flights with my motor glider

Early take off, Sunday 03-06-07

Mon, 04 Jun 2007 19:26:57 GMT

At last found out how to get the photos back to the old format, so here is the story of last Sunday mornings flight. I wasn't able to fly for nearly a month due to the weather and starting a new job as a London Transport bus station controller.

I got down to Rochester at 06:30 Sunday morning and carried out the pre flight checks and then carried out the power checks just by where the Falke is parked up. Just as I did the power checks I saw a great fog bank rolling in over the northern end of the airfield. I decided to take off immediately from 34 and climb out to the south, and if the fog didn't clear by the time I came back to make a diversion into Headcorn or some other airfield, such as Calais. ( Only joking). As it was I was just in the nick of time and got above the incoming fog bank which topped out 500 feet above the airfield. I flew an orbit of the airfield and took some photographs of the fog which had by now shut the airfield down for further take offs.

I spent a very pleasant 3 hours up over Kent virtually with the sky to myself, routing to Shoreham, Lydd, Faversham and , when I heard somebody from Bidford Gliding club call downwind for 02 at Rochester at about 10:00, made my way back to Rochester for landing. The fog was still present at the northern end of the airfield making take offs a bit challenging, but landing was not a problem.

I tied VA down for the week, went to the cafe for breakfast, and managed to catch my pal Gordon in between Harvard flights, so that he could sign my log book off for the 2 year certificate of experience, so that I am legal for another couple of years.

The weather is looking good this weekend so it's fingers crossed for an Amiens or Holland flight.

Goodbye Jenny Fournier. Closure of Calais airport cafe.

Wed, 02 May 2007 17:08:59 GMT

I was looking through the website of Calais aeroclub, based at Calais airport and came across an article published in the local newspaper, Voice of the North, which explains why the airport cafe was shut down. It seems that the Security Commission, whoever they are, decided that the cafe did not conform to their security requirements, and that it needed a 200,000 Euro upgrade. Calais Chamber of Commerce could not afford this and so this delightful little cafe/restaurant was shut down. Shame on whoever at the Security Commission achieved this little victory. Bromley Council will probably headhunt this individual for their own head of shutting things down.

Here is the link to the article if you wish to read more, and obtain a picture of Jenny Fournier who made the cafe such a wonderful place to visit.

http://aeroport.calais.free.fr/photos/voix_du_nord_13_02_2007.jpg

Menin Gate. Ypres. Wipers. Kevins Photographs.

Tue, 08 May 2007 10:21:47 GMT

These are the photos that Kevin took on our 21st April flight to Ypres. We did not fly above 1500 feet at Ypres due to Belgian airspace restrictions which turned out to our very great advantage as you can see from the quality of Kevins photographs. Reminds me what a very beautiful day it was.

Thu, 26 Apr 2007 17:02:58 GMT

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Ypres (Wipers) Belgium. 21-04-07

Sun, 22 Apr 2007 11:32:01 GMT

Kevin and I went across to Ypres on Saturday. Kevin was booked to travel to Ypres during the Easter Holidays, but fell victim to the dreaded Lurgy the night before he was due to go, and couldn't make the trip.

We decided that as the weather forecast was so good for this Saturday that we would file a flight plan to Calais, but go via Ypres. We took off from Rochester at 9:00 Saturday morning, crossed the Channel at 3200 feet, before descending to cross the French coast at Dunkerque about 80 minutes after take off. There was a lot of clag from the factory chimneys at Dunkerque, but this was all blowing out to sea, so as soon as we were south of the town the vis improved dramatically. We routed virtually direct to Ypres from Dunkerque, routing just north of Wormhout, then to Poperinge and Ypres. It only took about 30 minutes to cover the 25 Nm from Dunkerque to Ypres, and as we had to stay below 1100 feet to remain clear of controlled airspace, we had a very nice close up view of the French and Belgian villages we were flying over.

Kevin took all the photographs of Ypres and the Menin Gate, as I flew a wide orbit of the town. He is going to let me have a copy of the pictures on disc, so I will post these on the blog at some later date.

The pictures I took are crossing the Channel from Dover to Dunkerque, and then the countryside up to Ypres.

We landed back at Calais 3 hours after taking off from Rochester, had a chat with Stephan who was looking after the airfield for the day, and then walked into Marck for tea. Beautiful cups of tea with sliced lemon floating in them. Degunged the mouth wonderfully.

After we had got back in the falke to return to England, we had to wait stationary in the cockpit for half an hour before we could take off because the airfield was being used for parachuting. After all the parachutists were back on the ground, we taxied to 06 hold, did the checks, and then had to wait again because an aircraft was carrying out an ILS approach on 24.

Lovely flight back across the Channel, and finished off with tea and a massive lump of coffee cake in the canteen at Rochester. Superb.

Return flight across the Channel, Calais to Rochester.

Thu, 19 Apr 2007 19:13:50 GMT

I didn't get many pictures of Kent on the return flight. Once I had coasted in at Dover the air got very rough due to turbulence. Might be wonderful for glider pilots, but I needed both hands to fly the aeroplane, so couldn't let go to take photos.

Photos walking through the village of Marck at Calais.

Thu, 19 Apr 2007 18:11:00 GMT

Calais flight. Dover to Calais. Part 2. 19-04-07

Thu, 19 Apr 2007 17:24:24 GMT

It was very peaceful crossing the Channel this morning. I wrote quite a lot to go with the photos, but something went wrong with the aol connection and I lost the lot. I'll concentrate on getting the photos on the blog, and do some more writing later.

Calais flight. Part 1 Rochester to Dover 19-04-07

Thu, 19 Apr 2007 16:52:42 GMT

Next entry is of photos taken crossing the Channel from Dover to Calais.