We haven’t had one of these threads for a few weeks…
I went to a friend’s wedding near Saint-Malo, a very beautiful trip but which did not deserve a separate report like the great ones we’ve had from Peter and terbang (among others). Even though it’s nice to have detailed reports of these long trips, we also miss the smaller stories by bigger numbers of pilots.
This trip has been planned for a while. I regularly organize ride sharing when attending weddings with friends, and this was a nice occasion to do a little flight-sharing instead. I had not taken any of them flying yet, and I presented this like any other ride sharing, which for them it obviously wasn’t. We pilots tend to forget how lucky we are to hop in an aircraft and go places just like it’s nothing. For the uninitiated, something doesn’t add-up when you say things like “I’m attending the wedding via aircraft”.
Even though I finally had only one friend with me for the flight, it was still the first time I took a passenger on an actual overnight trip. Although this is very appreciable in itself, I found my planning and focus to be a little less optimal, especially on the return journey: I had no preparation room like back in the club, and we left very early so I did not take enough time and concentration for last-minute checks before hopping in. I must imagine this must be even worse with more time pressure. Fortunately, my return journey been done properly planned in advance, but I definitely would have liked more mental preparation and more time just before departing (especially weather, NOTAMs, which I checked very coarsely). I definitely could have used my pre-flight go/no-go checklist idea, that I have not taken the time to finalize yet.
The main highlight of the trip was overflying the Mont Saint-Michel. There’s a restricted area which prohibits closeby overflight, but close to the edge of it you can still distinguish it quite well. The sanctuary looks especially big when compared to the island, it seems to cover about half the surface.
When arriving at Dinard, the Rance river welcomed us with its many small ports and sailing boats. Along with small towns and old granite churches, it makes for a very well preserved landscape.
We arrived in the middle of the day, and despite the relatively low wind I used an approach speed on the higher side. I’ve been doing this since that one time where, near MLW, I went into a full stall during the flare (while respecting the speeds I was taught). The high speed proved to be a pretty good idea because thermals near the ground were inducing a lot of airspeed variation (about 80kt to 65 and back in a few seconds, just shy of actual windshear). The relatively low speed I was taught in this aircraft comes from an instructor who uses 1.3Vs approach speeds, but I prefer the more common landing sequence:
Of course, with quasi-gliders like the DA40, these speeds better not be overshot by too much, otherwise you’re never actually landing.
During the flight, fuel gauges proved to be not very reliable, they were dropping so fast that a small fuel leak was not entirely ruled out. I planned on doing the round trip on a single fillup, but because of unreliable gauges I actually had to fillup at destination. To get Jet-A1 in Dinard, you need to call for the truck, which is PPR 1h on weekends. Unfortunately, I did not react quickly enough when landing, because the truck was right there filling up another DA40. Only after landing and talking with the firefighter in the office did I call back the truck. To my relief, the truck filled up the tanks for a grand total of 35L, ruling out a fuel leak. This proved that the gauges were not very reliable. I kept using them to manage the fuel transfer in big chunks, but not necessarily to get an accurate picture of how much fuel was left. With more than 5 hours of fuel for a 1h45 flight, this was unlikely to be a problem… (And this is a shockingly low fuel burn figure for such a trip !)
For the return journey, we went via the sea side in the bay of Mont Saint-Michel, which was a nice change. Clouds around FL60 added a bit of depth and movement to the sky.
Once had been normalized the fact that I can come to a wedding via aircraft, I was pleased to see that the subject was not at the center of attention, and that we could be fully present and all to the celebration of one of my closest friends getting married. Although, after such beautiful skies and landscapes, it always takes a few days to recover and come back to Earth.
Well, I went to the Waterford Aeroclub Flyin BBQ.
“The Sunny South East” of Ireland certainly lived up to it’s name this year. 30C and not a cloud to be seen!
That certainly brought out the visitors and were about 25 aircraft there and lots of people.
But this day was special for me for another reason. It’s the first time that my 7 yr old daughter got to fly in my ‘new’ aircraft! So a special day for both of us.
I didn’t take any photos of the flyin itself, but here are a few of my aircraft taken by Dundon Photography
(My daughter was annoyed that her face was hidden by the prop in the second photo! But I wouldn’t have been posting it here if it was shown so, every cloud…. 
)
The weather in the northwest of Europe has been quite something this last weekend. The 30 degress mentioned extended all the way to the north of Scotland! So on a whim I decided I needed to go there. From Friday afternoon until Wednesday morning, I did Calais – Old Warden – Colonsay – Coll – Glenforsa – Derry – Waterford. So I just missed you @dp.
Took too many great pics to post here, so I’ll post just a few beach pics. The beach time and swimming on Colonsay and Coll (yes, I don‘t mind „cold“ water) were out of this world.
boscomantico wrote:
So I just missed you @dp
Yes! Looks like I landed just 90 minutes after you. I take it you didn’t know about the Flyin / BBQ at the Aeroclub?
Negative, but I was there no sooner than Tuesday.
maxbc wrote:
we also miss the smaller stories
My favourite type, actually 
and lots of good photos. Not many people can say they flew into a wedding.
dublinpilot wrote:
It’s the first time that my 7 yr old daughter got to fly in my ‘new’ aircraft! So a special day for both of us.
That’s really nice. My daughter, same age, just complains the plane gives her stomach ache.
The church in the last photo could be the Mont Saint Michel
boscomantico wrote:
Calais – Old Warden – Colonsay – Coll – Glenforsa – Derry – Waterford
That’s a trip and a half for a whim
- – -
A wasted weekend here. I was planning on Haverfordwest to visit the town and look at a couple of churches, but decided to quickly change a tap washer at home first. Big mistake. The tap handle sheared off, mostly due to corrosion, leaving it jammed at WOT. Most of Saturday was spent calling plumbers It was finally fixed Sunday. I abandoned Haverfordwest as it would have meant 1.5h on the folding bike: too hot and not enough time. I only did a 1h local flight, but have been regretting it, as I could have just done Haverfordwest town (2x 15 minutes on the bike).
Also, during the week, I swung my magnetic compass and updated the deviation card. I had a lot of engine and avionics work last year, and doing partial panel with an IRI we discovered that westerly headings were almost 30 degrees out. I checked the KCS55 against all four QFUs at home base, then used that as a reference. I did try some iOS and Android compass apps, but they were useless.
Did my first flight north over the southern Alps, apart from the extremely badly-ended one where I lost my plane at Barcelonnette. VFR north from Cannes LFMD to Chambery LFLB. (Plan A was to go to Annecy LFLP but the restaurant is currently closed). Flying through the mountains is… impressive. Even though I was comfortably above the surrounding terrain, it didn’t always feel that way! And it’s within sight of Les Ecrins, highest peak 4102m / 13458 feet. The other scary hazard is gliders, there are several busy glider fields along the route with aircraft from ground up to way above me.
Another unexpected hazard was my iPad overheating and shutting down, particularly serious since I was relying on it for VFR navigation. More about that on the appropriate thread.
Chambery was VERY quiet, no doubt a lot different during the ski season since it is the principal bizjet airport for the big ski resorts. There is a huge and well-appointed GA terminal, a bit of a hike to the main terminal. The restaurant there served me an excellent plat du jour.
Les Ecrins, peaks around 4000 metres.
Grenoble
Final 36 at Chambery LFLB
Lunch! – Rougail Saucisse, cut-up sausages in a spicy tomato sauce, served with roast small potatoes. Delicious!
well… came back from yet another EFKH Kuhmo (yep, that is mighty Finland) experimental (homebuilt) aircraft fly-in…
As usual, great people, great food, great welcome, great flying… and this year, to top it all, great weather 😀
Flew northern Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czechia, Germany (yet again 🥱), and back home. Experienced superb ATC, GPS spoofing, rough fields, very rough fields, and more.
Arrival on Friday, attendance rather low, as usual…
Plenty more on Saturday…
Some of the stuff one sees flying around…
