Trip to France (Piccies)

We had a club fly-out last weekend to St Malo, but there was no accommodation available so we changed it to Rennes, having only made a fleeting visit to Le Touquet last year this was to be my first official visit to France let alone fly to a different country in the Warrior.

Was informed by the lady organising it that we would have 4 people in the warrior, and being conscious of the terrible events last week of what happened out of Sandown performance was the key factor here. My student has only got 8 hrs flying so it was down to me to do the flight planning & perf planning. (Not that I wouldn’t have double checked it)

With 4 up and at Max take off weight (fuel 1 inch above tabs) coupled with a hot day we would need about ¾ the length of Staverton’s rwy 27 to get airbourne, and true to it’s word this is what it took.

Route was GST – LA – Trowbrigde – Weymouth – JSY – REN.

This pic was of us passing directly overhead JSY VOR at FL60

Then after a great overnight in Rennes it was time to head back, this is a pic of the 3 warriors that went, the Baron had gone already and 1 warrior turned back the day before

Our mighty Warrior

Hmm, we knew the wx was going to be dodgy on the Sunday, but not this early? time to request a Radar Information Service and upgrade to IFR

The wx got better as we passed the northern French coast

Then through the Jersey Zone, Radar Control Service & still IFR, it was nice to see Jersey.

Glad we are still IFR, I was going to cancel it, but lot’s of Cu’s made for a bumpy 20 minutes

Climbed to FL065, now sat right on top a stratus layer

Asked to descend back down to FL050, back in the Cu’s again

Level (ish) at FL050, tracking the JSY VOR outbound (from) on the way to Weymouth. Note the 15° of drift being flown (on the HSI) due to a strong westerly wind.

Was nice to have Portland visible, IFR cancelled time 40

Great trip, hope to do it again next year, I even got paid to do it, can’t be bad 😉