Wed Jul 27, 2016 6:00 am
#1472948
Background
Having been on a flying holiday in the States for a couple of weeks in May without the kids (trip report here viewtopic.php?f=67&t=100574 ), we had promised the kids that we’d take the summer off with them and fly round Europe. Sounds a bit grander than it is as ‘Europe’ actually means a fraction of France and Italy.
The idea was to have a family holiday that involved flying rather than a flying holiday, so go places and stay there for a while.
There is a lot of excellent information on Flyer and some very helpful formites so if you're planning a trip I’d urge you to tap into that knowledge. I hope that this real world explanation of our trip will be of use to others that are thinking about flying over to Europe. I know from my experience, it’s often the little details that more experienced pilots take for granted are the ones that us less experienced people can fret about.
The last time I flew to Europe was 10 years ago (I had an 8 year hiatus from flying), so I was very keen to get a full understanding of the process / procedures again, to that end I did a trip to Cherbourg with an instructor a few weeks before this trip.
The aircraft is a 2007 Cessna 182T with a G1000 glass cockpit. I bought it in November last year, but due to poor weather and being away, I had not really flown it much until March this year. Up until this trip I’d flown around 30 hours in her, so getting used to her but certainly not an expert. Although the G1000 is an amazing piece of kit with 2 x GPS inputs and redundancy across 2 screens, I also use Skydemon as a back up. I build my flight plans in Skydemon then save them onto an SD card and import them into the G1000 MFD.
I fly at 65% power which at 2000ft is a power setting of 21 / 23 and gives an IAS of 120-125knots (book says 127 but I rarely get it) and fuel burn of 11.5gph. I could fly it faster, but not being the best pilot in the world, I like having more time to anticipate what’s going to happen next and mentally plan for it.
Despite 182’s having the reputation, “if you can shut the doors, you can fly it ok”, the later models have got heavier. The useful load on this machine is 1063.5lbs and given me & the Mrs aren’t the lightest people in the world, weight and balance was a serious consideration given that we are going away for over a month with 2 kids.
The baggage area can take 200lbs of baggage, I told the Mrs she was limited to 100lbs knowing my wife as I do, she would push the boundaries!
As you can see below, there is a still a bit of weight left, however the flight to Cherbourg was only just over an hour and we needed to burn enough fuel on that flight to get below landing weight, so I elected to take 60 gallons. This is one to watch on shorter flights in a 182 where you are near gross weight - can you burn enough fuel to get the total weight below the landing weight? Max gross weight is 3100lbs, landing weight is a max of 2950lbs, so that’s 150lbs / 25 US gallons of fuel burn needed if taking off at gross weight.
We were only planning flights of 2.5 hours max, so 64 gallons (to tabs) would be sufficient fuel for us throughout the trip. I mentally plan at 15 gph inc taxing / power checks etc), it never uses this amount, however this provides some ‘fat’. Obviously with systems like Skydemon, you can be very accurate with fuel usage planning. Also the G1000 has a fuel totalizer which gives you an unbelievably accurate picture of how much fuel you have left onboard (assuming you remember to reset it when you fill up, which I often forget, need to add this to my checklist!)
Here is the initial weight and balance using the excellent Gyronimo app which I highly recommend (iPad only though, sadly not iPhone compatible)
Here is the ‘stuff’ we were cramming the plane with, you may notice white labels on the bags. I weighed each one and wrote the weight on a label so I could load the aircraft correctly. Although the luggage storage can take 200lbs, you can only have a maximum of 120lbs before the door catch and 80lbs aft of the door catch
Our packing:-
There is an excellent document produced by DaveW (memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=107) which explains the paperwork and also has some French RT calls for those smaller airfields.
ATC / Flight Information is all in English unless it’s specified on the AIP plate (FR Only / FR Seulement)
If you don’t want to buy a liferaft, you can hire one for 12 months from SEMS Aerospace for around £300 (https://www.aerosafe.co.uk/acatalog/SALES.html). They also sell life jackets.
And don't forget to take the interception procedures printed off which is a requirement.
Monday 25th
Wycombe Air Park – Cherbourg
Cherbourg to Pons (LFCP)
Time logged 3:55
We originally planned to leave on the Sunday, but the weather in Cherbourg was not great, so we decided to set off on Monday instead.
On the Monday, the weather looked ok with lowest cloud base forecast at 1800ft along the route (around Nantes France). As we were flying out to a permanent customs field and not returning to the UK anytime soon, all we needed to do was file a flight plan an hour before we left. We did this via Skydemon which makes life so much easier. I am sure there are other apps out there that do similar, but I love Skydemon, it is so easy to use.
The route I had planned was WAP to WOD to MID through the Goodwood overhead, coasting out at Selsey Bill to Kotem to EC (a lighthouse - reporting point near Cherbourg) to Cherbourg
The flight was fairly straight forward, once out of Wycombe (with a very impressive climb rate of 900 ft / min at full power and near gross weight) I spoke to Farnborough Radar for a basic service and zone transit, I was at 1900 ft which is the highest I could get due to clouds. Farnborough asked me to climb to 2500ft but I declined as I needed to remain VMC. Apparently they had a Gulfstream inbound with an aileron problem and it would descending imminently. As I couldn’t climb, to maintain separation they asked me to route to the west of the field, so once past the Blackbushe ATZ, I turned West. I get the feeling on here that people are not fond of Farnborough, however I have always found them to be courteous and accommodating, and never had any issues with them (admittedly with limited experience).
Once near Midhurst (MID), I changed to Goodwood to ask for clearance through their ATZ (their ATZ goes to 2109ft ), they requested I climb to 2000ft as that’s the altitude that aircraft join the overhead, the cloud base had risen, so I managed to comply.
Once clear of their ATZ I called Plymouth Military as the route took us through the danger areas D037 and D038. There was no response. After 3 attempts, I called London Information for a basic service and status of the danger areas, by this time I was very close to entering D037 so I turned East to avoid entering with the back up plan of going East of D040 and avoiding the danger areas completely. London Information advised me to call Plymouth Military, I explained that I’d tried and failed, so the controller kindly called them on the phone. As we were turning to go past D040, I was advised the danger areas were inactive and I could transit through them. We then routed direct to Kotem as you can see from the Skydemon track below.
I note that on birdyboy’s recent cross channel trip he phoned Plymouth Military the day before his trip to check the status of the danger areas and planned the route accordingly. Note to self – be better prepared next time.
The eagle eyed amongst you will note my wobbly height above. As we approached WOD, I was told by her indoors that must be obeyed that we needed to turn back and fly over Hambleden as my wife's family live there and happened to be in garden. So we turned back and did a few orbits to wave to them.
When we flew, you could make out a horizon (just), but you can really see how people get disorientated over the channel, it does sometimes appear to merge into one, although this picture seems to make out the horizon a lot better than the naked eye did on the day:-
At Kotem we spoke to Cherbourg and they asked us to report November. I asked if I could route via EC with a possible straight in for 28. They said that was ok and to report EC then MP (NDB). Once I reported MP, they asked me to report short finals.
Cherbourg reporting points:-
We landed without incident and I asked the tower to close my flight plan, to which they responded “we don’t need to do that, we only call them if you don’t arrive”. I note on birdyboy’s recent Dinard trip he talks about closing his flight plan when back in the UK and also there was a recent thread about the phone number to close the flight plan from the French side. From what I have experienced recently, it appears that you don’t need to close your flight plan. Need to do more research on this issue.
One other point, we didn’t have to show any aircraft documents as we got set up on the Cherbourg system when I went to Cherbourg with the instructor a few weeks ago. Once they have seen your aircraft documents once, then you don’t need to show them again. On the first trip they asked for Certificate of Registration, Airworthiness Certificate, Insurance Certificate, and Pilots Licence. For the avoidance of doubt, there was no request for proof of VAT payment (this is a G reg aircraft for the record)
On this trip they just wanted to see our passports.
We had lunch and fuelled up (need an Air Total card, it's self service) to 64 gallons at Cherbourg then headed to Pons. Again this was a very simple flight routing via Villedieu-les-Poeles – ANG (VOR) – LP (NDB) and Pons (LFCP)
After the take off we routed south at 2000ft (cloud base was 2100) and after Cherbourg we called Deauville information for a Flight Information Service. They don’t have Basic / Traffic service etc in Europe, so it’s good old fashioned FIS. We didn’t see one other aircraft on the entire flight, it’s amazing how quiet France is, it’s so much less workload than the South East of England that’s for sure. Although the landscape is not very interesting, a few chateaus to look at, but mainly rural green fields. We did hear a few other aircraft talking to the controller, some English voices and 1 French whose call sign was “Shaggy Fox” – how do I get a call sign like that??!!
The French controllers speak excellent English and are very helpful, although mainly I was given a frequency and asked to freecall the next service rather than being handed over (as you would be in the US). The frequencies are also on the French maps and of course printed on the Skydemon PLOG to make life really easy.
The only potential issues on this flight were the transit through some low level restricted areas and a Notamed extended TMA / CTRat La Rochelle.
Firstly we as we passed Villedieu I asked if R149F and R149E were active. The controller called the military then came back to advise they weren’t active and we could transit at our discretion. My back up plan was to climb through a gap in the clouds and fly VFR on top over the low level corridor. The map helpfully gives you the max altitude as it’s quite difficult to tell the exact altitude as the corridor is AGL and the ground isn’t flat.
This shows the low level corridor in Skydemon:-
We got to ANG and then the next low level corridor was R149D, the controller knew it was inactive and advised we could transit at our discretion. I was very lucky with this as the sky had become overcast at 2000 so I wouldn’t have been able to climb over it. My options would have been to fly back the way I came, go through the inactive areas and fly the long way round, or fly underneath it at 500ft agl – France appears to be mainly farmers fields, so this would have been legal even if not my preferred choice. The low level corridor starts at 800agl.
South of that, the only other thing to impact out flight was a Notam extended the La Rochelle CTR & TMA for 34nm from 23/7 – 31/7. As we approached I was speaking to Nantes Information, they called La Rochelle on the phone to see if they could clear me through but couldn’t get through so asked me to freecall La Rochelle. By this time we were nearly in the Notamed zone, so we orbited until we could speak to a La Rochelle. They immediately try to pass me to Poitiers Information, I explained the Notam and I needed them to clear me. He didn’t seem to know about it which was a worry but said I could continue direct track to Pons once he’d identified me on the radar.
See track log:-
As we got further South he advised me to contact Cognac which we did and advised them that we would descend under their zone to Pons (their airspace starts at 1500 above Pons).
As we had the field in sight, I switched to the Pons Safetycom (unmanned) and used my best Franglais to advise others of my position. I went into the overhead at 1400ft (circuit is at 900 QNH) to look at the wind sock. I’d already asked Cognac (the nearest ATC airfield to Pons) what the wind was doing there (280 / 9) so was expecting runway 31 at Pons, however wanted to be sure. The windsock was hard to spot, but after the 2nd orbit, my wife saw it and confirmed runway 31, we descended deadside and landed on 31.
Just one thing worth discussing is how to approach an unmanned airfield when you don’t know what runway is in use and each runway circuit is in a different direction. We approached from the North, so runway 31 would be a right hand circuit (keep airfield on right) and 13 is left hand (keep airfield on left). No idea if this was the right technique but given I expected runway 31, I went into a right hand orbit. If it transpired that runway 13 was in use, I planned to leave the airfield overhead, turn around then approach with the airfield on the left and do left turns. I hope that makes sense, if anyone more experienced is reading this, I’d welcome their thoughts on how they would approach this.
I reread the Notam after I landed, and realised that I’d read it incorrectly. The Notam was about the hours of operation of the CTR / TMA, it wasn’t extending the CTR / TMA at all. Because I’d seen it visually displayed on Skydemon as a red circle, my brain had computed it incorrectly. Massive lesson here, reread the Notams before take off and ensure they are fully understood, Skydemon is amazing as depicting Notams on your route, but on this occasion my brain had got it wrong, luckily no harm done except to my ego. To be clear I had read the Notams before take off, just misinterpreted this one. I say 'just' but I don't want to trivialise it.
The flight was mainly uneventful, although I’m not sure what my daughter is saying about my flying ability as she fell asleep clutching a sick back!
This was a great learning experience, reminding me that it doesn’t have to difficult to fly to and in France, and also having a mental back up plan if you don’t get the clearance in time for the airspace and ofcourse, read then reread the Notams!
We’re now spending a few days in the Charente Maritime area and plan to fly to Venice on Friday, so next planned update at the weekend.
Having been on a flying holiday in the States for a couple of weeks in May without the kids (trip report here viewtopic.php?f=67&t=100574 ), we had promised the kids that we’d take the summer off with them and fly round Europe. Sounds a bit grander than it is as ‘Europe’ actually means a fraction of France and Italy.
The idea was to have a family holiday that involved flying rather than a flying holiday, so go places and stay there for a while.
There is a lot of excellent information on Flyer and some very helpful formites so if you're planning a trip I’d urge you to tap into that knowledge. I hope that this real world explanation of our trip will be of use to others that are thinking about flying over to Europe. I know from my experience, it’s often the little details that more experienced pilots take for granted are the ones that us less experienced people can fret about.
The last time I flew to Europe was 10 years ago (I had an 8 year hiatus from flying), so I was very keen to get a full understanding of the process / procedures again, to that end I did a trip to Cherbourg with an instructor a few weeks before this trip.
The aircraft is a 2007 Cessna 182T with a G1000 glass cockpit. I bought it in November last year, but due to poor weather and being away, I had not really flown it much until March this year. Up until this trip I’d flown around 30 hours in her, so getting used to her but certainly not an expert. Although the G1000 is an amazing piece of kit with 2 x GPS inputs and redundancy across 2 screens, I also use Skydemon as a back up. I build my flight plans in Skydemon then save them onto an SD card and import them into the G1000 MFD.
I fly at 65% power which at 2000ft is a power setting of 21 / 23 and gives an IAS of 120-125knots (book says 127 but I rarely get it) and fuel burn of 11.5gph. I could fly it faster, but not being the best pilot in the world, I like having more time to anticipate what’s going to happen next and mentally plan for it.
Despite 182’s having the reputation, “if you can shut the doors, you can fly it ok”, the later models have got heavier. The useful load on this machine is 1063.5lbs and given me & the Mrs aren’t the lightest people in the world, weight and balance was a serious consideration given that we are going away for over a month with 2 kids.
The baggage area can take 200lbs of baggage, I told the Mrs she was limited to 100lbs knowing my wife as I do, she would push the boundaries!
As you can see below, there is a still a bit of weight left, however the flight to Cherbourg was only just over an hour and we needed to burn enough fuel on that flight to get below landing weight, so I elected to take 60 gallons. This is one to watch on shorter flights in a 182 where you are near gross weight - can you burn enough fuel to get the total weight below the landing weight? Max gross weight is 3100lbs, landing weight is a max of 2950lbs, so that’s 150lbs / 25 US gallons of fuel burn needed if taking off at gross weight.
We were only planning flights of 2.5 hours max, so 64 gallons (to tabs) would be sufficient fuel for us throughout the trip. I mentally plan at 15 gph inc taxing / power checks etc), it never uses this amount, however this provides some ‘fat’. Obviously with systems like Skydemon, you can be very accurate with fuel usage planning. Also the G1000 has a fuel totalizer which gives you an unbelievably accurate picture of how much fuel you have left onboard (assuming you remember to reset it when you fill up, which I often forget, need to add this to my checklist!)
Here is the initial weight and balance using the excellent Gyronimo app which I highly recommend (iPad only though, sadly not iPhone compatible)
Here is the ‘stuff’ we were cramming the plane with, you may notice white labels on the bags. I weighed each one and wrote the weight on a label so I could load the aircraft correctly. Although the luggage storage can take 200lbs, you can only have a maximum of 120lbs before the door catch and 80lbs aft of the door catch
Our packing:-
There is an excellent document produced by DaveW (memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=107) which explains the paperwork and also has some French RT calls for those smaller airfields.
ATC / Flight Information is all in English unless it’s specified on the AIP plate (FR Only / FR Seulement)
If you don’t want to buy a liferaft, you can hire one for 12 months from SEMS Aerospace for around £300 (https://www.aerosafe.co.uk/acatalog/SALES.html). They also sell life jackets.
And don't forget to take the interception procedures printed off which is a requirement.
Monday 25th
Wycombe Air Park – Cherbourg
Cherbourg to Pons (LFCP)
Time logged 3:55
We originally planned to leave on the Sunday, but the weather in Cherbourg was not great, so we decided to set off on Monday instead.
On the Monday, the weather looked ok with lowest cloud base forecast at 1800ft along the route (around Nantes France). As we were flying out to a permanent customs field and not returning to the UK anytime soon, all we needed to do was file a flight plan an hour before we left. We did this via Skydemon which makes life so much easier. I am sure there are other apps out there that do similar, but I love Skydemon, it is so easy to use.
The route I had planned was WAP to WOD to MID through the Goodwood overhead, coasting out at Selsey Bill to Kotem to EC (a lighthouse - reporting point near Cherbourg) to Cherbourg
The flight was fairly straight forward, once out of Wycombe (with a very impressive climb rate of 900 ft / min at full power and near gross weight) I spoke to Farnborough Radar for a basic service and zone transit, I was at 1900 ft which is the highest I could get due to clouds. Farnborough asked me to climb to 2500ft but I declined as I needed to remain VMC. Apparently they had a Gulfstream inbound with an aileron problem and it would descending imminently. As I couldn’t climb, to maintain separation they asked me to route to the west of the field, so once past the Blackbushe ATZ, I turned West. I get the feeling on here that people are not fond of Farnborough, however I have always found them to be courteous and accommodating, and never had any issues with them (admittedly with limited experience).
Once near Midhurst (MID), I changed to Goodwood to ask for clearance through their ATZ (their ATZ goes to 2109ft ), they requested I climb to 2000ft as that’s the altitude that aircraft join the overhead, the cloud base had risen, so I managed to comply.
Once clear of their ATZ I called Plymouth Military as the route took us through the danger areas D037 and D038. There was no response. After 3 attempts, I called London Information for a basic service and status of the danger areas, by this time I was very close to entering D037 so I turned East to avoid entering with the back up plan of going East of D040 and avoiding the danger areas completely. London Information advised me to call Plymouth Military, I explained that I’d tried and failed, so the controller kindly called them on the phone. As we were turning to go past D040, I was advised the danger areas were inactive and I could transit through them. We then routed direct to Kotem as you can see from the Skydemon track below.
I note that on birdyboy’s recent cross channel trip he phoned Plymouth Military the day before his trip to check the status of the danger areas and planned the route accordingly. Note to self – be better prepared next time.
The eagle eyed amongst you will note my wobbly height above. As we approached WOD, I was told by her indoors that must be obeyed that we needed to turn back and fly over Hambleden as my wife's family live there and happened to be in garden. So we turned back and did a few orbits to wave to them.
When we flew, you could make out a horizon (just), but you can really see how people get disorientated over the channel, it does sometimes appear to merge into one, although this picture seems to make out the horizon a lot better than the naked eye did on the day:-
At Kotem we spoke to Cherbourg and they asked us to report November. I asked if I could route via EC with a possible straight in for 28. They said that was ok and to report EC then MP (NDB). Once I reported MP, they asked me to report short finals.
Cherbourg reporting points:-
We landed without incident and I asked the tower to close my flight plan, to which they responded “we don’t need to do that, we only call them if you don’t arrive”. I note on birdyboy’s recent Dinard trip he talks about closing his flight plan when back in the UK and also there was a recent thread about the phone number to close the flight plan from the French side. From what I have experienced recently, it appears that you don’t need to close your flight plan. Need to do more research on this issue.
One other point, we didn’t have to show any aircraft documents as we got set up on the Cherbourg system when I went to Cherbourg with the instructor a few weeks ago. Once they have seen your aircraft documents once, then you don’t need to show them again. On the first trip they asked for Certificate of Registration, Airworthiness Certificate, Insurance Certificate, and Pilots Licence. For the avoidance of doubt, there was no request for proof of VAT payment (this is a G reg aircraft for the record)
On this trip they just wanted to see our passports.
We had lunch and fuelled up (need an Air Total card, it's self service) to 64 gallons at Cherbourg then headed to Pons. Again this was a very simple flight routing via Villedieu-les-Poeles – ANG (VOR) – LP (NDB) and Pons (LFCP)
After the take off we routed south at 2000ft (cloud base was 2100) and after Cherbourg we called Deauville information for a Flight Information Service. They don’t have Basic / Traffic service etc in Europe, so it’s good old fashioned FIS. We didn’t see one other aircraft on the entire flight, it’s amazing how quiet France is, it’s so much less workload than the South East of England that’s for sure. Although the landscape is not very interesting, a few chateaus to look at, but mainly rural green fields. We did hear a few other aircraft talking to the controller, some English voices and 1 French whose call sign was “Shaggy Fox” – how do I get a call sign like that??!!
The French controllers speak excellent English and are very helpful, although mainly I was given a frequency and asked to freecall the next service rather than being handed over (as you would be in the US). The frequencies are also on the French maps and of course printed on the Skydemon PLOG to make life really easy.
The only potential issues on this flight were the transit through some low level restricted areas and a Notamed extended TMA / CTRat La Rochelle.
Firstly we as we passed Villedieu I asked if R149F and R149E were active. The controller called the military then came back to advise they weren’t active and we could transit at our discretion. My back up plan was to climb through a gap in the clouds and fly VFR on top over the low level corridor. The map helpfully gives you the max altitude as it’s quite difficult to tell the exact altitude as the corridor is AGL and the ground isn’t flat.
This shows the low level corridor in Skydemon:-
We got to ANG and then the next low level corridor was R149D, the controller knew it was inactive and advised we could transit at our discretion. I was very lucky with this as the sky had become overcast at 2000 so I wouldn’t have been able to climb over it. My options would have been to fly back the way I came, go through the inactive areas and fly the long way round, or fly underneath it at 500ft agl – France appears to be mainly farmers fields, so this would have been legal even if not my preferred choice. The low level corridor starts at 800agl.
South of that, the only other thing to impact out flight was a Notam extended the La Rochelle CTR & TMA for 34nm from 23/7 – 31/7. As we approached I was speaking to Nantes Information, they called La Rochelle on the phone to see if they could clear me through but couldn’t get through so asked me to freecall La Rochelle. By this time we were nearly in the Notamed zone, so we orbited until we could speak to a La Rochelle. They immediately try to pass me to Poitiers Information, I explained the Notam and I needed them to clear me. He didn’t seem to know about it which was a worry but said I could continue direct track to Pons once he’d identified me on the radar.
See track log:-
As we got further South he advised me to contact Cognac which we did and advised them that we would descend under their zone to Pons (their airspace starts at 1500 above Pons).
As we had the field in sight, I switched to the Pons Safetycom (unmanned) and used my best Franglais to advise others of my position. I went into the overhead at 1400ft (circuit is at 900 QNH) to look at the wind sock. I’d already asked Cognac (the nearest ATC airfield to Pons) what the wind was doing there (280 / 9) so was expecting runway 31 at Pons, however wanted to be sure. The windsock was hard to spot, but after the 2nd orbit, my wife saw it and confirmed runway 31, we descended deadside and landed on 31.
Just one thing worth discussing is how to approach an unmanned airfield when you don’t know what runway is in use and each runway circuit is in a different direction. We approached from the North, so runway 31 would be a right hand circuit (keep airfield on right) and 13 is left hand (keep airfield on left). No idea if this was the right technique but given I expected runway 31, I went into a right hand orbit. If it transpired that runway 13 was in use, I planned to leave the airfield overhead, turn around then approach with the airfield on the left and do left turns. I hope that makes sense, if anyone more experienced is reading this, I’d welcome their thoughts on how they would approach this.
I reread the Notam after I landed, and realised that I’d read it incorrectly. The Notam was about the hours of operation of the CTR / TMA, it wasn’t extending the CTR / TMA at all. Because I’d seen it visually displayed on Skydemon as a red circle, my brain had computed it incorrectly. Massive lesson here, reread the Notams before take off and ensure they are fully understood, Skydemon is amazing as depicting Notams on your route, but on this occasion my brain had got it wrong, luckily no harm done except to my ego. To be clear I had read the Notams before take off, just misinterpreted this one. I say 'just' but I don't want to trivialise it.
The flight was mainly uneventful, although I’m not sure what my daughter is saying about my flying ability as she fell asleep clutching a sick back!
This was a great learning experience, reminding me that it doesn’t have to difficult to fly to and in France, and also having a mental back up plan if you don’t get the clearance in time for the airspace and ofcourse, read then reread the Notams!
We’re now spending a few days in the Charente Maritime area and plan to fly to Venice on Friday, so next planned update at the weekend.
Jason
You can take the boy out of the council, but you'll never take the council out of the boy.
You can take the boy out of the council, but you'll never take the council out of the boy.
FLYER Club Member
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