Trip to Deauville / Honfleur

For almost two years, I have promised to take the wife to Honfleur in the plane. I have had it scheduled twice now and had to cancel both time due to weather or aircraft tech problems. The weather leading up to the weekend was variable and the forecasts for the weekend were all over the place, ranging from heavy and persistent showers and high winds, to still air and hot sunshine – basically it was changing every day in the lead up to the weekend. So I concluded that it was one of those ‘stick your head out of the window in the morning’ things.

I knew this next six weeks or so starting with the Pole Talk on the 25th July was going to be hectic and so it is turning out to be. After getting to bed at 01:00 following a play on a commercial helicopter simulator, I then of course had trouble getting to sleep.

I got up at 07:15 and the weather was perfect. So I checked the aviation forecast on the Met Office and it said a similar thing, except that it showed France as being low cloud with showers. Well, they might be wrong and it may lift, anyway, Cherbourg seemed to be clear of that weather, so I could always divert. Worth a try anyway.

Timothy was up and about and while I packed the wife walked the dog and drove it into Cheltenham to drop it with my daughter, then we would both meet up at the airport.

I drove in with Timothy, having filed all the GAR’s and Flight Plans the previous night. The terminal was closed, so I used my pass to get us both airside. I headed off to pull my plane out and do a thorough pre-flight check in my own time, by myself in an unhurried way (the way I like it).

I completed this and set the plane up, locating the liferaft and the heavier bits of luggage as far forward (under the seats) as I could as the RV6 it very ‘balance sensitive’ and can easily be loaded aft of the C&G envelope.

The wife turned up just as I had finished and we waved Timothy off as he moved off in his Piper Aztec.

I gave Mazzie a briefing, especially on the seat belts, canopy release, seat belt cutters, ELT and liferaft. She takes this well and does not over-react (you know, the ‘why is he telling me all this – we’re going to die!’ scenario).

We mounted up and taxied over to the pumps. I filled the plane’s main tanks to the gunnels, so I have a full 140l in total on board (there are tip tanks, but we don’t use these in normal operations, given that filling the mains give about 5 hours!).

We were nicely on time as I ran the power checks and lined up in perfect, sunny and nil-wind conditions on runway 27.

Now I don’t know about you, but I seem to manage at least one item of stupidity (my fault) or excitement (sod’s law) on every leg I fly. Well, I exceeded the quota on this leg starting with a ‘not very good’ take off. I lined up and powered up and started rolling. Stick forward-ish to get the tail off. The tail came up as I held a bit of forward pressure to keep the plane on the ground until flying speed. Well, it started to skip and hop and maybe we hit a bump or something, but we seemed to be up, so I pulled back slightly expecting it to climb. Well, I had done this too early and she simply moved along the runway nose high. Feeling like an idiot, I tried again, stick slightly forward to get the tail up and off she came as sweetly as you please. Well, I haven’t done that before and felt like an idiot, but it was easily recovered so I guess no harm done. The wife refrained from comment, but I knew what she was thinking (so was I).

Up we went as I came onto route as:

EGBJ DCT GWC DCT SITET DCT LFRG

Nice and simple, but care was needed as I would come close to the Southampton zone and we all know how keen they seem to be to call an infringement if you come within two miles of their zone, let alone have the temerity to infringe it (OK, that’s my view, you may not agree or like it, but that is my opinion!).



I climbed to 3500’ to stay below the odd scattered cumulus and called Brize for a transit as I would ‘clip’ their western zone around Fairford, ‘threading the needle’ between them, South Cerney, Redlands Farm parachuting and other nasties.

Brize were great as always and they let me go just past the M4. I called Farnboro Radar who were busy as usual. I set the VOR to the GWC VOR and set the radial. I navigate by bearing, GPS and visually. I quickly spotted Newbury and Greenham Common in the right place, as was Popham and Petersfield, well clear of Southampton Zone.

But my second excitement was that the VOR didn’t seem to work properly. It would not wing in from the right, it was as though it was hitting an invisible obstruction and couldn’t move any further left. It would move out further right as I swung the OBS, but not any further towards the middle than a certain point. OK, not fatal I agree.

Then I noticed I had forgotten to switch the fuel pump off. I should have done this at the top of the climb check, but didn’t. I think my late night was impairing my concentration – I vowed to make the rest of the trip perfect and to really concentrate.

I switched to London Information around GWC and coasted out with them to SITET. A few mile north of SITET, a low undercast now slid in below me. I was only at about 4000’, but these ‘clouds’ looked a long way down – sea fog unless I missed my guess. It looked solid for as far south as I could see. Was this the lousy weather the Met Office had predicted? Was my wife ‘curse’ working again (it seems every time I have flown with her, we ended up diverting, or getting weathered in or having the plane go tech or something)?

I switched to Deauville Approach and asked for the weather at Deauville. They gave me CAVOK – hard to believe, but I guess they are the guys on the airfield, so I continued.

With about 30 miles to run, I though I could see maybe some break in the undercast on the horizon, but it could be the light. Closer still and it was definitely breaking a bit. Then as we closed in on Le Havre and the Seine Estuary, I could see it was reasonably broken over the land and I could get underneath what looked like newly formed and lifting cumulus.

Deauville advised me to stay well clear of Le Havre airport as there was an air display (that didn’t appear on the NOTAM’s I had, but I was happy to oblige.

Coming in over the coast with about 6 miles to run to Deauville, I switched to Deauville Tower who gave me a right downwind join for 30 with wind at 280 / 05. I dropped below the clouds (or between them more accurately) and once clear at 1500’, I spotted the airfield. But then I had another ‘brain fart’ and of course joined LEFT downwind for 30. Once I realised my mistake I called the Tower and apologised for my mistake. He was very laid back about it (splendid chap!) and advised me to continue and I was no.2. I spotted the plane in front on short final as I was about to turn base and called it in. I was cleared to land.



A good approach to 30 and the speed was nicely pegged. Down we came and over the piano keys, I judged the height to be correct and chopped the power. Maybe just a tad too high, but we are talking a few feet here. Round out and flare, fly level, hold back, hold back, no stall warner yet, back more, more yet, a distant trilling indicated the stall was imminent, more yet, more, a bit more – squeak – we are down. Very nice three-pointer and a smooth arrival. After an imperfect flight, I was pleased to finish it on a good note.

But it ain’t over in a taildragger until the engine is off and it is tied down, so concentrate on the landing roll, allow it to slow down of its own accord, don’t need brakes. He tells me to vacate on the grass taxiway and park on the grass. It looks smooth enough, so I comply. It is fine as I taxi in and park up.

It is very bright and sunny and bubble canopy of the RV transforms the inside quickly into a greenhouse once the airflow from level flight stops. We heat up really quickly and I am relieved to pop the canopy once we are shut down!



I run through the shut down checklist carefully and methodically, keen not to miss anything based on my performance so far today! I tie the controls back with the seat belt (we don’t have control locks). I don’t bother with tie downs as there is no wind and it isn’t going anywhere in this grass!

We unpack and wander over to the terminal. I report at the clearly signposted yellow and black ‘C’ only to find an empty room with a terminal and a phone to the BRAI. We wander out again and a fireman spots our confusion and points to a door about 20 metres to the right marked ‘Aircrew’ and we report there. This seems to be the office and is well manned. I check in and am relieved of EUR35 – which I think is the landing fee only (extortionate for France and pricey for the UK), parking on the grass seems to be free – I believe they charge for parking on the hard-standing.



They are very helpful and explain that I must show the receipt to get back airside. So I carefully file this in my well organised flight folder which I am very proud of (where I keep all sorts of hard copy, from copies of the weather, GAR’s, PLOGS, hotel bookings etc.). I know most pilots will think that the way I do this is way over the top, but I am not a ‘hairy-arsed’ pilot that thinks that planning is for wimps.

She ushered over the Douanes. This is the first time I have seen a proper ‘Douanier’ when private flying in France. He actually took and examined the passports as if he knew what he was looking at. He ignored my wife’s British passport and carefully examined my Canadian one. He solemnly produced a rubber stamp and carefully stamped a page, finished with a flourish and a ‘voila’! To this day, I think he believes I flew the RV6 all the way in from Toronto!

So feeling somewhat superior, I ask about taxis and she points though a window to a sign marked ‘Taxi’ and to at least three waiting cars. OK – feeling a bit stupid now and I ask her in my halting French where the exit is. She points me at the obvious door marked ‘Sortie’. I am having a severe attack of post-flight ‘stupids’. It happens to me, and I often wonder whether it happens to others or am I so inferior that it only happens to me?

We head off and board a taxi for the ride to Honfleur. About half-way there I realise that I have left my trip folder on the desk airside with the essential receipt! Oh crap!! Not to worry, we’ll sort it out when we return. The taxi cost me EUR30 to the hotel in Honfleur.

We book into the Ibis, an Accor Hotel about 1 mile from the town centre. I love the Accor chain because you can cancel same day – essential for a VFR pilot!



Suffice to say we had a great time in Honfleur. I did note that the Etap Hotel (a very low-cost automated hotel in the Accor chain was very close to town, but I knew that was fully booked. The Mercure (Accor Hotels) was right next door to the Etap and also very close, but it was more expensive. The walk took 15 minutes from the Ibis, which was fine.

Honfleur is very pretty. A bit like St Ives, with all the eateries and art stores and very ‘gentrified’ - but lovely all the same. It was very busy, but of course the weather was by now superb and it is near the height of the holiday season.

There was a special tourism promotion event by Quebec tourism of Canada – I noticed this as I passed a window and spotted a Montreal Canadiens hockey team shirt and sticks etc. – those sods get everywhere.




It is both mine and my wife opinion that the French only like to go on holiday where they are sure that the locals will also speak French, so I guess Quebec advertising there makes sense – get to see Canada without having to even try to get by in another language! Of course the English speaking world are the worst linguists in the world. But I like to think that I make an effort. Myself and my wife would constantly order and ask for things in French and even if they spoke back in English, we persisted with French as far as we were able.

We headed back after a leisurely breakfast on the harbour-front. Again, a EUR30 taxi trip some ten miles to Deauville Airport.

We tried to explain to the security lady that I was a pilot, but I didn’t have the pass. She didn’t understand a word of my Franglais and found another member of staff who understood that we might have left our ‘livre’ airside. He came back with my folder and all was well!! No silliness of scanning as she ushered us through. I established that the ‘C’ office was where we filed flight plans and I filed on over the phone with the local BRAI (the elaborate terminal wasn’t even switched on).

We wandered over to the plane and loaded up while I got the ELT and Seat Belt Cutter secured to my belt and donned lifejackets. I decided we had plenty of fuel and didn’t need a refuel. It had only taken us 1:35 airtime and the winds were calm.

We mounted up and I delayed buttoning up for as long as I could as the weather was superb, very warm and not a cloud in the sky, so we would cook until I got into the air!

Power checks complete, we were cleared for take of on 30. My take-off this time was text book (trying to make amends) as we climbed out heading north towards the coast. I changed to Deauville Radar and climbed to 4000’.



Our route was a precise reverse as:

LFRG DCT SITET DCT GWC DTC EGBJ

With about 20nm to run to SITET, Deauville got rid of us, so I contacted London Information, who were incredibly busy (hardly any surprise on a day like this!). But I managed to get a word in after about ten minutes!

I noticed a Battle of Britain memorial display at Tangmere on the NOTAM’s but the restricted area for this wasn’t due to start for another two hours, so no problems. We coasted in and I changed to Farnboro Radar overhead GWC at 4000’. Farnboro were frantic as well!

I navigated again carefully. There was some cumulus around now and we got bumped a bit as we went close underneath them. As we started to approach Lasham (about 6 miles to the east) my ‘glider radar’ switched on and we both kept our eyes peeled for the sods! We came across two well to the north of Lasham just as I was starting to relax, but managed to stay well clear. Then I was spotting aircraft after aircraft, mainly below us and non conflict.

I switched to Brize around the M4 and said that I would ‘transit’ at 4000’, so would be above his zone, but was calling him just in case. It is a good job that I did because as I was avoiding Redlands Farm around Swindon, we spotted a glider slightly above, but circling and coming around to head towards me. He showed no sign of having seen me, so to be on the safe side, I pulled the power for an abrupt descent to get out of his way and avoid any possible conflict. About 30 seconds into this while craning by neck to see where he was behind me and feeling like a WW2 Spitfire pilot with an enemy behind him, Brize came on the horn to ask if I now needed a transit due to my abrupt change of altitude. I managed to say ‘Errrr….. I’m playing dodgems with glider up here at the moment, I’ll call you back’. I think he got the picture and when I was sure I’d shaken off the glider, I put in a proper call and was given clearance for a transit at my now 3000’.

East abeam Cirencester, I changed from Brize to Gloucester and was given a standard overhead join for 27 with right hand circuits.

I ran my airfield approach checks and crossed the ridge. With the airfield in sight, I changed to the QFE and settled at 2000’ while slowing the plane.

Normal overhead join and while crosswind, I spotted a Cessna well outside me, as he started to turn, so did I onto the downwind and called downwind. Turned base, power back and one stage of flaps. Let it stabilise, then pull on the second stage. Turn inside the distinctive doughnut shaped building and set up on final. Good angle and airspeed at 80, bring it back to 70. I get 70 and call final at just under one mile and get a ‘continue approach’. I can see the plane will be well clear, so continue. Finally I get a ‘cleared to land’.

Set up nicely, drop a bit of speed, back to 70 and peg it there. Over the displaced threshold, round out and pull to power. Hold off, and off and off. Attitude good, back more, trilling in the cockpit, ignore it, try not to land, back more and we touch and stay down. Another nice three-pointer. Stick right back into the nuts to keep the tailwheel welded to the ground as we roll out. I don’t apply brakes and roll past the intersection, so I have to roll to the end to vacate. The bad news about this is that it is the ‘long march of death’ from the 09 end back to the terminal and there is no way I can unbutton the canopy, so a nice slow trundle while we both bake nicely!

I shut down the engine as quickly as I can once parked up and pop the canopy. I work through the checklist carefully and clean up.

I hand Mazzie the buckets, soap and sponge to deal with the flysplats while I sort out the paperwork and unpacking.



We tuck her up in the hangar, give everything a double check and back through the main terminal (in case anyone from immigration turned up) to drop the liferaft off at Cotswolds.

Well, a really good trip. Very enjoyable and I finally got the wife to Honfleur. The weather was superb even if the forecasting was all over the place. The one thing they didn’t predict was perfect weather on both days – goes to show you!

Well apart from the odd evening, that will be it for me touring in G-GDRV until September. I’ll be touring in Canada and the US at the end of August. Next trip to France? Sometime in September and I think to somewhere I haven’t been before. I’ll plan on somewhere in Brittany and somewhere inland from L2K as a weather alternate, so I am looking for ideas!

Flying to the North Pole

No - not me - definitely not me!

I saw a posting on Flyer Forum where the redoubtable ‘Timothy’ was debating whether the demand for him to talk about his solo flight to the north pole was greater in the west country or ‘ooop north’. In all innocence, I posted a reply to say ‘west country please’ and next thing I knew, I ended up organising and publicising it!

Well, it was the least I could do really. I was happy to offer Timothy a place to stay at my house, I am only a 20 minute drive from the airport and have a spare room now my daughter has moved out. So we booked a date, Friday evening 25th July. I liaised with the airfield manager, Darren and he kindly offered the main terminal at Gloucestershire Airport from 19:30, so we booked the time for 19:45.

By way of publicity, I sent ‘Private Mails’ to all the pilots on the Flyer Forum who had Gloucester and Kemble listed as their base. In addition, I liaised with a contact at the LAA Gloster Strut who promised to send details to all of their members. In addition, I spoke to the four main flying clubs at the airfield and they agreed to put an A4 notice I had knocked up on their notice boards.

Timothy said he was already bringing his own PC’s and projectors and only needed screens. I asked Darren if he had any screens, which he didn’t seem, to but being a true gent, he bought one on the airfield account.

I wasn’t certain how many were attending as it was only with the Private Mails that I asked for a positive or negative response. I got 20 ‘definites’ from this, so I assumed the number would be somewhere between 20 and 40 – 20 being ‘respectable’ and 40 being ‘excellent’.

I turned up at the airfield at about 16:30, not because there was anything I could do until the scheduled flight for the Isle of Man left at 18:30, but just to be there with nothing to do! I grabbed a cold can or two and just sat or wandered around watching the planes come and go – am I really sad? I guess so, but this is just my idea of relaxing and kicking back.



At about 18:30 I picked out the distinctive shape of a twin on approach to runway 27. I guessed this was Timothy in his Aztec, so popped out my camera and started snapping away. Sure enough it was him, so I let myself through airside and snapped a couple more of him and Catherine (his hitch-hiker for the trip back from Canada) unpacking. And yes folks, Timothy really does arrange his propellers so that both are 12 – 6 o’clock!





Catherine’s parents were waiting, having driven up from Minehead while I showed them all to the Aviator for a quick bite to eat.

By the time I got to the terminal, it was all set up courtesy of Darren and the fire crew! As the hour approached, a few more people were turning up while I helped Timothy set up. He uses two screens and we only had one, so I pressed a somewhat reluctant flipchart stand into service. He show a map of the journey on one and photos on the other – and very effective it is too!

Eventually, a grand total of 24 assembled, I was hoping for more, but this was OK.



Timothy delivered his talk. For me, the highlights were:

• His obvious awe over the scenery at Svalbard,
• How he went on the trip solo despite having planned on an experienced co-pilot,
• His amusing tale of a low level pass of the ice strip near the north pole with astonished American tourist faces watching some ‘mad Brit’ beat the strip up in a small twin.
• The obdurate radio guy at Resolute who was as helpful as a chocolate fireguard.

There were questions throughout as Timothy indicated that he would prefer it that way. It was an excellent talk and Timothy is an experienced and compelling speaker. When I say that the talk went on until 10:30 without a break, it may sound like a bit of a marathon, but I for one (and I am sure everyone else) hardly noticed the time passing, it was that interesting and dryly amusing in the way that Timothy is.

The talk was concluded with a gratifying round of applause from an attentive and well informed audience.

At the end of the talk, two forumites also based at Gloucester introduced themselves to me. The internet can be strange like that, you have forum conversations with people based at the same airfield as you, but of course you have never met them and wouldn’t know what they look life. Anyway, I finally met GavM and ADP. They asked if Timothy and I would be interested in a pint at the Aviator followed by a ‘play’ in a wrap screen commercial twin squirrel (helicopter) approved simulator!

Well the answer would normally be ‘you bet your ass I would’, but as both Timothy and I needed to be up early the next day (Timothy to get to White Waltham by 09:15 and me to be wheels up hopefully for Deauville at 09:15), I could only spare a little time and asked Timothy if he was OK for this. Well he was, so off we went.

ADP (Adrian) works at this place airside and explained that it was a £300,000 simulator that was used to train commercial pilots and where they would log the time as it counted towards the ratings. Well it certainly looked the real deal. All of the dials were in fact screens all driven by Windows software – I guess it was a toss up what crashed more, the software of the pilots! No, really the software behaved very well.

I have never flown a helicopter and have no idea what the controls are nor how they work. ADP gave me a quick briefing and I was pretty much the first up. I found the take off straightforward enough as was flying it. Really not too tough at all. But coming to the hover and landing – no there’s the trick! Thinking about it, I guess that is the same for flying fixed wing as well.



Anyway, I managed to get it nicely into a vortex ring (whatever that is, but from what the simulator did, it’s bad – a bit like a stall. On the other hand, I did get it out of it, nose down and power on – again’ like a stall recovery. But even with Adrian doing the power, I couldn’t land it and crashed nicely on runway 27 at Gloucester!

The others fared better, but I think they had a bit more experience and if not, then certainly more aptitude! Timothy of course was set up to do a IMC approach on the ILS into Brize, which he did nicely – you can go off a person you know!



Well, we all had a play until about 00:30, when Timothy and I had to make our apologies and take our leave.

It really was an amazing simulator and I think we are all sorry that Adrian is changing jobs in a week or so to go and work for Cirrus. On the plus side, maybe I can swap some rides in the RV6 for some ride in an SR22!

Now that I have met Adrian and Gavin, I am sure I will be in touch and arrange some evening flying or maybe mini-flyouts. The trouble is that I am now pretty much wiped out for August, with a business trip to India from 28th July until at least the 9th August, maybe until 16th August. The off to Canada to see Dan and do some flying for a week on 23rd August.

Still I might squeeze in an evening or two and I have booked two weekends in September. I will have to leave all of the weekends in August to the rest of the group, so I don’t feel particularly guilty.

Spamcans - Gotta love 'em!

I am going to visit my buddy in Canada in late August and I plan to do a four day tour around New York, Toronto and Ottawa in a hired Cessna 172 while I am there. I have the appropriate licences and have lined up the club aircraft and a checkride.

The only slight fly in the ointment is that I have a grand total of 2.5 hours in any type of Cessna. I know and I agree that after a while and experience of a few different aircraft, that ‘a plane is a plane is a plane’, especially ubiquitous training aircraft like a C172 etc. However, I want to make sure I have some recent experience and am familiar with the ‘gotcha’ type differences that a C172 may hold before I appear for my checkride in Canada and make a twit of myself!

So I booked a one hour checkride at one of the local schools at Staverton that have an all-Cessna fleet. This was for an evening flight after work and I rolled up in plenty of time and got changed.

While waiting for the instructor, I admired the weather and the aircraft pottering around the airfield. Sunny and warm with only a modest breath of wind – wonderful! I even saw ‘my’ RV6 (OK, I have a share) line up on 22 and take off.

My instructor turned up and ushered me into the briefing room to find out what I was after. I explained I just wanted a bit of a workout on a Cessna 172. So we agreed on a few turns, then a few stalls in various configurations, a PFL and a few circuits with mixed landing types when we got back.

We drove over to the aircraft (the club is the other side of the airfield from the parking apron) and I popped out my commercially purchased C172 checklist and started working through it on a guided walkaround. I found the checklist illogical and annoying, as did my instructor. Still I carried on and Neil pointed out the specific things to check on a walkaround.



I have to say my personal favourite was checking the fuel in the gascolator. I have never seen anything like this before. Basically, you open the oil check door, locate a button with one hand, bend down and reach under the aircraft with the other hand holding the fuel drainer, press the button, see where the fuel is squirting out and try to hold the fuel drain under the flow to catch some fuel – long arms required!

I also particularly enjoyed testing the stall warner. Nothing can be seen or reached externally, so you have to wrap your mouth around the aperture in the wing and inhale sharply (note that I have resisted using the sexually suggestive words ‘hole’ and ‘suck’ respectively!). You are rewarded by a vague and faint rattle, a but like the sound you make blowing over a blade of grass held between your thumbs).

The fuel system is simple and easy, no electric pump (one of the benefits of a high wing design) and just stick it on ‘both’ and the fuel will feed from both tanks.

Walkaround complete, we climbed in as I started up. It fired up easily and first time and the engine sounded sweet. Taxy out to E1 for 22. Power checks are straightforward and simple enough. I line up and power up for take-off. This is no RV6 as we trundle down the runway. The airspeed slowly builds and the plane feels like it is running on rails it is so directionally stable compared to the RV. Eventually at 55, the plane starts to hop and at 60 I give it a gentle rotate and we are off. Trim for 75kts and the rate of climb is about 600 fpm – sedate and stable.

We head towards the Malverns as I climb to 1500’ and level out so I can see the level picture. I get this easily first time and we do a few turns. She is heavy in roll (OK, heavy in everything, but then most things are compared to the RV), but feels very stable.

We resume a climb to 3200’ to do a few stalls. The first is a stall recovery on first signs in normal flight configuration. The plane just gets a bit mushy, so I apply full power, nose down and recover. This was a pleasing 75’ altitude loss. The second is in landing configuration with full flaps and recover on his command. This was the same again really, the stall is a complete non-event as I power up, push forward and pull some flaps off, recover and clean up. Very well behaved in the stall.

Then we drop to 2000’ as he pulls the power for a PFL. I run through the drill and spot a remarkably runway like long and narrow ‘field’ roughly into wind, so I nominate that. ‘Yeah, it might work if you can avoid the jumps’ Neil announces. I don’t see any obstructions, but Neil knows that this is a ‘horse gallop’ for the local stables. Sure enough, closer in, there are jumps to one side, but the right hand side is clear and plenty wide enough for the Cessna. I run through the checks, radio and shut down drill. The Cessna just seems to float and glide forever and is in no hurry to loose altitude. I extend my base then turn final. Still way high, so full flaps. I know that you can’t sideslip with full flaps in the C172, something to do with the wings blanking the airflow over the elevators leading to loss of control, crash and death, so I can’t do that! On short-ish final, still high, I throw the plane around in some steep ‘s-turns’ which helps to lose height. Short final now and much better, probably no more that 200 feet now and it seems clear to me that we will ‘get in’. He give me the go-around.

Back to the airfield at a leisurely 90kts as I call for rejoin. Standard overhead join for 22 and I ask for and am given circuits.

The overhead join goes well as I come in for a normal landing. I line up on the centreline pulling on flaps and stablising the approach to 60 – 65. I am high, so full flaps. Still high and Neil advises to pull to power completely on short final. So I do as we come in for a glide landing. Not one of my better landings as I misjudge the heaviness of the controls and pull back too much and balloon a bit. But I hold off the second time for a not-terribly-graceful landing. Power up, flaps up and off again.

Second approach is with Neil’s preferred 20 degrees of flaps only. This is better and I find this a lot easier. The Cessna is very floaty.

Third and final approach is for a flapless. The approach is faster and much ‘flatter’ as I come in at 70. Neil advises me to be very careful over airspeed as the plane could just float all the way down the long 1000m runway! I get the speed right and hold off pretty well though I say it myself. While I was training, I always enjoyed flapless landings best of all, somehow I found them the easiest of the lot. This is my best landing of the three, I think I am getting used to the relative ‘heaviness’ of the plane now.

We taxy back and shutdown. Neil is keen to get off home as he has logged five hour today and is pretty tired.

Well a surprisingly useful lesson. I have picked up on a lot of the ‘oddities’ of the C172 and re-familiarised myself with the forgiving and relatively heavy controls and easy but ponderous landing characteristics of the plane. This I am certain, will serve me well when I do the checkride in Canada – I just hope it hasn’t screwed me up for handling in the RV6!

Caen and the D-Day experience

I had promised Mark, my next door neighbour, a trip to the Normandy D-Day beaches for some time now. He is something of a military history buff and enjoys flying, so this would be an ideal combination, with a low level pass along the beaches of course!

This was to be my first overseas trip of the year and I was pessimistic of my chances in the week leading up to it, as the weather was terrible – showers, angry clouds and strong winds – welcome to the UK in July (so much so that the huge RIAT airshow due on the same weekend at RAF Fairford was cancelled for the first time in 38 years due to waterlogging of the grass areas)!

But as the week wore on, the forecast for Saturday look probably do-able with a bit of shower dodging and Sunday looked pretty good, so it was yet again a case of ‘stick your head out of the window in the morning’. On the assumption that it was a ‘go’, I visited the airfield late Friday afternoon and filed the GAR and Flight Plan and generally prepped the plane with all the gear I needed, packing it as far as I was able to achieve a sensible weight and balance.

Saturday dawned with a light wind and a broken overcast, possibly the odd shower later, but small and isolated. The 214 / 215’s agreed and promised better weather for Sunday (good, because I can’t afford to get stranded). So I decided to ‘go’. I picked Mark up next door at 08:00 and off we went. My preparations the night before paid off in time saved, so I could brief Mark properly on the liferaft, ELT, seat belt cutters and what he should do in the event of a ditching.

The plane was virtually out of fuel, so over to the pumps for a ‘full to the brim and then some’ refuel. While I was sure I could get fuel at Caen, I wanted to make sure I had enough for the round trip if for some reason they couldn’t oblige.

That complete, we mounted up and took off at about 09:15. Although the RIAT airshow was cancelled, the restricted airspace for the event stayed in place, so my routing was not the usual ‘straight line to GWC’, instead I used:

EGBJ DCT BATH DCT PORTLAND DCT ORTAC DCT CHERBORG DCT CARENTAN DCT OUESTERHAM DCT LFRK

Basically, almost due south, coasting out at Portland, then SSE to the Cherbourg peninsula, down along the east coast past Utah beach, then east along the other beaches, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword, onto Pegasus Bridge over the canal and into Caen Carpiquet.

Due to the cloud base, I could manage 3000’ – adequate, but I would of course like higher, especially over water. I called Bristol Radar, as although I was going to pass below their controlled airspace, I would come close, so better that I am talking to them. As it turned out, he was the most helpful guy I have ever come across, volunteering to get me Caen weather (yes please). So I pushed my luck and asked if he could also get the status of D021 and D023 (two military danger areas I hoped were ‘cold’ so I could fly through them – they usually are at the weekend). He dutifully obliged – he must have been REALLY bored!

As is not uncommon, the cloud thinned and lifted over the channel as we coasted out and I climbed to 3400’ – I had to stay below 3500’ as there was a low-level airway heading to Jersey I needed to fly under. I was now talking to London Information. Some way out into the channel, they advised me to change frequency to Jersey Radar. I was not planning to cross their zone, but I would be touching ORTAC (at the corner of their zone), so I was surprised by this request and wondered if somehow I had blundered into their zone. A triple check with GPS and VOR radials revealed I hadn’t. I needn’t have worried, they gave me an immediate squawk and FIS until I was at ORTAC, then a freecall to Deauville Approach.

Deauville were fine as usual. We were now approaching Barfleur to the east of Cherbourg. As I coasted in, I requested a descent to 1000’. Deauville seemed surprised at this and asked me to repeat. I was worried that they might say ‘no’ for some reason, but they were fine and down we went to 1000’ for the rest of the trip, hugging the coast so Mark could get some good photo’s of the beaches and points of interest. Easy for me too, my alternate in the event of engine failure were miles and miles of sandy beaches!

The run down the beaches at 1000’ was great fun and gave some rewarding views. I spotted the American Military Cemetery at Omaha beach (popularised by ‘Saving Private Ryan’) so I did an orbit at 1000’ with the power pulled back somewhat to reduce noise while Mark snapped away on the camera.



Onwards we went to the still visible remnants of the Mulberry Harbour at Arromanches. Then onto the target for the weekend, the Canadian ‘Juno’ beaches at Courseulles-sur-Mer.





We easily picked out the visitors centre and orbited that. The on to the eastern beach, Sword around Ouistreham and then up the river and canal toward Caen and the famous Pegasus bridge.

We spotted this easily, but I didn’t remember until later that a few years ago, the actual bridge was removed and replaced by a bigger, but very similar looking bridge. As I was about to start my first 1000’ orbit, Deauville warned my of another aircraft coming in from behind and descending, either planning to do the same thing or possibly on his way into Caen airport, he advised me to head east for a few minutes, I was happy to oblige! After about two minutes, he advised that I was clear of the traffic and could resume. So back we went and clicked away merrily at the wrong bridge! As it turned out, the location of the old bridge was at a visitors centre about 100m away, so many of the photos Mark took got both bridges in it anyway, together with a full size replica of a Horsa glider!



Orbit complete, I called up Caen and got approach instructions. I was given a right base join for 31. As I called right base, I was then immediately made number three to two aircraft on long final. I quickly spotted one and then spotted the other, which looked like a biplane painted dark grey and hardly standing out from the overcast! I tucked in behind him and called final.

On final, the controller offered me 31 ‘hard’ or ‘grass’. I hadn’t even realised they had a grass strip, but no thanks anyway. They were giving the wind as 260/10, but the windsock didn’t seem to agree, so I judged my approach and there seemed to be very little crosswind. As we approached to short final, I spotted the biplane again, but this time trundling slowly along the runway, having presumably touched down ‘on the numbers’, with the first exit three-quarters along the runway – thanks pal! I had already been cleared to land so I assumed the controller was giving me a ‘land-after’. Then on very short final, the controller piped up and in very broken English with a lot of ‘aaahhhs and errrrs’ eventually gave me a ‘you tack ouf agin and chreye agin pliiz’. The moment she piped up, I knew it was a go-around, so powered up and was well into the go around before she found the right words!



Around we went for a left hand circuit and came in again, this time number one and a clean runway (always a bonus). I didn’t think there was any traffic behind me, but just in case, I stayed high and aimed to touch down well past the piano keys to minimise the taxi trundle. This I did with a good landing. I was directed to the grass parking area which while not billiard table smooth, wasn’t too bad. I parked next to the biplane which turned out to be painted a dark olive green and in German WW1 markings. I shut down, unpacked and set the plane up for overnight parking (stick secured to the rear with seat belts etc. I didn’t bother with chocks as it would take a hurricane to move it in the grass.



Last time I was here (three years ago now) we left via the tower, but I went and checked all the doors in the main terminal building first. The third door from the right was signed as ‘aircrew’ and was open, so in we went. We had arrived at the right place and a very pleasant lady with very little English helped us.





With my very poor French (and Mark’s excellent understanding of French but his apparent refusal to actually speak a word), we got by. Yes, there would be fuel tomorrow and yes, we could pay all the fees tomorrow. Douanes? A gallic shrug and a smile – we had correctly notified them with advance notice and full details the day before as it said on the French AIP and Caen plates. This is not at all unusual, I have rarely actually seen customs at a French airfield. She was kind enough to call for a taxi to take us to the SNCF station in Caen, as that was the best place to hire a car.

Waiting for the taxi, Mark and I visited a small monument by the tower to the Canadian regiments that finally took the strategic airfield in early July 1944 in hand to hand fighting.

Well, of course by the time we got to the station, all of the four car hire places were shut for lunch (this is continental Europe remember). The earliest to re-open was at 13:30 – well it was 13:00 now so a beer and a juice at the local bar was in order – the bill for this reckless extravagance? – a mere EUR 11 – AAARRRGGGHHH KEEEYYRRIIIIISSSTT! This is gonna hurt!

The rest of the trip went better in comparison. On the Saturday we went to Benys-sur-Mer and the Canadian cemetery then onto Courseulles and the Canadian visitors centre.



The visitors centre was fine except for some ‘political correctness’ nonsense with one entire substantial room devoted to why Canadians like Canada (no kidding!) and how bad we were to the Inuit (and this has what to do with WW2???).

We drove in the direction of Ouistreham to get to Pegasus bridge before it closed, but spotted some more Canadian monuments along the way, so stopped at them. We came to the famous house on the coast that the clip of the landings always show, of a Canadian soldier running off a landing craft with a distinctive French house on the shore. This was the first house liberated by the beach landings and sported a decent sized Canadian flag.





We managed to get to Pegasus Bridge with 45 minutes until it closed, so we whizzed around and then realised that the original bridge had been moved to this site (complete with bullet marks) – ooops! We both hoped that Mark had managed to capture this bridge in his aerial photos as well (he did, but of course more by accident that design).



We stayed at the Ibis in the centre of Caen. The Accor Hotel group (Mercure, Ibis etc.) are a pilot’s best friend because they allow for cancellation on the day of arrival! To be fair so do the Campinile and B&B groups.

We got ripped off with a below par evening meal in a very nice restaurant in the ancient quarter of Caen. It was full of stuff heads of deer and other game and incongruously a huge Moose! A mere EUR 130 for the two of us, for a so-called fillet steak (about 1cm thick) from a cow that had clearly died from malnutrition!

The next day, we headed to Omaha beach and the American Cemetery. The American do things differently – they have a few HUGE cemeteries whereas the Commonwealth have a lot of smaller ones. I have to say it is very impressive and now has an excellent and remarkably ‘balanced’ visitors centre and display (i.e. it actually acknowledges the contribution made by nations other than the US). Of course this was popularised very movingly in the film ‘Saving Private Ryan’ (based on a true story of the Niland family, but only loosely) with the emotional opening and closing scenes taking place here. You have to visit to understand it. On the northern edge of the cemetery is a path and a low wall which is on the top of the low ridge that overlook Omaha beach and is precisely where many of the German defenders were sited. A visit here is a very moving experience and it is very hard now to watch the opening 15 minutes of the film without tears coming to your eyes.



We dropped the car back and noted that everything was shut on Sunday (unlike Le Touquet where quite a lot was open). We just managed to refuel, but crapped-out on the wine front.

Back to the airport where we had to find some way of getting back airside. A disembodied voice on the ‘buzzer-phone’ on the door mentioned something about the Air France desk. So we waited there for a bit and when no one came, spotted a guy reading a paper by the security machines at departures, he motioned asked for our passports and my licence and beckoned us through. We went through the now time-honoured charade of stripping almost bare (OK, emptying my pockets and taking my belt off) to walk through machines that were turned off anyway.

We went to the office and paid the exorbitant EUR 8.50 fee (bargain of the trip). We refuelled, filed the flight plan and were away by 15:00 local (14:00 UK time).

The weather was overcast and showery south of the airfield, but looked sunny with widely scattered clouds north of the airfield over the water. I didn’t mess about with low level runs and climbed to 3500’ to stay below the very occasional cumulus as we back-tracked the same route back to the UK.

The weather was great, but I still had to stay below 3500’ to clear that bloody low level airway into Jersey. On the way back, I decided to show Mark the Cerne Abbas Giant with his large appendage, keeping a careful eye out for aircraft at this ‘honeypot’.

The return trip was uneventful, except for a glider passing a couple of hundred feet to our left and below (but still too close for comfort). I did spot him, albeit late, but early enough to take avoiding action (which wasn’t needed), so I waggled wings instead.

Bristol Radar were very busy and I barely managed to get a QSY in well north of their airspace. That and getting the Gloucester ATIS and the initial call to Gloucester distracted me so that when I looked around I spotted that I was barely a mile east of Nympsfield at 2400’ while glider winch launch was in operation. Oh crap – what an idiot! I felt really bad and hoped they didn’t have to suspend launch activity. I made a mental note (and did) to call and email them later with an apology.

Gloucester were fine as usual and I got a standard overhead join for 27 with right hand circuits. Then at 4 miles they changed it to 22 with right hand circuits. No bother. Around we went, taking care to be precisely over the upwind numbers at 1000’ as a Sligsby took off below us so we passed overhead while he was climbing out – Mark and I kept a very careful watch out for him as he passed underneath. The approach was good as was the landing. Down at just before 16:00 local.

We taxied in and shut down, we unpacked and I asked Mark to use the car shampoo to wash down all the leading areas of the plane and the front of the prop for fly-splats. Of course, he thought the front of the prop was the front (i.e. grey side) so missed the real front (i.e. the back) - so I had to give the real front a decent clean – clear – errr perhaps not!



This was a very good trip and blew my ‘touring cobwebs’ away. The usual very ‘relaxed’ French ATC (I wonder if the hysterical, shrill and barely competent lady controller at Le Touquet has relocated to Caen now?) – having said that, Deauville were great.

A good trip and I look forward to taking to wife on a long promised trip to Deauville . Honfleur in two weeks time – as usual, pray for the weather!

Local and the North Pole!

No – not the hordes of Polish workers now in the UK – a planned talk at my local airfield by an intrepid aviator who flew his Aztec twin solo to the North Pole!

First the local.

I hadn’t flown for since the 7th and the ‘itch’ has been getting worse for the last few days. I booked the plane for Monday evening hoping that the wind would die down (it has been VERY blowy the last few days). Well, it was OK. The weather was sunny with scattered, thin cumulus at about 4000’ and a wind reported at the airfield as 200V250 / 11 – fine by me.

I shot home first to get changed and picked up my daughters boyfriend (as he is always keen to go flying). The airfield was quiet and Rob helped a lot by opening hangar doors, helping wheel the plane out etc. He is very keen and quick to learn.

I booked out for a local to the SW, then checked the fuel – oh nuts! Only about 30l on board, so a trip to the pumps in order. No particular hassle, it’s just in such warm, sunny weather, any time spent with the canopy buttoned up, but not actually flying means you get very sweaty very quickly.

We put 70 litres in, so now plenty on board. Just before I was about to climb back in, an Arrow pulled up behind us, so I climbed out and pulled the plane forward so he could pull up far enough to start fuelling (a little consideration for others is no bad thing). We started up and taxied out to runway 22. Power checks complete, a glance at the windsock said it was pretty much straight down the runway – you learn to get very sensitive to ACTUAL wind strength and direction (as opposed to reported winds) in a taildragger!

Cleared for take off, I taxied past the displaced threshold and started the take off run. The take-off itself was nice and smooth (though I say it myself) as we headed straight ahead towards the ‘bends in the river’ the other side of Gloucester and headed down the Severn towards the Bristol Channel.

Rob got a couple of pictures of the bridges as I headed up the Wye valley at Chepstow. I got Rob to take the stick and he held it nice and level and carried out some gentle turns to follow the course of the river.

As the plane had just had it’s 100 hour check, I was carefully monitoring the gauges and digital engine readouts for any unusual behaviour – none appeared.

We wandered over to Ledbury for an orbit of the grass strip there, then I whistled up the Gloucester ATIS. I called for a rejoin at Tewkesbury and was given a standard overhead join for 22 with right hand circuits. I could have asked for a direct join, but it’s been a while since I did a ‘standard overhead’, so what the hell!

All went well and I managed to get the plane slowed to sensible circuit speed (I needn’t have worried as I was the only one in the circuit). On base, the Tower advised me that some genetic throwback had started a huge bonfire on short-ish final to runway 22 and given this and the current wind (they were giving 250 / 11), would I like to change runway. Turning final now, I saw the windsock and it looked only slightly off of 22, the smoke didn’t look too bad, so I opted to continue.

In the event, the smoke was no bother and the wind definitely favoured 22 – only slightly off runway heading – so a good decision. The landing was good, although I could have ‘nailed the tail’ on the ground quicker than I did – last remnants of my nosewheel ‘bad habits’.

Nice flight in excellent visibility. I am definitely ready for touring now. Locals are OK, but I really need to go somewhere now. Trip to France planned for mid-July!

On the other topic, I frequent an internet forum called ‘Flyer Forum’. I joined this in 2002 and have found it an excellent and generally friendly source of information and debate (unlike the apparently un-moderated but much better known PPRUNE – where they seem to spend vast amounts of time ‘willy waving’ and generally insulting each other without mercy). Here I got wind of the flyout to Italy that I took part in in 2006. On this flyout, I met ‘Timothy’, a vastly experienced ex-commercial pilot who normally flew an Aztec twin, but was actually flying with another forumite in a C152!

Well, in April 2008, Timothy fulfilled a lifetime ambition and flew his Aztec via Norway and Spitzbergen, to the North Pole (solo), then onto various airports in the extreme north of Canada, across the Greenland icecap to Iceland, then back to Biggin Hill. We all followed his posting avidly on the forum and since he returned he has written an article that was published in Flyer magazine about the trip.

Well, I asked if he was planning a talk in the west country anytime soon and this turned into him agreeing to do a talk on 25th July at Gloucester airport if I organised it. I agreed to go this and have since worked with the very helpful head of ATC at Gloucester who has booked the terminal building and I am now in the process of publicising the event to the aviation fraternity in the local area.

So Friday, 25th July 2008 at 19:45 in the main terminal at Gloucestershire (Staverton) Airport EGBJ – be there! Admission free.