As a three-ship formation we flew the whole flight to Lapalisse. We crossed the Belgian border near Aachen, contacted Brussels info, passed Spa and the Ardennes towards VOR Montmedi (MMN) and crossed the border into France. We contacted Reims info and had no problems crossing CTR’s. We overflew the airport of Saint Dizier; to our right giant water masses of the Lac du Chantecoq could be seen. The landscape below changed steadily, huge crop fields, little forests, some small rivers and streams, just lovely.

The weather kept deteriorating so I asked Paris info for the weather in Lapalisse. They reported around 10 K’s visibility, enough to push forward.

The rain increased and this hampered Henk, normally the fastest, now he had to ask us to slow down. The Taifun’s flying characteristics decrease with rain (as advertised) and he couldn’t go faster than 140 KPH.

We were happy to be equipped with GPS; this eased the navigation and increased safety. In the hilly and green Auvergne, navigating is tough because you see very few landmarks; also bigger cities are very rare. You only find fields, acres, trees, little roads and laughing cows which supply the milk for the cheese called: “La vache qui rie”. The rain meant we could only fly at 1000 feet AGL but with enough visibility. The GPS told us were to go and how much longer we needed, this made (and makes) flying a lot easier.

Shortly before reaching Lapalisse (3 hours 45 flying time!) we made a radio call but nobody answered. As usual in France we landed on our own, no officials bothering us. Just a call on the radio with our intentions, join the pattern, that’s it. (Pity this is not done in Germany).

The members of the local flying club organised a meal for us right after arrival. In the evening more CFI members arrived, mainly from Germany. A happy renewal of friendships with other pilots that we knew from other CFI flights.

The next morning a flight was planned to Beaune. Around 20 aircraft joined for this one. Our gang with Hans and Uwe Wirtz in the Katana and Henk and Ellie Dumont in their Taifun and me in the GROB flew again in our usual and well know three-ship formation. This was a difficult flight, rain had to be circumnavigated and the cloud base above the hilly terrain wasn’t very high. We had to divert off-course, normally it is North-East, now we had to go east until reaching the Canal du Centre, follow this until we could follow a highway to Beaune. Here we met the other participants who took another route but arrived at the same time. It was a busy approach, so busy we had to go-around twice with the D-KEIO before final touch-down.

In the evening again a CFI night with an appearance of the French RF designer, René Fournier. After the warm welcome by local officials we enjoyed, again as usual on a CFI flight, a well organised meal which took numerous hours. Shortly before midnight we were handed the specially made midnight-drink. A very nice evening for the renewal or deepening of friendships.

Packing and saying goodbye. A lovely weekend has come to an end.

The next morning our formation returned to Germany. Shortly after take-off we decided to fly VFR on top, the cloud-base was very low. This was absolutely no problem, plenty of gaps between the clouds allowed for ground visibility, allowing navigation. Above clouds we had a very good visibility, and as Reinhard May says a borderless freedom. Direct course to VOR MMN at an altitude between 5000 to 6000 feet. Approaching the Ardennes we decided to descent and go to Dahlemer Binz for refuelling. Again we said good-bye to Henk and Elly Dumont while airborne; he flew his fast Taifun back to Geilenkirchen. We landed at Dahlemer Binz, got fuel and returned to Mönchengladbach.

We flew about 10 hours this weekend and, again, had fantastic flying experiences. It was proven once more that our formation pays off; everyone navigates and thinks, supporting the others. Lots of fun together and we sincerely hope to enjoy more flights together.