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.
