You are too kind, @Dan, but I am no maestro , but rather a learner…
It was great to share the cockpit with such an experienced flyer . Your exploits speak highly of your piloting, but in our Cessna, you really earned your keep as a lookout! Those couple of French Valleys (Luchon and Louron) with 102 airborne paragliders in the former and 203 in the latter were much better tackled with your assistance!
As to the runway sweeping, no, that is not how I keep in shape, all I have to do is switch the Cessna P210 autopilot off! An RV is OK with weakly pilots who just need to think what they want the airplane to do, a Cessna P210 has to be…coached! As you saw, it will do what you ask, but you have to ask firmly!
For those oblivious, the sweeping is for the static power take-off at Peyresourde. That short downhill runway goes by really fast and once the brakes are off there’s no smooth stopping downhill (see note) . The 78" propeller just 15" from the ground using 300+hp sucks every loose thingy within one mt, straight into it.
Note: I once saw someone stop downhill during the take off run at Peyresourde. I believe they forgot to open the fuel valve or something to that effect and they started accelerating downhill at full power with little runup when the engine faltered. Fortunately, it was during a spot landing competition and fortunately speed was still slow and there was a quick-thinking judge on the edge of the runway who run and grabbed the wingtip, causing the airplane to groundloop and stop sideways on the runway…that was close!
THanks @Peter for putting the effort to tell your story of the trip. You guys really exploited all the opportunities that valley has to offer, airborne rescue included! I really like Vall de Nuria. Been there in winter once with all the snow, but did not ski at the time.
Nice pic of your LEGE pitstop. Whenever I see your airplane my eyes are drawn to your shiny (well, actually matt) leading edges. When I, at last, had a chance to see it in person, I noticed the carefully applied sealant fillets on the edges of the titanium panels. You must have had the smallest airspeed loss of all TKS installations! How much did you measure?
Some pics of our own
Bagneres de Luchon airfield
Bagneres de Luchon downtown
Bagneres de Luchon airfield
Bagneres de Luchon downtown
Superbagneres
Aneto peak and Maladeta massif
Vall d’Aran and Maladeta massif
The winding road up the Bonaigua pass into Vall d’Aran
LESU in the centre
Did you fly these legs with or without flightplans?
It was to French airports so, yes, FPL required. Opening and closing for dep/arr LECD is best done by phone because there is hardly radio coverage. Call LEGE ARO. Intra Spain no FPL required unless flying to/from an AENA FPL.
It was fun to help organizing the fly-in, but it was really not too much work as all people took care of their accomodation and in general are seasoned travelers who need no hand-holding. It’s more a bit of accomodating rather than organizing.
I’m saying this so that others are not shy to facilitate the next one 
Someone in France perhaps?
You must have had the smallest airspeed loss of all TKS installations! How much did you measure?
Not measurable – less than 1kt.
I also noted the VNV reference in your KLN94: does it have VNAV capability?
It has outputs for LPV but the function was never implemented in the software. There is some sort of VNAV but I’ve never used it. I guess it might be like the Aera 660 whose VNAV feature I do use to get the VSR (vertical speed required) to the destination.
Does anyone know what these are (in France)
Here are some of my photos from the flyin.
Outbound trip:
LECD:
Some amazing sunsets at LECD:
From the restaurant at dinner on the Friday night:
Hot air ballooning seems to be very popular here. There were Balloons to be seen each morning:
A questionable name for a milk supply company:
Some fog in the valley on Saturday morning:
From the hike between Alp and La Molina. It’s a very nice hike, all under tree cover, meaning that the temperature is much reduced and makes for easy hiking:
The fire service has a surprising name in Catalan! Sort of sounds like they generate much of their own work!
The train to Vall de Núria is spectacular along with the scenery at the top!
Time to leave. Preparing to go home.
Note the two commercial aircraft travelling the same direction. Per FR24, there was 2K feet between them.
The strange clouds. I know Emir said that they were just Cirrus but if they were, they were quite low. We were at 9K feet, and they weren’t that much above us. Certainly below 15Kft.
Approach into Shoreham
Brighton, UK
Having been struck down by the flu on arrival back home, I’ve been pretty much confined to my study. To while away the hours, I’ve put together a short (about 10 minutes) slide show of our LECD adventures. Hopefully this link will give you access:
On returning to the forum to post this link, I note that some more excellent photographs have been uploaded. Depending on how much longer this flu bug lasts and peoples general interest, I could expand the slideshow (but only slightly so as to avoid slide overload) to include some of these new photographs?
Enjoy!
Steve
