Post by ronturner on Oct 25, 2021 9:55:30 GMT 1
Simply for those interested, I thought to write about a very nice flight I had recently.
Aircraft Diamond DA-40 F-GUVA from Atlantic Airpark to the Ile D’Yeu. A charming little island just off the Vendéen coast.
Pre flight paperwork, metars and TAFs early on in the morning with over sea flight plans filed for both trips. I use OLIVIA for this . Its free and works well. Outil en Ligne Intégré de Visualisation d' Informations Aéronautiques …. On Line Integrated tool for Visualization of Information for Airmen.
Met up with two friends, got the Diamond out of its hangar, did pre-flight checks and put in 30 litres of Diesel..
Passenger briefing and donning of life jackets. All aboard and start up.
First flight of the day, it takes a good ten minutes for the engine to warm up enough to do anything else except just wait, get the radios working, and sort out my kneeboard and Air Navigation on my tablet.
Eventually we can taxi out. Blind calls in French and take off on 08. Great visibility. CAVOK all the way, all of the day, but a bit windy.
Quick call to La Rochelle to open flight plan and then QSY Nantes info. Climb to 4500 ft and proceed overland to St Gilles Croix de Vie. Coasting out, Nantes asks to confirm RT functionality. All OK. Ile d’Yeu is now visual in the distance.
With 5 minutes to go to destination, released from Nantes info. to call Ile d'Yeu. I already knew from the Visual Approach Chart there would be no response. No service Monday and Tuesday in the off peak times, so Air to Air calls in French only, to land on 14 with quite a stiff 40 degree cross. Taxy to the apron, park into wind. Closed FP by phone. (Big trouble if you do not. They come looking for you after 30 minutes.) Tower and offices all locked up so nobody to collect a fee. (Or close a Flight Plan.)
Hung around for about 20 minutes for the bus. (Electric.) A tariff of 2€ takes 20 minutes for what would normally be a 10 minutes ride but you get a nice tour of villages and the like. (Its much quicker on the way back.) Arrive in Port Joinville. Nice off season calm. Port busy, Weather glorious. Found a place to eat in the sun overlooking the harbour.
A walk around the town, places of interest, the church, and such like. Next bus to the aerodrome is 15-30 but we are ready to go back before that.
Now here is a thing about French Taxis. Especially in rural areas. They are notoriously difficult to find. The few that exist are more often than not engaged in hospital runs and school runs, so good luck finding one.
Eventually one of my friends spotted a taxi parked by the side of the road by the ferry port passenger ramp. I asked if she was free for a trip to the aerodrome. She said yes if it was ok with the two people just sitting on a bench nearby as they had booked her to go to the airport. Seems they had come from Nantes, for lunch, in a Robin DR400. So we all piled in and got to the aerodrome in very short time.
Our new friends got away before us while I got a signal on my phone and altered my FP departure time.
All aboard again. Taxi out after a PC12. And waited for it to take off. Enter the runway, backtrack, and take off again on 14 with the wind now about 25Kt still 40 off.
Opened FP with Nantes for a very calm and uneventful trip back at 5500. Descended into AAP to see, as expected, a very stiff cross at 90 degrees. Decide on 26 as there is a slight upslope and I needed a few extra knots on approach. Good landing after a bit of a fight and I used up a lot of the 780 metres. Closed Flight Plan. Cleaned the aeroplane of bugs and dirt. A great day was had by the three of us. Cool beers in the club house.
F-GUVA by Ron Turner, on Flickr
Yeu visible by Ron Turner, on Flickr
Yeu by Ron Turner, on Flickr
Yeu Street by Ron Turner, on Flickr
Yeu harbour by Ron Turner, on Flickr
Aircraft Diamond DA-40 F-GUVA from Atlantic Airpark to the Ile D’Yeu. A charming little island just off the Vendéen coast.
Pre flight paperwork, metars and TAFs early on in the morning with over sea flight plans filed for both trips. I use OLIVIA for this . Its free and works well. Outil en Ligne Intégré de Visualisation d' Informations Aéronautiques …. On Line Integrated tool for Visualization of Information for Airmen.
Met up with two friends, got the Diamond out of its hangar, did pre-flight checks and put in 30 litres of Diesel..
Passenger briefing and donning of life jackets. All aboard and start up.
First flight of the day, it takes a good ten minutes for the engine to warm up enough to do anything else except just wait, get the radios working, and sort out my kneeboard and Air Navigation on my tablet.
Eventually we can taxi out. Blind calls in French and take off on 08. Great visibility. CAVOK all the way, all of the day, but a bit windy.
Quick call to La Rochelle to open flight plan and then QSY Nantes info. Climb to 4500 ft and proceed overland to St Gilles Croix de Vie. Coasting out, Nantes asks to confirm RT functionality. All OK. Ile d’Yeu is now visual in the distance.
With 5 minutes to go to destination, released from Nantes info. to call Ile d'Yeu. I already knew from the Visual Approach Chart there would be no response. No service Monday and Tuesday in the off peak times, so Air to Air calls in French only, to land on 14 with quite a stiff 40 degree cross. Taxy to the apron, park into wind. Closed FP by phone. (Big trouble if you do not. They come looking for you after 30 minutes.) Tower and offices all locked up so nobody to collect a fee. (Or close a Flight Plan.)
Hung around for about 20 minutes for the bus. (Electric.) A tariff of 2€ takes 20 minutes for what would normally be a 10 minutes ride but you get a nice tour of villages and the like. (Its much quicker on the way back.) Arrive in Port Joinville. Nice off season calm. Port busy, Weather glorious. Found a place to eat in the sun overlooking the harbour.
A walk around the town, places of interest, the church, and such like. Next bus to the aerodrome is 15-30 but we are ready to go back before that.
Now here is a thing about French Taxis. Especially in rural areas. They are notoriously difficult to find. The few that exist are more often than not engaged in hospital runs and school runs, so good luck finding one.
Eventually one of my friends spotted a taxi parked by the side of the road by the ferry port passenger ramp. I asked if she was free for a trip to the aerodrome. She said yes if it was ok with the two people just sitting on a bench nearby as they had booked her to go to the airport. Seems they had come from Nantes, for lunch, in a Robin DR400. So we all piled in and got to the aerodrome in very short time.
Our new friends got away before us while I got a signal on my phone and altered my FP departure time.
All aboard again. Taxi out after a PC12. And waited for it to take off. Enter the runway, backtrack, and take off again on 14 with the wind now about 25Kt still 40 off.
Opened FP with Nantes for a very calm and uneventful trip back at 5500. Descended into AAP to see, as expected, a very stiff cross at 90 degrees. Decide on 26 as there is a slight upslope and I needed a few extra knots on approach. Good landing after a bit of a fight and I used up a lot of the 780 metres. Closed Flight Plan. Cleaned the aeroplane of bugs and dirt. A great day was had by the three of us. Cool beers in the club house.
F-GUVA by Ron Turner, on FlickrYeu visible by Ron Turner, on FlickrYeu by Ron Turner, on FlickrYeu Street by Ron Turner, on FlickrYeu harbour by Ron Turner, on Flickr
