CFI Mallorca-flight 2006

June 1st 2006 (Thu)
Unexpected early start for Mallorca-flight!

20.00 hrs local time
Today I (webmaster Leo LLama) came home from work and was surprised to hear my wife say she got a phone-call from Henk saying he and his wife Elly already had departed for their flight with the Club Fournier International (CFI) -Germany to Mallorca.
Originally Henk wanted to fly to Speyer (Germany) on Friday, but apparently weather conditions were such that he decided to put forward their departure for one day.

This of course explains why no one opened the front door of Henk's house when I tried to visit him this afternoon!

At 21.00 hrs local time Henk promised to make a phone-call to update my info for the website.
During the next five days we hope to keep you informed this way, "pseudo-live-like", on the flight to Mallorca.

Speyer is the central meeting place for the official start of this year's CFI-flight to Mallorca. Speyer is a city with 50 000 inhabitants, situated along the Rhine river in Rheinland-Pfalz in the Southwest of Germany. In an straight line Speyer airport (EDRY) it's about 200 kilometers from Henk's homebase Geilenkirchen (ETNG). Near this airport the "Technik Museum Speyer" is located. It's the biggest private museum in Europe of its kind. Among the collection are 70 airplanes and helicopters, 50 vintage cars, 40 fire engines, 20 locomotives and more. All this is exhibited within an indoor area of 16000 square meters and an outdoor area of over 150000 square meters. Their beautiful and informative website is available in 6 languages (!!!), amongst which of course German and English. The oldest name of Speyer was Civitas Nemetum, town of the Nemeter, after a Germanic tribe which settled in this area. In the 6-th century the town received the name Spira of the Speyerbach (Speyer brook) which flows through the city.

Speyer Kaiserdome as seen from the long side

22.00 hrs local time
Phone-call from Henk:
"Geilenkirchen-ETNG to Speyer-EDRY 1.15 hrs flight.
We started at 17.10 at Geilenkirchen NATO airbase and with a strong tailwind and speeds up to 120/130 knots we arrived at Flugplatz Speyer at 18.25 local time. Originally the plan was to leave Geilenkirchen early Friday morning, but watching the German weatherforecasts during the day, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon we decided to go for Speyer today. Tomorrow a high pressure area is approaching from the West and there's a great chance of haziness, something that will not enhance our joy during flight. So this afternoon our dear friend Ernst August came to our home and gave us a lift to Geilenkirchen airbase and at 17.00 hrs we were ready to depart. We've had an almost perfect flight, cloudbase at 3000 ft, and the small rainshowers we encountered were easy to fly by.
Tomorrow morning at 11.00 hrs local time, we will decide were to go. It's not sure that we can fly to Mallorca, because at the moment the weather on the Spanish island is not that good. Furthermore the Rhone valley is suffering Mistral winds and predictions for that area are not that good either. Anyway, tomorrow evening at 10.00 hrs we will be more southward than at this very moment and I will phone again. So long for now."

24 hrs Synoptic Chart, showing that tomorrow there will be a kind of corridor to the Southwest.

June 2nd 2006 (Fri)

20.00 hrs local time
Your webmaster is looking at weather charts of Southern France and is eagerly awaiting Henk's phone-call.
Take-off at Speyer was planned for 11.00 hrs. Not long before that moment the decision has been made were to fly.
When looking at the Mistral winds on the charts of of France Meteo, your webmaster makes the wild guess that the bunch of motorgliders has flown somewhere to the French West or Southwest coast, to avoid this Mistral in the Rhone valley region.
Islands like Ile de Ré or Ile d'Oléron would seem very nice to me (non pilot, non meteorologist) to fly to as a first stage. If so, then tomorrow flying along the coast towards Biarritz could be the next option.
But as said before, I'm not a pilot, so in an hour or two Henk probably phones to tell me the CFI-bunch has landed somewhere completely else in France.

 

21.50 hrs local time Just got a phonecall from Henk stating they have landed at Biscarrosse airfield (LFBS) on the French west coast, some 150 kilometers South of the place your webmaster predicted!

Henk: "We departed at 13.00 hrs from Speyer (Germany,EDRY) and flew Southward to Saint Yan airfield (France, LFLN) were we arrived at 16.20 hrs. Right after departing from Speyer we encountered some bad weather near the French border and my GPS-system had a breakdown. It didn't function properly anymore, the screen went blank and I wasn't even able to turn the damn thing off! After we landed at Saint Yan I reset my GPS, uploaded new data and at the moment it's working as usual again. This never happened before so I'm curious what caused this breakdown. Anyway, because the Mistralwinds in the Rhone-valley are to risky to fly through we decided to fly West to the French coastal area. We took off, after refuelling at Saint Yan, at 17.50 hrs and at 20.20 hrs we landed at Biscarrosse airfield (LFBS) some 80 kilometers from Bordeaux. So now the famous French centre of hydro-aviation has got 8 visitors from the CFI-Mallorca flight. The 8 visitors being one Taifun 17E II (my own D-KFDI), one Super Dimona, one Grob G109b, one Echo airplane and four RF5-motorgliders.

There's a museum in the neighbourhood of Biscarrosse where you can visit and watch the entire history of hydro-aviation. It's called Le Musée Historique de l'Hydraviation and they also have got their own website, unfortunately only available in French language. Want to visit Biscarrosse? Check out this tourist info Biscarrosse website, available in French, English and German language.

A Grumman Widgeon, a small, six-person, twin-engine amphibious aircraft. You can see a real Widgeon and many other planes of this kind at the Hydraviation museum in Biscarrosse.

As things are now we are first going to look for a restaurant from our small but decent hotel, Hotel St. Hubert in Biscarrosse , because as you can imagine we are very very hungry. The hotel is equipped with 16 rooms so with 8 motorglider crews we have taken possession of the whole area. The hotel, hotel St. Hubert, has its own website in English and French language. Be sure to check out their website, you can also find 3 small videos giving some impressions of the hotel and its surrounding area, the lake and the beach of Biscarrosse.

 

We don't now what tomorrow will bring. Since it's very like that there's NOT going to be any change in the Mistral situation we will probably fly further Northward along the French coast. The weather here is splendid at the moment! Right now I will hang up and find something to eat. Tomorrow evening I will phone again. We will probably not see any part of Mallorca whatsoever, but the journey will be excellent anyway. Bye bye for now."

The current Mistralwinds (June 2nd). The Mistral in the Rhone valley is clearly visible with all these red numbers, corresponding to the wind-speeds (average km/h in white and peak speeds in red) The Mistral is a cold and very powerful North - to Northwest wind, which can reach wind strength 9 (storm strength), and frequently blows in the valley of the Rhône in Southern France. This cold wind originates from the polar regions and is blown into Southern Europe. When reaching the much warmer seawater near the Gulf of Genova, pressure differences become larger and an active depression is formed that enhances the windspeeds. Sometimes even wind strengths up to 10 or 11 can be reached with average speeds of more than 100 kilometers per hour and peaks of 150 kilometers per hour. These extra high speeds are caused by the fact that the air currents are accelerated when pressed in between the mountains on both sides of the valley.

June 3rd 2006 (Sat)

 

7.30 hr local time Radar view of this morning's weather situation in France at 7.30 local time. All along the French coast clear skies, except from the most Northern part in Normandy. The Rhone valley still suffers Mistral winds, so it will be very likely that the CFI-flight will not lead to Mallorca, but up Northward along the French coast. Beautiful aerial photos of the entire 5500 kilometer French coast can be found at the website of Francecoastline.com. By clicking the link you will see some pictures of Biscarrosse plage (Biscarrosse beach).

11.45 hr local time
Phonecall to Henk and by pure chance he got on the line!
Henk: "We started at Biscarrosse airfield LFBS at 11.25 and landed some 5 minutes ago, here at Arcachon airfield LFCH (La Teste de Buch) at 11.40. This was only a short 15 minute flight, but we landed at Arcachon to refuell. Right now there are 8 of us motorgliders in front of the airfield's fuelling station. The Mistral in Southeast France is too great a risk, so this morning we decided to fly North along the French Westcoast. Skies are all blue and the weather is perfect for flying. We passed by a beautiful dune on the Arcachon coast where I took some pictures of the dune and the paragliders flying around. Beautiful, beautiful. In a few minutes when we all have refuelled we will take off again and head along the coast north towards Île de Yeu.
We will stay in touch, bye bye."

The dune Henks was talking about is called "La dune du Pyla". Each year there's a paraglider contest during the so called Wagas festival (this year's edition: 31st of May-4th of June). La dune du Pyla (site available in English and French) is the highest dune in Europe, reaching 114 meter above mean sea level. It's 500 meter wide and a little less than 3 kilometers long. It's located not far from the Arcachon Bassin, some 50 kilometers southwest of Bordeaux. As can be seen in the picture on the right, its westside with a gradient between 5° and 20° is much less steep than its eastside which strongly drops (30° to 40°). Each year the dune of Pyla is being visited by some 2 million tourists. Because this area also has a big ecological importance, it was declared nature reserve in 1978. Since then 6,800 hectares of the dune and the surrounding wood (approx. 4,000 hectares) are protected.

Aerial view of La dune du Pyla. Want to get an impression of parapente-flights above the dune of Pyla, then take a look at this real audio video (45 sec) from the foudesport website. Interested in some more action, as seen from the perspective of the "pilot" then take a look at this (or related) youtube-movie on parapente at the dune of Pyla

Arcachon beach looking southward, in the distance La dune du Pyla can be seen.
More info on this region can be found at the tourist info website of Arcachon, available in English, French, German and Spanish language.

 

Île d'Yeu (tourist website in English and French), our destination of today, is an island just off the western french Vendée coast, where Philippe Pétain, the French wartime Vichy leader, died in 1951. He was imprisoned at the Fort Pierre Levée from 1945 until his death in 1951. Pétain is burried at the cemetery north of Port-Joinville on the island. On the left an aerial view of the northwestern coast of the island.

 

Île d'Yeu is situated about 25 km from the French coast. It measures 10 km long and over 4 km large, making a surface of 23 km². The island is populated with some 5000 inhabitants called "islais" or islanders, of which most live in the two main agglomerations Port-Joinville (the capital, 2000 inhabitants) and Saint Sauveur (litt: the Holy Saviour), also called "le Bourg". Furthermore there are some 20 small villages spread all over the island. Its two harbours, Port-Joinville, and La Meule, located in a little loch of a wild granite coast, are famous for the fishing of tuna and crawfish Fishing and tourism are the main activities on the island. The airfield Île d'Yeu - Grand Phare LFEY is situated on the west coast. If you're able to read French, check out the yeunet.com website for further extensive info. .

The ruins of the ancient castle on Île d'Yeu.

One of the interesting sites on the Île d'Yeu is the old Castle. The life of this castle, built in XIVth century, covers 3 centruries of island history. It was Olivier De Clisson, big master-builder of castles, who built the castle in order to ensure the security of the islanders in case of a foreign invasion. The longest one was led by the famous English Robert Knol, who succeeded in 1355 to take over the castle and occupied the island during 37 years. The Old Castle was dismantled at the end of the XVIIth century in order of Louis XIV. It is classified as a historical monument since 1890.

View of the harbour of Port Joinville on Île d'Yeu.

Île d'Yeu, today's destination, can be found in the upper left corner of the map on the right. Biscarrosse, the airfield we started this morning is some 80 kilometers southwest of Bordeaux. In a straight line a total distance of some 250 kilometers. 18.25 local time Just got a phonecall from Henk: "We had a beautiful flight in almost perfect weather circumstances and this afternoon, a few hours ago, we landed at Île d'Yeu airfield. First they wouldn't let us land because the island and the airfield were a little bit crowded. After some talking finally we did get permission to land. However, after parking and towing our planes we found out that all hotels on the island were booked and no free rooms were available. We had a small meeting, made some phonecalls and decided to fly to Quiberon, 20 kilometers north of the island Belle-Ile I visited 5 weeks ago during the Taifun flight to the Scillies with Manfred, Urs and Erich. So we after some preparations we took off again from Île d'Yeu to fly to Quiberon. Immediately after taking off I noticed I had forgotten to pull off the pressure-security tag and had to land again. The rest of the bunch was outof sight when I took off for the second time and I decided to fly straight towards Quiberon, in stead of following the coastline as the rest did. This way I was the last one to take off from Île d'Yeu and the first one to land at Quiberon airfield (LFEQ). Quiberon Air Club have got their own website available in French, English and German, where you can get an impression of the airfield and its activities."

"On the map on the left you can see the straight line I followed from Île d'Yeu to Quiberon. It's much quicker this way than the dashed line along the coast the rest of the bunch followed. I had to do so because I wanted to catch up with them, something I wouldn't have been able to do if I followed the coastline the same way they did. I was very happy to see Belle-Ile out of the air too. For now we are going to the hotel and find a place to eat, because we have been flying throughout the day. We found a nice hotel called Ideal, situated on the eastern outskirts of town. We don't now what tomorrow is going to bring, but for now I'm enjoying this magnificent trip. I will call again, probably tomorrow morning as soon as we know were to continue our flight. So long, greetz Henk."

 

Quiberon (Kiberen in Breton) is a commune of the Morbihan département, in the région of Bretagne. It's situated on the 14 kilometer long peninsular of Presqu'île de Quiberon. It is primarily known as a seaside resort for the French during summer, and for its history of sardine production. In the 19th century, Nicolas Appert, a chemist, tuned a technique that permited the sterilization of food. Thanks to this process, Quiberon became the leading harbour for sardine fishing and the production of canned sardines in France. Quiberon normally inhabites 5000 people, but during the summer season also 60000 tourists temporarily crowd the peninsula. A very informative website is the Quiberon tourist info site, available in French, English, German, Spanish and Italian language. On the first page of the site a nice aerial view of the peninsula can be seen. On this image the airfield can be seen in the lower right corner, on the southeastern part of the peninsula. The airfield also can be seen on this aerial image on Francevuesurmer.com.

June 4th 2006 (Sun)

 

11.15 hr local time Made a phonecall to Henk, but no one answers. This could mean that they're in the air again and the sound of the mobile phone doesn't get through because of the noise of the plane's engine. On the Meteo-France weather-chart of today (image right) you can see weather is perfect again all along the coast of Bretagne. According to Meteo-France, winds almost everywhere don't exceed 10 km/h, so no Mistral-like circumstances right here. Quiberon, the peninsula we landed yesterday is just outside of the map on the lower right corner. The island on the left side of the map is Île d'Ouessant, the westernmost island of France. Probably all of the group must have been up early this morning for breakfast as you can see in the screenshot of the guestbook below. After Patrick (chairman of the CFI-Germany and initiator of this flight) signed the guestbook yesterday, this morning also Uwe (another CFI-member) took a look. If you didn't know better, you'd suspect that Henk has said they're not allowed to cross the French-German border again before signing the guestbook!

Thanks guys for your encouragements, hope our readers will like it too !

 

14.30 hr local time
Phonecall from Henk:
"This morning we were in doubt whether to fly to the Ile d'Ouessant, or to enjoy the Quiberon peninsula for another day. We decided to to the latter and stay with both feet on the ground for today.
We didn't manage to effectuate this decision, because one hour after we decided to keep our feet on the ground, we all rented a bike, put our feet in the air again and went for a trip around on the Presqu'Île de Quiberon. It's very beautiful around here and we don't regret our decision not to fly today. Right now, after 18 kilometer on bike we left the Quiberon penisula on the northern side and we're in the vicinity of Carnac. Actually we are enjoying superb sights on the famous Carnac stones right now. Tomorrow we will have a look at the weather and decide if we'll fly back to Speyer, or have another day's flight along the French coast."

Map showing the Quiberon penisula (10 km long from its most narrow point and a little less than 3 km at its widest) and Carnac.






One of the famous Menhir alignments in Carnac.

The most famous menhir in the world is probably the one carried by Obelix, one of the main cartoon characters in the Asterix & Obelix stories. A menhir is a large, single upright standing stone (monolith or megalith), of prehistoric European origin. The word menhir most likely originates from the Breton words ´men´ meaning ´stone´ and ´hir´ meaning ´long´ or ´standing upright´ (compare Modern Welsh: maen hir = long stone). In modern Breton the word peulvan is used. Practically nothing is known of the cultural context in which the menhirs were erected. We have no trace even of their language. Until recently, they were associated with the Beaker people, who inhabited Europe during the later third millennium BC during the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age. However, more recent research into the age of megaliths in Brittany tentatively suggests a far older origin, six to seven thousand years ago.

Obelix carrying a menhir stone.

 

 

The Menec alignment, one of the best known alignments of the Carnac region. Eleven converging rows of menhirs stretching for 1,165 metres, by 100 metres wide. There is what Alexander Thom considered to be the remains of stone circles at either end. According to the tourist office there is a "cromlech containing 71 stone blocks" at the western end and a very ruined cromlech at the eastern end. The largest stones, around four metres high, are at the wider, western end; the stones then become as small as 0.6 metres high along the length of the alignment before growing in height again toward the extreme eastern end.

The Carnac stones are an exceptionally dense collection of megalithic sites around the village of Carnac, consisting of alignments, dolmens, tumuluses and single menhirs. The more than 3,000 prehistoric standing stones were hewn from local rock and erected by the pre-Celtic people of Brittany, and are the largest such collection in the world. Local tradition claims that the reason they stand in such perfectly straight lines is that they are a Roman legion turned to stone by Merlin the magician (Brittany has its own local versions of the Arthurian cycle). The stones were erected at some stage during the Neolithic period, probably around 3300 BC, but some may date to as old as 4500 BC. In recent centuries, many of the sites have been neglected, with reports of dolmens being used as sheep shelters, chicken sheds or even ovens. Even more commonly, stones have been removed to make way for roads, or as building materials. The continuing management of the sites remains a controversial topic. There's an organisation called Menhirs Libres that is trying to keep the sites open and free accessible for visitors. If you´re able to read French, visit their French website which is much more extensive. More info on the stones of Carnac can also be found on the megalithia website. If you´re planning to visit some of the sites by car, you´d better also check this website.

June 5th 2006 (Mon)

 

Radar image of the weather at 8.00 local time. Weather along the French coast looks really nice, but if we should decide to fly back home to Speyer, we will fly almost half of the trip in clouded environments.

9.05 hr local time
Phonecall from Henk: "We will have a briefing in several minutes and then we'll decide what to do. I really don't know what will be decided, but the weather here is excellent again, with blue skies as far as the eye reaches. I'll call back after we have made a decision."

17.00 hr local time
Still no phonecall from Henk, your webmaster doesn't have the slightest idea where the CFI-group might be.

18.00 hr local time
Phonecall from Henk:
"After an extended briefing this morning we decided to fly to the Ile d'Ouessant. And we don't regret it for a single moment. We have seen beautifull coastlines and had terrific sights on several beaches. The island is one of a kind, just marvellous. We have made a walk by foot from Ouessant airfield LFEC to the island's main village. When talking about "we" I actually mean "they" in the sense of "the rest of the group". After a few steps I myself halted a farmer just passing by and he took me to the village with his car. In this village, called Lampaul we visited the catholic church, made of local stone. We walked around the village where we also enjoyed a good meal and after that we walked back to the airfield again. From Ile d'Ouessant airfield we continued our flight along the French coast and at the moment (18.05 local time) we have just landed at St. Brieuc airport (Aéroport St. Brieuc Armor LFRT). We have landed here in order to refuell and when we're done refuelling we will continue our flight for one more hour towards Granville-Bréville airport LFRF, situated some 25 kilometers north of the famous Mont Saint Michel. In Granville we will stay the night and tomorrow we will fly back home. The rest of the group will fly to Speyer and one of the RF5's and myself will go to Geilenkirchen ETNG. I must end the phonecall right now because it's my turn at the fuelling station. Bye bye."

Today's flight in numbers: 1. = Quiberon (start) 2. = Ile d'Ouessant (visit of the island) 3. = St. Brieuc (refuelling stop) 4. = Granville (place to stay the night)

Ile d'Ouessant "Le Phare du Stiff" (Stiff's lighthouse) and its radar tower, one of France's six oldest lighthouses.

Ile d'Ouessant is the westernmost island of France, a rocky landmass measuring 8 kilometers at its longest and 3 kilometers at its widest, making a total of 15 square kilometers. Ile d'Ouessant marks the southern entrance to the western English Channel, the northern entrance being the Isles of Scilly, southwest of Land's End in England. Although it is an island in the English Channel, it does not form part of the Channel Islands archipelago. Ile d'Ouessant is also known under it's English name Ushant or in local Breton language Enez Eusa. If you want to get a photographic impression of this beautiful island, inhabiting some 859 people (called Ouessantins), of whom the greater part live in the only village called Lampaul, then you must surely have a look at the Ouessant pages of pilotlist.org. As a child I (your webmaster) can still remember the Amoco Cadiz disaster being in the news on a daily basis early 1978. The Amoco Cadiz was a US oil tanker that ran aground about 10 km from the island causing a large environmental pollution of the Breton coast. More beautiful pictures of Ouessant, amongst which a "photographic ballade" can be found on Dominque Resmon's site. If you're able to read French and are interested in the history of aviation on Ile d'Ouessant, you can download this beautiful 10 page booklet in pdf format, containing several old pictures made available through the Ouessant tourist office.

View on Bourk Lambaol (Breton for Bourg Lampaul) at the edge of Lampaul at low tide.
In the upper left corner the tower of the church Henk was talking about can be seen.
Want to take a look inside of the church, then take a look at this page.

 

Le Phare de Créac'h (the Créac'h lighthouse) on Ile d'Ouessant is said to be the most powerful lighthouse in Europe. Down in its base foundation there's a museums of headlights and sheltering beacons and also an impressive collection of Fresnel lenses, used in lighthouses. Créac'h is Breton for promontory or cape. The lighthouse itself is inhabited. Hight: 55 m. Hight above mean sea level: 74 m. Shining distance: 32 nautical miles Lights: 2 white flashes every 10 seconds Year of construction: 1859-1863 Put into service: 19 december 1863

Ile d'Ouessant: Phare de Créac'h

 

Granville we landed at the airport, some 6 kilometers north of the city centre an hour ago. This webcamimage is looking out on the beach at 20.00 local time. As you can see the weather is still very fine around here.

June 6th 2006 (Tue)

Radarimage of weather at 8.00 local time this morning.

8.50 hr local time Phonecall to Henk: "We've had an excellent night's sleep, some of us went to stay at a hotel near the beach, some of us stayed in their tent at the airfield. Again when looking upward we can see clear skies all over the place. Within half an hour we will have an extended briefing on how to fly back home. I myself, with the Taifun 17E II D-KFDI and a friend with his RF5 D-KEIL wil fly to Geilenkirchen and the rest of the group will fly to Speyer. We will probably fly North of Paris, but we want to take a look at the weathercharts before making that decision. My friend with his RF 5 will then fly further to his homebase Siegerland EDGS, situated between Frankfurt, Dortmund and Köln. I will phone again when I'm back home."

It's almost unbelievable, but the weather is almost perfect again.
We've been very lucky on this trip.

21.30 local time
Just got a phonecall from Henk:
"We are back in town again as you can hear. It was a marvelous trip, well organized by Patrick Faucheron.
This morning we've seen the outskirts of Paris from a distance as we flew from Granville LFRF to Le-Plessis-Belleville LFPP. After that the rest of the CFI-group went along for Speyer and one of the RF5's and me flew to Dahlemer Binz airfield EDKV. After a cup of coffee he flew back to his homebase homebase Siegerland EDGS and I went for Geilenkirchen ETNG. I will send a picture with all of the group-members so you can put it on the homepage."

And yes folks, that's all for now, because your webmaster is packing his bags for a trip to ...... Paris.
Bye bye for now, hope you enjoyed reading this "live" trip report.

The pilots and co-pilots on this trip.
From left to right: Michaël-Dieter-Erwin-Eva-Ellie-Swenn-Peter-Elle-Heike-Gunter-Patrick-Frank-Uwe-Henk-Helmut

Happy landings, webmaster Leo Llama.