Ile de Ré - July 2010

I have long wanted to go to Barra, a Scottish island where the runway is only availaible at low tide because...the beach is the runway. Pierre had agreed to come with me on this adventure on the third weekend of July. A couple of days before the trip, the weather forecast started to look very bad, so we changed direction and decided to head south towards La Rochelle, an airfield on the west coast of France, which is about 10 minutes by taxi from the beautiful Ile de Ré. We found an hotel easily. The airplane, a Turbo Arrow, had been booked long in advance. All that remained to do was plan the flight and check all the administrative details.

On the way down we decided to take a long route via Chinon and follow the Loire and its castles up to Nantes. For the return we would go direct. However, because of a shortage of gas at La Rochelle, we would have to stop in Nantes. It would probably have been doable to fly the whole trip without refuelling, but that would have left little reserves... Crossing the Channel short on fuel is just not very smart.





We took off from White Waltham at 9.30. Directly south of the airfield, on our route, lied the airspace closed for the Farnborough Air show. We asked for a Crossing from their controllers and off we were ! Total flight time was planned at 3 hours.



Very quickly we were VFR on top of the cloud cover at 8,500 feet, an altitude that allowed us to benefit from the turbo.



At this altitude we were handled by Paris most of the way down to Chinon. There we avoided the nuclear power station (a good idea if you don't want a couple of Mirage fighters on your tail or the Gendarmerie waiting for you at the airport) and started a low level cruise along the Loire.



After the Chinon castle we reached Saumur. On top of the castle, I was looking to see some of the places I spent much time in during my Army days. The Fontevraud practice field certainly seemed bigger when we were crossing it by foot at night.



The Saumur Castle.


The Armour & Cavalry school. If I had known we had an airfield so close I may have taken my ppl then...


We then passed Angers, from where we went straight to La Rochelle. I didn't spot the airfield till late, and only with Pierre's help.



After landing and going through customs (boy, were they not interested !) we got into a taxi and reached our hotel. We got some lunch (or two) then rented bicycles for the next 24 hours . We spent the rest of the afternoon covering about 50km, with numerous breaks to sample oysters and white wine. The island is gorgeous with an incredible variety of landscape, fishing harbours, beaches, forests, fortresses and marshes.











By pure luck we ran into our friends Anne-Laure and Romain who were spending a week on the island.


We then went to the hotel to enjoy the swimming pool and the jaccuzi.

All the while, Pierre was filming for the Ridley Scott project "Life in a day". The next morning he went for another ride while I sat on the terrace working on my FAA Instrument Rating written exam (which I passed the next Tuesday). We then went for a walk and had a great lunch by the sea.



The Met had been forecast to be very bad in the morning but improve by mid afternoon. I filed the flight plan using Afpex running on my home computer, to which I securely logged in from my iPad. That worked fine as I had prepared the template beforehand. We headed for the airport as some light rain fell. After doing our checks we waited 15 minutes for things to clear up further. While we started up an Easyjet flight landed; we entered the runway behind them.... they then backtracked. Quite impressive, you just have to hope they can't put full thrust on... They didn't wave at us like we did. Snobs :-)



We took off straight to the west to overfly the island.





Then up north along the coast to Sables d'Olonnes, and Noirmoutier. There was a very low cloud cover and as we went closer to the north of France it was expected to rise, then lift across the Channel.





We then landed in Nantes, where we refueled.





After taking off we climbed quite quickly. The aim was to go over the scattered clouds to avoid being trapped low under the overcast forecast over Cherbourg. We settled around 7,500 feet. We had a strong headwind there but the turbo gain more or less compensated. We soon reached Rennes and headed off for Cherbourg.



There we tried to talk to the Deauville controller, but they told us to standby. Unfortunately I didn't realize that we were heading for the bit of their airspace that goes on top of Cherbourg. When they finished routing a jet to their ILS they picked us up, but it was too late, we were deep in their controlled airspace without a clearance. Oops. Big issue. They gave us a thorough dressing down on the radio, but let us go without further problems.

As soon as we reached the Channel the weather cleared but we could see England under a solid overcast. Ahead of the Isle of Wight we asked a VFR transit to Southampton at 4,000 feet (granted, great service), then talked to Farnborough for the rest of the journey via Compton to White Waltham, with some ok VOR tracking. My landing was rougher than I'd ve liked, and I'd seriously messed up the Deauville issue. But it was a great destination, and we'll go back with the whole family next year.

Flight to Limoges - May 2010

Three years ago (almost), I started training for my Pilot’s license. After obtaining it, I took the UK Instrument Meteorological Conditions rating to allow me to fly on instruments (in the UK only); I moved onto more complex aircraft, and on to the Piper PA32 Saratoga 6-seater. The aim of all this was to be able to take my family of 4 away for a weekend, and I’ve finally done that, over the first weekend of May which is traditionally a three day weekend in the UK. Destination: Limoges, right about the middle of France. There live our good friends Ronan and Elsa and their kids; this is also where Benedicte and I got married ten years ago.

The flight was planned using Skydemon, and would take us first along the route that I flew last month to Caen: down to the UK coast, the Isle of Wight, crossing the Channel via the GARMI intersection and Cherbourg; then a long leg to the ANG VOR west of Angers on the Loire River, a dash East overhead Poitiers, and finally a 30 minutes flight to Limoges. Using the software again made things very easy, especially now that NOTAM alerts can be mapped directly within it.



I didn’t use the UK’s APFEX software to file my flight plans this time, but the much easier and user friendly OLIVIA system available on the French side. You can also check NOTAMS and Met on there.

We took off early on the Saturday morning. The weather was basically forecast to give us IMC conditions for most of the flight down to the Isle of Wight; then the plan was to climb up to 7,500 feet between two cloud layers (which I could do legally in the UK). The lower cloud layer was supposed to become thinner as we went down south, meaning we could descend through it legally (as I can’t fly through cloud in France with my limited rating). The alternative was to cross the Channel at 2,000 feet, not something I’m keen to do, and that would have subjected my passengers to turbulence.

This is typically what we encountered in the UK:



After getting out from under the Solent Controlled airspace we started our climb and settled nicely at Level 75 (~7,500 feet) between the two layers. But as we approached Cherbourg on the French coast, the two merged, with the upper layer probably at Level 80, a level which is normally not available on the heading we were following.



I didn’t see myself climbing to 9,500 feet with no oxygen and 3 kids at the back. Fortunately the good chaps at Brest info allowed us to climb through a hole and continue there. It was a fantastic feeling, like riding on a sea of cotton, in bright sunshine. From our vantage point we were able to relay some communication between Brest and remote aircrafts. But I started getting stressed: if the forecast was wrong and the cloud layer stayed thick, we would have to turn around. At this stage we had more than 3h30 of fuel left, more than enough to return to White Waltham eventually, or back to the UK side to try to sneak under the lower layer at 2,000 feet. I wished I had a proper IR ! And I really do not feel like shooting a DIY descent through cloud without proper radar coverage.

At the back everything was going fine.



Both layers cleared within 15 minutes though, leaving us free to descend 15 minutes before the decision point I had set myself. By the time we reached Anger and the Loire river it was pretty much clear up to 7,000 feet.




Crossing the Loire at Angers



As we continued south via Poitiers, the countryside turned very green, thanks to the Vienne river.



On the radio I heard a distinctly English voice in a DR400 leaving Limoges for Poitiers – I wonder if it was the instructor from the FrancoFlyers website which I had consulted extensively before doing the trip. We were aiming for the Visual Reference Point NW, which is Ouradour-sur-Glane, a village destroyed by a retreating SS division at the end of WWII and which has been left in ruins as a memorial. Unfortunately despite having looked at aerial photographs and converging on it via radio navigation, I just couldn’t localise it and went straight to W, which is a nice town on the Vienne with an easily recognisable bridge. We then went straight to base leg and finals on runway 03 for an uneventful landing.

We had beaten the Ryanair flight by 15 minutes, with a total flight time of 2h45m – we heard them on the radio starting their descent right before we left the frequency. Despite the Northerly wind at 10 knots they asked for a straight in landing from the North on runway 21, saving them a good 5 minutes on the approach… I hope they don’t try that when the wind is stronger. We did have to wait quite a long time before refuelling though as the truck was on standby for the Ryanair flight.



After getting the rental car we went straight to Elsa and Ronan’s place in the countryside, and enjoyed a nice aperitif.



We then headed downtown in Ronan’s vintage Mustang, attracting quite a few admiring glances along the way.



We were due to stay until Monday morning, have lunch with my uncle and aunt at their chateau where we got married. Unfortunately the cloud base was forecast to be very low on the Monday, and given that Limoges sits at 1,300 feet, we would have been trapped ! I got the met via the PilotWizz app.



So we decided to leave Sunday afternoon and spend the night in Poitiers, a short 30 minutes flight away. We took off just ahead of Ryanair who was backtracking the runway. The flight was uneventful, in beautiful light. The airport is near the Futuroscope, a science amusement park we went to visit on the Monday morning - we watched 3d and 4d movies and had quite a good time despite the cold.





It was now time to leave, and we were planning to follow pretty much the same route. Again I would try to climb above the cloud layer via holes if I could. Unfortunately it was soon clear that the upper layer was quite high, and a plane reported icing at 7,000 feet, so I had to descend back. The base at Cherbourg was reported at about 2,700 feet. I was not very happy with the situation, turbulence was high, and my passengers were not feeling very well; on top of that we had about 20 knots of headwind (the aircraft flies at 145 knots so this is a significant deterioration in flight time).



I decided to head out to the Channel crossing point at GARMI, to see if I could climb up to at least Level 50, and otherwise turn around and land at Cherbourg to wait it out (the forecast was for improvement). Fortunately as we reached the D-Day beaches, the cloud base lifted very high and we crossed happily at altitude.



We were soon reaching the white cliffs of the Isle of Wight…



Overflying Portsmouth



We had to descend to below 2,500 feet and were back in turbulence. In hindsight I should have dog-legged the CTA and stayed high, but I was keen to get on. 25 minutes later we were safely on the ground at White Waltham – while the wind was uncomfortable in the circuit, this great airfield always has a runway into wind that lets you get back safely.


It was a great trip, and my family enjoyed it (not due entirely to the flying bit but they like some of it). The IMC part in the UK on the outbound leg didn’t seem to cause them any problem, it was more the turbulence and the length of the return leg that tested their goodwill. The trip did make me more eager to take the full Instrument Rating, but this is a significant commitment I’m not quite ready to make. For now the priority is Benedicte’s training (she’s started the Safety Pilot course at White Waltham and is doing great) and enjoying the flying.

Take-aways :

- 2h30 flight time is probably the maximum for me, and for my family at least in the Saratoga (I suppose it would be better for them in a pressurised aircraft… but that’s another story)

- The Olivia flight plan filing system is so simple and user friendly, I don’t think I’ll use AFPEX again for trips to France. All the controllers en route had my details.

- Without an IR , you have to be flexible, which means your family has to be flexible too. I’m very lucky in that respect.

- The flight planning and met apps available today, even compared to 3 years ago when I started flying, are simply amazing. This is quite an exciting development. For me the fun of flying is not in the pouring over maps, it’s about being in the air, and travelling to a good destination. After establishing a route in Skydemon I do check it thoroughly on the chart, but it’s very different from setting up such a long VFR route from scratch, checking which trajectory is faster and how much longer such sight-seeing detour will take etc.

Flight to Caen - April 2010

This is a report of a half-day trip from White Waltham to Caen. Like the previous report, it is mostly for my records, and to share with friends and family.

The trip was taken on board G-ELLA, the West London Aeroclub's PA32 Saratoga II HP. The aim of the trip was three-fold: first of all to have a good time flying, secondly to overfly the D-Day beaches, and thirdly as a general rehearsal for a family trip planned to Limoges at the beginning of May.

Flying with me was Marcos, a friend I took flying for the first time in July last year, and who has since started and finished his full PPL license ! He would do most of the radio communication on this trip.



On the way out we would take the direct route straight to the South Coast, then deviate slightly to the East via the SITET waypoint to avoid the various Danger Zones in the Channel. The flight was planned with SkyDemon, a new software which is extraordinarily pleasant to use and makes planning such a trip a very straightforward affair:



On the chart you can see the danger zones in red. The software makes planning around controlled airspace a breeze, and prints a very useable plog. Its only downsides are the weather module which is so far limited to METAR/TAFS, so no access to more forward looking models like NWX, or no direct import of en-route winds; and a lack of tools for filing flight plans and Customs reports. For all this and as a back up, I used PilotWizz on the iPhone, an app which is not only very useful but a definite steal at a very low price.

The flight plans were filed via AFPEX. This hasn't evolved much. The adressing bit is still the one you need to be careful about when flying VFR.


I made a mistake on the return plan, which Marcos pointed out, and which was corrected via the phone to the APFEX helpline in 5 minutes. They were very helpful as always.

The transit part of the outbound flight was uneventful: a basic service from Farnborough, a hand out to London Information, then Deauville Approach once over the boundary.



The plane performed very well and all the timings were bang on. Total flight time 1h10min.



Approaching the French Coast, Deauville Approach told us the Danger Zone 82 was inactive, so we went straight to Caen well clear of Le Havre.

This picture was taken with a 300mm lens with a 1.4 converter on a 1.6 crop factor DLSR... so equivalent to a 672mm lens, in a moving aeroplane, and in less than ideal visibility, but you still can see the harbour.


We went straight to Caen Tower, but were approaching too fast and too high so did a 360 to lose height and speed. At that point the Controller spotted us and with a nicely French-accented English informed us "G-ELLA, I can see you, you are going the wrong way round". "Thank you, aware, G-ELLA". We then proceeded to land, with a fairly heavy cross-wind. Not a single traffic was heard or seen, but the Controller still managed to make us repark "to make sure you don't prevent others from finding room". When we finally stopped on his designated spot, he uttered a definitely ironic "Niiice"... At that point I was very, very tempted to make a very rude remark in French about his mother's interaction with Smurfs.

Anyway, there we were...


Traditional picture


The landing fee was EUR4.50. That's right. Huge runway with full ATC and customs, and a third of the price of most UK airfield. EUR20 took us to the city by taxi, where we had a very nice sandwich and chocolate eclair on the lawn in front of the Ducal palace.


St Pierre Cathedral


On our return we went through Customs, had our bags x-rayed, checked the met via PilotWizz, and found this very nice piece of hardware parked next to ELLA:


The return route would take us via the D-Day beaches to Cherbourg then the Isle of Wight via the VFR route that crosses through the Danger Zones, talking to Plymouth Military (in the event they were closed and we just talked to London Info).



Total flight time was also planned at about 1h10min, although we went around the beaches quite a bit so ended up longer than that.

The D-Day harbour at Arromanches


Then it was up to 7000 feet over the Channel, looking for boats we could land next to if needed.


Traffic was light in the UK, apart from some balloons


Then back to White Waltham. My landing was too fast which didn't conclude the trip on a high note, but overall it was... very niiiice. Amazing what you can do in one afternoon when you have wings !