Europe 2025

Had a phone call from Border force this morning.  Chap said we were 'cutting it fine' to arrive back in the UK on time. I explained we were fog bound and delayed and he seemed to think we would all need to resubmit our GAR forms.  As politely as possible, I informed the official that our General Aviation Report (GAR) was valid all day. Having spent a long time trying to use the website the night before, I really wasn't too keen to repeat the experience.  I offered to call them if/ when we were expecting to depart le touquet later in the day and he gave me a number to call.....so we were fully expecting a welcoming party complete with rubber gloves. The fog finally lifted at Dieppe, but we knew from the Met that Le touquet were still overcast at 1000ft, just about good enough, so we set off.  Very challenging flight in misty conditions scud running over the hills and dodging wind turbines. There were a few points where we considered turning back or diverti...

We pretty much expected the forecast to be right and we are under some very thick fog here in Dieppe. Visibility is about 100m, but we are hoping it should lift enough by lunchtime to leave here and get 30 mins north to Le Touqet. 

Bumpy out of Chartres initially with a bit of a wiggly route through some airspace but was able to eventually climb above the clouds for some surfing.  With 20 miles to run to Dieppe I had to duck under again as it was quite overcast as I approached the coast. I asked some guys in the club if anyone spoke English....Non! Eventually figured out that "the chief' would be landing in 30 mins and I could ask him about fuel and camping.  After he landed, he told me to go find someone else! Basically a lot of time wasted but eventually figured out we can't camp under the wing but a few mins walk away.   We all carted our tents across the apron and setup behind the parachute club.  Was told to wait until the parachute jump plane had finished before we could refuel to get us home, but it was taking forever, so we tried ordering some taxis into town. Here the usual issue arose....there are no cabs. Again. We were about to set off for the 45 mins walk when 2 ol...

Telephoned Le Mans this morning to get clearance in. No issues reported however he did say ATC would close for lunch but to make standard calls.  As we approached just before 12 o'clock I called and asked to join the circuit and was told he would only be able to speak English for 1 minute as he was about to go for lunch. Nothing stops lunch in France. Nothing.  There seemed to be a huge amount of traffic on the radio, all in french, and the controller suggested a divert .....so we did and continued NE for about another 50 miles to Chartres Metropole. Very new airfield with a view of the cathedral. I descended down from the clouds at 5000ft and joined by descending into the downwind at  3000ft making calls in french and telling the guys on the other frequency to use the tarmac as they were launching gliders off the grass. All safely down, some of the guys are now low on fuel and unfortunately the pumps here are broken. A helpful chap called Paul has just taken 3 of the guy...

After a rather delicious breakfast at Bourg, I was stopped as the guys got in their plans. The operations guy/mower man who we had paid €8 landing fee too explained that unfortunately as we had been parked for 10 mins over 3 hours, we now had to pay for additional parking...€11 ! Departed out of Bourg and it was my time for a technical problem. The iEfis was throwing all kinds of warnings about temperatures being too high... I started to turn back when all of a sudden everything returned to normal so I turned back on course and all was well. This was going to be a lengthy flight of around 3 hours, so we all climbed up over the hills to 6000ft and pretty much stayed up there barely touching the controls as the air was cool and smooth at altitude. After quite a long flight, one of my longest, it was time to descend into montmerillion airfield around 20 miles from Poitiers. This landing strip is 600 meters long, so I was unconcerned about landing, but what I didn't realise...

We had to walk a couple miles back to the airfield last night, stopping briefly for some gelato to cool us down. Even though it was after 9pm, it was still got and humid, particularly when walking. We arrived back in swarms of mosquitoes and headed for our tents to try and get some sleep before the alarms all went off around 4am.  We packed up in the dark and at sunrise we were rolling down the taxi way, still with mosquitos swarming around us. Several made their way into the cockpit but their demise was swift once in swatting distance. Bloody things. Climb out in smooth air and I eventually got hold of Milano to activate flightp plans. Around Turin and we climbed into the mountains.  Graham and I had a bit of a moment when we came rather too close together....the problem with our planes is that Graham couldn't see up, and I couldn't see directly down underneath me. Fortunately I spotted Graham and put some space between us 'avanti'! Up to 10500 feet and we had smooth a...

1. Flight plans make life easier 2. Know a waypoint less than 30 mins away and how long it will take to get there 3. Be prepared to listen to very rapid Italian on the Radio. 4. Be prepared for Matt to wind you up inflight. 5.take lot of water. 6.skydemon sharing can screw up your settings and give you the wrong reg. 7. Pools at airfields are cool/essential in hot weather.

On refilling the planes, Graham noticed his oil cap was missing.  He had preflighted the plane at Ozzano but forgotten to replace the cap. Fortunately our engines have a separate oil tank that is not under pressure so thankfully that last 2 hours flight was uneventful and he didn't lose any oil, thankyou gravity! After giving him a good ribbing we found that Castel Monte Ferrato has a rotax engineering shop on site and after a lot of broken Engtalian to a couple of the guys here, and a two hour wait, I had a txt to say they had sourced a new oil cap.... unbelievably lucky.   We discovered an easier way to transport jerry cans, ring-a-ring-a-roses style...cant believe we never tried it before as it makes lugging fuel around much easier. We also found some showers, so tied down the planes, showered up and tried to get a couple of cabs into town. There our luck ran out, as there were no taxis available. Somebody leaving the airfield kindly carried 3 o...

Departed Ozzano and Graham had a go at the radio. After initially making contact the lady asked for some information which threw us a bit and she asked Graham to report at PEN3, around 10 miles ahead.  Graham couldn't make our her accent or the reporting point, so Matt told him islt was Papa Echo November 15. Most of us didn't get the gag until later...  By now a somewhat overloaded Graham went quiet so I made a call to stay with the group and had 2.5hrs of rapido Italian screaming down my headset.   All safely into Castel Mon Ferrato now, fuel station at the end of the runway, so the lads are refilling cans whilst I enjoy a cool drink, ice cream and Aircon in the cafe next door.

After a couple hours at Portoroz (and playing the obligatory excessive fees gag on Graham) we set off for a run across the Lido, Venice. The temp in the cockpit at low level was very uncomfortable so after passing Venice with the guys I separated from the formation, climbed a little and increased speed (and therefore airflow in the cockpit) to try and stay cool, but the heat was still very strong, and I was very relieved to be on the ground at Ozzano which has a swimming pool in the shape of a plane. Finding the entrance to the pool in 36c heat had me ready to plunge in as quickly as possible to try and cool off.  The boys landed around 15 mins later having battled some strong thermals inland and we're also in the pool in minutes. We discussed various options to continue flying tonight but eventually decided against it as we were all pretty tired. Plan is to have a relatively early night, get up early and make it over to Castle Monferrato.  We are all fully fueled ...

A leisurely start this-morning, flight plans filled as requested by the staff at Portoroz yesterday to help coordinate traffic....even though we were only on a 30 mile flight.  We filled to arrive at 10am when the airport opens, but managed to leave a little early and were obviously unable to get people on the radio, so we had to hold outside the TMA for 10 mins to be coordinated in. Follow me golf cart and fuel tanker was dispatched, we were all pretty low on fuel to the point where we drained 10 litres from NULA to give Andy some margin...good job we did given the holding time.  It is extremely hot here now. Forecast is for 35c today. Our papers are being prepared by the front desk whilst we cool off....let's hope it's not as expensive as last time.😁

After landing at Postojna and enjoying a nice meal, we heard music nearby.  Matt Graham and I went to investigate and after walking quite some distance we found the source of the music...an open air party in a school playground, live band, 2 massive bars and around 200 people having a good time.  We stayed for a couple of beers, chatted to some of the locals and one of them was even kind enough to run us back to the airfield.

We sat at the airfield restaurant in Northern Slovenia waiting for the temperature and thermals to settle down for a looong time and planned a departure that would follow a VFR route through the mountains to Postojna. Matt picked up a transit from Ljubljana info and they cleared us to 5000ft and so we climbed slowly into the mountains. After 15 minutes it became apparent Paul E was having some issues with unserviceable instrumentation. No Speed, No height, and a transponder telling ATC he was halfway to the moon. We worked out he must have something wrong with his static pressure port which controls all this instruments....this alongside his partially knackered Flydat giving him sporadic information about his engine.  Matt notified ATC to disregard Paul's transponder readings and the controller asked for him to reboot his transponder.  Knowing the issue at hand, Paul's somewhat animated response to Matt was that "it won't make any f difference, the ASI is F'd, but ...

This morning at Dubova they had a class of young school kids at the airfield with a couple of fire engines for them to see the planes and have a go at shooting targets with the fire hoses.  Having settled up and said our goodbyes to Jany and Josinko we all departed with a low and go for the kids and set course for Hungary.  My turn on the radio this time, so I called Bratislava radar for flight plan activation and was eventually handed over to Budapest Info for a service across Hungary and into Slovenia. Ljubljana cleared us direct to Murska Sobota where we all landed safely onto a slightly gusty runway in 30c.  The road junctions in Hungary gave us all some amusement as they are laid out with 2 semi circles rather than a large roundabout making the shape of a pair of boobs from the air!  There's been much deliberation about the next stop. We have some fairly high ground to cross now and the westerly wind is quite strong at altitude which will make our next leg to So...

Matt and I considered a run up the valley to the Tatra mountains early this morning before everyone else sets off south to Hungary.  Beautiful conditions here on the ground at Dubova with no wind, however in checking the met, the winds aloft are very strong.  This would likely mean heavy turbulence off the mountains whilst flying the valley, so it looks like we will need to give it a miss unfortunately.

The guys headed into Bratislava town today whilst I stayed out of the heat in the Aircon of the clubhouse which was probably a good call. The guys came back pretty shattered and very hot having marched around the streets for hours. Before they returned Josinko and I double checked all the trikes were tied down properly as 100kmh winds were forecast to hit with a huge thunderstorm that was passing. The guys arrived back from Bratislava just as the storm was hitting and the wind did indeed get very very strong. Fortunately the trikes all survived but my tent didn't fare so well and half collapsed under the weight of the wind.  Thankfully i managed to pop it back up again and it looks to be ok. Tonight we were treated to a delicious dinner courtesy of the guys based here.  They have really spoiled us and made this a special trip.  Hopefully tomorrow morning we will be filing plans for Hungary and on our way to Slovenia and Italy, although ...

Treated to a nice breakfast at Padova this morning.   Clear skies but as we had planned to stay for the day we have secured the flexis on concrete tie downs and they have managed to somehow squeeze me into the hangar using some serious parking skills. I think Jany must be good at Tetris. Some of the guys are probably going to have a run into Bratislava, this afternoon, I'm likely to just chill in the Aircon of the very nice clubhouse here as I felt a little off last night, likely too much heat and sun in the cockpit, so a chill out will do me good.  The guys here have arranged to take us out for dinner at a nearby restaurant tonight, so hopefully I'll be a little brighter and also fully showered again by then.  Thunderstorms are due this evening, hopefully clearing tomorrow for us to make our way through Hungary and into Italy. Jany was telling us about an Englishman a couple of years ago that flew through Hungary without a flight plan.... He was intercep...

Yes, it's a peculiar name for an airfield, particularly as they definitely didn't have air con. Our departure from Arnbruck was rather exciting as the place is surrounded by mountains, so we had a full power climb for several minutes to get over the top of the ledge and continue east into Czech Republic. Andy and Matt have been doing a great job working ATC. Very hot on the ground at Miroslav Aircon following a couple of cooler hours at 7000ft....the guys in the flexis were getting quite chilly.  Two local fliers at Miroslav speaking through Google translate  kindly offered us refreshments and refused any cash for refreshments and landing. Whilst at Miroslav we checked the map to get a route sorted for Dubova, Slovakia. It quickly became apparent that military airspace near the border was going to make it very difficult with a lengthy round about route.  We decided on a cunning plan and all filed flight plans for a direct route, followed by a phone call to Bratislava ATC ...

Fab flight across Germany into the Eastern hills. The German countryside is very pretty, very few massive towns like we see in England, just nice spaced out villages. Impressive canals, solar on most roofs and very green countryside and huge dense forests. The airfield at Arnbruck is 1700ft up nestled between huge hills up to 3000ft either side.  Couldnt get them on the radio until almost overhead due to the hills.  The scenery was spectacular.  Very hot tarmac gave me a bit of float on landing, but the good news is I stopped before the end!! We are now in the airfield cafe for schnitzel and flight planning our next stop 

Been a long day today, over 6 hours flying all with a headwind, but we have made it well into Germany. I had a bit of back ache creeping in on the last leg, so opened the taps and flew the last 50 miles ahead of the group. I was rewarded with a shower and a cold beer on arrival which was very welcome after 6+ hours in a hot cockpit! Just sent out for Pizza.... Update 7am. Finally figure out how to add some photos. Whilst getting camp set up last night, Matt had a txt from Lille ATC asking for a phone call. This is normally bad news, and a sign that one or all of us has busted some airspace. Matt replied and said, Yes, free for a call anytime.  To our relief it seems nobody did anything wrong, they just suggested it would be useful to get a flight information service for such a large group. Ironically, when we tried to get a flight information service to activate our flight plans from France to Germany, Lille didn't answer, and Strasbourg would barely able to...

 2.5 hour run across the north of France to Sedan Douzy.  Headwind all the way which was a little frustrating alongside the flexis, but relatively smooth air at 3500ft and the new window vent certainly helps temps in the cockpit.  Next leg involves quite a lot of airspace, I think given this is the longest day of daylight this year, we should make Germany tonight 

It's been a couple of years, so the usual suspects are going for a tour de Europe. 6 of us this year, all in Microlights, but I am the only Fixed wing.   I joined the party a little late having enjoyed an extra night in my own bed whilst the other 5 gathered themselves from various corners of England and assembled at Ripple, near Deal in Kent. Up at 5am, airfield for 0630, and airborne on time at 7am to meet the guys mid channel enroute to Calais, and here the entertainment started. Matt called London Info passing details of the five flexes for flight plan activation, but the controller responded saying he could only find 4 of them. Matt switched frequency back to the group and asked Graham about his flight-plan and I listened in.  "I definitely did it. I've got a confirmation email here. You watched me do it whilst we were drinking beer last night". At this point I smiled quietly thinking, I wonder how many beers exactly! Anyway, the controller seemed con...