Short trip to Clermont-Ferrand (LFLC) and back to Lelystad (EHLE)

Yesterday I made a quick trip to Clermont-Ferrand (LFLC) and back.

It was about 4 years ago that I have been there, flying in a DA20 Katana (see trip report here). This time I made the trip to pick up my brother. Thursday evening it was decided that I would pick him up by flying to Clermont-Ferrand. Two things I had to check: availability of the right airplane and the weather. Since a year and a half I’m flying a DA40. That would be my first choice of airplane, but with a distance of more than 400 NM between EHLE en LFLC, that would be a long trip. I would be flying alone, so the trip could be done in one leg. But that would be more than 4 hours of continues flying. Although I like the idea of stretching my skills, I opt for a technical stop around 2 hours flying. The other thing was the weather. The forecast for sunday was very good, so the plan was to fly on sunday (yesterday). Just in between two fronts passing mainland Europe.

Meanwhile I had checked with an FI if another plane was available to use for this flight. And he, and the plane, was available! It’s a privately owned DA62, which I have flown twice before. A marvelous machine! With this airplane the trip would take about two and a half hour, single leg. And because I have no MEP rating (yet) the FI had to come along, which he didn’t mind at all.

On Friday an Saturday we kept an eye on the weather and started creating our flight plan. We decided that the trip to LFLC would be done IFR and the trip back VFR. The estimated time of travel would be 2 hrs 45 minutes and 2 hrs 30 minutes for the trip back, due to the southwest wind. Some headwind on the trip to LFLC and some tailwind on the trip back. The IFR flight plan (FL100) was filed saturday evening and accepted.

Sunday morning 9 o’ clock local time we where at the airport (EHLE) to pull the aircraft out of the hangar and perform the checks. The weather was ok, some low broken and scattered clouds.

Ready for startup and refueling.

After refueling we were cleared for take-off and cleared for direct Pampus (PAM). After a few minutes in the clouds and avoiding a towering cumulus (the DA62 has weather radar and stormscope), we were climbing above the clouds and cleared to FL100.


Cruising above the clouds.

Nice speeds: 147kts IAS, 177kts TAS, 154kts GS, due to the headwind.
We have seen groundspeed between 153kts and 165kts.

ATC (Netherlands, Belgium, France) was very helpful, the flight plan was programmed into the G1000 and the AP enabled. The flight was most of the time uneventful. So we, the FI and me, had some time to talk and for me to learn the G1000 and IFR flying. The DA62 is equipped with TCAS and in France we were informed by ATC that there was some traffic 1000 ft below and in front of us, which we would be overtaking. After spotting the two airplanes, the TCAS warned us about the traffic. When we were getting closer and overtaking the two airplanes, the TCAS decided that is was too close and initiated an avoidance course. Nice!

Some more photo’s to enjoy the view from FL100.

While approaching our destination, Clermont-Ferrand, the clouds broke up and were broken-scattered. The FI asked me if I wanted to fly an ILS-approach. I’ve never flown IFR, so this was all new to me, but I love to learn new things about flying. So, we first programmed the G1000 for an ILS approach for RWY26. After that he talked me through the procedure and explained all the data on the IFR approach charts. It is nice to know that the G1000 is able to fly the whole ILS approach on AP, down to 200 ft (MDA). While approaching the final approach fix, we got vectors-to-final, due to some other traffic.
After landing we requested for refueling and parking on Victor apron (where the aeroclubs are). Total flight time 2hrs 45 minutes.


Parked at LFLC. Nice ambient temperature (18 – 20 degrees Celsius)

Refueling while waiting for my brother to arrive.

After paying the landing fee and eating & drinking some, we prepared for the return flight. Due to the cloud base and various restricted airspaces, and the fact that we would be flying VFR, we selected 3000ft or below as a nice altitude to fly. With the estimated tailwind, the return flight would be a little bit shorter. It was a very bumpy ride and that is exhausting when flying for two and half hours. Despite the very comfortable seats in de DA62.



Bumpy!



Rain showers along the route.

The ATC again was very helpful, and cleared us trough all the crossings we requested. The only thing that annoyed us, with every frequency change we, on request of ATC, had to set our transponder back to squawk 7000, and receive a new squawk code with the next ATC. I think we have changed XPDR codes about 10 times during this flight, argggh!

Beter speeds: 164kts IAS, 171kts TAS, 180kts GS, due to the tailwind.

Landing EHLE. Note: I’m still learning to fly (this) MEP.

Back at homebase. Total flight time 2 hrs 30 minutes.

So, to conclude, it is doable to fly a 900+ NM flight from EHLE to LFLC and back in one day, but I was very tiered at the end of the day. Partly due to the bumpy return flight, partly due to the fact that I was learning to fly this airplane and learning to use the G1000. And about 6 hours of flying is a lot. But I love this machine!