.

Sue Virr, one time regular at Cotswold Aero Club and now successfully teaching people to fly at Limoges (www.francoflyers.org) had agreed to accommodate us overnight, so once she had finished lessons we met up and retired to her gîte complex at Gorre, about 25 minutes drive from the airport. Here we are very much in rural France and the pace of life is noticeably slower than here in the UK and with large open spaces very little background noise if you sit outside (www.nearlyheaven.com will give you a feel for the place). A pleasant evening at a local restaurant rounded off the day.

 

              Final 03 Limoges                                       G-OMNI at Limoges

Sue was off for more instructing before us on the next morning, so her assistant Lucie ferried us back to the airport. Limoges on a Saturday was quite busy with club aircraft coming and going, Air France and Flybe on the move and a French military Puma helicopter putting in an appearance.

We decided to break our return to the UK at Cherbourg, partly because the café is good and partly because Luc, the café owner operates a wine store in the airport terminal, so a good place to stock up on some French wine at reasonable prices.

So, waving goodbye to Sue, who was doing crosswind landings with her student, we set off north north west from Limoges towards Cherbourg. We routed roughly equidistant between Poitiers andChateauroux, passing a few miles west of Tours and Le Mans before reaching Normandy. On the final 20 or so miles to Cherboug we had good views over the D-Day beaches of Omaha and Gold. Flight information was given by ATC at Limoges, Seine Nantes and Deauville on this leg.

 

            Aéroclub de Limoges                               Omaha Beach, Normandy

Cherbourg was the only airfield we visited where we ended up with an air traffic induced delay. A local flying club Robin joining right base for 10 caused ATC to instruct us to orbit on downwind. Unusual for such a quiet airfield to have 2 aircraft wanting the same patch of sky at the same time. So, after 2 hours airborne time to retire for refreshment at the Cherbourg airport café.

Whilst at Cherbourg a steady flow of British registered aircraft came and went, thus showing what Cherboug is a popular destination for British flyers. The airport is about 8 km from the town so a taxi is more or less a must if you want to get off the airfield, unless you got contacts locally.

Anyway, for us it was just a lunch stop, so refuelled it was airborne again to continue the homeward trail. Over the English channel at 3000’ the haze ahead showed where the English coast was. Our route took us along the recommended VFR crossing from Cherbourg NDB to St. Catherine’s Point on the Isle of Wight and then overhead Southampton. London Information wasn’t too busy for a sunny Saturday and Southampton let us through their overhead without any quibble. Routing past Winchester we turned more northwest and followed the usual path that takes us through the gap between Lyneham and Brize. Gliding from Rivar Hill and Sandhill with parachuting at Redlands make us keep a very good lookout. As usual, the sky was busy but nothing seen. So, 1½ hours after departing Cherbourg we join right base for 09 at Gloucester and conclude our long distance jaunt for 2009.

 

             Crossing the Solent                              Right Base 09 Gloucester

Three days, 9 hrs 40 mins flying, brilliant weather, cheap landings, French hospitality and new territory for us to see. The only downside is French AVGAS prices, about 10p a litre more than the UK.

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

 

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

 

Full-sized image here

 

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Full-sized image here

A Trip to Toulouse

It was a beautiful winter’s morning at Limoges, the sun was shining, not a cloud in the sky and the ground was white with frost following a very cold night. It was still -2°c.

Today, I was flying with Sue to a small airport just outside of Toulouse where, in her role of Examiner, she was booked to conduct a PPL 'Skill Test' for Derek Davies.

Kate and Elroy, who did their PPL training with Sue in 2008, live in Toulouse and had arranged to meet us at the airport with their kids.

I pulled F-GZYA, our aircraft for the day, out of the hanger and started to prepare it while Sue checked the weather and NOTAMS. We sorted out the paperwork, did a final walk around the aircraft and then we were off.

As it was cold, the aircraft bombed off the runway and climbed rapidly to our cruising altitude of around 5000ft.

It was a beautiful sight, flying over the white frost-covered countryside. illuminated by the low winter sun which was still rising as we proceeded to the first waypoint of our journey. This was the small aerodrome at Sarlat (LFDS), which came up after just 30 minutes.

Now flying over the valleys and rivers of the Dordogne with the Massif Centralin sight, we set course to our second waypoint, Agen VOR, which is just outside of Toulouse. Time soon flew by and, nearing Agen, we contacted Toulouse Approach who then guided us into our destination of Muret (LFBR).

This was an interesting experience for me as it was the first time I had followed instructions from ATC telling me when to climb, descend and turn, which is very much the way that commercial pilots operate.

During this last leg of the journey, we had the pleasure of seeing the snow-capped Pyrenees Mountains.

After just 90 minutes, we touched down at Muret to a rather welcoming 12°c. Derek was already waiting for us as we taxied to the apron.

After taking off our woolly fleeces, gloves, scarves, etc, and completing all of the paperwork, Sue went off for the ‘pre-test briefing’ while I fuelled the aircraft. Kate, Elroy and the kids soon arrived with a delicious picnic for us.

After Sue had completed the briefing and I had shown Derek around the unfamiliar aircraft, it was time for lunch.

Kate and Elroy had brought a feast of things including New Zealand egg and bacon pie with, best of all, homemade cookies.  It was delicious and set us up for an active afternoon. Much as Sue would have liked to stay and sit in the beautiful warm sunshine, there was a 'Skill Test' to be done.

However, my friend (who had come with us) and I kept ourselves busy as Kate, Elroy and the Kids had brought numerous things to keep us entertained, including remote controlled cars. The airport was also incredibly busy with many small aircraft touching down one after the other.

Time soon passed and Sue returned with Derek, who, I am pleased to say, had passed his test.

Finally, Sue debriefed Derek while I filled the aircraft and we then said goodbye to Kate, Elroy and the kids before setting-off on our return journey to Limoges.

Once again, we put our lives into the hands of the ATC controllers who guided us out of Toulouse. We had one last look at the Pyrenees and started our climb to 5000ft as we came out of the Toulouse area

We returned to Limoges via Agen VOR and Sarlat, touching down at 18:00 with, unbelievably, precisely the same fight time.

We then completed the paperwork and popped YA back into the hanger after another perfect day of flying in France.

A Flying Adventure in Europe

by Lyall Smith, Gordon MacKenzie and Neil Houghton

Last June we embarked a flying holiday adventure with two other pilots, but instead of departing from Dundee in Scotland, we elected to fly commercially from Edinburgh to Limoges, capital of the Limousin Region in France where we would collect our rental aircraft, a modern well-equipped Diamond Star DA40 four seater aircraft known as Fox Victor Echo.

This was no ordinary leather-clad light aircraft, our rental was kitted out with the very latest in avionics technology.

Sipping 18 litres of Jet A1 fuel an hour (approximately £12), our 4 cylinder, diesel-engined aircraft could cruise along at 140 mph and fly for 750 miles on one tank of fuel.

Fortunately, there are no speed cameras at 5,000 feet but navigating our way around Europe for 7 days avoiding numerous missile protected Nuclear Power Stations and Low Level Military Airspace demanded our highest levels of concentration to ensure we didn’t stray into highly restricted airspace, which would result in much more than a fixed penalty fine from the local Gendarmerie!

With lightning strikes and thunderstorms to the south, our first day took us initially to the north west of Limoges. In glorious weather, a very pleasant 30 degrees, blue skies and puffy white clouds we departed from Limoges to Quiberon, a very beautiful seaside resort situated on a west coast peninsula. En- route we landed at La Rochelle, La Baule and St Nazaire Airports.

Smitten by the spectacular Atlantic coastline, day two of our adventure would take us to a remote island, the most north westerly point of European France, Ouessant. The island’s buildings have an uncanny resemblance to properties found on Orkney and Shetland.

Reluctantly, we departed the next morning from the tranquil island of Ouessant and headed east to Deauville for fuel. At Deauville, we had a chance meeting with the Captain of a Citation Jet, a friend and former flying instructor from Dundee, it’s a small world. Our afternoon flight to Le Touquet was followed by an evening of flight planning for the next day which would involve crossing two international boundaries and numerous air traffic control zones.

We knew this next flight would be a much more demanding test, navigating our way through complex French, Dutch and German Airspace.

With a modest tailwind, our groundspeed peaked 160 mph and whilst navigating our way around Schiphol International we were cleared ‘not below 5,000 feet’ and few minutes later, we were instructed to ‘fly not above 1,250 feet for 5 miles’ before being allowed back up to 3,000 feet. The controllers were basically separating our four-seater from numerous 747 Jumbos and Airbus 340 Jets which were either flying instrument approaches to land or taking off from Schiphol Airport.

We landed at Holland’s Lelystad Airport for lunch. Once fed and watered, our afternoon flight crossed the Dutch border with Germany and we navigated our way to Wilhelmshaven, which is situated in Northern Germany, 75 miles west of Hamburg. We even managed to get to our hotel bar in time to watch the Germany vs. Turkey Euro 2008 Football Match, with the Germans!

Fully rested and adhering strictly to the rule ‘8 hours between bottle and throttle’, the next two days would see us fly our Diamond Star DA40 almost 600 miles from Northern Germany to attend Jersey’s 2008 International Air Rally.

Entering Jersey’s busy airspace and being afforded Special Clearance to land at an International Airport is a very interesting experience for any private pilot. With a northerly crosswind and a dozen Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 aircraft at different stages of landing and taking off, the private pilots need to use all of their training and experience to impress the professional airline pilots and air traffic controllers. If you can manage Jersey’s airspace, crosswind and approach on a busy Friday afternoon in June, you’re doing well!

Apparently, the secret at Jersey is to land long and avoid any wind sheer.

Each year, Jersey’s Annual International Air Rally attracts hundreds of aircraft and pilots from all over Europe and one of the highlights is a formal dinner attended by the Island’s Lieutenant Governor.

We were presented with The Tom Clarke Trophy by His Excellency, Lieutenant General Andrew Ridgway. This trophy was presented to the crew of Fox Victor Echo, in recognition of the distance travelled by our aircraft, prior to attending Jersey’s 2008 International Air Rally.

Our last day of flying involved another 350 mile hop from Jersey to Limoges, where we reluctantly handed back the keys of our Diamond Star DA40 aircraft before catching our commercial flight to Edinburgh.

France, Holland, Germany and Jersey – 2,500 miles at 2,500 feet is a pretty special adventure, one of the best flying holidays I’ve experienced.

Many thanks to Sue Virr and the Aéroclub de Limoges

A bad case of the winter blues...

I had a bad case of the winter blues...I’d been stuck inside with the best that winter brings.  It didn't help talking to mates back in NZ who were catching huge fish and having the hottest summer ever!

Having completed my PPL with Sue 4 months ago, I was keen to get in some flying hours and increase my confidence by flying into other areas.  I also wanted to practice crosswind landings while I had Sue with me to get me out of trouble—if it came to that.

With the weather not really playing ball ... we managed to find a few days where the weather looked flyable and Sue was available!  So, I took the opportunity to cure my winter blues and went to Limoges, for 3 days of flying.

First flight was to La Rochelle, and back

I got to Limoges just after lunch so we thought that an easy flight to La Rochelle would be a good way to get back into it and regain some of the knowledge I felt I had lost.  It was great to get into the plane and I gradually being to feel confident again.  Radio calls felt unfamiliar and I had trouble, remembering all the checks, oh and how do I land again?  It was reassuring having Sue sitting next to me, it gave me the confidence to just do it and I realised I had not forgotten as much as I thought.

Day 2 was to Aurillac, flying over the Massive Central,  with snow everywhere

This turned out to be a perfect flying day!   No Clouds—you could see from horizon to horizon.  This was not what the forecasters had predicted but we certainly weren’t complaining.  So we flew to Aurillac for a cup of coffee at the cafe near the airport.  They refused to take money that day for landing fees, (I think the paperwork for a 5 euro landing fee was just too hard for them that day).

After coffee, we left for a flight over the Massive Central mountains. It was great looking at all the skiers from above—normally I'm looking up wondering what its like!  We found a small airfield covered in snow and had a bit of fun practicing my landings there.  It was a thrill to abort the landing at the last minute!  Next, a few crosswind landings at a small strip just below the mountains, then off home, back to Limoges.

3rd day was to l'ile d'Yeu, an Island on the west coast of France

For my last day we headed out to an island on the west coast of France. l'ile d'Yeu.  It has a Population of 5000 bursting to 30000 over summer.  It's a fishing village and by the sounds of things, seems to be popular with many Pilots.

With the controller out to lunch, or perhaps closed for the winter, we had the place to ourselves.  A friendly local (who I am sure was an ex formula one driver) offered us a ride into town, dropping us off at the best restaurant on the island.

It was a great place to visit, If only for lunch but it was time to get back up in the sky and head back to Limoges.

With a few more practice crosswind landings, we were home all to soon.

It was great to be up in the sky... getting from A to B is so much faster than a car, having the freedom to go over there just for a look at the castle, or see what’s on the other side of the mountains.

It was great revision for me. It turned out to be one of those clear weather gaps in the middle of winter that was perfect for flying.  I'm pretty sure it has cured my winter blues for now, although I think I may need to visit again soon!

Ryanair—New Routes to Limoges

Ryanair Airlines and Limoges International Airport have announced four new routes to Limoges, as follows:

Limoges/Edinburgh

from 30^th March, twice a week on Fridays and Mondays

Edinburgh 2:20 pm / Limoges 5:40 pm

Limoges 6:05 pm / Edinburgh 7:25 pm

Limoges/Bournemouth

from 2^nd April, twice a week on Thursdays and Saturdays

Bournemouth 6:30 am / Limoges 8:50 am

Limoges 9:15 am / Bournemouth 9:30 am

Limoges/London Luton

from 3^rd May, three flights a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays

Luton 7:30 am / Limoges 10 am

Limoges 10:25 am / Luton 10:55 am

Limoges/Bristol

from 2^nd July, three flights a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays

Bristol 4:35 pm / Limoges 7:05 pm

Limoges 7:30 pm / Bristol 8 pm

NB All times local

For more information: www.ryanair.com

Mountain flying in France

Mountain flying is arguably one of the most rewarding aspects of flying a small aircraft.  It offers an unrivalled opportunity to view some of the world’s most wonderful scenery.

The French and Swiss Alps, offer a virtually unlimited choice of scenery, depending on what grabs your fancy: glaciers, lakes, peaks and passes.  Also, for avid hikers and mountain bikers, it is also fun to look at favourite routes and to plan new ones.  Mountain flying also gives the opportunity to cover distances and reach parts that would be unthinkable with other forms of transport.

Recently I undertook a flight around Mont Blanc, together with a friend who is an experienced mountain pilot.  We left Alsace on a clear, still day in the early morning and crossed Switzerland to reach the Mont Blanc Massif from the north.  Conditions were perfect so we were able to cross the saddle between Aiguille du Midi and Mont Blanc, and then head around the Italian side of the Massif.  We completed the circuit by flying back along the Chamonix valley.  For lunch, we flew further south and stopped at Barcolennette, a small field nestled in a deep part of Vallée de l’Ubaye.  Given its position, Barcolennette is very popular for gliding, and in summer is visited by glider pilots from all over France.  We found the staff and visitors very friendly, and they could not do enough to make us feel at home. 

 

As much as mountain flying is one of the most exciting forms of flying, it is also, of course, one of the most dangerous.  It is emphatically not for inexperienced pilots or, for that matter, even for experienced flat-land pilots who do not have mountain flying experience.

To pass the PPL exams, one need to know all about meteorology, flight performance limits, pressure altitude, rates of climb, flying “hot and high”, and so on.  It is fair to say that, while these disciplines are important at any time when flying for pleasure, it is only when you start mountain flying that one fully realises their absolute importance and relevance.  As an example, one sadly all too often reads of aircraft accidents that occurred because the valley floor was so steep that it outclimbed the aircraft, not a problem that one experiences at airports like Limoges.  Barcelonette is a good example when both landing and departing requires excellent flying skills and solid experience.

So how does one get that experience to commence mountain flying?  Firstly, if you have mountain experience, you would have an appreciation of the nature of mountain terrain and the fickle nature of mountain weather.  I went back to my PPL theory books and restudied all the material with mountain conditions in mind.  For instance, when it is 25 degrees in the Engadine Valley (apparently the highest airport in Europe) rather than the Standard Atmospheric conditions, what does that really mean when taking off, and then when flying up a nearby valley?

In addition to books dedicated to mountain flying, there is a range of excellent online material on the web, which gives good theoretical training on mountain flying.  Some of the better material I found was from sites in New Zealand and the USA, which give a good theoretical grounding on mountain flying. 

 

Of course, the most important component is practical training with a mountain flying expert, and flying with friends who have solid mountain flying experience.  While I qualified in France, I am fortunate to be doing my mountain flying training in Switzerland, from an airport in the Alps.  Nothing quite like doing the downwind leg with a cliff towering a thousand feet above you.

Training for mountain flying is fun; it consolidates one’s basic knowledge and teaches new skills.  Armed with those new skills, it opens a whole new realm of flying in France and Switzerland.

NB Click on pictures of Mont Blanc for larger images

A Trip to Millau

Needing to build-up hours and experience for my PPL test, what could be better than a trip to the Millau Viaduct and back, with a stop for lunch (and crème caramel!) at the local hotel/restaurant.

It was a fantastic opportunity to practice navigation and planning, plus it was exciting to get a taste of what it will be like once we have our licences; day trips to places of interest with an incredible choice of destinations, and without the long car rides!

Our original plan was to take a second plane, piloted by Matt (the 17 year-old who had just got his PPL), however, sadly his plane was unavailable on the day, and, while we talked about postponing, the conditions were perfect.

With winter closing in, it was possibly the last opportunity this year for this trip, and so, decision made, Elroy and I headed out with Sue for the 280nm round trip.

To maximise the experience, I flew down, and Elroy (who had completed his licence with Sue a few weeks earlier) flew back.

This meant we both took a turn at being pilot under Sue's expert guidance, and also passenger where we could just relax and enjoy the scenery.

Having driven from Toulouse to Limoges several times in the last few months, we thought we had a good feel for this part of the countryside.

However, seeing France from a small plane gives you a perspective unlike any other!

As a private pilot, you are close enough to see detail in the landscape—like gorgeous castles on a lake or a manor house on the top of the hill—yet high enough get a sense of the countryside as a whole.

The viaduct itself appeared suddenly as we came over the Massif Centrale.

The tallest vehicular bridge in the world, it is an enormous structure, dwarfing everything around it.

A week later, we drove over it and it was amazing to see the scale of it from the ground having seen it from the air not long before.

Our next trip will be to Isle d’Yeu for lunch after which we are hoping to sample some traditional French fare in the Dordogne, overlooking some of the most amazing countryside around…

After that? Who knows—maybe Paris for afternoon tea?

    

 

More wanderings of a flying instructor

The Wanderings of a Flying Instructor

Now and again the odd long distance trip crops up. This year a plot was put in place to take myself plus Bob and Lesley Hart to the most northerly airport in the UK, namely Unst in the Shetland Island group.

The trip was planned for three days during the last week of August, which you might expect would produce so reasonable summer weather. However, southern England was covered in a warm moist southerly flow which generated a lot of low cloud and there were a couple of fronts straddled across Scotland and the Shetland Islands. So route planning could not be set in stone.

In the end the first leg was set to be Gloucester via overhead Halfpenny Green to Trent VOR, then overhead Leeds to St Abbs VOR and on to Wick for a fuel stop. From Wick we planned direct to Lerwick which was to be our first night stop.

Day1: Our trusty PA-28 Arrow G-OMNI is duly fuelled and loaded, weather, Notams, Royal Flights, and RA(T)s all checked and we’re ready to go. As mentioned already the west coast route was really a no go option unless a lot of IFR was to be had and as one of the aims of the trip was to watch the scenery go by the eastern route was chosen as it appeared to offer less cloud.

So, with a left turn out off runway 27 we set course northwards at 1600 ft. The usual local land marks of Tewkesbury, Worcester and Kidderminster passed underneath and with a quick call to Halfpenny Green we turned overhead towards the Trent VOR. To our surprise the cloud kept its distance and we were able to view the Derbyshire Dales passing below as we passed Trent. Continuing north we passed Chatsworth House and eased our way down the west side of the new Doncaster airspace before calling Leeds for zone transit.

With the low cloud drifting off the Dales and Pennines to the north we were concerned that we did not encounter the large mast extending to 2000 ft amsl about 10 miles south of Leeds, so we flew a deliberate offset until sighting the mast and then regained track. Cloud was now increasing but we were able to stay VMC below till passing Harrogate, then a climb to 3000 ft put us above a broken layer of stratus, so viewing of the scenery was still possible.

Approaching the Vale of York the cloud broke up and left us with a vista of rolling countryside to the east which ended at the North Sea coast and cloud covered Pennines to the west. This continued as we passed Middlesbrough and Newcastle, to whom we chatted in turn and then passing to the east of the Spadeadam Ranges we approached St. Abbs Head on the Northumberland coast.

Crossing the Firth of Forth revealed Bass Rock and the Isle of May, both local bird sanctuaries. Fife was shrouded in cloud but we were able to view the golf courses at St. Andrews and see along the Tay estuary to Dundee. RAF Leuchars provided the ATC service for this area.

Scottish hills now on the horizon required that we climb to avoid them, so up to FL 65 we go. Due to the westerly wind some strong mountain wave was encountered and in the vicinity of Aviemore we encounter a particularly strong down draught that had us at full power, 85 mph and still going down at 500 ft per minute. Luckily it didn’t last for too long and we suddenly found the situation reversed and the aircraft was flying at 170 mph and still climbing. Who needs a roller coaster?

Eventually we left the high ground and crossed the Moray Firth under the watchful eye of RAF Lossiemouth. Dropping below the cloud again revealed a watery sunlight silhouetting the high ground to the north of Inverness before the hills gave way to the coastal area that leads to Wick.

So 3½ hours after departing Gloucester we landed on runway 31 at Wick. Time to refuel both plan and crew and to phone Lerwick for PPR. A bit of a hitch developed when the bowser ran out of fuel and had to be replenished. This caused us some concern as were getting short of time to reach Lerwick before the airfield closed. However all was well in the end and we left Wick with about half an hour to spare on our ETA at Lerwick.

From Wick we fly north-north east, past the end of mainland UK, namely John O’Groats and pass east of the Orkney Islands and across about 50 nms of North Sea before Shetland hove into view. Lerwick is about 20 nms north of the southern tip of Shetland and has a single runway airport of just under 800 m length. It, like many island airports in this part of the world is run almost as a one man band. The chap running AFIS was also airport fireman, baggage handler and manager.

High ground and wind farms surround the airfield so it is very much a VFR arrival. Upon first sigh the terrain looks quite barren and the distinguishing feature of this part of the world is – no trees! We’re told they can’t stand up to the strong winds.

So, landed (talking of strong winds 270º/20kt, runway 20 – so that was interesting!), parked unloaded and just caught the last bus into town. Spent a nervous half hour at Lerwick bus station trying to book accommodation for the night. Didn’t fancy the beach as it was a bit cool. Anyway, succeeded eventually and strolled around some of the town whilst looking for the hotel. A pleasant evening of sampling local produce (food and local alcoholic beverages) plus a bit of sight seeing was enjoyed. We noted that a Viking Long ship was in the harbour -  didn’t discover why though.

                Views of Lerwick

Day 2: The day dawned bright but overcast. Having taken a leisurely breakfast we arrived at the airport for 10am. By now a few light showers had developed but the visibility continued to hold up.

We hoped to visit Unst, but discovered the phone number in the flight guide was no longer used, so with help from the airport duty manager we eventually made contact and obtained permission for the landing. The local inter-island air service pilot was very helpful and obtained weather and Notam information for us.

Runway 20 again, this time wind down the runway at 10kt, so a straight forward take-off. We continued southwards to ensure we missed the high ground and wind farm to the southeast of the airfield and then made a left turn out to over fly Lerwick and proceed up the east coast of Shetland. A few helicopters were coming and going from Scatsta as we flew past and we could see the flare stacks of the Sollum Voe oil terminal in the distance.

Our track took us between the islands of Yell and Fetlar with Unst appearing ahead. We were able to join right base for runway 30 in the midst of a shower, which dissipated by the time we touched down. The word remote best describes the scenery. Small groups of house scattered across the hillsides and alongside the various inlets, very few vehicles about and not many people.

The airport had a single 790 metre runway and was not manned. It is mainly used for emergency flights these days. In fact the hangar is used by the local council to store vehicles and what was the terminal
(a large portacabin) is now a small print works run by two of the local inhabitants. In fact they were very hospitable and we ended up sharing coffee with tem in the print shop with magazines being produced around us.

Our next stop was to be Kirkwall. We knew the weather was close to IFR minima south of Shetland so there was a fair chance of an IFR arrival. But we decided to worry about that when we got there. The first priority now was sight seeing.

Took off on runway 12 (the wind had  changed) and headed further north. In  fact to 60º 52’N 000º 45’W, the  location of Muckle Flugga light  house, the most northerly building in  the UK. Along the way we flew past  RAF Saxa Vord, a mothballed radar  station perched on the cliff tops of the  north end of Unst. It is a relic of the  Cold War but some of the locals  believe that the RAF are considering reopening it now that Russian snooping flights have started again.

Left: Muckle Flugga Lighthouse

Now it was time to fly south again. We cruised down the west side of Yell and Shetland and could see that the weather was steadily getting worse. So when abeam Lerwick and down to 800 ft to stay VMC the decision was taken to continue IFR and a suitable clearance from Sumburgh was obtained. We climbed to 3,000 ft  and routed direct to Kirkwall for and arc approach to the ILS for runway 27.

The ATIS had suggested cloud at 400 ft but in the end we broke cloud at about 800 ft and a fairly slow approach with the 20kt wind that was blowing. Interestingly, having been parked under the supervision of a marshaller the moment the engine stopped he disappeared and we were left to our own devices to wander airside as we needed. A bit unusual at an airport with commercial air transport operations going on.

After our experience in Lerwick we had already sorted accommodation for the night before leaving Lerwick earlier in the day. So it was just a case of secure the aircraft, hire a car, garb some lunch and then become tourists for the afternoon. It was windy, grey and there was drizzle in the air most of the afternoon but we had a good roam around mainland Orkney including viewing various historic sights
including Scara Brae (an Iron Age village), standing stone circles and some of the villages.

Left: G-OMNI at Kirkwall, Below: Skara Brae

         

Our accommodation was in Kirkwall, the main town, dominated by a large church sat on rising ground in the centre of the town. Thursday night must have been eating out night as everywhere was very busy.

Day 3: It was raining quite hard when we first looked out. However by mid morning it had stopped, the cloud base had risen at it turned into a fine day. Spent the morning continuing our island tour, this time taking in the southern part of Mainland Orkney and South Ronald say. This took us round the edge of Scope Flow, a major naval anchorage of both world wars. Several sunken ships can still be seen in places which were deliberately used as barriers in World War II.

Time to think about heading home. The aim was to go VFR as much as possible so we planned to route down the east side of Scotland taking in the sights of the Moray Firth and the Cairngorm Mountains before having a pit stop and crew change at Glenrothes. The leg between Glenrothes and Gloucester would be decided later.

      Below: The Old Man of Hoy                    Airport formalities complete – including
topping up with probably the most
expensive AVGAS in the UK
(£1.73 + VAT per litre) we departed off
the 680 metre runway 15 with a left turn
out to make an anticlockwise circuit of
the Orkney Island group so we could
indulge in so more sight seeing.
Shapinsay to our left and Stronsay off
our right-hand side were followed by Eday
and Rousay. Then it was down the west
side of Mainland Orkney, crossing to Hoy
with a splendid view of the rock stack
known as ‘The Old Man of Hoy’.

We left Orkney behind us and crossed the Pentland Firth to coast in over Dunnet Head with Thurso and Dounray off to our right. Continuing south we worked Wick Approach until passing Lybster where we made contact with RAF Lossiemouth. They kept an eye on us as we crossed the Moray Firth, over flew Kinloss and continued on over the Cairngorms. About 20 nms out from Lossiemouth we changed to Scottish Information with whom we stayed until nearing Dundee.

Crossing the Cairngorms VFR requires a cloud base of 4,000 ft or better. We were lucky this day as the cloud base was in our favour, so good views were had in all directions. We crossed the higher ground in the vicinity of Ballater, then it was downhill towards Glenrothes. We passed to the northwest of Dundee and worked both Dundee and Leuchars before arriving at Glenrothes.

  The runway was cloaked by cloud shadow so it was a bit of a late sighting and a dirty dive from right base to get set up. All a bit rushed, really, which led to a slight bounce on landing. Glenrothes is a small but busy airfield with a very good restaurant. Anyway it was coffee and buns for the crew and fuel for the plane (at a more sensible £1.43 + VAT per litre). Also decision time – do we route east or west coast?

The west coast won, so it was to be Glenrothes – Talla – Dean Cross – Wallasey - Gloucester. The first ATC challenge after take-off was to obtain clearance through the Edinburgh Control Zone. There’s only about 6 miles to achieve this without holding or dog legging so it gets a bit busy on the radio. In the event our clearance was granted promptly and required us to route via the Forth Bridges and overhead Edinburgh Airport. We had our clearance amended slightly as we passed the bridges, ‘route behind the Ryanair Boeing 737 on final for 24’. As it transpired the 737 had just about touched down by the time our paths crossed so we didn’t need to deviate much from track.

Having cleared the Edinburgh airspace to the south we transferred to Scottish Information who eventually monitored our progress until we passed Barrow in Furness. Approaching Talla the cloud was increasing so we elected to climb above and ended up at FL40 above a solid layer. We stayed at that height until we’d passed the Lake District then decided to descend again to watch the world go by.

The ground, and sea, became visible again just north of Blackpool, to whom we were now talking and we continued along the coast with Southport and Woodvale off to our left.

Wallasey is inside the Liverpool Control Zone. Unusually our request for zone transit was approved so we were able to cross the Mersey with views of Liverpool off to our left and over fly Birkenhead where the VOR is situated. On leaving the Liverpool Zone to the south it is only a short distance to Hawarden, the British Aerospace airfield at Chester. So we needed to be fairly snappy with frequency changes as our track took us directly overhead.

After Hawarden our track took us through the Shawbury MATZ, closed at the time of day we went though, so just a courtesy call to Sleap to tell them we were over flying and then after passing the Wrekin, a 1300 ft hill near Telford, we could monitor Gloucester’s frequency. Picked up Pete Dunkley flying with Jamie Towns -  so that proved the instructing plan was still working.

From Telford we fly southeast passing the Clee Hills, routing west of Worcester and over Malvern before arriving at Gloucester.

So 3 days, 10 hours flying and new territory for all and he weather turned out better than expected. The only disadvantage is that you can’t get duty free if you cross the Scottish border from England!

A Norwegian Sojourn

Flying instructors have a varied life, mostly spent in the local flying area or in the circuit. Occasionally the opportunity to go a bit further a field crops up; this is the story of one such trip.

I am stood in a large warehouse containing a fledgling package sorting system in the industrial suburbs of Oslo. Around me are groups of Italians, Germans, Norwegians and Brits holding conversations, mostly in English. The gist of the discussion relates to various teething and commissioning problems of the plant. This looks, I muse, like another example of multi national co-operation getting frayed at the edges. Why am I here?

Well, Geof Hunt former owner of G-OMNI happens to be MD of Excel Automation, a company that manufactures industrial conveyer systems. His company in collaboration with their Italian counterparts had a contract to install a large package sorting/picking system for Linjegods of Oslo. As the project neared completion various teething and commissioning hiccoughs had crept in (as they do) and Geof had a requirement to visit the site taking along some components for installation.

An ideal reason for a cross channel (or should I say cross North Sea) jaunt.

So the plot was set for the last week of June and for me to accompanying Geof to cover for any IFR interludes. So that’s how I come to be standing in a warehouse in Oslo. Now on to the interesting bit—the flying.

As with any Navex the first step is preparation. So we looked at route options and eventually settled for a mix of land and water taking in Belgium, Holland and Denmark rather than flying direct over the North Sea. Having checked out tracks and distances, speeds, times etc, we decided that the Arrow could do the trip in two hops, thus giving us the basic route of Gloucester to Gronnigen, Holland and Gronnigen to Oslo. We did decide that Aalborg is north Denmark would be a reserve fuel stop in case of strong headwinds on the Gronnigen-Oslo leg.

Next, out came the maps, Botlangs and Aerads and the detailed planning was completed. A fax from AIS with the latest Notams, customs formalities completed, weather info obtained on the day and we are ready to go.

0830 Monday—It’s a bright and breezy day, scattered CU at about 3000' and a useful southwestly wind that will give us a good 20kt helping hand. We load the Arrow with our kit and a batch of steel conveyor rollers, refuel and by 0900 we are ready to go.

Took off on runway 27, turned left after noise abatement and set course for Bovingdon. Having settled at 3000' called Brize to obtain the usual RIS and settled back to calculate ETA's and check off the waypoints. Visibility is a good 40km so a good day to see the sights. Brize slides by off the right wingtip, then Blenheim Palace passes by on the left. Abeam Aylesbury Brize ask us the free call Luton, which we do—amazingly quiet on the radio this morning.

Some 25 minutes after take-off we over fly Bovingdon and continue on towards Lambourne. Familiar North London sights include disused Leavesden and Elstree on the right, Hatfield (ah De Havilland!) and Radlett (Handley Page) on the left. The M25 is again a car park, the jam must have been at least 7 or 8 miles long.

Crossing the Lea Valley we change frequency to Stapleford to inform them of our presence as we overfly. The visibility today allows a good view of London, prominent features include Canary Wharf, the Millennium Dome and City airport. The Thames is reasonably busy with shipping around Tilbury.

After Lambourne we route along the line of the Thames, working London Information, we note Southend Pier ahead—the largest in England and the old forts in the Thames estuary sometime home to pirate radio. North Foreland goes by on the right, its an hour after take-off as we leave the UK behind.

We are routing to Costa, a VOR on the Belgian-Dutch border. As we enter the Belgian FIR Ostend ATC are our next point of contact. They arrange our onward clearance into the Amsterdam FIR at Costa. At Costa we are instructed to contact Dutch Mil but can not raise them so revert to Amsterdam Information who sort us out and keep an eye on us as we proceed Northeast through Holland.

Our route takes us over Midden Zealand then around the eastern side of Rotterdam with a turn at Pampus VOR, some 8nm east of Schipol. Along the way we have views of many dykes, canals and all types of boats. Rotterdam sprawls around its harbour area with its massive oil storage and refinery area. Schipol approach was very busy with almost continuous RT chat, whilst a stream of heavy jets pass 500' above us on the approach to Schipol’s runway 28.

Just 2½ hours after take-off Gronnigen (Eelde) hove into view surrounded by heavy rainshowers. Joined circuit downwind left for 23 for an uneventful arrival. Refuelling of plane and crew completed, flight plan filed and weather checked an hour or so later we were ready for leg 2.

As we fly up through Holland the weather deteriorates with numerous heavy showers developing. However the cloud base holds up. We know a cold front straddles northern Denmark. Will we beat it to Oslo?

Departed Gronnigen's runway 23 with a Helgoland departure—requires a left turn to route over the VOR before setting off North East to cross the North Sea. We cross into German airspace some 10 minutes after leaving Gronningen and make contact with Bremen Information. The track takes us past Emden and then over the Friesian Islands before land finally slips behind. The plan was to route Helgoland–Sylt before routing up central Denmark. However the friendly German ATC offer us direct Torp (VOR on the Norwegian coast) from our present position (25nm SW of Helgoland) We say yes—even though it will probably only save us about 10nm.

So we fly on, crossing the Danish coast at Vesta then passing Stauning, Billund and Aalborg before coasting out again, this time to cross the sea between Denmark and Norway. The scenery is reminiscent of northern France but flatter, sparsely populated with some large lakes in the north of Denmark. ATC is very efficient, continuous radar cover since take-off, one squawk for the entire leg and good, but sometimes heavily accented, English spoken.

The weather started off showery, became clear with scattered cumulus over Denmark, but by the time Norway was about 100nm ahead continuous rain set in as we approached the cold front. On hand over to Oslo we became IFR—and remained so until about 10nm from touchdown. After some re-routing around Torp we were cleared for a SORPIE 2F arrival for runway 19R at Gardamoen. The SORPIE fix is a point in space about 46nm south of the airport from where ATC sequence arrivals onto final approach.

We were sequenced along with various 'heavies' for the ILS, but did not need it in the end as the cloud lifted as we were turned onto base leg. I am not sure what was ahead of us on the approach, but a Boeing 737 landed behind us. We were lucky, the cold front arrived with a vengeance about half an hour after we landed. We were soaked by the time the aircraft was unloaded. I think at least 1½ inches of rain fell in the couple of hours it took the front to pass.

So here I am—stood in a Norwegian warehouse observing a major international decision being made—will this conveyor system commission on time or not?.

Que sera, sera…………..

Limoges (LFBL) Local Area

As Limoges (Bellgarde) is an international airport within Class D airspace, it is essential for pilots to maintain positional awareness at all times.

To assist my students and other pilots with this objective, I have collected photographs of the official reporting points together with some other useful landmarks in the local area.

Limoges has a single hard runway running South-West/North-East so it is convenient to describe the area in terms of a typical familiarisation flight starting with a take-off from Runway 21.

Immediately after take-off, a sharp right-turn (in the normal circuit direction) takes us towards reporting point Whiskey-Alpha which is a large quarry (carrière) about 4 nm to the west of the airfield—it is next to the Vienne river and has a railway line running alongside it.

If inbound following the river from the west, a left turn towards the airfield at WA will position you on base leg for Runway 03 where you can, if required, make a further left turn onto the downwind leg for Runway 21.

Following the Vienne river in a westerly direction for 3 nm, we come to reporting point Whiskey at the village of Saint Victurnien which has a distinctive stone bridge spanning the river close to a weir—this reporting point is just outside of the Limoges CTR so inbound aircraft should definitely be in contact with Limoges Tower before passing it.

Actually, the Vienne river is quite handy for pilots getting to know the area as you can follow it for about 50 miles in the direction of Poitiers, with no danger of getting lost, before hitting any restricted airspace—on a good day, the Power Station chimneys at Poitiers can generally been seen from 20-30 miles away.

From WA, a right turn to the North takes us to November-Whiskey at the burnt-out village of Oradour sur Glane which is preserved as a monument to those who died when the village was destroyed by the Germans during the 2nd world war—more information on that incident at www.oradour.info 

NW is also a short distance from of the Limoges CTR boundary.

When exploring the area, it is generally a good idea to keep out of the CTR so a flight to the North-East for about 15 nm would take us to the large St Pardoux lake which is not an official reporting point but marks the North-Western corner of the CTR 'stub'—be sure to request permission if crossing the active runway within any part of the CTR.

About 6 nm to the North-East of the airfield, Echo Alpha is a distinctive interchange where the North/South motorway converges with several other roads and a railway line—EA is well within the CTR so more-easily explored if departing from Runway 03 or inbound for Runway 21 via the recommended route for that direction.

Reporting point Echo, 4.5 miles east of EA, is at the small town of Saint Priest Taurion which is situated close to the fork of a river where there is also a distinctive viaduct.

The southern reporting points are only 2 miles apart, Sierra Alpha being another Quarry on the edge of the CTR and Sierra at the village of Solignac which has a distinctive abbey at it's centre.

Other Noteable Landmarks

On our original route following the Vienne river to the West, the town and airfield of Saint Junien are about 5 miles beyond St Victurnien (Whiskey) and, a further 5 miles upriver, there is a Paper Mill whose smoke can be seen from miles away which is most helpful in conditions of poor visibility.

When leaving Limoges to the South-West, heading very slightly left from Runway 21, we can line-up on the Les Cars beacon (2480' amsl, 719' agl) which is approximately 13 nm away and takes us on a direct heading to Perigueux.

The official charts for Limoges and other French airfields can be obtained FREE from www.sia.aviation-civile.gouv.fr

NB Click on pictures for larger images

NB1 If any readers care to submit local-area information for other French airfields, we will be happy to publish it

Ibiza Air Rally 2008

A report by Graham Watson

On Thursday 5 June 2008, Richard Crosby and I took off from Gloucestershire Airport to participate in the Intrepid Aviators’ 2008 event.

The objective for this year was to fly to Ibiza and back in 10 days.

The route had been meticulously planned by Andrzej Zmyslowski and Richard Sands who had selected overnight stops with suitable accommodation nearby and lunchtime stops with alternates if the weather didn’t behave.

The first rendezvous was to be Rouen. From there the stops were to be Poitiers (lunch) Castelnaudary in France, then Reus, Castellon, Ibiza (2 nights), Barcelona (Sabadell) (2 nights) in Spain, Albi (lunch), Limoges, Angers (France) with the last night in Guernsey.

Our departure was delayed by the late return of G-OMNI (the Cotswold Aero Club’s reliable Piper Arrow) from a 50 hour check.

The weather across the channel was set fair and we had an uneventful flight, including our first conversation with a very helpful Farnborough Radar. It was great meeting up with old friends and new acquaintances. In all 15 aircraft made the rendezvous in Rouen.

We had our worst moment the next morning. G-OMNI had a terrible magneto drop at the power checks. Running lean would not cure it so sadly we returned to the apron as the others departed.

The lady in the terminal told us to try the flying clubs who might be able to help. We were pleased to find two engineers, but their English was worse than our French. However, with a combination of sound and gesture we were able to explain our problem.

Two hours later, with cleaned spark plugs and €50 lighter we were on our way.

We landed at Poitiers after most of the others had left and weren’t too happy to be told we had missed the A380 from Toulouse that had done a low fly-by.

The reward that night was an excellent evening at Castelnaudary where the Aero Club Jean Doudiès put on a superb regional speciality, cassoulet, and plenty of red wine for us. Castelnaudary is the home of the French Foreign Legion, but none of us was tempted to sign up.

The flight to Reus the next day showed us that the poor summer weather was not confined to England. Routing to the Mediterranean coast, the air was very bumpy and we did not see the tops of the Pyrenees as we crossed from France into Spanish airspace.

The VFR route around Barcelona was a challenge. The instruction from Gerona was to “monitor” Barcelona approach—they were very busy!

By the time we got to Reus, the weather had improved significantly. Excellent facilities for the €9 landing fee. The same cannot be said for the refuellers, who decided to go to lunch just after they refuelled the aircraft before us!

Castellon was a delightful, small, Spanish airfield on the coast.

On arrival, fortunately, the pilot of the parachute drop plane was able to relay messages for us in English.

The airport manager could not have been more helpful and came in especially for us the next day to arrange our flight plans—Castellon is normally Spanish speaking only.

Our departure to Ibiza was delayed due to rain. It had rained most of the previous night and we were fearful that Ibiza might not be possible.

However, our patience paid off (although 3 aircraft decided not to make the crossing) and we safely landed in Ibiza—mission accomplished!

The clearance as we neared the island was to fly not above 1000 feet above the sea and to report November point. From there the route to the airport was “blocked” by hills up to 1300 feet!

The airport manager at Castellon had advised us not to accept this routeing as it could be very turbulent. However, we are British so we accepted the challenge—it was turbulent but we were thrilled to touch down in Ibiza.

The cloud base when we left Ibiza prevented us from crossing the “mountains”, so we flew at 800 feet around the west coast. We had opted for the shorter sea crossing back to the mainland routeing via Castellon.

However, there was a military exercise at Reus so the Barcelona controllers routed us back out to sea before picking up the VFR route to Sabadell.

By now the weather was scorchio. The GA parking was full, so we had to park at the wrong side and getting to the right side necessitated a long wait and a taxi ride.

There was a convenient train into Barcelona and we all had a wonderful day sightseeing the next day—Barcelona has a lot to offer and the weather was fantastic.

We set off for Albi in good faith. However, by the time we crossed into France we realised all was not well. Aircraft ahead of us were reporting rain and low cloud covering high ground so we realised a diversion was probably in order.

Following a low route, the Toulouse controller was very concerned about our height (although at the time we were 2000 feet AGL in good VMC, but our track around Carcassonne Class D was heading for high ground), and constantly advised us of the MSA.

Eventually the lowering cloud base got the better of us and along with several others we diverted into Castelnaudary.

Albi was not to be for us, but for aircraft an hour behind us, in between the showers, the timing was perfect. The flying club had heard of our plight and opened up so that we could use their facilities and we spent the afternoon watching the rainfall radar on www.meteox.com.

Eventually we felt it was worth taking a chance and set off for Limoges.

Although in sight of the ground at all times, we probably spent an hour in rain, some of it heavy (G-OMNI got a wash) before breaking out into brilliant sunshine and infinite visibility.

Limoges could not have been more helpful. Keen to attract more GA aircraft, the Airport Managing Director had waived all landing and parking fees—UK airports please take note!

The next morning, Richard and I met Sue Virr who instructs at the local flying club.

Sue has been a member of the Cotswold Aero Club and did her CPL training in G-OMNI.

That afternoon at Guernsey, we met up with friends from previous rallies who had not been able to make it to Ibiza. The Guernsey Flying Club put on a splendid meal for us and provided transport to our hotel.

The next day we safely made it back to Gloucestershire.

For the technically minded, some statistics:

Distance covered	2077nm
hours flying	16:34h:m
longest leg	241nm, 1:58h:m, Ibiza to Sabadell
shortest leg	92nm, 0:46h:m, Reus to Castellon
average leg	172nm, 1:23h:m
average speed	124.8kt
fuel used	656 litres
most expensive fuel	€2.50/l, Ibiza
cheapest fuel	£1.01/l, Guernsey (with AOPA discount)
most expensive landing fee	€107.88, Ibiza (inc' mandatory handling)
cheapest landing fee	€0.00, Limoges

There were many highlights in a trip like this. Notable were the hospitality of airports and flying clubs along the way, particularly Castelnaudary, Castellon, Limoges and Guernsey.

The air traffic controllers were all superb (apart from Rodez who didn’t really want to talk to us), but the best had to be the female controller at Perpignan whose voice was magnifique (and very sexy).

We are grateful to Andrzej and Richard for their route selection, but a trip like this still requires planning by us. Richard and I flew alternate legs, but the non-flying “pilot” took on duties to make the flying pilot’s job a lot easier.

All aircraft safely returned to base.

Would I recommend a trip such as this! Definitely!

The Intrepid Aviators are an informal group of pilots with a common interest in flying adventure. Formed after the Around Britain Air Rally in 2004, the Intrepid Aviators have flown round Ireland (2005), France (2006) and Germany (2007). You can see and read about some of these exploits on www.intrepidaviators.com

NB Click on pictures for larger image

Nearly Heaven for a French PPL

First of all, let me introduce myself a little bit. I am Alain (about 60) from Nancy (France) and I got my PPL in July 2005. My home airfield “Lunéville-Croismare” is situated in the North East of France. Here is a photo of a winter final on runway 09.

I am used to flying about 50 hours per year and very often with my wife (Yolande) who takes place in the right seat. We love discovering France seen from the sky.

Some months ago reading a pilot magazine, I came across a small ad about “an English Flying Instructor” with the Aéro-Club de Limoges for English speaking flyers in France.

Willing to improve my English Radiotelephony and very interested to fly a Diamond, I decided to contact Sue to know if it was possible for a French PPL to stay at La Chataigneraie and to have flying lessons in English. Her enthusiastic response was “Yes, of course” so we rent out “La Porcherie” for one week mid-July.

We loved very much our stay in this very charming and relaxing country place surrounded by horses and dogs. Finally, we met face to face with Sue and we planned training flight to be able to fly solo on Robin DR400 and above all to get training on the DA40. Everything went very smoothly. Sue is a very nice instructor always trying to give you confidence. It is a real pleasure to fly with such an instructor in the right seat.

My first solo flight on the DR400, F-GYDD, with my wife, was to fly over Rochefort and La Rochelle with a full stop in Niort to meet friends. By the end of the week, I was able to discover the DA40, F-GUVE, and accompanied with my wife we decided with Sue to fly to Millau-Larzac airfield crossing over the fantastic “Viaduc de Millau”. Here is a photo taken by my wife. I have very much appreciated flying the DA40, experiencing the PA on the flight back to Limoges.

Last but not least, we had also the possibility to drink some beers with Carl Pryce and Ken Roberts, English-speaking flyers, who were staying at La Chataigneraie at the same time. It was nice and very friendly.

We were very delighted to share this week with you, Sue. Sure, you have gained two new friends. We are already making plan for the future to continue flying with you.

A 2nd Trip To England

Our two days rest were already over and Sue, Steve and I were back at the Aéroclub preparing our 2nd trip back to England. Unlike the previous time, it was a beautiful morning, the sun was shining, slightly cold, but not a cloud in the sky.

We were not taking the DA40 this time but the Robin DR400-180 F-GMKT. Steve and I prepared the plane and our route and then we were ready, so once again we were off.
Steve was in the left hand seat for the first leg of the journey to Couché Verac a 1047m grass strip North West of Limoges and we arrived there after 50 minutes and Steve performed his first landing on a grass strip.

Andrew was already there, so he put his bags in the back, and we had just enough time for a few photos in front of the Aéro-Club and then we were off again, this time with Andrew in the left hand seat. Obviously now with 4 pilots and all our baggage, nearly full fuel, the plane was a little heavy, and we were just about to take off from a grass strip, however the Robin bombed down the grass and lifted up easily with loads of the strip left.

We were now on our way to our next stopping point ‘Le Touquet’, where we planned to refuel before crossing the channel. However as we flew north the weather and the visibility kept getting worse, we spent nearly an hour above the clouds which unfortunately were getting higher so we decided that we were going to have to find a gap to descend and assess the situation then. After descending, the visibility was poor and it was raining so Sue decided that we would have to divert to Rouen and hope that the weather improved later on.

Andrew landed at Rouen, we paid the landing fees and thought it might be a good idea to go and have something to eat while waiting for the weather to clear. After lunch the weather had improved a little, it had stopped raining and visibility had improved. We checked the plane over while Sue went to get a weather update.

I was now in the left hand seat for the short sector over to Le Touquet. The flight went quite well, the cloud was low but not too low, it was still raining, visibility was not great but you could see quite well, until we got to about ten minutes south of Le Touquet and then the weather started to deteriorate rather rapidly, however now talking to Le Touquet Approach the Controller assured us that we could get in under Special VFR Condition without any problem. The weather although poor, I could still see the coast line, I turned inland to find the runway, which was flooded, there was a sigh of relief as we touched down, Steve and Andrew assured us that they were not worried at all, it was amusing watching the two pilots in the front being stressed and working hard to get the plane on the ground while they sat back and did nothing.

Just after we landed the clouds really came down and heavy fog and rain came with it, we dashed inside to have a look and the weather, it was not looking good, there was now no way we were going to be able to get out that day, we were all very surprised, we had carefully studied various weather forecasts before leaving and they all said it was going to be a beautiful day all over France with no rain anywhere. Anyway Sue booked us all a room at a hotel in the centre of Le Touquet and called a Taxi to come and pick us up.

The hotel was pleasant and we all decided to meet up in two hours and have something to eat. I think most of us slept for the two hours except Andrew who was more adventurous and went for a walk around the town. Two hours later Sue, Andrew and myself found ourselves in the hotel bar waiting for Steve who had overslept but after a call from Andrew was soon awake and down in the bar. We had a very nice meal in the town and then went back to the hotel for a much needed good night’s sleep.

The following day the weather looked worse, however we all met at 8 o’clock for a traditional French breakfast followed by a quick walk around the local market, we then called for a taxi to get us back to the airport. We spent most of the morning on the computer looking at the weather with everyone trying to find just one website with some hope. After all our research there looked like there was going to be a gap across the channel at about 4 o’clock. Lunch time came so we popped into the restaurant next door to the airport for a bite to eat. 3 o’ clock came and the weather was not looking ANY better, and we all thought that there was no way it was going to clear up in just 1 hour. There was now us and 5 other aircraft waiting for this ‘Gap’. 3 of the other aircraft happened to be old war time planes including a Spitfire on their way to the ‘Duxford Air show’. The Spitfire, which our Robin was parked next to was absolutely beautiful, it looked almost new and Sue spoke to the pilot who then let me sit in the cockpit, it was so small and cramped however the actual plane compared to the Robin was really quite big, it was fantastic.

4 o’clock was now here and the fog just disappeared in a matter of minutes and the clouds started to lift, after having had a cloud base of about 200ft for a day, and there were now patches of blue sky. There was a sudden rush of activity at the airport, everyone rushing around packing and checking their planes, and the first one was off, and we were now back in our Robin, Steve was back in the left hand seat and we took off, there was still a lot of cloud but it was much higher, we flew about 5 minutes away from Le Touquet and there was no more cloud just sun and blue sky. We were soon across the channel and on our way to Stapelford. The weather was not as nice in England as it was across the channel but we could certainly fly in it. We soon landed at Stapelford on a half tarmac half grass runway, this was the end of the flight for Steve and I. After dropping us off and a cup of coffee, Sue and Andrew were back up in the air heading to Nottingham where Sue was going to drop off Andrew and then fly to her home airfield of Gloucester. We could now all have a couple of days rest before returning to France, however the Robin was not so lucky as Les King was picking it up to fly it back to Le Touquet the very next day.

My four days whizzed pass and I found myself back at Stapelford very early on a beautiful sunny Sunday morning where Les King was going to fly the plane back to Gloucester.
It was my first time in the right hand seat of an aircraft and after checking the plane and a quick briefing from Les we were off. It was a really great flight, shortly after take off we could see the city of London a truly amazing sight. It was a really good flight and Les showed me all around the places we flew over. After a good landing by Les and touching down dead on time I went to fill the Robin up, and I was back in the Cotswold Aero Club, where once again Phil Mathews the CFI made us feel very welcome.

I was now back in the left hand seat for our next stop at Exeter where we picked up Andrew, had a bacon and sausage bap and filled in the flight plan. Andrew was now flying again, we crossed the channel flying over Guernsey and Jersey and we soon landed in Dinard, where we were greeted by an Air Traffic Controller who is a member of the Aéroclub de Limoges and who had flown F-GMKT just two weeks before. After a quick drink I then flew to Ancenis a small airfield outside of Nantes Andrew then flew his last leg of the journey back to Choucé Verac.

I for the last time of this England trip was back in the left hand seat for the final leg back home to Limoges. And after 50 minutes, we where there for a nice sunset landing. I unloaded the Robin while Sue sorted out the paper work and I put the Robin back in the hanger for some much needed and deserved rest.

A Trip To England

Coming towards the end of my training and the goal of passing my PPL on my 17th birthday I had to pass my RT test with Phil Mathews the CFI at the Cotswold Aero club in Gloucester who Sue recommended.

So Sue suggested as I had to go back to England to pass my RT test, that it could be a good idea if we flew back in the DA40, and seeing as I want to be a commercial pilot it could be good experience to fly from one country to another, and also to fly for my first time in England.

So we planned to go back during my two weeks holiday in March, however come the holidays we had two weeks of solid rain and even after the holidays the rain continued.
So we decided we would leave it to the Summer Holidays when we hoped the weather would be better.

Time soon passed and after finishing our exams at school the Summer Holidays were here, we finished school on the Friday and had set the date to go back to England for the following Tuesday. However come Monday evening we had thunderstorms and it continued like that all through the night and through to Tuesday where I woke up to a rainy, dull, grey day, so yet again the flight was cancelled, but with the hope that the weather would be better on the Wednesday.
However come Wednesday the weather was no better so yet again we had to cancel the flight. Now hoping the weather would be better on Thursday or there would be no point in going.
Thursday morning came, it was still not great but it had stopped raining and there were patches of blue sky, so I spoke to Sue and we decided we would have a go and see what we could do.
While in the car heading to the Airport as we kept getting closer to the airport the weather kept getting worse, to which we arrived at the airport with a cloud base of about 500ft.
Sue went over to the Met Office to see if it was going to clear up where the man told her the was no way we could go that morning but at about midday there would be a gap and we should try go then.
Come midday the gap was there and off we went and surprisingly had a very nice calm flight to Cherbourg, it was like there was a corridor made just for us there was thunderstorms and rain to the East and West but sun in the direction where we were flying, and we arrived at Cherbourg after just 2 and a half hours where we had a cup of coffee and filled in the flight plan and filled up the plane.

Then we were off again, we climbed out across the coast line to gain some height and then turned to cross the channel, we said ‘Good Bye’ the Brest information and contacted London which I found strange, after only ever flying in France and having only ever had the French controllers and their French accent, it was quite hard to understand at first anyway we were going straight to Gloucester flying over the Isle of Wight, CPT Vor and Brize Norton, and we arrived in 1 hour 45 minutes and had a good landing at Gloucester.

Our two days in England soon passed and I was back at Gloucester Airport with Phil doing my RT test before we flew back, and I managed to pass that, and also while we were there I managed to pass my medical too. Phil really looked after us while we were there, and helped us plan our flight to Oxford where we went to pick up Steve, another pilot (with a sense of humour) We then flew back down to the south of England and over the Isle of Wight to cross the channel one again.

I then landed at Cherbourg with a 25-30knt crosswind which with the DA40s long wings it was not the easiest landings I have preformed but we landed safely.

After a quick bite to eat (another story) Steve was now in Left Hand seat for our flight back home to Limoges. Due to a strong head wind it took us nearly four hours to get back, so by the time we landed, there was 3 very very tired pilots, knowing that we were all going to be flying back to England in just two days time, so we all needed some urgent rest!!!!!

"Ryanair - please expedite vacating the runway...."

"... there's a Robin DR400 waiting to take off"

It's not very often Ryanair are told to hurry up and get out of my way but this was the case last week. I was leaving on a short Nav Ex flight with Sue and we were ready for departure as a Ryanair flight landed. While he proceeded to the end of the runway to turn and then backtrack we were cleared onto the runway and told to backtrack and turn and wait for him to exit.

We then had a very pleasant flight over to Couhé-Verac to land on the grass strip. I'd spent some time the year before last doing circuits at Couhé in the DR300 and it was rather pleasant to pay another visit. Unfortunately I'd forgotten the key to the clubhouse (I wonder if they want that back?) so we were unable to take a coffee and had to make do with a 10 minute sit in the sun.

All in all another enjoyable couple of hours flying in France with Sue and hopefully a couple of hours nearer the PPL.

To Castelnau Magnoac by Aeronca Champ

Hi Sue,

Further to our correspondence on Fuel availability near Limoges. I have now flown my Aeronca Champ from Stapleford [NW London] to Castelnau Magnoac in the Haute Pyrenees.

I set off on Sunday 11th May and, after crossing the channel from Dover to Cap Gris Nez, my first stop was Abbeville to clear customs and refuel. I then flew on to Dreux for more fuel and then on to Blois. I refuelled again and set off for Argenton, which the Blois refueller advised as a good place for a night stop in lieu of Le Blanc, my intended halt. I taxied out but my power check revealed a significant mag drop. I taxied back in to have a look 'under the bonnet'  and a quick inspection revealed that one of the plug leads had worked loose. With the aid of a french aviator, who was busy washing his nice Long-Eze, I was able to sort that problem out and the engine resumed normal service.

Another french aviator from a nearby hangar came over, started to admire the Aeronca and asked if he could take some photos. A conversation ensued and, when he found out I was only halfway through my journey to Castelnau, immediately offered me the use of his hangar for the night complete with kitchen, bedroom and bathroom facilities. 'I have to go now but help yourself out to anything you can find and just lock up and leave when you are ready in the morning'. Blinding hospitality - gratefully received by me.

Off at 0800 in the morning, I set off for St Junien as recommended by you. It was a beautiful morning and a great joy to be flying in my 'new' Aeronca as I chugged over the Loire with the magnificent Chenonceaux Chateau off to my right . As I approached St. Junien I was listening out to Limoges Approach and heard a Ryanair going in on the  ILS but with a cloudbase scattered at 500'. No such weather at St. Junien where I landed. There was quite a bit of activity about and I was quickly refuelled and on my way with yet another local french aviator insisting on swinging the prop for me.

Next stop was an almost deserted Perigueux where a man appeared out of nowhere to do the honours with more fuel. A quick phone call to base camp with an estimate for Castelnau ensued that some food and a cold beer would be available at the airfield on my arrival some 1hr 45mins later.

The Castelnau flying club manager was on hand when I landed and taxied in and he was very excited with the new addition to the hangar. He operates a 1946 Luscombe and my 1946 Aeronca is now parked between the Luscombe and a 1946 Piper PA-11.

My total flight time was 8.5hrs and apart from the spark plug problem was problem free. I was very lucky with the weather and flying on a Sunday and a French Bank holiday Monday meant military airspace issues were minimized. I transited 2 class 'D' airspaces [Le Touquet and Agen] without any problem in spite of my declaration of 'negative transponder'.

Many thanks for you advice of St Junien where my arrival as everywhere was greeted with much help and assistance.

NB Click on pictures for larger image

Flying to France—by Mike Grierson

Whilst the English Channel is only 18 miles wide at its narrowest point, it represents a pretty major cultural divide and, at the same time, provides a challenge for those intrepid aviators who seek to cross it.

Those who live near to the South Coast will probably make regular trips to Calais, Le Touquet or maybe Dieppe.

If you live further inland in the UK then you have to reach the coast before you can consider the crossing to France.

Unless you live in South Eastern England, crossing via the narrowest route is probably not the most efficient way to go and, as you move further West, the distance increases to around 60 miles between the Isle of Wight and Cherbourg.

If you cross between Goodwood and Caen, the water crossing is 90 miles.

Looking at the map shows numerous danger areas all along the Channel from Worthing to Lands End.

The Navy has to have somewhere to play and most of the ranges are only used on an occasional basis therefore;

Crossing is not as big a problem as it first appears. The Royal Navy have provided a Guide to Crossing the English Channel or Le Manche as the French call it.

For a Number of years, I taught at a military flying club where the CFI insisted upon flying with all of the instructors at least once a year.

Therefore, every September we mounted a club outing to France.

On the first trip, three aircraft headed for Dieppe. At mid channel we duly changed from London Information to the published Brest frequency; they did not want to know us as we were VFR so we changed to Dieppe Tower.

On initial contact, we were cleared to land even though we still couldn't see the French coast. When we arrived, the tower was shut so we parked, secured the aircraft and went to the bar.

As the barman poured the second drink, we heard the next club aircraft calling Dieppe; without flinching the barman picked up a microphone from behind the bar and gave him clearance to land.

We had clearly arrived in a different country!

The next day it was foggy; our IMC ratings were not valid, so we had to wait until visibility improved.

Finally we took off and headed West above a thin layer of cloud; VFR on top. It was then that we realised how far apart the navaids are in France, there were few DMEs and our fixes were rather large.

An intended, landing at Flers was aborted in favour of Granville after we misidentified Domfront some 12 miles to the South.

At Granville, we met the other two aircraft which had flown different routes.

It was lunch time and, in France, that means everybody, including ATC, closes down for about two and a half hours.

You simply arrive and land, speaking French of course, and make your way to the restaurant to join the rest.

Sometimes, they may waive the landing fee as the airport was not manned.

Our final destination was Dinan (not Dinard but only 10 minutes away), a lovely airfield with a good restaurant and an excellent town to night stop. This became a regular stopover on subsequent visits to France.

Once introduced to flying light aeroplanes in France, the trips continued on a regular basis.

Frequently on arrival, an instructor would appear from a French Aeroclub and complain that we were not speaking French, a requirement when ATC is closed; often there was nobody in Customs, you simply left your details and continued.

Closing the flight plan invariably meant a telephone call especially if there was nobody in ATC.

I will now have a look at how the newcomer can get started in a cross channel adventure.
      
Flight Planning

Depending on where you are planning to go in France, you will need to obtain the relevant maps.

The UK Southern Chart covers the Northern French Coast line from Dunkirk to the Cherbourg peninsular and the Channel Islands but does not cover very much of the French mainland.

You will need a French chart of which two types are available, the IGN aeronautical chart and the Jeppesen VFR Chart.

Coverage differs and sometimes one chart works better than the other. They look quite different to UK charts.

Plan a route so that you leave the UK with a VOR behind you and ideally one in front of you.

Always plan to fly over water at the highest altitude possible as it gives you more time to communicate, plan and glide if anything goes wrong.

The chart contains a number of recommended routes to follow.

Unfortunately, some of the routes have limited upper altitudes due to rather low airways routing to and from the Channel Islands.

There are a number of good websites that provide guidance on flight planning so I don't want to repeat all that material here.

Fly in France and The Flying School have some excellent information and links.

The CAA provide a number of Safety Sense Leaflets that can be downloaded from their GA Website, these include SSL20 VFR Flight Plans; SSL11 Interception Procedures which you must carry and SSL21 Ditching.

You will need to obtain details of French Airfields and frequencies.

Pooleys and AFE provide suitable documents.

The French AIP is available on line in English and provides NOTAM information.

It is easier to use than the AIS site. A useful page of Aviation links can be found here.      

Customs

Since I have been flying to France, the customs procedures have changed.

Originally the French were not bothered and the UK Customs were quite stringent, however, with the introduction of the EU, roles have reversed and the French are now more stringent whilst in the UK you can fly into and out of any airfield provided 4 hours notice is given.

In France, you must enter the country via a customs airfield.

Quite probably customs may not be there but you must go.

If you have an EU registered aircraft, there are few problems, however, if you operate a non EU aircraft, they may wish to see VAT receipts and import licences if the aircraft is based outside its country of registration.

When arriving in Deauville with a YAK 52, they questioned the gun under the port wing; it was the pitot tube!

Your local airfield will most likely have the Customs number for notification of flights.

They will need to know the names and dates of birth of the persons travelling.

These can be submitted by phone, fax or email using a General Aviation Report. 

The biggest problem is likely to be caused by female passengers who don't wish to give their age!

Customs now operate a UK wide number 0870 785 3600; Fax on 0870 340 3878 and email ncu@hmce.gsi.gov.uk

Communication

Once you reach mid-channel, the pace changes somewhat.

Many of the published frequencies are some way off and communication may be difficult.

If you are VFR, then you will be expected to look after yourself so be prepared to pass your details and hear little more or be moved to another frequency.

It is quite possible to fly over much of France without talking to anyone.

Whatever you do, stick to basic phraseology remembering that CAP413 is not used in France; they use ICAO phraseology.

Just because you are talking to a ground station does not mean that you are under control, avoidance of restricted airspace is your responsibility.

Channel Islands

The Channel Islands are only a few miles off the French Coast and are worth a visit, however, there are complications.

All flight directly to and from the UK to the Channel Islands are subject to the Terrorism Act and require Special Branch clearance.

This is not complicated but does require 24 hours notification.

If, however, you route from the CI to France and back to UK there is no requirement for any notification.

Be prepared for a handling agent now conducted by the aeroclubs at Guernsey and Jersey.

Alderney is much less formal and you can walk into town from the airport.

The Channel Islands are in the Brest FIR and most of the Airspace is Class A with Class D around the airfields.

Be prepared for a SVFR clearance.

Restricted Airspace

Following 9/11, restricted airspace appeared all over France around its nuclear power stations and other installations.

Initially notified by NOTAM, the areas did not appear on the aviation charts until much later and there were numerous infringements.

The infringements are notified by the French military and often occur to aircraft in contact with ATC who provided them with no information regarding the incursion.

Fines can vary between 10,000 and 15,000 Euros, an expensive lunch.

I recall flying around Mont St Michel and being advised by ATC that another aircraft was flying around it in the opposite direction; on the next visit I was told I had infringed the prohibited area that was not on my chart.

There is a great deal of military low flying so avoid these areas by keeping above 1500 feet.

Flight below 500ft agl is not permitted unless landing and taking off.

Airways

In the UK we are used to avoiding Airways, however, in France, it is possible to fly Airways VFR using VFR levels. The maximum level is FL115 and all levels are Semicircular not Quadrantal.

If you have an IR, then flying airways to France is much simpler but not as much fun.

Ditching

Crossing water in an aeroplane is a risk that needs careful assessment.

Its is not very likely that your engine will fail, after all the engine does not know that you are over water!

You should carry life jackets and wear them uninflated on the water crossing.

A radio beacon is also essential if you should find yourself in the water.

If your aircraft is big enough carry a liferaft, the first priority on landing in water is protection from hypothermia.

As ex RAF aircrew, I have been thrown into the Channel just 3 miles off Plymouth on numerous occasions, after 15 minutes in cold water your ability to do anything ceases.

Clothing helps but, unless you wear gloves, your hands become useless.

When crossing water, plan as high as you can, it gives you more time, know how to ditch, crosswind across the swell, not into it; land near a boat if you can, remember big boats may take 20 miles to stop.

Squawk 7700 and use 121.5 for the satellite triangulation.

Planning improves your chance of survival.