Great Jean ! I am glad you join us !
How many will be with you ?
Any other interested ?
I will book today the best restaurant of Ouessant for dinner on Friday. It offers plenty of fish for Peter 
I planned a takeoff at 08:15L from BRUSTEM (EBST) my home base to DINAN-TREVILAN (LFEB), first leg of my flight to OUESSANT. Finally, I took off later at 0945L and arrived at around 1230L, so I filled the tanks at the handy Total Automate and had lunch at the nice airfield restaurant. Landing Fee there is 5€. I stayed one week there two years ago, it’s a nice little town worth visiting. There is an Avis car rental very close to the airfield.
My second leg from LFEB to LFEC started at 1400L, I filed a VFR FPL following the scenic Côte d’Armor with LFRB Brest as alternate. After l’île de Bréat, the west coast was pretty cloudy and I had to descend to 1500ft to stay more or less VMC.
Very helpful IROISE Approach was queen to give me an IFR clearance to LFEC, I just had to ask. So, I was preparing RNAV 23 which has a 580 MDA.
Passing Brest, the sky cleared but a low layer of white cloud covered the sea. IROISE called me to give me the actual of OUESSANT: 1000m visibility and 100 ft overcast. I could have tried to make it anyway, but I decided to divert to my alternate, Brest which was VFR.
There I was directed to the Aero-club Brest Finistère http://www.ac-brest-finistere.fr, which appears to be a very dynamic club. I talked with local pilots about the weather and all told me that it was over for the day. Also spoke Finist’Air Cessna Caravan Shuttle pilot who also decided to cancel their next flight scheduled at 1630L.
So, I decided to stay there and set the plane for a night on the apron.
I exited Brest Airport through the aero-club side and walked to the commercial Aérogare to find a transportation.
I was expecting a night in Brest but anyway I asked the taxi to drop me at the Port de Brest. Maybe I could find a ferry to take me to OUESSANT. Unfortunately, no more boats today. The employee told me there was one from Le CONQUET at 1830L. That’s a 50 km ride. It’s almost incredible, but two salesmen from ARMORLUX, heard my query and told me: we are going there, we can give you a ride. I accepted. So I could jump in the 1830L boat shuttle and then after a bus shuttle I could arrive in time for dinner at the nice Ty Korn restaurant booked by Jujupilote. Very hardly earned meal, but what a pleasure!
After a good night at Roch Armor hotel (one of the only three hotels of the island) we had a good breakfast and then I already had to organize my return travel.
Booked my fare at 10Local, boarded at 12. Followed by a bus shuttle Brest and then a taxi to the aeroclub where I could reach my plane avoiding the hassle of a big airport. Filed my IFR FPL ( OVCST 1000ft) with Autorouter (VERY efficient). Filled up at the Shell Avgas automatic station which takes the VISA and MASTER cards and T/O at 15:25 L. Home after 3 hours of flight with the help of some tailwind.
I want to thank again the very kind people at Brest Finistère Aéro-Club who were really helpful !
Finally I made it down there, with the great help from Jujupilote and his girlfriend
LFEC is FR-only so you need a French PPL holder (strictly speaking it needs to be someone with a radio license, which amounts to the same thing in reality) and this is true even though there is nobody in the tower most of the time. They open for only a few hours for one commercial flight a day; a Cessna Caravan.
I flew in both directions with a stop at Deauville LFRG for customs/immigration, and to refuel on the second stop. There is no fuel at LFEC. From Shoreham, to LFRG, then to LFEC, then to LFRG, I had 30 USG in the tanks which is plenty for the 40min flight back the EGKA, but not wise in case of widespread fog etc.
Nice wx at Shoreham
Instrument approach at Deauville. I asked for a Visual Approach but he didn’t seem to understand and sent me to DEMOM by which time there was nothing to gain
I collected my two passengers and off we went to Ouessant. This is more or less the route flown in both directions
From now on I have very few flying photos because everything was in thick haze. It turned into a bit of an adventure near Ouessant which rapidly covered itself in low cloud, with a cloudbase of maybe 200ft. There was nobody in the tower (the daily flights were cancelled) and there is no automated wx reporting, but we got a report from a commercial helicopter pilot who was apparently able to legally descend through that. OTOH he was going to a different location on Ouessant so it didn’t mean a lot. We flew the RNAV 23 approach anyway (you should always fly the approach even if it looks impossible) and with some amazing luck and a well positioned hole in the cloud got visual with the runway from a long way back. Here are a few snapshots from it
There was a strong wind from the right.
I reckon another minute or two and the cloud cover would have been solid, and it stayed that way for next 2 days. It was quite cold under the fog; mostly about 15-18C and windy. French mainland was over 30C, and Deauville was 38C!
The place was deserted
You leave money in a letterbox. Somebody actually taped a note on the door of the plane while it was parked there, asking for €15
It is quite similar to the Scilly Isles which lie just a bit north of there
Walking from the airport into town
We stayed at the same hotel as Jean, the Le Roc’h Ar Mor. There is actually a lot of accommodation on the island, and clearly much less ripoff priced than is normal on the Scilly Isles, but you can’t find most of it on booking.com since that site is very much disliked in France. Apparently the best way is to look on google maps and then try to contact them directly.
The following morning we rented bikes and cycled to the far end of the island
Geologically Ouessant is really similar to the Scilly Isles
These are the remains of a grand project from the 1930s to connect electricity to a lighthouse, to try to reduce the large number of shipwrecks
There is a good museum of lighthouse equipment
This alternator – long disused – was driven by a huge diesel but produced just 100kW
There is a number of very nice beaches but – I dipped my feet in – the water was really cold.
Cycling past the end of the runway, you can see a load of huge birds sitting on it. We taxied all the way to that end to scare them off, checking they were not returning
Cloudbase was about 300ft and tops about 1200ft, with hazy blue skies above
Back at Deauville, dropped off my passengers, and getting fuel. Baking hot at 38C, but everything was very efficient
Deauville has a lot more French light GA than any other “large” French airport I have ever been to
After a 40 minute flight, and 20kt tailwind, nearly home, I got a close-up pic of some sort of substation for the big wind turbine farm just south of Shoreham
A great trip! I wish it was a bit warmer, but it would have been unpleasant to explore it in baking heat.
Great trip write up Peter! Deauville was indeed baking hot having spent the day there on Saturday. I was in the PA28 that was parked in front of you and to the right on stand A3 in the gap between the SR20 and the 172.
It was a pleasure and an honor to fly onboard 113AC , « copiloting » to Ouessant.
We were the only aircraft that landed in Ouessant this weekend !
It was a great experience for me in terms or real world IFR flying.
What a contrast between hot and busy Deauville, and chilly quiet Ouessant ! We stayed about 24 hours, it seems we were away for a week at the other side of the continent.
The Ouessant departure was amazing too, switching from gloomy mist to warm sunshine in seconds.
All this also demonstrates how useful are GPS approaches and uncontrolled/unmanned hours operations. We never saw the AFIS .
Sorry to have missed you Dino ! You are on my last picture :)
Thanks to Peter and Jujupilote for their great reports. At least I cans see what I should have seen hadn’t I spent half of my time in boats, busses, and taxi !
Maybe I should have tried the approach. I was informed that AFIS was closed till 15 LT, I called them the day before. I got their WX report at around that time, relayed by ATC. With a non WAAS GPS, I didn’t want to try with a 100 ft cloud base.
Jujupilote wrote:
Sorry to have missed you Dino ! You are on my last picture :)
I am indeed!
