Routed:
LFSD – LTP – MTL – DGN – LFMD
For the trip, I figured it would get hot in the plane, so rather than get our normal shirts ‘sweated-up’, I thought I would make up some ‘G-GYMM Team T-Shirts’. We would wear these every flying day while part of the Flyer Safari. Today’s shirts are ones I did on the computer with special iron-on stickers – Dan is ‘The Beerhunter’ and I am ‘Grimace’ (the ‘handle’ they gave me at Air Combat when they saw me grimacing at 6G on the videos!).
The aim of today is to join what is left of the Flyer Forum Safari in Cannes. Yes, I know this coincides with the International Film Festival and the place will be packed!
As we pack the aircraft at Dijon for the trip, I press back on the front passenger seat and only when I get my headset from the back seat, do I notice that the wire from the headset to the battery box got trapped between the seat hinge and look crushed – oh crap! So I try it and of course no deal – the wires must be severed internally. I was thinking of bringing a spare, but of course I didn’t. So I tell Dan that I need to use his and he can sit in splendid silence. Dan is not feeling well and has a very raw throat but takes the news well and with my agreement, pulls out a Swiss Army knife and attacks the wire to see if he can splice them together.
We take off in scattered and high-looking cloud and easily get to our planned FL45 with very scattered fair weather cumulus below. My plan was to route through the overhead at Lyon, but this is refused and we are instead routed to LPT. I notice that this will take us through a ZIT that tops out at 4900’ so I climb to FL55 – forgetting that I am in controlled airspace! The controller asks if I am climbing and I confirm I am – I get a slap on the wrist and am cleared for FL55 – Ooops! After this the merciless Forumites refer to me a ‘Zonebuster’ to the strains of the famous ‘Ghostbuster’ tune.
After I get a call from Lyon, I get an ‘air-to-air’ call from Simon Holder in G-AXTA to say that both he and G-BRCD made it to Troyes and are behind me and will see me in Cannes. Good, that’s a couple more that made it out.
The French Alps look hugely impressive off to my left and once past Lyon, I climb to FL75 to route direct over the lower part of the Alps direct for Cannes. It is not very bumpy at all and the scenery is great, widely scattered cloud and blue skies.
I am still in the mountains with 30 nm to run to Cannes when the mountains drop away while I contact Cannes to be told to approach at 1500’ – FL75 to 1500’ without shock-cooling the engine? So I gave it a go with some orbits.
I was given a report overhead the field at 1500’, then given a left downwind join (out to sea) for runway 23 with the wind 230 / 10 – much better! I was high on final, so side-slipped this off but still landed a bit long.
Cannes was incredibly busy with the film festival and there are biz-jets parked all over the place. I taxi for fuel to find that the automatic machine will only accept French credit cards – so off Dan goes to do his French stuff and enlist the help of a pompier. Well, with full tanks (190l) at Dijon, we did a 2.5 hour run and only burned 76l of fuel – pleased with that!
We had a long wait after fuelling with the engine running for taxi clearance to parking and in the end we park at the far end with all the other cruddy little planes away from the nice shiny business jets. So we unpacked and walked to the terminal. We met a very nice lady (Stargate SG2) who announced ‘ah – G-GYMM, yes we have been expecting you’. I was flabbergasted, then I realised she was reading our ‘team T-shirts’!
Well, the weather was great – sunny and warm with a breeze, so we walked to our hotel (The Campanile) a mere 50 m from the main terminal. Nice rooms. We shower and Dan takes a nap. Eventually, I rouse him and we meet Ian Seager in reception. The original restaurant has been cancelled so we agree to meet up outside the main casino in town. So we dive into a taxi to see Cannes.
We wander around and see the bouncers in smarty suits and uniformed guards everywhere. We realise we have again missed out on lunch and can’t hold out until the evening meal, so we hit McDonalds. After this we sit in a street-side café with large beers and ‘people-watch’. We check out the old town and the view and spot loads of nice restaurants that will easily be able to seat us.
We meet up with the others as arranged at 20:00 and come up with a definitive list of people who made it. Rob P and Nigel Webb have gone to Albenga and will join us in Aprilia.
We had a nice meal in the old town, but at EUR46 a head. The taxi fares to and from the hotel varied between EUR14 and EUR32 – hmmm! The circus must be in town!
