nearlyheaven

Well done William!

As mentioned previously William Barriga came to join the club this last week, he arrived from Geneva Switzerland and his ambition was to improve as much as he could in a very short time .He arrived last thursday the 15 th October  with 30 hours of instruction under his belt but he had not gone solo and that was a problem for him.

I was most impressed with William's calm, workmanlike attitude to learning to fly.

He spent every spare minute reading or studying something in one of his books,he was so full of enthusiasm and his ambition was obviously  to pass his PPL.

I am delighted to say that on Sunday morning I was suitably impressed with his flying prowess to send him solo.

I told him fly  one circuit , however if he wished he could do more.

After four circuits he came back beaming and his reception committee was smiling too.

Afterwards all further training was curtailed as it was time to celebrate with sunday lunch and lots of delicious wine.

Yes, we deserve an afternoon off now and again and this was of course a  cause for celebration.!

Another Martin hits the headlines.

This time it is Martin Rangeley who is being congratulated on my blog, Martin went solo after just 8 hours 30 minutes of flight with me.

He achieved a faultless circuit and has backed it up with about seventy minutes in the circuit today.

Martin was my "surprise student" I walked into the club one morning to find him waiting for me.

He had driven from England to find me and had pitched a tent at the nearest camping site.

He just said "will you teach me to fly "-- and he has never looked back .

He is no longer camping he is sharing my large gite with other pilots and students.

I am sure that last nights frost of - 8 degrees would have been a bit too much to bear in the tent.

I have another new student this week , he is William Barriga newly arrived from Switzerland, he was finding his training going too slowly for him in his country ,so  he is here for an initial five days of training, so far  he is doing really well and he should solo within  the next couple of days.

The weather continues to be wonderful flying weather,however my horses have not seen a blade of grass for about two months, we have not had any rain for a very long time.The ground resembles the Sahara desert.

I have been flying every day all day seven days a week for a very long time.

The dogs and horses do not see me but the students are very happy people.

At present I have so many students in the office at one time that the French pilots are very much in the minority.

This week we have had one of the training aircraft in maintenance which has caused a huge problem, my students have been queing up to get to fly  an aircraft.

I  have two students almost ready to take their skills test.

More next week!

Sue

200 miles to lunch by Peter Cazalet

200 miles for lunch

Gwen has already blogged the flight in KT that herself, her partner Bernard, Sue and I made to Quiberon on October 7 (see blog “Qui”). Sue wanted Gwen to have more navigation experience, and when Bernard found out we were going to Quiberon, he knew the place to eat and booked a taxi to take us there – from Quiberon airfield, that is. Gwen flew us the 200 miles to LFEQ.

But I had my own reasons for wanting to head for Brittany. In early July, four of us in a C172 and a Eurostar microlight decided to fly there from the Limerick Flying Club airfield at Coonagh, close to Shannon Airport. The driving force behind this mad idea was Jack Flynn, who flies commercially as well as privately.

I was co-piloting the 172 with Jack. We flew to Waterford and refuelled, then straight across to Dinard, refuelled again and finally reached our destination at Vannes, after about 4.5h flying time. The following day we flew across the beautiful Golfe du Morbihan, followed by full-stop landings at  Quiberon, La Belle Isle and La Baule. Next day we returned to Ireland, this time flying direct to Exeter where we refuelled before legging it back to Coonagh.

While flying round Brittany I caste wistful glances in the direction of Limoges, which didn’t seem so far away, but Jack had time pressures and needed to get home.

So my reason for wanting to fly to Quiberon was to complete the whole route from Coonagh to Nearly Heaven., and one day EI-xxx will fly it.

Meanwhile we had a wonderful lunch at the restaurant named, in case you happen to be anywhere close, Villa Margot. I downed my first oysters; we had a glass of champagne to toast Gwen and Bernard’s anniversary and then flew home. For some reason it took longer - extra weight, probably - so we had to call into Angouleme for fuel on the way.

In May I thought flying the 70 or so miles to Poitiers for an excellent lunch was pretty cool, but travelling 200 miles - that was something else. Thank you, foodie people, for the inspiration.

However, in case you think the lunch at Poitiers was anyway inferior, here’s a photo Gwen took of the dining room there a few days ago. And that was when lunch was nearly over!

Peter Cazalet

Congratulations Martin

Well done Martin Payne  for completing your qualifying cross country today.

Excellent progress ---- next the skills test!

Sue

Peter Cazalet on " Reporting Points "

Reporting Point

Reporting points for VFR fliers are landmarks used as a link between the pilot and ATC. There are seven of these round the edge of the Limoges Airport control zone.
“Report November Whiskey” instructs a pilot  to call ATC when overhead this reporting point northwest of the airport..

November Whiskey is the ruined village of Oradour-sur-Glane. On Saturday 10th of June 1944  there were many people from the neighbourhood in the village for one reason or another. At about 2 pm there was an instruction – via the town crier, Jean Depierrefiche – for everyone to go to the fairground for inspection of their identity papers.  The men were divided into groups, taken to different locations in the village and shot. Their bodies are then covered with straw, wood, anything combustible and burned. Only a handful escaped. The women and children were locked into the church, a gas bombs and/or  incendiary devices were exploded and the church was set on fire.  Those who tried to get out were shot. Only one person is known to have escaped by climbing through a window behind the altar. By about 5 pm, 642 human beings had been killed. Only 52 were ever identified.

In a Government decree, Oradour was recognised as a martyr village, to be left exactly as it was after its destruction, preserved as a memorial to the bestiality of the Nazis: only rubble was removed. Notices were put up to mark the places where  people were killed and also on many of the houses and shops, stating who lived there and what they did, with the request to the reader: “Souviens - toi”. Remember.

Walking round the village, there are many reminders of lives suddenly ended. On Rue Emile Desourteaux, the shutters on the side window of the Café-Coiffeur Chez Lucien ( Cafe du Chene, owned by Lucien Morlieras) opened as usual that morning, but no-one ever returned to close them  again and one is still hanging there. No-one will again enjoy a coffee at the small concrete table outside, under the oak tree. Further down, in the house of P. Moreau, builder and plasterer, a pot hangs on a hook over a long-gone-out fire. What an irony. On the fairgreen, Dr Jacques Desourteaux returned from a house visit in the afternoon, and left his car (a Peugeot 201, apparently) outside the house: it never moved since. There is a symbolic empty push-chair in the church, probably one of many.

Oradour was rebuilt, on a new site on the far side of the churchyard. In it there are many heart-rending reminders of lives suddenly cut short, like the four children whose photos are on top of the Deschamps family grave – Claudine (13), Renee (10), Huguette (7) and Maryse (6). And on the tomb belonging to the Gabriel and Gaudy families, a plaque in memory of Leonard Gaudy (70) and Pierre (10). There must be memorials to hundreds of others who got up that Saturday morning but never lived to see the end of the day.

Why did it happen? On that day, just after the D-day landings in Normandy, SS units were being moved northwards from near Toulouse where they had been reforming after withdrawal from the Russian Front.

They were being harassed by Resistance units. In Tulle, 50 miles SE of Limoges, the German garrison was all but overwhelmed in a Resistance attack and 73 troops were killed.  The railway bridge near St. Junien was blown up. Two senior German officers were captured by the Resistance near Oradour and one of them killed – the other escaped – and there is a story of a captured German ambulance whose  driver, his assistant and the wounded it was transporting were all burned to death.

A justification? An excuse?
 
There was a trial of sorts held in Bordeaux in 1953. Few of the soldiers serving with the SS unit that destroyed Oradour survived the war. Only one admitted to actively participating in the massacre. The senior officers who survived were safely out of the way. There were naturally very few witnesses. About one-third of the soldiers came from Alsace and due to changes from French to German ownership and back again, it was often not clear whether a particular individual was French and therefore  immune from war crime charges, or German and therefore open to prosecution. The sentences handed down had all been served by the time the trial ended.

 It is evident that brutal things were done by both sides in the run-up to the Oradour massacre. For me the tragedy of Oradour  is the sudden and premature ending of so many lives: all those people killed, all those sad memorials in the churchyard and the poignant reminders in the ruins of ordinary lives that suddenly stopped.

As we flew over November Whiskey  recently, I think we were on the way to Quiberon, it struck me as important, more important than who did what to whom,  to be aware that Oradour  is much more than a useful landmark: it is a place where ordinary people were living who were suddenly and brutally killed. All of them, in three hours. This is what hatred and war can do. Souvenons-nous.

(Apart from what is visible in Oradour, filling in some of the detail used information from two web sites: http://www.scrapbookpages.com/Oradour-sur-Glane/Story.html  (author uncertain) and http://www.frenchentree.com/france-limousin-tourism-leisure/DisplayArticle.asp?ID=1994, (two articles by historian David Thomas).

Peter Cazalet

Trip to Rebeyrotte Farm

Hi Sue, here’s a description of our trip today.

The website for Rebeyrotte Farm says:

“At the heart of the valley of the Dordogne, between the Black and the Purple Périgord, Rebeyrotte Farm will be happy to accommodate you.” 

You can see the details for yourself at:  http://www.pays-de-bergerac.com/hebergement/ferme-rebeyrotte/index.asp

Martyn, Geoff and Jim went there to try it out, and it certainly lives up to its claims.  Here we are just after landing there in KT, the field was easy to find with a handheld GPS (it would have been tricky without it) and we were right over the field when Martyn first spotted it from the left seat. 

The join was a bit more tricky.  The owner had told us that runway 19 was preferred, when clearly the smoke from autumn fires on the ground were indicating 01. 

We flew a low approach to 01.  The reason why 19 was preferred quickly became apparent – the runway has a significant slope down to the north.  We landed on 19 with the effect of the slight tailwind easily outweighed by the slope.

Yes, that is  the runway! The Farm is up over the hill to the right. The people at the farm could not have been more welcoming.  The accommodation was clean and comfortable, and at 47€  each for a room was very reasonable. The evening we stayed there coincided with the 80th birthday party of a local man, and it was good to be part of their celebrations for the evening (21€ each for an excellent multi-course ‘local’ meal – Bergerac compris).  We now know that the French like to throw bread rolls at each other after a few glasses, just like the English!

We were fogbound on Sunday morning (of course) with KT looking rather forlorn in the mist. The farm provides a free laptop with access to Olivia, and after breakfast (6€) we worked out that we’d be out of there by lunchtime.

Geoff was in the left seat this time.  All went well to the edge of the Limoges area, where we suddenly hit IMC conditions.  A quick 180 turn, and we were on our way to our ‘alternate’ at Perigueux:
 

The airfield there was deserted.  We couldn’t pick up the ATIS at Limoges, there was no one about, and we were locked into the airport, airside.  Geoff had some good news – he had a handheld VHF radio that he ‘got for free’.  Bad news though, we couldn’t figure out how to work it before the battery went flat.  Undeterred, we then went on to run down the battery on his mobile phone trying to get an internet connection to Olivia.

All looked lost when a hangar door suddenly slid open, and Martyn had a brainwave – “why don’t we ask?”.  A stroke of pure genius, and pretty soon we had a Limoges METAR telling us it was okay to try them again.

That last leg was in bright, CAVOK weather – the low clouds from earlier having completely disappeared.  We overflew Gorre but couldn’t find it, and soon heard Sue’s comforting voice on the radio requesting departure with a student.

Funny how Limoges feels like arriving home after only 3 days here!

Jim Batey

Call the tower for Fish and Chips.

After the delightful lunch and expedition of the previous day.It was time to get back to reality and the training for the PPL.

The agenda today was first to do circuit training  with Martin,then Gwen and Martin would share a navigation exercise to Couhe to practise landing on a grass strip. We would then fly to Angouleme to change pilots for the final leg home.

Gwen telephoned me, as she was rather  concerned about the look of the weather and I told her to come  in earlier than planned as I believed that the weather may deteriorate later in the day.

Martin and I went into the circuit to  practise go around, low level  and some glide approaches..

With  two circuit sessions completed and  still no sign of Gwen we were "champing at the bit" and fully prepared for our navigation trip.

Eventually, I telephoned Gwen and was surprised to find that she was still at home she had completely misunderstood my request for an earlier arrival

The time was 12-30 and I was starting to dream of food!

I remembered that on Thursdays the restaurant at Angouleme airport serves home made fish and chips.

Living permanently in France  we do not have the opportunity to have fish and chips, therefore human nature is such that  when we cannot have something  we crave it!

So upon Gwen's arrival we changed plans and headed for Angouleme for lunch.The grass landings would be performed on our way home.

We arrived at one thirty, very apprehensive that we may have missed our fish and chips!

The controller asked us how long would we be staying at Angouleme, I replied "about an hour ( under my breath I murmured,  it will be only  five minutes if we have missed lunch)"

The restaurant was packed with diners, thankfully we had arrived in time.

The restaurant is run by "Roni" an English lady who is fluent in both languages.The food here is highly recommended and unbelievably inexpensive

We were astounded to discover that our lunch comprised of home made  vegetable soup,fish and chips with tartare sauce and a delicious dessert, all for the huge sum of seven euros per person.

Now replete, we moved outside for coffee on the terrace. We were introduced to the talented chef, who revealed his recipe for the batter -- made with beer and whisked egg whites, so light and not greasy at all.

 

Prior to our departure I asked Ronnie for her telephone number  so that in future we could order our lunch prior to arrival -------- she told me just give your order  to the tower en route and we shall have it ready for you!

Food still rules here in France.

Lunchless in the Dordogne

Wednesday was destined to be a bit of a gourmet navigational  treat.

The people involved were Gwen and her husband Bernard, myself and my new student Martin ; who had literally driven from England to find me without any prior notification.He was at the club,awaiting my arrival one day last week, with the request "please could you teach me to fly",having pitched his tent at the nearest campsite to the Aero Club de Limoges.

A week earlier at the club we had seen a poster offering a flight to Sarlat with a free taxi service for pilots wishing to have lunch at RESTAURANT DE L'ESPLANADE   a superb restaurant in the medieval walled town of Domme, which is close to Sarlat airport situated in the beautiful Dordogne valley.

see photograph below from their website.

This was a "fly in " invitation and we expected lots of pilot's to be at the restaurant, what a treat!.

We had made all the necessary reservations the previous week, when the day dawned we arrived at the club and Gwen and Martin began their flight planning to Sarlat.

We obtained the weather, checked out the plane and the final task was to go to the pumps to refuel F-GMKT .All systems go!

As I walked towards the plane I stopped to say "Bonjour!" to the pilots of two aircraft parked nearby from the neighbouring club Aero Club de Limousin.

I asked them where they were going and they replied  that they were flying to a restaurant on the airfield at "Sainte Foy La Grande". I said that  we were  going to Sarlat for lunch at Domme. Imagine my surprise when they told me " Oh we were going there but it has been cancelled and all the restaurants in Domme are closed on Wednesdays".

We were astonished and surprised that  we had not received  any notification of the cancellation.

Our neighbours kindly asked us to join them for lunch at Sainte Foy La  Grande. Of course we readily agreed ,so we trooped  back to our club to do a new flight plog for this destination.

The wind at ground level was about 8 knots but to our amazement we discovered the wind at height was extremely strong in excess of 40 knots at 2000 feet.

We took off and literally crawled to the destination in one hour twenty minutes ( in the large, fast, DR400/180 aircraft) and landed safely on the rather tricky up hill grass runway.The only other aircraft to be seen were the two Robins from Aero Club de Limousin.

We remarked how could  they have a restaurant here without any obvious clientele.  We wandered around for a few minutes everywhere was quiet and deserted ; was this Domme? we were delighted to find that Jardins d'Eole  was  actually a beautiful restaurant not just a basic airfield cafe.

       

In fact the restaurant was first class,the service excellent  and the price was extremely reasonable, in fact  only  23 euros per person  for the three course lunch.

  We discovered that the restaurant was open every day , however prior reservation is essential -  what a find this place was, and just a few paces from our parked aircraft.

   www.jardins-deole.com

A jolly time was had by all and then we were ready for the return supersonic flight back to Limoges.

This time Martin was in the left hand seat, with the wind behind us we streaked home with a ground speed of 145 knots.

Every dark cloud has a silver lining we had a wonderful day.

Many thanks to our fellow pilots from the Aero Club de Limousin for suggesting this destination.

We look forward to continuing our gastronomic tour of France

Prepare yourselves...... taste buds beware.

WATCH THIS SPACE FOR THE NEXT INSTALMENT!
 

  

" Thanks for your messages on Miracle's Birthday"

Here I am again, this time I would like to thank you all for the support and the kind things that you have said about me, specially to Sue
My story begins at the end of February 2007 when I began to be in contact with Sue.  She was having some difficulties with one of her members of staff.  The person  wasn’t doing ” things correctly” and Sue was feeling disappointed. Consequently I decided to do everything that I could in order to help Sue. She had and still continues to have a lot of patience with me because like everyone I have my faults and different habits!  Spanish ones!
When I arrived at NearlyHeaven the only words I spoke were, “Hello" and "Thanks”!  I was so nervous that I wasn’t able to speak to Sue as I would have liked to.  However, thanks to her I feel that my personality has changed and in fact, I now feel like a different person.
The only thing I can say to her is that I will be eternally thankful to her for opening the doors of her house to me.   She has become like my second mother and I will always be by her side because everything I am is because of her.
Once again, thank you very much Sue and do you know what?  I am proud to be in a place like this but the most important thing for me is to be surrounded by people like you.
Thank you for filling my life with smiles
Love,
Your Difficult One

Lucia

qui

Today's lesson was going to be a nav with lunch to Quiberon, a familiar field perhaps for the intrepid Dennis and John, having enjoyed their Limoges Debrief and whom I briefly met at the club but it was going to be a a first for me. Unbeknown to me my other half, Bernard, had remembered our anniversary and had chosen the restaurant at the seaside. October weather was very permitting, there were even bathers in the atlantic. After 2 hours cross country following the coast for the last leg in the indominitable Robin KT we were met by the gendarmes at the airfield. We had already happily spotted the pre-booked taxi to the town waiting by the club house but the gendarmes were intrigued by the blonde lady Sue and eagerly inspected the paperwork. Meanwhile our taxi had disappeared. Not that old problem again. Again a taxi was booked and 5 mins later apologies given, the taxi driver, himself an old pilot brought us to the seaside.

After a surprise meal of oysters and lobster croustillant to celebrate, Peter flew us home with Sue at his side having enjoyed his introduction to serious oysters, at least I think so. This really was one of those all-encompassing gourmet-nav lessons. Now I wonder what's next? Ah, the club PAELLA on the 10th. 

"Happy Birthday Miracle " you have survived against all the odds!

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY !

 

I am going to tell you the history of my Miracle a little Thoroughbred foal,he was born one year ago today  and poor thing, he did not imagine that he was coming into a  world full of joy and pain, the pain immediately arrived when Cassie his mother became really ill after his birth and we could not do anything to maintain her life without her suffering terribly.Cassie" or to use her registered name "Greenham Gal" was the proud mother of nine foals, some of whom are now top international 3 day eventers in the UK.

"Cassie" had been "barren" for numerous years and three different veterinary surgeons had told us that she was unable to have any more foals.

She proved us wrong and secretly became pregnant at the ripe old age of 23 years.

During the previous 11 months she had been boarding at the next door farm with lots of other female horses, however she had a secret, she was pregnant by her grandson who was only 2 years old at the date of this" immaculate conception".

Poor "Cassie" she had a very difficult birth but her eyes lit up at the sight of her new born foal.Sue immediately named him "Miracle" and he certainly has lived up to his name.

From the birth Cassie had virtually no milk and she was very uncomfortable and looked so very sad.

 I think that she knew that something was wrong with her because of the look in her eyes, I made her the promise that I would look after her foal.

 This was truly painful for me, because I never have been so close and attached to a horse like I had been with Cassie.

She was constantly sick and in need of huge doses of antibiotics and she was not improving.She loved her baby so very much and tried to show him that she loved him even when she was really ill.

 

 

 She knew that we were helping her and that something serious was wrong with her.

 Her face told us the story. Three weeks after Miracle was born , it happened, one day she went to heaven and left us  with a very special memory of her ,a gorgeous colt.

Poor "Miracle" he cried and cried for his mother and it truly broke our hearts.

 

At this dreadful  time I decided that I would look after "Miracle "as if he was my baby,therefore I began feeding him first every 30 minutes day and night, and then increasing the time after that  to every three hours day and night .At first he sucked from  a syringe then he was able to drink from a bottle and finally from  the bucket, consequently it gave me very little  freedom!

However it was wonderfully satisfying to help him stay alive!

 

 

It was very difficult to let him behave like a horse because he was my baby and he was following me everywhere, he now believed that I was his mother and that he was a human,in fact, he was trying to come with me inside the caravan, washing room, or even trying to come up the stairs with me hahaha !

He had a silly trick of taking the zip of my coat in his teeth and opening and closing this zip all the time ( it was a toy to him)

 

 

  

 When Sue said to me that I should let him go with the other horses, I was very sad because I didn’t want him to be treated badly by them ,so we decided to put him firstly with Woody who was his 18 year old half brother who just adored foals, at the beginning he was looking for me and calling for me constantly like a crazy thing, “Oh my  poor baby”.

I had to  let him become  a horse because if I did not let him go, later it would  be very painful for him if he was rejected by the other horses in the herd.

Now, he is still  the baby of  the herd, they love ,play and protect him as their own  it’s a pleasure to see him playing and galloping around  with his older relatives!

 

 

  

 When he was turned out with all the other horses,most days, he was getting  himself into trouble  with them and also with me ,so I had to try to sort out his problems for him, I must be honest some days  it was easy to help him  but other times it was very complicated for me.

 

 

 

 

I feel very proud of him I adore and I love him  with all my soul, I’m very happy  to have helped rear a baby like him,  thanks for being in my life MIRACLE!

Congratulations my boy!

You are truly my "Miracle"

 

LUCIA ANDRADE

Why Limoges?

Why Limoges?

It kept cropping up as a possible stop-over during our flying trips to the south of France. We did Poitiers once. We also remembered about the 'english speaking flying club'  mentioned in our local club freebie paper.
On our travels, we were always on the lookout for potential maintenance bases, especially if we could make ourselves understood. We have a smattering of french and get by! English support at Limoges, excellent.

However, we never actually got round to a visit until September 2009, and even that was not our initial intention. Our group aircraft, a Piper Archer ll had been undergoing a six month rebuild, resulting in some frustration, as alternative local flying arrangements were made. But we still needed our own 'fix' with our own aircraft enjoying flying in France.

Eventually our aircraft returned to base and the opportunity arose, with a high pressure excellent VFR weather window of at least four days.

So we sort of made it up, with a "lets just get across the Channel", (properly flight planned of course!), turning up at Le Touquet for a stop-over.

 A few phone calls ahead to another of our regular haunts La Rochelle indicated possibly 'complet' (tall ships event or something). Hence to another familiar field, Quiberon (ppr'ed of course, but thats another story), and booked into the Europa Hotel at the field and on the beach.

At dinner that evening, the question arose 'where to next?', somewhere we haven't been, why not Limoges! With wall to wall blue sky, even its 1300 ft amsl wouldn't be an issue. Phoned ahead and left a message for Sue Virr of our wish to meet up with her. Her prompt response, she would be at the field about 2pm local.

Landed at Limoges Bellegarde 26 September 2009 about 1.30pm local.
Air traffic was excellent (good job we had preset 'Whisky' on the Rnav as this was our last minute route in). Immediately went to the pumps for fuel.

While John sorted that with the refueller (from London) who recommended a hotel, I dialled a number and Sue responded "I'm at the at the Club, Dennis, having a sandwich before flying a student". "I'm at the pumps", I said (with no idea where the Club was). Sue retorted "I'm behind you". Turning round, there she was emerging from the Club hangar. We were both invited to pop-along when we had finished  fuelling and parked up.

In the Club office we exchanged our 'bonjours' (in English of course) and had a brief chat whilst Sue ate her sandwich. She directed us to the taxi rank for our overnight in the City. The weather was sunny and very warm.

After a very pleasant overnight stay at the Royal Limousin, we returned to the Club at the airport, where Sue gave us every assistance for our journey home, including a cup of tea. After planning our route and drafting the flight plan to Shoreham (a designated customs airfield), Sue gave us the Toulouse number, and I filed it over the phone.

A very pleasant gentleman at the other end, when faced with my northern UK accent spelling out 'yellow (life raft), yanky echo lima lima oscar whisky' he responded with "like the Submarine", good one!

With our thanks extended to Sue, an exchange of handshakes, and a promise to return, we took off and set course for home.

A very courteous and hospitable visit. Highly Recommended. Google Sue Virr at Nearly Heaven and enjoy a relaxing visit.

Dennis and John

 

The Sound of Silence.

My students range from 15 years to 75 years, they come from many different countries and from many different backgrounds.

However,they all have one thing in common and that is a dream to gain their PPL.

Their dedication is second to none and today that dedication was pushed to the limit for Gwen who encountered total radio failure during the first leg of her qualifying cross country flight.This is daunting for any pilot but for a student it can be extremely unsettling and frightening.

I was in an aircraft ready to taxi when I received a telephone call from Gwen."I am in the plane but the radio is dead.I have squawked 7600 !"

Luckily ,she was close to her first destination Perigueux Airport which is not Class D airspace and therefore she was allowed to enter the pattern and land.

If this had happened at either Bergerac or Limoges she would have had to leave the CTR and find an alternate airfield.

I sent her a text saying find a mechanic and report back.

Gwen was in for a long wait as the battery took several hours to re charge, however this intrepid aviator was not intending to return to base without completing her qualifying cross country flight .She set off for Bergerac and continued her task.

Late this afternoon I was thrilled to see F-GIKC joining the pattern and returning home.

It had been a long day for Gwen but a most successful one in fact an experience which she will never forget.

Congratulations Gwen!

Stuart Morton " question after PPL completion "

I wanted to ask something, I went to my local flying club here at Cuers today and was told I would be able to fly before I have my official license in my hand if they can have a copy of my exam pass certificate which Georges gave me, I wanted to ask if that normal as apparently in France it is valid for 2 months ?

Another PPL!

CONGRATULATIONS !

Dear Sue, I want to write to thank you for a splendid 10 days of flying, studying and laughing. Starting 10 days ago I had only just 45 minutes of solo in my book, here I sit at the end of my visit with my Private Pilot's license in my hands, after completing the final 4 ground exams, then the milestone of my solo cross country trip to Poitiers and Angueleme. During the last week and a half I have met some great people up here who have always been willing to lend a hand with my training, a huge thank you to Neil and to Peter.

 After some swift arranging with Georges the french examiner I was given the date of 30th September 10.am for my PPL Skills test. A day I will never forget, earth shattering nerves before hand, a very long navigation test, then onto the skills part of the test. Each and every stage packed with questions about emergency procedures, technical problems and general aviation. Then the power was cut overhead St Junian airport for engine failure glide approach into the smallest landing strip in France !!! To be honest this one didn't go too well and the examiner allowed me to do it again at Limoges on a slightly bigger landing strip but was given an exact spot on the runway to put the wheels onto. With that done and couple of circuits including a flapless landing the examiner told me that was it and I had passed. An unusual feeling came over me, where by I couldn't speak and my legs wouldn't work, so I sat in the plane and ended up doing the shut down checklist twice. Upon getting myself together Georges gave me the official paperwork and that was it.......I had it in my hands. Quite possibly the stiffest test of anything I have ever done.

It still hasn't sunk in, even after the congratulations from my instructor and fellow pupils, even after the barrage of balloons which greeted me upon my return to Nearly heaven, even after a glass of champagne and a wonderful celebration dinner with lots of laughter. I hope it will sink in soon that after all of this hard work with the theory exams and thanks to the most part to a great instructor I am now a qualified pilot.

 Wow that feels good to be able to say that. A qualified pilot. Thankyou Sue I have realized a dream.

Stuart Morton