The weather was good for the departure
but probably less good for returning
Departure was through a layer of cloud; this is the huge new field of wind turbines just south of EGKA
Heading straight out over the Channel
It looks like we will use less than half tanks getting there
Later the cloud layer cleared up; the whole flight was done at FL100
The newly installed Aera660 in the LH yoke is great for airport taxi diagrams (Safetaxi) but not very much else, except in a dire emergency
The Pyrenees in the distance
This is really funny 
One of the advantages of IFR in CAS is that you don’t have to worry about these restricted etc areas
What are these bunkers? There is no airport nearby
A close-up
Some part of the city
Final approach runway 31
A few GA aircraft parked. The notamed parking restrictions did not appear to exist in reality
A temporary parking spot while tower was working out how to get avgas; one has to taxi to the aeroclub and the self service machine needs an AIR BP card. The menus appeared to be in English!
Some pics from the city. Some were taken with a polarised filter which produces the spectacular dark sky; however the sky really was clear – during the first day only
The return wx was not great. Low cloud and a lot of rain, but no convective activity was forecast or evident. I had a raincoat but was soaked below that, just getting the cover off the plane. I took off my trousers before climbing in and hung them up to dry inside the cockpit (took a couple of hours)
Sferics activity over the mountains to the south, which I knew about from the sferics image beforehand
Finally between layers
I climbed up to FL140 to finally get above it all. On the way up a few mm of ice were collected on non TKS protected leading edges
The ADL150 proved to be spot on and showed the radar image with much better detail than meteox.com does (meteox showed nothing at all there)
The infamous Le Blayais nuclear plant whose prohibited area I busted in 2003, but before they were notamed (to NATS in the UK) or charted, narrowly avoiding deportation to France
The MH O2D2 system works well. This is at FL140:
That looping river looks very familiar – nice pic!
Nice report, thank you. I like Pau and the promenande with the scenic view of the pyrenees. We have been there once coming from Morocco and got trapped by the border police for hours. Although we are europeans, we were handled like refugees until we were claiming about this treatment with the hint to make it official to the upper leveled authorities. After that we got a VIP treatment to the town.
Thanks Peter
A question, can one refuel at LFBP without a BP card?
I don’t know. In the little hut next to the pump I saw only the AIR BP machine.
One strange thing about the airport is that there was nobody who wanted any money! There was no evident staff except the police. Consequently, astonishingly perhaps, I forgot to pay! The AIP contains no contact details except some phone numbers which are not answered, like this “H24” one
I am trying to phone them to get an email address (or a fax number!). Maybe someone here knows?
I need to contact them and send them my details to send the invoice to (which apparently is what they do) otherwise they will eventually send the invoice to the US trustee… I will probably just send them a letter by airmail.
I am now working on other details found here: https://www.pau.aeroport.fr/airport/contact but the email address there bounces back so I sent it using their web form and fax also
Well, their fax number is duff, as expected
Their main phone # +33 (0)5 59 33 33 00 is also not answered. It gives you a menu for various airlines or wait for a person. Eventually it hangs up.
Maybe that is why they lost Ryanair? Nobody could get through…
I will send them a letter to F-64 230 Uzein, France.
There are two very nice ladies who you can pay at Service FACTURATION ([email protected])
Very nice trip report!
The little bunkers in the pictures might be explosive storage facilities.
They lost Ryanair because the service was subsidised by the Pau CCI and this was challenged under EU competition law.
http://www.air-journal.fr/2015-12-31-subventions-ryanair-devra-bien-rembourser-pau-5155866.html
Thanks Neil. That email elicits this decade-old antispam technology which causes more spam than it prevents, due to these bouncebacks going everywhere
but I did it anyway and will see what happens. I heard that lots of people are away till end of August.
Re Ryanair, what I heard is that Tarbes paid Ryanair more than Pau, to land there. So Tarbes got the business. But surely Tarbes is also financed by the chamber of commerce? Somebody has to come up with the money which is paid to Ryanair.
