As expected this was supposed to be the last trip of the year, I flew London to Paris via Rouen to clear customs, this time a full stop 
, then Paris, I picked my wife & baby the next day and we flew Toussus (LFPN) to Cannes (LFMD), we stayed few nights at Campanile Hotel nearby, which was a ghost hotel, then flew to Propriano (LFKO) but we had to cut our vacation and go back in time when France/UK announced lockdown…
The aircraft is DA40NG, I rented from North Weald, while my shared Mooney is 30kts faster but it’s less comfy for family flying with wife & baby in the backseats, and it’s way too noisy for 4h flying legs even with ANR headsets, also the Mrs agreed to long flying legs at 4000ft max and temporarily 7000ft if “we have to”, this required planning for days with good weather and long detour away from terrain in the south-east of France and also excluded any flying inside Corsica, so had to give Corte a skip !
The new crew layout
Mt Blanc behind the wing from 60nm
Sistron gliding site, some nice memories of Alps and Valley flying
Getting tarmac parking 1-1 stand at LFMD priceless, unlike in the summer
Cloud cliff near Corsica
I like the smile of your wife Was there any traffic at LFKO? How did you cross the lagoon on the way from the runway to the beach?
Great trip given the circumstances !
Good to know about the Mooney vs family trade-off.
Some pics look mixed up, the Toussus pic is at the end ;)
Good to know about the Mooney vs family trade-off.
@lbra was this an older Mooney, the 201 and up are quite roomy.
We crossed the lagoon by feet, it looked doable as I flew over on downwind, on google map it looked like a proper river, but we still gave it a shot, just take the shoes off not much traffic at Propriane, only one student doing solo circuits in C152 then he went on dual nav with his instructor, also the restaurant was closed while before lockdown but these days one need to take enough snacks & water to survive for 7 days and a tent 
It’s Mooney 201, way more roomy in the front seats I tried few trips in UK with family, it works fine for 1h trips but for long legs it seems less comfy for my wife setting in tight backseats and probably too noisy for the baby (the DA40 diesel version runs its prop on 1800rpm-2000rpm, and indeed it was ok for 3h40min straight)
You are right Jujupilote, mixed up that last pic
Excellent trip. The best bit is the happy family
Seems to me you forgot to switch of the fuel transfer pump at some time
Nice report indeed
Indeed I left that fuel switch ON more than what it should, it was very apparent in the sideslip indicator
Wow! Well done organising that with a baby. I’ve never seen Propriane so green Out of interest, do you have a recommendation for small lifejackets?
Capitaine wrote:
I’ve never seen Propriane so green
Haha, got a label for you, summer visitor
For the life jacket, we got the kid a Blatic Bambi jacket, he test it already on the water during the summer and looked comfy & safe, it’s already inflated but way more compact than inflated adult life jackets but we struggled to fit it comfortably on his car seat, so my wife just store it nearby in case we went into water !
He did not have much “sailor luck”, a Jonah eating banana compote under red skies on that trip
To boost his “pilot luck” we got him to wear this instead
