Flyer Forum Safari - Summary

As a summary of the trip:

Friday 19th May
Gloucester to Lille = 2.0 flying hours
Lille to Dijon = 2.2 flying hours

Saturday 20th May
No flying - sightseeing around Dijon

Sunday 21st May
Dijon to Cannes = 2.6 flying hours

Monday 22nd May
Cannes to Lucca = 2.2 flying hours
Lucca to Aprilia = 2.0 flying hours

Tuesday 23rd May
No flying - sightseeing in the area and eating loads

Wednesday 24th May
Aprilia to Ajaccio (Corsica) = 2.3 flying hours

Thursday 25th May
Ajaccio to Carcassonne = 3.4 flying hours

Friday 26th May
Carcassonne to Bergerac (diversion) = 1.7 flying hours
Bergerac to Dinard (St Malo) = 2.6 flying hours

Saturday 27th May
Dinard to Gloucester = 2.6 flying hours

Total flying time for the trip = 23.6 hours
New airports visited = 8

Aside from the facts and figures, what other flying related things were firsts?
• Well, it is the further I have been from my base in Gloucester
• It is the first time I have flown (myself that is) to Italy
• It is the first time I have flown in mountains (UK does not count)
• First time I have flown in the Mediterranean

What did I learn from this trip?
• How to scud run!
• Make your own go/no go decisions.
• Be prepared to give it a try, you can always do a circuit and land or divert
• That the Piper Arrow DOES fly in a 45 kt tailwind
• To call my aircraft type a P28R as controllers did'nt understand 'Arrow’
• How to do 'wing down’ crosswind landings
• Short-field grass strip take-off techniques (for real)
• Mobile computing, WiFi and AvBrief is definitely the way to go
• It would help refuelling if I could get a French credit card
• Too many destinations on a trip are more tiring that flying long ‘two-leg’ days
• I must brush up my IMC skills (Timothy has offered me ILS coaching)
• The Arrow runs nicely at 36 lph and can easily do 3.5 hours with reserves

That is my big trip for 2006. I will do a couple of cross-channel weekends and maybe a long weekend Scotland trip and I must do my IMC revalidation, but other than locals, that will be it for 2006.

Several possibilities for 2007, but I will change jobs and have a far less generous holiday entitlement, so I must use my holidays wisely – I will be joining the ‘cash-rich, time-poor’ brigade. The options are:

• One week ‘fly-fly’ holiday in west coast USA
• See what Flyer Forum are doing next year for a Safari
• Do my own trip to Morocco (Marrakesh?)
• Do my own Nordic trip to the three Nordic capitals

Hmmm…. decisions, decisions!