Paginatitel

November 22, 2009

I have the intention to make a 'Tour de France' in 2010 in my Grumman OO-GAZ.

Starting date just after the AYA meeting: May 31

My aim is to tour around clockwise or counterclockwise (weather dependent) in France, exploring:

Normandie - Bretagne - Loire - Charente - Limousin - Aquitaine - Pyrénées - Longuedoc - Provence - Alpes - France Comté - Bourgogne.

No long distances, flights in 2-3 hops per day ending somewhere on a small airfield, enjoy the local culinary delights and maybe bump into some old friends. I think about 10 to 12 days in total.
Interested to join? It would be more fun if we could set up a small squadron. Let me know your intentions ........ you have 6 months to think about it.

February 14, 2010

Once again in true Grumpy tradition the plan is to venture to the southern parts of Europe on the basis of 'Finger in the air' and see which way the winds blowing.
This time we remain on French territory and considering an unexpected enthusiasm of more then 20 candidates, a basic itinerary & planning would be useful if we don't want to fall into logistic problems.
The last two weeks I have spread out my '4 cartes aéronautiques' looking for adequate stopover places, now it's your turn to drawn lines, thumb through your Jeppesen and come up with more suggestions. We still have plenty of time to make it perfect but don't let things slide.
A good stopover should be a medium-sized regional airfield with an ATS service or AFIS or Air/Air in French (more fun) free of P-R-D-ZIT zones around it, with a small bar/restaurant, where avgas is available at decent hours, close to a medium-sized town with medium-sized hotels in the centre or on the airfield.

Checking the map (here on top) a list per region will appear with 3 possible stopovers and 9 hotels & phone numbers I picked up. Print out this information (also the updates later on) and take it with you, it could be helpful to find a bed for the next night!

It was also my intention to keep the distance between the stopovers in a range between 150-175 Nm leaving plenty of time to stroll the region and discover small airfields while flying from A to B, a great help for this is Arthur Alasdair unrivalled 'French airfield Impression" and "Guide to flying to France", have a look and make your choice at www.arthurandarthur.co.uk/flying/French_airfields.htm or www.france-for-visitors.com for a background to places we will visite.

March 01, 2010 What you should know.

Our travel style: The Grumpy way; No leader; No tour guide; No commander; No formation flight (although some may elect to travel in a sort of "close detachment")
The proposed itinerary is just what it is, a proposal. It's simply an aim to give an initial idea and one we might or might not achieve, it could completely change due to the weather, because we hear that somewhere is nicer, or whatever.
What we do is, every morning after breakfast, someone sticks their finger in the air and see which way the wind is blowing ..… look at the chart …… and decide where to go.
Participants who want to do their own thing can choose a route and a stopover as they desire - depending on the merits of their choice, others might join them.
Participants can join or leave or rejoin the group at any place or any time they want and there are several intrepid adventurers that have already chosen to do it that way.
In this day and age, the mobile phone and the computer are your friends! So we can use it to find the whereabouts of others and to book our hotel. Then of course there's the Grumpy frequency (123.45) when airborne.
Many thanks for taking part, I look forward to seeing you all somewhere in France if not before in Midden Zeeland.
With the friendship, the encouragement and the humour of each of you we will surely have an exciting trip.

Several of us will have up-to-date Jeppesen airfield charts for all of France so we can share information to save expense.

Charts (French ICAO ones) can be purchased cheaper from our good friends Luc & Edith at Cherbourg than from the usual suppliers.

GPS databases: It might be a good excuse to update yours before you set off (hint!)

Rubber Chickens: Bring your own!!
Choisir et préparer son voyage, c'est déjà un goût d'évasion !
A bientôt,

Grumpy3 André