La Roquebrousanne

So I finally got some new tyres for the trailer - I had to get them sent rom the UK in the end!

But this allowed a trip to the field to put LC back in the hangar, and hopefully do some flying. There was a Mistrale blowing down the Rhone valley, so it would depend on how far across the southern French coast it had spread.

So we got to the field and unpacked LC from the trailer:

At 39* in the shade, it was hot work. Suzy did her bit by sorting out food and drink - any of you who used to come to Brack will remember her constant supply of burgers, tea etc!

It was blowing quite strongly - our French friends were all barbequeing and drinking Pastisse and Whisky (although not together of course), which didn't bode well for flying. None of them planned to fly again that day, but they said there might be a chance in the evening if the wind dropped.

I got Elsi ready as I could, but left the final rigging to see if the opportunity arose later. It didn't unfortumately. Conscious of having to get her into the hangar and de-rigged, at 7.30pm I decided it was crunch-point and derigged.

Nonetheless we had a lovely day - one of the nice things about this airfield is that it's not too crowded - see piccy below! Anyway, catch you next time.



Spamfield and Back - wet and blowy

Well I got there! Helped admirably by my driving coplot Maria:

.... not the most flattering of piccies - she'll kill me if she sees it. But since no-one is actually reading this, then it doesn't matter! Traffic was appalling - I later discovered that I'd elected to travel on one of the biggest holiday weekends in France - Ascension weekend - and got stuck in a 40km traffic jam on the way to Lyon.

A late arrival in the UK from the ferry necessitated a stay in a Travelodge. It was rubbish. I won't bother with them again.

Packed Maria off on the train. Got the car MOT'd and taxed, then set off for the IOW. Once again traffic was heavy and I only just made it in time for my 1800h ferry. Arrived quite late at Sandown and pitched camp as you can see it was quite late by the time I'd got sorted!

However, sorted I was and looked forward to a pint and a pie.

Next day dawned much as the rest of the week would:

Not much joy there!

Amazingly quite a few made it to Sandown on the Friday and Saturday. Unfortunately the threatening weather sent many scurrying for home on the Saturday evening, and only a few hardy souls stayed for the Saturday evning with band - at one stage I thought we were going to outnumber the audience... but in the end there were about 40 faithfuls at the gig, enjoying a beer and hopefully the music.

I never flew LC, since I managed to badly kink one of the forward lowers rigging her on a blustery Friday morning. Bugger. I looked at the wire and thought "well, I wouldn't take a boat out with rigging like that - or if I did I would be constantly expecting the mast to fall down," so I didn't fly her. Despite Graham's stalwart efforts at P&M to find someone coming down on the Saturday who could bring me a replacement. No luck.

I was rather hoping for a prize - longest travelled not to fly! Nearly 1000 miles each way...

Nonetheless I had a great week and renewed my acquaintance with the HMFC guys who had come. I also finally met Kev Armstrong - quite a character!

The drive back was equally eventful - got a serious flat on the trailer rounding Lyon:

Wow! I think I was lucky not to lose the tyre completely. I put on the spare - it was a little low in pressure, so I topped it up a bit. As I removed the pump, the centre of the valve blew out... hmmm. Looks as if I won't be meeting up with Daryl and co in Gap this evening then!

After my debacle with the RAC at the end of last year, I was loth to call them, but eventually I capitulated and stunningly they turned up within 40 mins and fixed the tyre!

Home by 0100.

Tyre flat the next day - oh well, at least LC is safe in the car park at our appartments.

It took 2 weeks to get new tyres - nothing doing in France - eventually I had to get them via the UK, and amazingly they were cheaper than lower quality tyres in France - even with the postage!

Albeit frustrating sometimes to live in France, there are some compensations:

... the view from our terrace the other evening.

Tyres fixed, it was time for a trip to La Roquebrousanne... to follow.



One in, one out...

I note from my good friend Daryl Cornelius's blog that he's departing Blighty to come flying in France.

Ironic really, as I am in the throes of preparing to go the other way...

The powers that be have asked me and the boys to do the music at Spamfield again this year. I thought I would come a few days early and try to get some UK flying in before the main event. I hope to be at Sandown midweek.

I'm driving up and trailing LC behind, so she will once again take to the UK skies - weather permitting.

I guess I could try to catch up with Daryl and the rest of them on my way back through France - will have to see what they are up to!

Photos

Well here we go - the first attempt at aerial photography. I won't give up my day job just yet....

If you look closely, you can see Marcus and Jason in the Quantum, about 2000ft below me, just right of centre.

same thing - only this time I got some of my plane in for perspective

Happy Chappy at 7500ft. But cold!



Of course, these will be stultifyingly boring for you - but it's my blog and I'll put whatever I want!

Heh! I hope to get the hang of things a bit more, so I can share the stunning views available here. Keep watching, I'll do better!

Sunday 29th May - another leap forwards.

So, I got my first flight over the Alps in LC on Saturday 28th. A short flight - just 30 mins, but a milestone of sorts.

Sunday saw me bumping into Marcus in the breakdast bar at 0800.

"Coming with us today are you?" he says.
"Oh, well, yeah, I guess. Where are you going?" (notice I have committed myself before finding out the relevant facts).
"We're going over the Gorges du Verdon - you'll kick yourself if you miss it while you're here - they are really spectacular!"

It sounded interesting - I could take some photos for the blog. Once again I commit further before getting the facts:

"Yeah great. I'll come"

There was a small pause for thought and I then said "How far is it?"

"Oh, it's about a two-hour flight"

Two hours? I must be mad - I've only got about an hour in LC solo! I don't know thw aircraft well enough to go haring off over the Alps, faffing around in gorges!

"I don't think I have enough fuel", I said. Marcus had plenty to spare.

Cornered, I did my preflight and togged-up.

After I took off behind them, I started getting really loud intermittent buzzing and crackling in the headset. It was the radio.

For the next ten minutes, I was frantically wire-wiggling to see if I could get it to go away. It got worse. By this time we were on 129.825, the unofficial Microlight 'air-to-air' frequency. I called Marcus and told him I had a problem. I was scared I had some sort of electrical short-circuit. The last thing I wanted was to get a fire, or melting bits.

His solution was "Don't worry - just turn off your radio and follow us!". Damn - still no way to chicken out with dignity!

At that point I decided to adjust the 'squelch' on my radio (for those of you not in the know, it filters out all atmospheric 'noise' and erroneous signals from your radio - gets rid of all the background hisses, buzzing and hums. That's right - buzzing...) - oh yes! My 'short-circuit' was nothing more than a badly adjusted radio.

I elected not to tell Marcus about that...

Well, we had our flight - 2 hours 20 minutes in the end. Awesome is not the word. The gorge was spectacular and the flight was sublime. In one flight I'd tripled my hours on LC.

I got some photos - when I get them off the camera I'll post them.

But I warn you - I need practice at taking photos while trying to fly a plane! The ones I took of the ground are featureless and bland - I forgot to get a horizon. The one i took of me flying could have been taken on the ground! You guessed it, I forgot to get a horizon! Ah well, _I_ know I was at 7500 feet!

I'll practice some more in the next few weeks I hope. Weather permitting.

If anyone is reading this other than myself - maybe see you at Spamfield!

Saturday 28th May. Anticipation fulfilled :-)

A lovely drive up to Gap from Antibes. Very windy and gusty Friday evening though, so there's no-one about. Airfields are lovely places - even when deserted!

The Saturday morning dawned calm and bright, so I got my first flight since November, with Marcus in the school Quantum. General handling fine. As it happened, it turned into a bit of a choppy day - some fun in the thermals. First landing... oh dear, Go Around! Second landing, slight balloon but otherwise fine. Third landing, Greaser!

After that I rigged LC in anticipation of an evening flight after some more practice with Marcus - d'unt she look pretty!?

The second session with Marcus produced some more acceptable landings and so I was good to go for the evening - nervous but excited.

There were another couple there - Jason and Hayley - who were using the school Quantum for an evening flight. I was invited to tag along. Take-off was much better than my first effort in November - I had been totally unprepared for the power - and the tourque - of the 912 when flying solo.  In November I'd veered strongly off to the right after take-off, and the climb-rate was so spectactuler I got worried! I thought "This can't be right" as I went up at what felt like 45 degrees, so I backed off the throttle!

Ground observers on the day were heard to utter expletives...

Anyway on Saturday the 28th May I got to finally take to the skies of Southern France in my very own Blade 912. Awesome!

I quickly caught up to Jason and Hayley in the Quantum and began to follow them to the West. Snag - can't see b*gger-all as I'm going straight into the sun. Oh well.

A quick radio call to LZ to say I was peeling off (we were on air-to-air as Gap Tower was closed), and I headed North instead to overfly Gap town and the surrounding valleys.

It was a bit of a turbulent evening and creeping doubts about my rigging experience (or, rather, lack of it) began to creep into my mind with each bump. I began thinking "Oh God, I hope I put this thing together correctly!".

Evidently I _had_ put it together correctly as it didn't fold up, so I steeled my nerve and flew on. The scenery was superb and the quality of light in the mountains is exceptional. My first flight over the Alps in LC!

The bumps got worse and I decided to head for home. Blind calls all the way in, a nice landing and I taxied up to the 'Aeropole' as it's known.

Snag - Jase and Hayley have the blipper-button to open the gate. Hmmm... Luckily at that point I heard them on the radio calling 3M out at point Echo. They had decided to curtail their flight as well, due to the bumps.

Good news, no need to wait too long - even at that time of the evening it was getting uncomfortably hot in my flying gear!

Jase and Hayley had called final to land on 21 'principale', the main runway - at that point a skydiving aircraft called final on 03 'Echo'.

Gap has four parallel runways. Working from West to East they are 'Principale', 'Whiskey', 'Mini-piste' and 'Echo'. Echo is about 100m to the E of Principale.

Jason did the sensible thing and did a go-around - having a Pilatus Porter Turbine landing in the opposite direction to you, only 100m laterally separated, I think I would do the same!

I got hotter.

A quick circuit later and they kindly pressed the blipper while still taxying in - I got onto the parking and stirpped off asap!

What a great feeling - flying your own aircraft over mountains!

Friday 27th May... Anticipation!

Fingers crossed. Hoping to travel up to Gap later today. Tomorrow I hope to do short field practice in the school aircraft. Sunday should be familiarisation with LC, then short field practice in her. If all goes well I'll be towing her back to La Roquebrousanne. As I say, fingers crossed!