Tour de France

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Jean
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First Name: Jean
Aircraft Type: DA40
Aircraft Registration: N446DC
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Tour de France

Post by Jean »

See REPORTS 4045 to 4051.
Last week, we accomplished a "Tour de France" by air.
This was a VFR rally with N446DC and N1777LG, a C177RG.
We departed from EBST in Belgium to Saint Malo LFRD in Bretagne. We overflew Normandy beaches on the 6 of june. We crossed some WW2 warbirds !
We then flew to La Rochelle LFLH where we spent the night. Very nice "fruits de mer" (sea food) and really nice town.
Next day we had planned Andorra LESU but weather in the Pyrenean didn't seem to good. So at Tarbes LFBT we informed FIS that we were changing our FPL to Carcassonne LFMK for lunch and fuel stop. On the way, I checked NOTAMS and figured out that there was no AVGAS in LFMK, so we changed again our route to NIMES LFTW where we had to pick up a friend who joined us thanks to Ryanair ! Then we flew down to french Riviera for a coastal navigation from Martigues to Cannes LFMD where we would attend the Cannes Aero Show. Very nice time in Cannes. While eating some more sea food in a restaurant in Cannes, I got a phone call from the French aeronautical administration asking where we were. I had not closed my FPL to LESU, so Barcelona was actively searching us :thumbsd: :oops:
As we had informed FIS of our FPL changes they didn't bother us :thumbsup:
Next day we attended the show but weather was deteriorating, so we left around 12 to fly back home (sunday forecast was ugly). We had planned to overflight the mountain but we soon found out that it was wiser to follow up the Rhone Valley (we came back following the 'Autoroute du Soleil"), we had to descend to 2500ft to stay VFR.
We made a stop in Beaune in Burgundy where we hoped to taste some good wine (for Copilots only) but we only found Coca Cola and AVGAS, which was enough to bring us home to Liège !
We flew VFR in (loose) formation with the Cardinal during the whole trip. One copilot would handle radio calls for both planes. French controllers were very collaborative. We had a good time :)
I'll post some picture ASAP.
40.446, G1000, KAP 140, Hartzell Metal
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Jean
5 Diamonds Member
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Posts: 741
Joined: Mon Jun 28, 2010 7:28 am
First Name: Jean
Aircraft Type: DA40
Aircraft Registration: N446DC
Airports: EBLG
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Re: Tour de France

Post by Jean »

Some pictures in flight during the trip.
Attachments
Blue sky on the French Riviera
Blue sky on the French Riviera
On the way to Cannes at Martigues.
On the way to Cannes at Martigues.
40.446, G1000, KAP 140, Hartzell Metal
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Moonshine
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Re: Tour de France

Post by Moonshine »

That's some big Diamond logo on the tail!
More pics!
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