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Visiting Mallorca – Son Bonet LESB

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Dear All,

I’m planning to fly to Son Bonet this Saturday. I landed there 4 years ago. I fact, I was trying to reach San Luis but because of a 1200ft ceilling, ATC don’t allowed me, I had to divert to Son Bonet and spend one night in Palma (good experience)
This time it is for a one week holiday with a last minute organisation.

I will fly from Montpellier Candillargues (a stop for petrol). Even if it doesn’t seems to be very complicated, I like to have advices because between AIP and usages there is sometime a huge difference. (best altitudes and frequencies…)

On spot, I will use SocialCar. It can be helpful to some of you, it is a spanish owers to owers renting car. It will be my first experience of that, but it seems to be an efficient way to find a car at your destination even if airfield is small.

Thank you by advance for your contribution !

PPG

Important information about Le Touquet LFAT (FR-only at certain times)

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Dear All,

The management of Le Touquet airport have asked me to work with them in helping to coordinate a slight change in their operations.

As of 1 July, the ATC service will be closed between 1130Z and 1330Z.

This is due to new European regulations governing the mandatory rest periods afforded to controllers.

In practice, this means that radio at Le Touquet will be blind calls in French only during that period.

Those with experience of flying further into France will be familiar with this, but those who only nip across the channel from time to time may be less so.

In essence, if you wish to land at Le Touquet during this period, you need to transmit your circuit joining messages in French, and follow a French overhead join, which differs slightly from that practised in the UK.

I must impress on all pilots the importance of “playing the game” here, as the initial plan was to close the runway completely during the rest periods, and the “FR Only” solution was very much a compromise.

To help the airport management, I am going to update some of the French radio information on my website to be a bit more specific to Le Touquet.

I am also going to organise (subject to Covid) a couple of free seminars at the airport to explain the procedures in a bit more detail. I would be delighted to put a few faces to names if you’d like to come along.

In the meantime, if anyone has any questions, please drop me an email to james(at)lingaero.com

Best

James

What has changed in flying over past 20 years?

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Some recent threads made me wonder about this.

I can start the list:

  • Before about 2005, France didn’t enforce customs/immigration (C&I), so e.g. Brits could fly to any runway there
  • Before about 2008, UK did not enforce the GAR form
  • 2008: the first usable IFR autorouting tool arrived (Autoplan)
  • Before about 2011, France had another ~150 airfields with C&I
  • 2013: Jepp discontinued their “VFR/GPS” charts (both printed and electronic)

Dynamic propeller balancing

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I am looking for someone who does this, preferably in the UK.

I've had it done a few times over the years and it was always worth doing.

Oddly enough the engineering firm where I am hangared have bought the equipment but have no-one who can use it, so even just a person who knows the equipment would be OK.

IO360L2A Preheater

Petit prince 2 Ava 20200705029300507 34 ice avatar

Hi,

Need advise regarding subject. Today maintenance guys told me about this stuff and it seems that it will be usefull with upcoming minus twenty. Can any one advise please model / part number for my engine?

Thank you!

The teen teaching people to fly from RAF Shawbury

Petit prince 2 Primary glider

Nice story on BBC, about a 17 year old girl that is a glider instructor!!

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-shropshire-68569220

The teen teaching people to fly from RAF Shawbury
Seventeen-year-old pilot Amelia Richardson says she wants to inspire more women and girls to take to the skies.
She qualified to fly a glider solo at the age of 14 and is thought to be one of the youngest instructors in the UK.
The Buckinghamshire resident is part of the RAF Shawbury Gliding Club in Shropshire.
While other 17-year-olds are learning to drive, the A-level student said flying had opened up a “whole new world” for her.

Online ICAO 500k maps Norway

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According to this, AVINOR have stopped issuing paper charts ICAO 500k. It’s online exclusively. It can be found pushing the correct link here. (in the middle)

I have never used these ICAO charts, only the (much) better military M517 charts. Nowadays always never though, only SD (when it works )

Anyway, I had a look at these online ICSO charts web site, and it’s not so bad. Excellent quality and one can print out sections, in chosen quality and size. A bit slow though. It can also be used online in the air on a phone through the GPS as a moving map (it seems). Of course on the PC in the evening, on a big screen, studying the map its excellent.

Trailerable aircraft

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It has occurred to me that with a relatively low flight time budget (say 100 hours, which is already quite a bit for VFR weekend flying), a large chunk of the effective hourly flying costs with an own aircraft lie in hangaring. In my area it is 1) hard to obtain a hangar space at all within 1 hour driving range (read: multi-year waiting lists), and 2) monthly parking costs for a small single are considerable (tie-down EUR 150-200, hangar EUR 300-400 and even upward to EUR 700).

On an hourly basis, parking costs equal or exceed the cost of fuel for small aircraft (tie-down: EUR 18-24, hangar: EUR 36-48). Sure there are other factors in fixed costs such as insurance, paperwork, and maintenance, but it seems to me that having a trailerable aircraft immediately cuts about a quarter of the annual flying costs (estimated EUR 10k for 100 hours).

Trailerable aircraft that can be quickly assembled are:

  • Europa Classic, XS
  • Kitfox
  • Avid Flyer
  • Stemme S10
  • Technoflug Piccolo, Carat
  • Zenair STOL variants
  • (Any important ones I’m missing?)

These are surely quite limited in their mission, the Europa probably being the only reasonable touring aircraft of the bunch. However, it seems they provide a lot of of flexibility for relatively little money. This might just be what some people are looking for that have / want to restrict their flying budget to car-like proportions.

What’s your experience / opinion about trailerable aircraft?

Transitions again….

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Flew the EBLG transition ALHUV 1A yesterday. On selecting the Approach ILS 22L after flying the published hold over ALHUV. The Garmin lets you load the transition. I was greeted with two options from the Garmin screen. ALHUV and on the next line also ALHUV….mhmmmm.. I was thinking….let’s pick one… Luckily it was the right one going along IPLAN . There is the ALHUV 1A and the ALHUV 1B transition coming from the other direction opposite of the RWY centerline. This is confusing to say the least from Garmin to have two the same names popping up. I think, but not sure it has to do with the ARINC424 that allows only 5 characters ( I think)…Is this a typical example that there is discrepancy on what is allowed for publishing according PANS OPS hence Annex 15 and the industry standard for FMS etc..I would have thought that Garmin/ Jepp would have an agreed format for abbreviations? Or maybe a coding error…Anyone wants to share the Jepp Chart?

Pilot
From the viewpoint of VFR touring, things are far far better now than 20 or 30 years ago:

1) Tablet based moving map. Take it to the hotel, plan next days route, go to the plane and fly it!
2) Onli…

Pilot
It’s a terminal charge indeed, got the same in 2022 – may be EHAM specific or all IFR airports in NL, but it is applied regardless of MTOM
Pilot
I had a first in flight in DA40. Interesting aircraft.
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Hi!

I plan to visit Lake Como in the first week of April. I am targeting Sondrio Airport and then taking a car. Do you have any feedback or experience from your side? I have not decided yet whether…

20200705029300507
Lille will do the approach control as usual but from when they hand you over to Tower you need to speak French

I did this once, on the end of a horrible long flying day, 30kt headwind all the way …

Pilot
I think a little perspective is called for here.

In France ULM regulation has been formed by ULM.pilots themselves. They have formed a strong enough body to negotiate with the DGAC and as ULM is re…

Petit prince 2
I watched the video last night with the children. Impressive.

If you don’t have an aeroplane in the family, gliding gets you flying younger and far cheaper than a school C172/PA28.
No idea how much…

20200705029300507

What gets me repeatedly is the free AIP charts, not displaying if the device has not seen wifi (with FF running!) for a few days or more. Others report to the contrary, so maybe I have a corrupted…