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!

Tuesday May 24th - at last some progress! Of sorts.

After a long recuperation from the hip op, then an even longer trip to Albania and back (yes, Albania - the land of Norman Wisdom...), I finally got round to trying to get back in the air.

Planned a weekend in Gap with good ol' marcus Dalgetty. LC needed her permit renewing anyway.

Got up there late on the Saturday night, checked into the Hotel at Gap Tallard. Great place - right on the airield, swimming pool for SWMBO, nice little self-catering apartment.

Sunday mornign saw me up bright and early, rigging up LC - see piccie

An idyllic morning - the baloons were out - parachutists defying the Grim Reaper with every leap (particularly those doing what the French call 'Le Pic du Mort' - basically diving at the ground), and a beautiful calm day.

Time enough to get LC rigged and ready for her Permit test. After that, some short-field practice in the school aircraft and home. The I'd feel comfortable about flying into a 306m strip.

Well, the first part of the plan went fine - LC passed with flying colours (Marcus even went as far as saying I'd gotten a real bargain once he knew what I'd paid for her!). But as I was preparing to de-rig, so the CB started to form, it having gotten very hot and humid, and my flying was cancelled.

Dragged her into the hangar to keep the rain off the wing and de-rigged inside. I was glad to tell you the truth because it would have been hell to do it outside. By this time it was 35*C - and that at 2000ft!

Marcus kindly allowed me to leave LC there for the week, de-rigged, in case the BMAA manage to process my permit in time for me to fly her after the school a/c next week. Fingers crossed.

But in any case, got that little bit closer to my goal, to fly my own a/c in the skies of Provence!

More soon I hope :-)

Friday 11th March 2011. Still no flying, but I have a newly fixed hip!

Ah well, my hip problems are all but over. I had a new surface put on my right hip at the beginning of February. The pain had become so severe that I was unable to walk more than a couple of hundred yards, stand for more than a few minutes - or get into my plane! Something clearly had to be done and I evntually decided on a Birmingham Hip Resurfacing. This operation leaves you with almost all of your original hip bone, which means that the normal number of standard hip replacements can be carried out at a later date. So it extends the life of my hip by 15 to 20 years over and above normal hip replacement! Yay! Here's a piccie of what they do:

I had option B, which is great.

I'm just over 4 weeks post-op now and getting about quite happily on one walking stick. The pain is less than before the op, so already I'm experiencing benefit! The actual hip doesn't hurt at all - just the trauma of the operation and the wound itself, which will heal as time goes on.

It amazes me that we can just replace worn-out parts. I reckon I we were born about 100 years too early - in that time, I think we'll come to a stage where if you don't want to die, you don't have to! What with cloning, jont and organ replacement etc. as they are today, it won't be long before they can just grow you new bits as they wear out!

All very good for the late-comer to flying like me. So many things to do, places to see etc.

I started a list the other day: 'PLACES I WOULD LIKE TO SEE FROM THE AIR'

Ayers Rock

The Grand Canyon

The Rockies

Puget Sound and the Islands off Vancouver

Nevada Desert

Ockavango Delta

Zambeze River

Africa Generally

The Steppes

Greenland Glaciers

Niagra Falls

Namib Deset - dunes generally

Fjordland

The Maldives...

The list just got longer and longer - I thought "Ooops, I need to live for about another 50 years to see all this! - and the list isn't finished!"

So, with a newly fixed hip healing nicely, I'm planning on trying to stay around untill they can clone me a new body. I'll be asking them to make it a bit smaller, as I have a bit of trouble getting my 6ft 3in frame into aircraft.

Actually, I wonder if they'll be able to do you a 'designer' body? A bit smaller there, a bit bigger there - if you know what I mean... I'd die for feet less than size 13!

Anyway, to keep myself occupied while recuperating I've been playing with my flight sim. I have a Mainair Blade for Flight Sim- designed for FS2002 by Byron Warwick. It's a 582 version with some very nice Rotax 2-stroke sound files. I've been updating it to a 912. At some stage I plan to actually record Elsi at various revs and make a sound file out of it, but for the time being I've just been playing with available sounds.

Also been updating the panel - here's a comparison:

Real Blade (mine, being flown by Daryl Cornelius)

The sim as modified so far:

Not exact, but it's getting there! I'm particularly pleased with myself for getting the VSI slightly off-level as in the real a/c, and for getting the compass, which is a normal 'vertical card' gauge like everything else, to look as if it's got a horizontal card. Still some work to do, but being as I can't drive (or therefore fly) for another two weeks, I guess it's going to help keep me occupied...

Incidentally, the sim is in the same geographical location as the real a/c for the picture - I've been doing some VFR navigation practice with the sim - I may post more on that later... depending on how geekish I feel.

Cars and Bearings

Got the new car back to Antibes without incident, thank goodness!

You know when you fly over water, you start hearing noises your engine makes which you never heard before?Well it was like that with the car - all the way dwon on the motorway I could hear whines, clicks, rumbles and the like - all of which spelt imminent breakdown as far as I could see.

Now I've got it here, it's behaving impeccably. Subjective? Nah...

Anyway, now I'm mobile again I got down to the airfield and started on the task of replacing the front steering bearing insert - when I got the plane, the front steering was stupidly stiff.

Of course, not being totally daft myself, I got an experienced triker to fly Elsie for the first time. Enter Daryl Cornelius. He reported the problem with the steering, along with a few other niggles, and just said - line her up straight before you apply power and you should be off the ground before it gets too far off the centreline... which is exactly what hapened for my first flight in her.

Anyway, with the thick fog which was present on my last trip to the field, I decided to renew the bearing.

Hmmm.... got the steering bar off ok and the front wheel/fork assy out of the tube. But then the fun started... somewhat difficult to remove the bearing! Several hours later and some serious torture of the bearing got it out - I don't think it could be used again:

I found a spiky piece of metal protruding into the steering tube - couldn't understand what it was - not a rivet or a grease nipple, because nothing visible outside. I called Graham at P&M and he couldn't elucidate. Out with the file then, and off it came.

Gently tapped the new bearing into the tube - using a wooden block between the bearing and the hammer. Then into the bearing with the forks and finally the steering bar tapped on from inside the pod.

Ah.

I'm 1/4" short. Bugger. Should have checked more thoroughly that the bearing had gone completely home. Getting dark...

Oh well, live to fight another day.

I'll take my camera next time and get a few shots of the field and surroundings - ready for anyone who cares to visit in the Summer.

Cheers for now...

Plus ca change, plus c'est le meme chose...

Well what a few weeks I've been having! Weather absolutely rotten. Rain, rain, rain and then lots of wind. Yuk. Result, no flying.

Add to that the deteriorating condition of my hip - I am told a need a re-tread on it - and it sucks. Apparently these days they can just 'resurface' the joint, rather than replace the whole thing - so I'm hoping for that.

Plus, yes I have more to tell, the new car broke down on the way back to France. The rear diff went and imploded. I managed to limp off the motorway and called the RAC (I have European cover). They came out and towed the car to the nearest Jeep dealer - plus they hired me a car to continue my journey! Excellent.

Or so I thought.

The garage wanted €5000+ to fix the car, so I said "don't be so daft - just send it back to the UK and I'll get it fixed there". That's when things started to go a bit pear-shaped. According to the RAC, I had to accept the garage's quote or I'd have to repatriate the car at my own expense. The car would only be repatriated if it were 'impossible' to fix it at a local garage. And, the contribution towards repatriation would be limited to the market value of the car... if I did not want to do that, then I'd have to scrap the car in France, but I'd lose the money I'd paid for it.

Also - and this is a cracker - I had to take the hire car back to where I'd got it! I mean, what's the point of hiring me a car so I can get home - then telling me I have to take it back again!!!!! It's 750km from where I broke down to my flat in France - that would mean a 1500km round trip (see how quick I did the maths there...).

Now, I don't call that "trouble-free motoring" as described in their sales bumph. And it certainly wasn't made clear to me when I paid for the Euopean Breakdown, Recovery and Repatriation service.

Blimey what a take-on! Anyway I started making big noises about the Ombudsman, mis-selling and the like. Suddenly they decided to repatriate my car and to hire me another car which I could leave near my flat in France. I still had to drive all the way back and swap cars, but it was something!

Of course, during all this pallaver, I had to buy another car - believing at the time I would lose my beloved new Cherokee. So here it s:

Look familiar?

Yep, it's another Grand Cherokee.

The daft thing is I now own two of the b*ggers, since the RAC eventually agreed to repatriate my first one, Lol, it never rains when it pours...

Ah well. I'll repair the first one and sell it - know anyone?

Other than the above, nothing much to report. Boring really...