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To get to his local airfield (Castres (LFCK)) we would need to refuel and thus we chose Avignon (LFMV) (The place with the famous bridge. "Sur le pont d'Avignon" - I would sing a bit more of it but it's getting late and the neighbours might complain!) We had one or two problems on this leg of the adventure. Firstly it was the Italian ATC. They had us flying all over the place to avoid some prohibited area (an area not avoided by some!) They took us high, they took us low and then spat us out at the end. Those of you still following on your atlas's may want to trace a direct line from Lucca direct to Avignon.

It was whilst passing north of Cannes that we heard Peter Curley in G-BXTT declaring an emergency!! He'd got some severe vibration and was diverting in to Cannes!! The French air traffic controller was very professional - he gave all the assistance possible to the two Peters and even had the foresight to put two and two together to realise we were all flying as a group (a misguided group I'll grant you but a group nonetheless!) and he called us up specially to tell us that Peter had landed safely at Cannes - A good man indeed. Peter found the trouble to be a piece of rubber undercarriage fairing had become loose (thankfully). It was quite startling for them but boy! Didn't they keep their cool? - True British stiff upper lip, remembered their 'pleases' and 'thank-you's' despite being near to a potential force landing in some inhospitable landscapes!!! Unfortunately they never did catch up with us again and had to depart north to get home in time for tea.

Avignon was a medium sized commercial airport without too much character, They were efficient and rather clinical, so we only stayed for a snack and to refuel. We had the prospect of enjoying the Whiteley's companionship so were soon on our way west to Castres.

The weather on route was hazy and with plenty of cloud making VFR difficult at times - However we all found the right airport and safely landed into the welcoming arms of David W. It had been a long days flying and with the sapping heat we welcomed the cooling delights of the swimming pool. Glorious! We had a lovely surprise - Andre Everaert and his gorgeous wife, Gilberte, who had been on a car tour of Switzerland and other suspicious places, diverted their 4 wheel Grumman Honda/Mazda/Suzuki automobile and drove an epic 10hrs to find and spend the night with us (They got the nice bed - the one reserved for me - Your scribe!) - It was a real pleasure to see them.

That evening we had the traditional Whiteley dinnerfest with oodles of nice wines and plenty of grub. We were able to recount tales of daring-do to our hosts and find out how they had been managing to live in France with us! Thank you both once again for all your hospitality - we WILL threaten you with another visit soon!!

You will note that it takes one right across the bay south of Genoa. Far safer to go round the coast eh? "Not so", said the Genoan ATC torturers. "Stay south". They ordered us so we were all kept some 40 miles offshore (except for someone who was told in no uncertain terms to clear off out of Genoan airspace - I shall mention no names but where you sure you knew where you were Brian?). Our faithful Lycomings kept beating away as designed, we all coasted in somewhere around Albenga and then crept round the shoreline to enter in to French territory near San Remo. From there we mostly headed direct to Avignon by way of Castelaine and Manosque.

And that dear reader is where I'll leave you as the next day we all went our separate ways. It had been an exciting tour covering something like 2600 nm in the 10 days we took to do it. I know I haven't mentioned many of the thrills nor every rivet of our epic journey - Steve Williams hasn't enough pages to carry it all! It was leisurely. It was bloody hot! And it was expensive!! But what the heck? We all enjoyed it. The best of it all was the continued companionship and fellowship of our Grumpy group - we are all different, we all have our different foibles but we melded in a common bond, helped by the very tools that enabled us to accomplish the trip - Our Grummans. Thanks friends.