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Weekend escape to Brittany LFEQ LFEA

This summer, I knew I wouldn’t have vacation so I thought it would be a good opportunity to use GA as a mean to have a short-but-great escape.
My fiancée found a vacation place with an aerodrome (Quiberon LFEQ, guess who is the luckiest guy here ?) and I put my plan in place : join her and her friend on Friday evening and take them back on Sunday.
This crosses my first limit for GA : having to be at a certain place at a certain time. But we were flexible, I could join her until Sunday, and we could stay until Monday with no worries (I could work remotely). I told her friend to take a train ticket just in case. It was not the cheapest but the price for her “flight” and a huge stress-reliever for me.
Weather forecast was a bit nasty but I remained optimistic because in summer heat can clear a lot of clouds, and ceilings are usually high. It worked! (I must admit I prayed and put this weekend in the hands of Mary)

On Friday, I stopped working at 4pm (don’t tell my boss ;) and left for the airfield. I only took off at 5:30pm. Weather was good in central France, with a few thunderstorms to the south (not an issue)

Reaching Nantes TMA, I saw some kind of big gray wall in front of me. I had METARS on my phone which kept decent and saw that showers were scarce. So I pushed on knowing I could turn back to CAVOK. (This is where I would have turned around if I didn’t have to go to Quiberon).
I started a descent knowing that somewhere between 1000 and 1500 feet, I would turn around if I couldn’t see ahead. Passing 2000 feet, I saw some light through what looked like rain. I hesitated a few seconds because if I continued to see better, the 180 turn would be complicated due to the turn radius taking me in the rain and possibly cloud. That’s where everyone has to make his own decision.
But that light looked like direct sunlight reflecting on the sea, and reassured me. Reaching 1800 feet, I understood what was in front of me : a whole in a wall of rain. Just in front of me I could see the ocean lit by the sun (which means no cloud cover), so I went for it. At 1600 feet, I could see the horizon again, and I went for it. I had a few seconds of rain on the plane and it was over, seeing the rain wall behind. The view in front of me was much better :

There I thought : and if you need to divert now, where would you go, idiot ? Vannes was maybe doable but … something to remember.
I found the coastline and followed it, avoiding the small clouds by a few turns. Nantes lost me on radar, and was a bit worried of my descending track. I stayed with them until I was visual with Quiberon. [Even not having to, I had filed and activated a FPL, just in case night fell, or I had a problem out of radio contact. Knowing somebody would inquire of me if I didn’t land in time reassured me a bit]
I switched to Quiberon AFIS (who stayed after hours until I parked to guide me and close my FPL) and landed with a tricky crosswind that I mastered as if I did that everyday (as if I did, it was 30+ days after my last flight).
[During the whole flight, my iphone GPS put me all over the map. The plane’s GPS175 was of course perfectly working, witht the VOR. it seems nothing, but having to nvigate with just the map in these circumstances would have been a hurdle at least.]
I refueled with the TOTAL card, pushed back the plane towards the wind (grass parking), tied it down, unpacked the bags.
On Saturday we visited Belle ile, facing Quiberon. Great place, accessible via GA (LFEA). Belle ile is a little posh and the apron showed that (a couple Cirruses and a PC12). Plenty of car and bike rental on the island, and a 4-star hotel and spa with shuttles facing the sea Plenty of tourists just taking a couple pictures and leaving, we should come back off season.

We camped in Quiberon. 2 nights camping was probably my limit before being too tired to fly. For the campign nerds, we had 2 (1 borrowed) Decathlon Blackout tents, we love them.

On Sunday, we went to church then had a breakfast in a café full of locals (yey !). [In summer, tourists take the outside tables, inside are the locals ;)] We then had to clear our camping spot and we decided to load the plane instead of keeping everything with us. We had a picnic on the beach which is below the final of RWY 29 (not quite St Barth, but fun) [Side note #42 : when on the Atlantic coast, check out La Belle Iloise sea products. Expensive, but you can’t get wrong].
Then back to the airfield and departed to LFPZ where our friend would take a train to her home. Ceiling had lifted to about 4-5000 ft, so we circled Belle ile and then headed straight for Paris.

Nothing much to report. [Once you have used FIS, VFR in France is the same thing everywhere]. The approach to LFPZ is very precise, but rewarding with the base leg close to the Château de Versailles
We parked, lead our friend to a gate (most look open, at least during the day), and fired up again back to the quiet country. Another uneventful flight, apart from a gaggle of club aircrafts all flying back from Chateauneuf sur Cher LFFU (a city “nobody” ever heard about). At the fifth plane calling ,the controller asked “For my personal knowledge, what was happening today in Chateauneuf ?’’. I didn’t understand the answer but nice to have ATC interested in aviation :D
Finally, we enjoyed a little priviledge :

Who among you can do the same (the US guys are obviously disqualified )?

Conclusion :
Sorry this report doesn’t have many pictures. I had forgotten my phone cable in the plane, so was very careful of the battery.
What I remember is first the great time we had and the great places we discovered. Clearly decision making and planning took the biggest effort but it is a step towards being a better XC pilot. The weather avoidance phase was very interesting too. Now let’s not be too confident next time.
Secret for pilots : in fact, we would have taken the same time driving if you count door to door time. But shhhhhh….
Another take away is that, with 3 POB and little luggage but 2 tents, sleeping bags and mattresses filled the Robin (180hp, with the luggage door) to the roof. How do people do with kids ?

GA is indeed a great tool to escape for a few days. In high season in famous places, trips tend to be less special (we like our vacation to be “discoveries”). But what could what else could I ask for ?

For the CAS nerds, I asked pro forma Nantes FIS/APP clearance to enter their TMA and it was immediately repied with a smile in the voice of the ATCO (like if I was the best pupil in the class saying a lesson by heart, it doesn’t happen anymore but you get the idea). I entered Rennes TMA and realized it the day after, when reviewing my trace on SD (GPS worked this time). These are good examples of my experience.
Feel free to ask questions !

Last Edited by Jujupilote at 28 Aug 21:22
LFOU, France

A good fun trip with lots of new experiences to gain from. Well done.

Quiberon is one of our very favourite places.
If the wife started to loose interest in flying I would only need to offer to take her to quiberon for a weekend and all normality would be resumed. ;-)

United Kingdom

Great. l love Belle Ile.

For your flying: although you don‘t have an IR, consider getting a Golze. Occasionally, some people are selling their ADL140s, for ~450€. Not cheap, but it‘s a big stress reliever on those longer flights in summer, knowing what exactly is ahead (and what isn‘t). If you just occasionally get a 3 day trip kit, it isn‘t so expensive. Plus, if flying low level, you can sometimes grab data fron the internet.

Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany

Nice trip report. We have been again at Quiberon this year, and as the the beach at the end of the runway is easy to reach by a short walk, we loved it to go for a swim.

consider getting a Golze. Occasionally, some people are selling their ADL140s, for ~450€.

I think it will be not necessary in France to buy better weather equipment when flying at low level altitudes. Most of the time as mentioned by @boscomantico you will be able to grab the data by 4G. At FL080 we receive the signal often and wenn flying between 2000-5000 ft nearly everywhere you are able to receive radar pictures on ForeFlight or any other tool on your smartphone. But no matter which way you are getting the data, it is a good help to make good decisions.

EDDS , Germany

Jujupilote wrote:

During the whole flight, my iphone GPS put me all over the map. The plane’s GPS175 was of course perfectly working, witht the VOR. it seems nothing, but having to nvigate with just the map in these circumstances would have been a hurdle at least.

Are you sure it was GPS position and not cell-tower based position if the iPhone lost GPS position? I don’t see why even a simple GPS receiver would give wildly incorrect positions. (Certainly I’ve never seen that on my iPad.)

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

That looks a lovely trip. For a moment, looking at the pics, I thought you went to the Scilly Isles The geology is all the same along that N-S axis.

I definitely want to fly to these places, but would need to borrow a French pilot

I also looked up those tents. Amazingly cheap! They are one of the many Chinese copies of the MSR etc ones (which are 5x + the price) and they are just slightly heavier. You have my complete sympathy regards not sleeping too well; I can sleep just about OK but not well enough.

IME, France has 3G/4G (on Vodafone contract, FWIW) up to about 3000ft fairly well (in the proximity of towns); very intermittent at 8000ft. Until a year or so ago there would be absolutely no connectivity at 8k+ despite a mostly good signal indication. The ADL150 is a good product even for VFR when it serves well for tafs and metars.

The GPS issue could be interference. My Ipad2 GPS is basically useless in the TB20; no idea why.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

I don’t see the need for ADL because I only fly high (above 3000ft) when cavok.
Below 3000ft, 3G reception is good enough to get metar/tafs. Just remember to enable in flight connection on SD :)

While there I thought it would be a good place for a fly-in, but IAPs have been withdrawn and no customs.

Last Edited by Jujupilote at 29 Aug 09:57
LFOU, France

I don’t see the need for ADL because I only fly high (above 3000ft) when cavok.
Below 3000ft, 3G reception is good enough to get metar/tafs.

I was referring to radar images of course, not TAFs/METARs, which are only good for checking the destination weather (and that of nearby alternates), but it‘s radar which (in summer) is so useful to get a good picture of what is ahead.

Anyway, if you don‘t want to get the satellite receiver, get the app (or any other suitable one) which allows you to internet download and dispaly radar images inflight.

Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany

Nice report of Brittany (I am nearby at LaBaule now ) and Belle Lilloise is always worth it !

VFR in France at 3000ft, I found it may make sense to land, check weather and takeoff again, takes 10min less than the data-link refresh rate

Last Edited by Ibra at 29 Aug 11:00
Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom

Thanks Jujupilote
A good read and photos as always

EGHO-LFQF-KCLW, United Kingdom
17 Posts
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