From South to North

So leaving the joys of sunny France we had a long weekend in windy, chilly Edinburgh, but what a lovely city Edinburgh is.

A favourite place to visit - The Botanical Gardens - complete with squirrels!

and the world's tallest palm house

then with the sun low in the sky, a super photo-opportunity for an arty-farty shot (actually I'm quite pleased with it!!)

Heading South

Or to be more precise South-West. On our last visit to Chez Borgnette this year, doing a little clearing of ivy from, the walls when the noise of honking geese gradually increased soon this superb skein flying overhead heading for the warmth - Spain or Africa?

Absolutely superb sight - I hope they all make it

A walk in the woods

So here we are in the beautiful Charente, gardening done, plenty of wine drunk and now time for a wander. From the front of the house a path leads down across a small valley by the side of the vines, then up into the woods

Looking back across the valley, the house does seem rather splendid

This time of year should be good for fungi, but typically I was too late in the day - however I did find a few, and some fascinating lichens (memo to self - must learn something about lichen)

 A bracket of some sort

 No idea what this is

 Nor this, unless it's some form of coprinus?

And finally the lichen - very pretty


What a pleasant way to spend a few hours on a Sunday afternoon

France Flying Videos

As well as taking photographs non-stop, Les is a great one for making short videos....

So here are a few:

Departure from Brie-Champniers Airport at Angoulême

Flying over the Poitou-Charente countryside near Cognac

Landing at Lesparre airfield on the Medoc (a greaser!!!!!!)

Another good one at Couhe (well any one you walk away from is a good one!)

And the next day, it was time to go home - here we are heading North from Angouleme, passing east abeam La Rochelle

Over the Loire, and on towards Cherboug for fuel (for the aeroplane and the pilots!)

A bit further up the peninsula

Then with 85 litres in the aircraft & 2 croque-monsieurs in the crew - off we went - life-jackets on and over the channel, out towards ORTAC, under airway Q41 (WHY IS THAT SO LOW!!!), and coasted in over Sandbanks

Back on the ground at Ashcroft Farm about 90 minutes later - a really enjoyable few days flying

G-CGRB in France

Our first trip abroad in RB, originally the plan was to go to Bremgarten and Tannheim in Germany, back across France to Angoulême, stay a couple of days in Poitou-Charente and then return home. But as ever with light aircraft the weather intervenes and the eastern part of France and into Germany just looked too 'iffy' so we departed Ashcroft Farm (EGCR) direct to Guernsey, refuelled there then on to Angoulême.
We arrived at Brie-Champniers airport (LFBU), Angoulême at around 16:00 local, our chauffeuse collected us and we spent a very boozy evening celebrating the first channel crossing for RB. Sunday we had a day off, then Monday we planned a flight from Angoulême to Lesparre/Saint-Laurente-Medoc (LFBU), on to Saint-Pierre-D'Oleron (LFDB), then eastwards and inland to Couhe/Verac (LFDV) and back to Angoulême.

RB on the apron at Angoulême

The Aeroclub at Angoulême were very accommodating letting us park in their hangar for the first night.

Overhead Lesparre

Parked at Lesparre

 Onwards to the Ile d'Oleron

Downwind for runway 10 LH at Saint Pierre d'Oleron

Parked up at St Pierre

Leaving Saint Pierre d'Oleron our track to Couhe took us over Fort Boyard built in the 1800s as a fort, used as a prison and latterly as a game show site.

Finally on to Couhe/Verac, a delightful little grass field, before our return to Angoulême

Overhead Couhe

Parked at Couhe

My thanks to photographer Les for many of the shots above.

Some Aerial Views

So, at long last with the noise issues on RB sorted out, a trip to France beckoned (I'll post another entry with the details).
Having arrived at Angouleme on August 28th, we took the 29th off and lounged by the pool, but then went for a day's flying on Monday the 29th (another post - coming soon!!) to do a round trip to The Medoc, Ile-d'Oleron, Couhe and back to Angouleme - amazingly, just the slightest deviation on the first leg took us right over our house - so an ideal opportunity for some aerial shots - for which I am indebted to my flying friend Les

The Chez Borgnette hamlet - you can just make out the pool

Overhead, a good view of the house, pool and barn

Looking back

Climbing away and departing to the west

G-CGRB - the new CTLS

As I wrote in an earlier post I had a try in a Flight Design CTSW a while back and thoroughly enjoyed the experience - however I didn't really want to go from the grandeur of the Group A Cherokee 6 to a microlight, hence the choice of the CTLS, the big brother.

This aircraft is certified as an EASA Permit to Fly aircraft with a max AUW of 600kg, which gives it a reasonable load carrying capacity (2 x 25kg luggage compartments mean you can take more than you can on Ryanair!!) and juggling fuel and luggage can give you a serious range capability - certainly exceeding the range of my bladder :)

So here it is G-CGRB  - based now at Ashcroft Farm EGCR a delightful grass airfield in rural Cheshire

So far, so good, but it's definitely not all been plain sailing! Since buying the aircraft new, I've had a failed undercarriage leg (manufacturing fault), corrosion found on the engine mount, a failed Dynon EFIS and now a horrendous noise being generated by some resonance somewhere in the aircraft - hopefully to be diagnosed tomorrow (Friday 10th June) - all in all a very, very disappointing experience.

UPDATE - Thanks due to Bill Brookes who flew up to Ashcroft and cast an expert eye over the aircraft. Still not 100% diagnosed, but I'd say 99.99% certain - the problem was that some tape between the fairing at the top of the starboard undercarriage leg and the fuselage had split - very small, almost imperceptible but enough to act as a "reed" in the airflow then that resonating up the leg, up the cabin wall and into the wing was causing the noise. Some vigorous shaking of the leg, the spat and the fairing resulted in the split being considerably enlarged, then, of course on flying the aircraft we could not reproduce the noise. That all fits as presumably with the split in the tape being larger it didn't then resonate at the same frequency - so no noise!

La vie en France

Well we did it - we bought a house in Charente department of the Poitou Charente region. It is between Cognac and Angouleme in a small village called Moulidars. Last Thursday - 12th May we got the ferry from Portsmouth to Cherboug and drove the 380 odd miles for our first stay in our French house.

I give a massive thank you to Graham Downie and his wife Juli-Anne of Cognac Property Services who helped us find the place, negotiate our path through the French legal system and who went the extra mile in helping us at the last minute when my mother became incapacitated and passed away, resulting in a funeral on the day we were due to complete the sale - not necessarily the most auspicious start, but thanks to Graham & Juli-Anne definitely not as stressful as it might have been.

Graham also writes a blog "A little drop of Cognac" which is well worth reading for anyone interested in property in France and/or the Charente area in general - our house appears in his blog, but here are a few to illustrate just what a cracking place it is:

Imagine sitting there in 30 degree sunshine, sipping a cold G&T (or if we want to be a little local, then a glass of Pineau de Charente)

Does it get much better?







The view from the front is across a small dry valley populated with vines

Then if it all gets too much, just go round to the back of the house and slip into the pool












The wildlife is fascinating - lizrds and frogs  I expected, but not "Couleuvre verte et jaune" - the Western Whip Snake - completely harmless, but certainly gave me a bit of a start when I went to investigate a rustling noise in the hedge by the pool - this pair popped out and almost ignoring me carried on their mating ritual - well you would, wouldn't you?

mmm time for another glass of Pineau I think!

Catching up on events

It's been a while since I blogged. Perhaps that's an inevitable thing, you start with good intentions of writing a regular commentary on life, the universe and everything, but then the enthusiasm just tails off and perhaps, horror of horrors, you just have nothing interesting to say!

However, life rolls on and a number of things have happened so I feel that I should document them.

Firstly and most sadly, my mother has died - at the moment it's too raw a feeling to say much, but although her health had deteriorated to the point where she needed nursing care it still came as a shock when it happened so quickly.

A conversation I had with her just a very few weeks ago concerned the house we were buying in France - I showed her the photographs and she said how much she'd like to be able to see it one day - never now to happen which leaves me feeling rather empty. Even more poignantly the day of the sale completion is the day of the funeral.

Another event of note is the purchase of a new aeroplane, as I blogged earlier I rather fancied the CTLS (having flown a CTSW) so I am now the proud owner of G-CGRB and I'll write a separate blog entry about it.