Alan,
Sounds like a great trip.
In microlighting circles, we find that Abbeville is a much quieter and
cheaper place than Le Touquet, and has much fewer posers. There is an
equally good restaurant and a reasonably priced motel on the field too. You
can close the flight plan from there any time using the phone in the office
to call Lille. Details are up on the booard.
There is Avgas on the field, Mogas down the road, and a grass strip. But
only one orientation.
Dave Simpson
-----Original Message-----
From: Alan D Stewart <alan.stewart@cableinet.co.uk>
Date: 18 July 1999 22:07
Subject: Fliying : Paris trip
On Saturday, I flew with a colleague to Toussus Le Noble airfield
(landing fee 7.00) which is
about 10 Nm south west of the centre of Paris.
The airfield is fairly large and has two long tarmac runways. I selected
it because it
offers good customs facilities. Because of this we were able to fly
direct from my local
strip here at Rayne Farm in Essex. The journey time was about 2 hours.
A 10 minute (7.00) taxi ride takes you to a station from where you
catch the 25 min
(3.00 return, each) train ride into town (Montparnasse station I
think). You can be under
that big metal thing in the middle of town less than an hour after
landing.
The aircraft performed faultlessly. This time I had no difficulty
raising London Information, or
anyone else, on my Terra radio kit. (The type that's getting justifiably
criticized quite a lot).
The main problem with all of this chat on overseas trips is you don't
get much of a chance to
listen to the CD !
It was a little cloudy over England and the Channel to start with,
forcing me down at times
to under 1200 feet, but this cleared when we passed to the south of Le
Touquet. There was
little wind at the surface and ground temperatures were in the late
twenties by afternoon.
Thermals were quite active on the outbound journey but settled down on
the way back to
give a beautiful serene flight back over the Channel by evening. The
conditions were
meteorologically ideal by the second part of the day.
The journey back across the Channel started abeam the Baie de Somme
straight across to Hythe, near Folkestone.
At nearly 50 Nm it doesn't pay to be too blas about flying a sector
like that. We both kept a keen eye on the
passing shipping, for fear the engine should pack up at some unforeseen
moment. Fortunately, it behaved perfectly.
Preparation:
I now put my flight plans and 'General Aviation Report' (for Customs in
Ipswich) into Microsoft Word.
I've purposefully kept the format identical to the original forms so
that they will be acceptable to the
recipients.
I can fax these directly to the relevant authorities from my PC here at
home. (Well, it worked yesterday!).
One R/T call to London Information will activate the plan, and similarly
to the French authorities on the return
leg.
Flight Details:
Here are the details of the flight for anyone who is contemplating
something similar:
Once again they confirm my long held view that the correct cruising
figure on flight planning material
for my aircraft is 105 knots. My ETA was only out by a couple of minutes
on the 2hour trip.
My ASI (new position) is very inaccurate, over reading by over 9 knots
in cruise configuration.
Europa 912 'Classic' with Warp drive ground adjustable set about 18
degrees.
The figures are for the outbound/return journeys combined. One way
figures are almost exactly 1/2.
Take of weight: 1250 lb approx.
Main tank capacity: 71 litres usable (I have a larger than normal
tank with total capacity 84 litres)
Fuel used: 67.5 litres.
Fuel consumption: 16 litres/hr approx. (Carb. jet needles have
been raised a notch)
Journey time: 4 hr 26 min engine on to engine off.
Flight time: 4 hr 9 min (including take off/landing
and circuit work)
En-route time: 3 hr 55 min. (overhead departure airfield to
overhead destination: 1 hr 55 out, 2 hr back)
Route distance: 408 nm. (one way, direct line distance is 199
nm, courtesy of http://www.flightcalc.com/FCplanner.asp)
Distance flown: 415 nm approx.
Average speed: 106 knots.
Cruising altitude: 1000 - 3,500 ft AGL. (mostly around 1200)
Engine rpm : 4900 outbound, 4750 homebound approx.
Route was as follows:
Rayne Fm, Southend, Le Touquet, Abbeville, Moulab Heliport (west of
Paris), St Cyr L'Ecole, Toussus Le Noble.
PS. Paris for the day, for about 70 quid for two. I'm not
complaining....
--
Alan. D. Stewart
-
14 Goddard Way 'phone : +44 1245 264186
Chelmer Village work : +44 1473 607571
Chelmsford, Essex CM2 6UR email : alan.stewart@cableinet.co.uk
-
office email : alan.d.stewart@bt.com
|