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 :-)