Have spoken to 'handling' - (not required with grass park)
Airfield closes 2030 UTC. 2230 Local
So what's the verdict?
The weather doesn't look good to me (from/to Southern Germany). An early Saturday trip would work but a lot of convection will build up during the day. The trip back on Sunday looks difficult with a lot of clouds and icing. The weather in La Rochelle with 14°C barely meets the UK definition of springtime...
As someone who can't come due to still having no plane, I would suggest you have it as on and people make their own calls on whether to go. There is unlikely to be another weekend before the summer.
I plan to go Friday early pm or Saturday early morning, unless obviously not possible.
The weather has not cooperated so we may as well have another meeting(s) in the summer.
My plan is to go from EGCF 1300 UTC Friday.
I'm going to go through all the motions right up to the bitter end before I cancel.
The weather may well be OK VFR below the cloudbases, and we are not looking at massive terrain.
Got to watch the French prohibited zones though!
I will go IFR, which is simpler but the higher altitude exposes one to hazardous weather.
Fortunately the MSLP charts are consistently showing good wx for a return on Sunday or even Monday.
It is absolutely correct to not cancel until the day of the flight. Unfortunately sometimes one has to do that e.g. where hotels are getting pre-booked, or you have a passenger who demands a certainty on getting back to work on Monday, etc.
I've got three X'ings of miltary. R 149G NE of Rennes. R 149D SE Nantes & R147 N of La Rochelle.
Bottoms are 800' ASFC (guess that's above surface - will check - what part of SFC, highest!!!).
So ducking under VFR seems the best bet with a QNH and some calculations.
Tops are various 1500', 1800' & 2200'.
Over the top could make me illegal (IMC).
So looks like 'duck under' - depends.
Hoping SIV's will help with a 'duck under' altitude (QNH).
Peter, going to e-mail you my MOB. Could be useful. GO/NO GO. Finding each other at destination.
Weather is going to be a challenge. Sunday will be nice for a trip back to the UK but looks hardly doable for going east, i.e. Germany. A lot of cloud from very low to pretty high up with icing. Flying to LFBH today or on Saturday looks difficult from the UK and Germany -- rain down low for VFR and the nasty type of icing inside the clouds.
The IR image and the GRAMET both look good from here, so it looks like I will be going.
In fact the GRAMET looks very clear, even for a VFR flight down below, from the UK. One will need to get tafs and metars for the route, as usual...
There is some ~FL300 cloud over Germany.
