Diary of the Great Austrian Flying Adventure

[Whirlybird]

Sorry folks, but this diary can't happen just yet. We're staying overnight in Saarbrucken, on the German/French border, hoping the nasty front that's been crossing Europe will go through overnight, so that we can head for Northern France tomorrow. And I only have enough coins for six minutes more on this PC!!! But anyway, we nearly flew to Salzburg...only the town itself was clagged in, so we left KF at a nice friendly airfield in South Germany (Biberach), and had a mad four hour drive to actually get to the conference which was the aim of the whole trip...sort of the aim anyway. Now on the way back, but slowly. I could get hooked on this continental flying...but anyway, more later.....

[Whirlybird]

We're finally ready. We have charts for NE France, Munchen, and Stuttgart, and have stopped panicking about all the restricted areas in France. Pilot Warehouse have swapped the 2003 charts they sent for our flight planning, for the 2004 ones which they received late; we just got them in time. PW, thanks a million for being so helpful! We eventually decided on ICAO charts since they seem to show more detail. We also have Bottland Trip Kits for France and Germany, a held-held radio for emergencies, life jackets, ELT, etc. Yes, this is normal...but the problem in a C150 is the weight and balance....G-ATKF is just not a touring aircraft. If we weren't both fairly small and light, the trip would be impossible. As it is, we have about one change of clothes each, and I've been throwing things out and checking the weight of me plus gear all weekend. But we're within limits, and the wx for the next three days looks good.

I drive to Sleap, and fly to Wellesbourne to pick up B (who doesn't want to be named on PPRuNe, and who can blame her). She flies us to Manston, where we've decided to stop for the night. Neither of us has ever been in there, but over the weekend I phoned the handling agent, got my PPR number (first time I ever had one of those!), and booked into a B & B they told me about, run by one of the flying instructors. So we're organised, and it's a nice uneventful flight in good weather. We land on Manston's huge runway - 67m wide as well as being very long...you think you're close to it long before you are!!! Taxi to the flying school, where one of the instructors recognises KF; this is always happening, since she was a flying school aircraft for years and years, and everyone seems to have flown her once. I explain that she is now a group-owned aircraft, and has a new home at Sleap.

The B & B is in Broadstairs, and we feel a bit like we're in a time warp. It's like a boarding house from the 1950s; perfectly adequate, but half the lights don't seem to work, and the town looks like British seaside resorts did 50 years ago. But no matter, it's all we need, and tomorrow we're off to Calais!!!!

More when I have time, and don't worry, it gets more interesting...at least, we thought so....

[Whirlybird]

Taxi back to Manston; wx is still lovely. We fill in flight plan form, and get given yet more conflicting advice about customs at Calais. This is a long story. I'd heard they needed 24 hours notice, then a recent article in Flyer said you could just file your flight plan and turn up. To make sure, I phoned from Wellesbourne, but I don't think they understood what I was getting at...though they did tell me we'd be most welcome. The flying club at Manston says they needed 24 hours notice; one of the flying instructors there says it should be fine. This, we discover, is typical of flying in France - you can never find out just what you're meant to do!!!!

I fly the next leg, climbing to 5000 ft so that we can glide to land in the event of engine failure, and....because I can. Wx like this doesn't happen often, so why not. We land at Calais - no customs. Questions about what to do receive Gallic shrugs, so we give up and have lunch, then go up to the tower to get NOTAMs etc. We're planning to fly to Charleville, but it turns out they're closed!!! So are all the other small airfilds in that area; it seems we've picked the couple of days in the year when they want to do maintenance - at least, we think that's what they said. Eventually we decide to go on to Reims Prunay, and settle down to work out which of the many restricted areas that takes us through, and who we need to contact to find out the status of each one. Whoever said they're closed or you can fly under or over them all is wrong; in this area that's not true - unless you know how to get from under 800 ft to over 2500 ft to over FL55 in no time at all...and we're in a C150, not a helicopter. Anyway, maybe Lille FIS will sort it all out for us. We can hope.

So we leave, and get passed on to Lille. I call them - no reply. I try again, saying "Bonjour" very nicely - no reply. On the third attempt they tell me to "report coasting in"!!!! We are now a couple of miles from their airspace. Resisting the temptation to be rude, I tell them who we are and exactly where we are; that we are in France, not crossing the channel, and very close to them. Lo and behold, they talk to me, and clear us into their zone.

This sort of thing continues. Lille pass us to Cambrai, who control the restricted areas, and they route us around the super-fast nasties flying close to us. These restricted areas are very definitely active. We then get passed on to Paris Info, then Reims. In each case, sometimes they answer us, sometimes not. Sometimes I can't understand a word they say, and have to ask them to say again about three times. I feel like a new PPL all over again, and whoever said this was easy is talking crap!!!! It may be easy when you've done it for a while, and it may be easy at weekends or in a different area, but sorry folks - this was just not my definition of easy!!!!!!!

Eventually we get to Reims Prunay. It's a lovely little airfield, reminding me a bit of Welshpool, where I learned to fly - it too has a main road on the undershoot, and is surrounded by fields. But Reims is better than WPL in that it has a hotel on the site. It's a real aviators' hotel, with all the rooms named after famous aviators - a sort of French Sywell I suppose. There were only a couple of rooms left, so we didn't manage to get St Exupery or Lindburgh, but some French pilot we'd never heard of; ah well. The food was wonderful, like everywhere in France. We drink wine, gradually de-stress, and decide maybe it was all great fun after all. We then do a bit of route planning for the next day, sitting in the evening sun - Nancy for lunch, then Biberach in Germany. This involves climbing over 4000 foot mountains, so we hope the weather holds.

More later......

[Whirlybird]

Hmmm....162 views and no comments. Does this mean you're all absolutely riveted, to the extent you can't utter a word, or bored stiff? Maybe let me know, then I won't waste bandwidth and time. But on my original thread asking about doing this I promised I'd do a PIREP when we got back, so I'll carry on for now.....

Wed 26th May

We've decided to get up and leave early, so we have lots of time should anything go wrong. This turned out to be a good idea; read on...

I fly us to Nancy, again in lovely weather. The forecast is CAVOK almost everywhere, so we're not too worried about the hills between us and southern Germany. B does the radio, and it's all relatively straightforward; we have to fly around a couple of restricted areas, but no real problems. We start to think we're getting the hand of this French flying. We get to Nancy before midday, plan the next bit of the route, have lunch, which is excellent as usual. Then...

B has asked how to use the Minitel to file our flight plan, mandatory since we're crossing a border. There is a military Gazelle starting up, just outside. I usually LOVE the sound of helicopters, but I have a bit of a headache from all the sun, and this is making it worse. So I close the door. B wrestles with the Minitel, which refuses to work. I give her a hand, but there's definitely something wrong with it. We look around for someone to help us, but they've all gone for lunch. We then discover we're locked in!!!! The door I closed has a combination, and we don't know it. I try a couple of other doors; they're both locked, and everyone has gone to lunch. This is absurd, but there's nothing we can do. We are stuck here for the long French lunch hour. B carries on trying to file the flight plan; I re-do our route, telling her I'm sick of flying around things, and we're going in a straight line, right through Strasbourg's zone. I'm so determined she doesn't even argue; anyway, it'll be my turn on the radio.

This all carries on for a couple of hours. We wave and yell at anyone we see through the window, to no avail. I remind B that we left early and have plenty of time, but I watch the cloud building, and decide to plan a longer route around the hills, just in case, and more diversion airfields - Strasbourg and Karlsruhe.

Eventually, we are rescued! Someone turns up, opens the door, and tries the Minitel. We were right; it doesn't work. OK, he says, file the flight plan by phone. We do this, then escape at last!!!!!

Then follows the most absurd bit of RT I've ever encountered...though those of you used to France may find it normal. :eek: We are passed on to Nancy Approach, who very quickly pass us on to Reims. Reims give us a squawk, then very quickly, for no apparent reason, tell us to call Polygon. "Polygon?" I ask B. "Who the hell are Polygon?" I call them anyway, and get told our radio is very weak. I repeat several times where we are, get given another squawk, and eventually get asked to confirm that we're still in French airspace. I say again where we are, and an irate German voice tells me that he has to jurisdiction over us in French airspace, and to talk to Metz. I change frequencies again, get yet another squawk. Metz think about it for a bit, and say we're not in their area, and to talk to someone else. I politely ask who they suggest!!! I ask three times and get no reply; in France, if they don't want to talk to you, then they don't. At this point I realise that even though we've had three squawk codes, no-one is looking after us, and with a 20kt unforecast tailwind we're zooming along (relatively, for a C150) faster than I'm used to. In fact, we're very close to a restricted area, but this one we can climb over, and I tell B to climb 500 ft immediately. I also tell her I'm going to call Strasbourg. However, I have three frequencies for them, and don't know which is correct. So I tell B to be prepared to climb to over 5000 ft to avoid their zone if necessary. The building cloud I'd seen is all well above that; CAVOK, of course, only means no cloud below 5000 ft.

Strasbourg talk to me!!!! They clear us through their zone, and don't tell us to go away. In fact, when I tell them we're crossing the German border and leaving their zone, I get told their zone extends well into Germany, and not to leave till I'm told to. Wow! The ATCO doesn't realise just how delighted I am with this order. Meanwhile, we are thoroughly enjoying the flight. We're at nearly 5000 ft, over spectacular mountains and forests and villages - truly awesome scenery, with great visibility. A lot of NE France had been flat and relatively featureless, but this is wonderful - what flying is all about.

Eventually Strasbourg passes us on to Langen Info, and from then on radio use is easy. Germany is completely different; they have demarcated FIS areas (so does France, but they ignore this and do what they like), hardly any restricted areas, and everyone speaks English. We fly over more wonderful scenery - a plateau at between 2000 and 3000 ft with forests and lakes, but enough fields to give us a sense of security. Eventually we get to Biberach...although we're actually way ahead of our flight plan, as we still have this stonking unforecast tailwind.

Biberach is a lovely friendly little airfield, run by an ex-military pilot with tens of thousands of flying hours in absolutely every type of aircraft. He helps us with everything, books us into a hotel, and even gives us a lift into the town. Biberach itself is a pretty little town with a medieval centre and lots to see. We sit drinking good German beer outside a cafe in the town centre, watching the world go by. This is definitely what continental flying is all about. And we've been told the weather tomorrow should be OK, so we should make Salzburg with no problems.

Ah, the bestlaid plans.....

More later, IF anyone wants it....

[Tall_guy_in_a_152]

I'm riveted, but didn't want to break the flow of your PIREPs (atleast, not until someone else did).

Keep it coming.

TG.

[sunday driver]

Great stuff, Whirly - keep it coming.

Real motivation for UK-bound wimps like myself.

sd

[PhilD]

Hi Whirly

It sounds like we covered almost the same route as you. Last Friday Mrs PhilD and I flew almost in a straight line from Blackbushe to Konstanz (EDTZ), over Metz, Strasbourg and (yes!) Polygone. Only I had seen the (R) area on the map and noted the freq for clearance. When we called we just got the recorded announcement saying that the area was not active so we could just carry on right through. Altogether the leg took 3:50, which is about as long as I would want to sit in an SEP, especially on 25 year old seats.

We stayed one night in Konstanz then headed to Vienna via Reutte (LOIR). I picked this off the map as an interesting looking place and boy was I right. It's just up a small valley near Fussen and is in a really idyllic location. We stayed there for lunch and then headed for Vienna International Airport (LOWW) for 3 nights. On the way back we had a lunch stop at Vilshofen which is on the banks of the Danube, then a night at Rothenburg ob-der-Tauber (EDFR), which is (according to my guidebook) the 'best preserved medieval town on Europe'.

Finally we came back on Wednesday via Reims Prunay (for a 2 hour stop while the BKN080 cleared), then Le Touquet for French customs, Biggin for UK customs (which was the only place on the entire trip that anyone asked to see our passports) and finally the 30mins to EGLK.

Overall it was 14.7 hours flying for the trip, and a great experience. If I get some time I'll post some piccies.

Phil

[LowNSlow]

Keep 'em coming Whirly

PS I misread the title, I thought you were being very ambitious taking the 150 to AUSTRALIA :ooh: :ooh:

[mazzy1026]

This is superb reading - keep it coming Whirly !

Maz :ok:

[Penguina]

Yes, I'm interested too. Should have asked me about Calais customs, just been through the whole lot myself, having discussed it first with someone who does it all the time, and it still didn't make that much sense!

[Whirlybird]

Phil,
I'm still trying to work out why everyone else gets recorded messages saying the French restricted areas are inactive, and when we fly there everything is active. :confused: Unfair!

Penguina,
I didn't know you were going, or I would have talked to you about Calais etc. Mind you, I've now talked to lots of people, and I'm still none the wiser. :confused: Apparently no-one else is either; just before we came home, a couple in le Touquet asked us about flying in France, and I don't think our answers made much sense to them. And it turned out they'd been there before, but still didn't know, which was why they asked us!

LowNSlow,
Australia in KF sounds nice, but as you say, maybe a little ambitious.

OK, to continue...

Thursday 27th May
The forecast looks OK, no cloud below about 5000 ft, so we expect to make Salzburg by lunchtime. But it isn't to be. Five minutes out of Biberach we fly into cloud, 500 ft above the hills. We try to fly around it, but it's obvously getting worse. Time for a 180 and back to the airfield. KF is definitely a VFR aircraft; we only have basic instruments, plus an AI which takes ages to gear itself up to work, and a VOR which sometimes sticks; it works fine till you try to fly over the top of a VOR; then it can't cope with going accurately from "to" to "from". Everything is just...old. Anyway, we land back at Biberach, where everyone says the cloud, which wasn't forecast anyway, should lift later in the day. We spend one of those days that happens so often in aviation - sitting in the cafe, checking weather at frequent intervals, asking everyone who flies in what the cloudbase is. Eventually, at about 4pm, the airfield manager tells us we won't make it; he has a forecast for Salzburg which looks pretty bad. We cancel out booked room in Salzburg, and re-book our hotel in Biberach. It's back to Biberach for another night. We like the place, but not forever. Still, they say tomorrow is forecast to be good, and we don't have to be at the FEWP conference till tomorrow night, so no problem.

Friday 28th May
The weather looks good...but not for Salzburg. We get a phone call from A and C, who are in Nancy, and had also hoped to make Salzburg for the FEWP conference. They\'ve phoned Salzburg, who\'ve said don\'t fly in; the wx is horrible and not expected to improve. We decide to go down to the airfield and check. This was the Salzburg TAF:

LOWS 280900Z 281019 03008KT 9999 SCT020 BKN045 TEMPO 1019 4000RA SCT012 BKN025 PROB30 TEMPO 1216 34015G25KT 2500TSRA SCT012 SCT025CB BKN030

Well, who\'s going to fly in a very basic C150, to a town in the foothills of the Alps, over a 3000ft plateau, with no very close diversion airfields, with a low cloudbase, gusty winds, and thunderstorms? Not us anyway. We had always realised we might not make it, and decided in advance that if we were fairly close we\'d hire a car and drive to the conference. We tell A and C we\'re planning to do this; they ask if we can wait for a bit and they\'ll join us, since the hills between Nancy and Biberach are clear. We do this, and they turn up around lunchtime. The local car hire place only has small cars, without room for much stuff (A and C have loads of luggage, because they can) or...a Mercedes!!!! Well, what a shame - we have to take the Merc :)

We tie down both aircraft, tell them we\'ll be back Sunday, and join the bank holiday traffic for the drive to Salzburg. We arrive there in early evening, delighted to see that the hills are covered in cloud and it\'s raining; we would have been furious if it had been clear. We find the hotel and catch a taxi to the planned evening meal, a little late, but no real problem. Quite a few other people had planned to fly in and not made it; several had come some other way, one had diverted to Landshut, and a group from Italy had somehow made it in, VFR they said, though God only knows how. We\'re a wee bit disappointed, but that\'s aviation for you. We wander round Salzburg, then collapse into bed.

More later, but not tomorrow as I have to drive to London for a meeting about my proposed Gobi camel trek; phew, I need a rest someday. :)

[WestWind1950]

great reading Whirly.... I didn't even notice your thread the first days ... hmmmm

I've flown through France twice and it's reassuring to me that the problems I had accountered were not through mistakes I had made.... they were the same ones you seemed to have: no one talks to you!! I also stayed at Reims-Prunay but have very lousy memories of the place... maybe I'll get a chance to tell you some day. All I know is, after returning to Germany I breathed a sigh of relief and vowed "France: never again!! (by plane heehee)"

I didn't make it to Salzburg myself :{ I could have stayed at a friends place, too... oh, well..... maybe next time.

Westy

[Whirlybird]

Warning - this post has virtually no actual flying content, so feel free to skip it if you only want to hear about happenings in the air. :)

We managed to have a bit of a lie-in, before all meeting to go to the airport, where we had a room booked for the AGM. I'd met a few of the other women the evening before, including Nathalie, the Dutch woman who organised my 2002 flying trip to Russia; I'd told her about the FEWP, and she'd decided to come along. Now we found ourselves among over 40 female pilots from ten countries - UK, France, Germany, Holland, Spain, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, and Slovenia (I've missed one out; can't remember). Nathalie, as a new member, was asked if she wanted to say what were her reasons for joining, and she said that the people there didn't need a women pilots organisation, but a lot of women did, in places and countries where they rarely met another woman who flew, and could feel isolated and lacking in confidence. She said it would be great if we weren't needed, and she wished that were the case, but in her experience we still were. There were lots of nods of agreement, from people of all ages, countries, and cultures.

The meeting was in English, and fairly short and sweet. There were plans to extend the website, which is most people's source of information about the FEWP:
www.Europeanwomenpilots.com
Slovenia will host next year's gathering, and it will be in the UK in 2006. And Caroline Gough-Cooper of the UK, current women's world helicopter champion, was elected the new president.

The rest of the day was spent on a whirlwind series of tours - of the aircraft museum at the airport, and of various places in Salzburg. We then had half an hour before a rather good banquet, where I got to chat to a Slovenian glider pilot who spends most of her time over the Alps, and a Dutch PPL student who got bored after she gave up skydiving at the age of 60, so decided to learn to fly. We four left relatively early, since we were planning to drive back to Biberach early on Sunday. The reason? A text from a flying friend in the UK: "Nasty weather Northern Europe Monday, moving SE Tuesday, breaking up Wednesday. Looks horrible" Yikes!!! We hadn't had time to look at an aviation forecast, but we'd heard that it was a rather nasty frontal system that was crossing Europe. So we decided to drive straight back, and try to fly out of the hills before all the crap hit us.

More actual flying reports later.

[Whirlybird]

We four are up early, a little the worse for wear after a long day and a late night, but at 8am we're on the road back to Biberach. The weather, which has been horrible for two days, is now lovely. It would have been wonderful to fly back. If only we'd flown here Wednesday evening. Of course, that was the day we got locked in at Nancy, I had a headache anyway, we'd have been very late and tired, and anyway, the forecast for Thursday had been good. We weren't clairvoyant. It's a shame, but that's aviation for you. :( We console ourselves by remembering that we'd got further than we ever expected, had a wonderful time, and that almost no-one else had managed to fly to Salzburg.

We get back in record time, on a Sunday morning with little traffic. We check the weather, trying to work out where the front is. B and I decide to go to Saarbrucken, north and on the border. We'd rather head north, and get out of the hills, and we don't want to go back the same way we came. We'd considered smaller places, but it the weather gets worse we'd rather be near somewhere that can help us get in, and if we're going to be stranded for a day or so, at least large towns have shops and restaurants and things to do. The trouble is, no-one seems to know anything about Saarbrucken, either the town or the airfield. I'd even asked around at Salzburg, but no-one seemed to have been there. But we phone them, and they sound very friendly.

We also found out about this noise abatement thing at German airfields. It's in the German Trip Kit, section 6.6 I think, but I've left it with B, so I'm not certain. Some airfields have restrictions on take-offs and landings for aircraft without a noise certificate. It's only early morning and late at night usually (and possibly lunchtimes, can't remember for certain), but on Sundays and holidays it's any time after 1pm local. It doesn't include the big airports, or the tiny airfields; they have to have more than a certain number of movements a year. It doesn't include Biberach, but does include most of the smaller airfields we'd been considering. Biberach's airfield manager says landing should be OK; it's taking off they worry about. But several airfield plates say to look at this section, so we're not that sure. After all, this is Germany, where they stick to the rules! But Saarbrucken is big, so we're OK.

We have a lovely flight, over more mountains and rivers and forests; southern Germany really is beautiful. But it's very bumpy and thermic; I give up attempting to keep straight and level, and let KF do her own thing. A roller coaster sort of trip really. Again, radio use is straightforward, with no problems. I really like flying in this country. And it's nice to be in the air again, after a few days off. We get to Saarbrucken mid-afternoon, and consider going on. However, we're not sure where the front is, and decide we're probably safer on the ground; it's due to hit us tonight, but could be a bit early. And it still sounds nasty. The people at Saarbrucken Airport are all action; they find us a hotel, help us tie down KF, and order us a taxi. It arrives before we're even ready!!! We feel a bit as though Germany is too organised maybe, but it's certainly rather nice, and we pretty much have to go along with it. Are all German airfields like this, we wonder? The hotel is luxurious and amazingly cheap; they also have internet access. I intend to start this thread, but find I'm running out of coins; hence the rather pointless first post here. Anyway, we go for a walk into the town, and find it's a very pleasant place, with a river, riverside cafes, a large square with restaurants all round it, and interesting old buildings. How come nobody had heard of this place? It's definitely a good stopping off point. We sit by the river eating apfel strudel, then wander round the town, then have a meal out of doors in the square. But it's now beginning to cloud over, so we head back to the hotel, expecting the deluge at any moment.

Will we still be here tomorrow, waiting out the weather? Wait and see....

[Whirlybird]

The nasty frontal system, that everyone had been warning us about, died. It fizzled out overnight, with just a little cloud and rain, and we wake up to good weather. Fantastic! We get a taxi back to the airport, hoping to fly to Charleville for lunch, since we hadn't been able to get in there on the way south. Then we should make Le Touquet by the evening. But according to the TAFs, Charleville has low cloud and mist. :( A and C phone us from Charleville, where they'd stopped overnight, to say not to come, they're socked in. Since we'd been ever so slightly jealous of the pace of their faster aircraft, we feel ever so slightly...smug, perhaps, since we can get airborne and they can't. Anyway, we obviously aren't destined to go to Charleville this trip, so we start looking for another lunchtime stop. Since we don't want to go back to Reims (we're new airfield collectors), Peronne seems like the best place. Saarbrucken arranges weather information, files our flight plan, and gives us NOTAMs. In fact, it all happens automatically, and the correct NOTAMs appear as if by magic after we've filed our flight plan. Now why can't we organise a NOTAM system like that over here?

We take off, and once we cross the border, Saarbrucken Approach passes us on to Reims. In true French fashion, Reims gets rid of us as soon as possible, passing us on to Paris, who don 't reply. We don't need a chart to know that we're back in France again. Anyway, there are few restricted areas between us and Peronne, so it's manageable. B does the radio for Peronne, which is a small airfield where you need to speak French, and hers is better than mine, though I can manage downwind (vent arriere) and final (finale) by now. We land, and the next thing we know there are skydivers landing all around us!!!! We shut down quickly, then get told by a young French Canadian chap that it's OK to taxi; the parachutists know we're there!!! No-one seems in the least concerned about everyone using the airfield all together except us. Anyway, we chat to the French Canadian, whose comments about the disorganisation of flying in France are unprintable. He also tells us that you can't rely on the FIS you're talking to to tell you about the restricted area activity; you have to actually ask them. He'd fallen foul of that, and been intercepted by two Mustangs. So now you know, those of you who say it's all easy.

We can't get any lunch, but we have coffee, some of our emergency muesli bars, and a break. And we get fuel for KF - the main purpose for stopping really. We are in the middle of nowhere, just the airfield, a few aircraft, lots of skydivers, and fields with haymaking. Pretty place though, and very friendly. We then set off for Le Touquet, flying along the Somme, arriving there late afternoon. The airfield finds us a taxi and a hotel, and we enjoy being back in the land of fantastic food. We hope to return to the UK tomorrow, but have checked the weather, and think we may be stuck here for a day. It's a nice place to be stuck, so we don't really mind.

More later.

[GroundBound]

Hey Whirly,

I saw your comments about G-ATKF - I didn't know she was still flying. It was the first aircraft I ever flew, back at Cambridge in Spring 1966. She was the best of the 6 C150's they had at the time. I hope she has stood the test of time, and still seems to be doing a sterling service.

Have a great flight in her :ok:
GB

[Whirlybird]

Groundbound,

KF is doing just fine. She dates from 1964, so I guess Cambridge was her first home, maybe. She was at Headcorn for years and years, and I gather many there were sorry to see her go; they preferred her to all the other C150s. She still flies beautifully; it's only one or two of the gyro instruments that don't seem to have withstood the test of time.

[Whirlybird]

Having received a text from a friend as follows:

Looks unpleasant Tuesday due quasi stationery front sat on channel...

....we weren't really expecting to go flying. The forecast was right; we woke up to mist and rain...and went back to sleep again. We then had a nice restful day wandering round Le Touquet's shops in light drizzle, walking along the beach, trying out restaurants, etc. We were quite happy about it, as with all the activities in Salzburg, we'd virtually had no time off since leaving the UK. However, nice as Le Touquet is, we don't want to stay here for too long, so are hoping we can leave tomorrow.

[Whirlybird]

The forecast is good...but the wx in Le Touquet is crap. This is unfair, as it's lovely just about everywhere else. We go down to the airport, and hang about until around midday. A few people fly in, and it sounds as though the weather over the channel is improving. We have lunch, and manage to get away soon afterwards; it's fairly murky, but flyable. It clears once we reach Dover, and gradually improves as we head north - we're heading for Southend to refuel and clear customs. Southend is big but really friendly; we have a a snack, then set out for Wellesbourne. I have planned to drop B off there, then spend the night with a friend, as I don't want to get back late to Sleap and have to wrestle KF into position and tie her down etc when I'm tired. However, when we get to Wellesbourne I change my plans. It's a lovely evening, but the TAF for Birmingham for Thursday morning is giving a 1400 ft cloudbase and rain. I decide I'd rather fly back in good weather, even though I'm tired, than dodge low cloud over the hills in the morning, so I set off for Sleap. It's a lovely flight on a sunny evening, though it seems to take ages in a strong headwind. But I land safely, put KF to bed, and drive home.

And I wanna do it all again! Except next time, we'll just fly where our whims and the weather take us, not try to get anywhere definite, and it'll be a lot easier. And despite the hassles of French airspace...I think the south of France is beckoning for next year.:ok:

[WestWind1950]

Whirly,

next time you just MUST land in Egelsbach.... where, if I'm not off on a trip myself, I can provide you with FREE room and board! :p

After all, this is Germany, where they stick to the rules!
I have to really grin at that comment... heehee

Westy

[Whirlybird]

Westy,

I'd love to. Trouble is, next time probably won't be till next year now; not enough time or money. :{

[Aim Far]

Whirly, thanks for taking the time to post your report. Hopefully it will encourage others. When I was out that way earlier in May, I heard no other British registrations on the radio in two weeks of flying except when I got back to Northern France. Its a great continent, the flying isn't difficult, the facilities are excellent and its a pity more people don't do longer trips.