Date: Thursday 8 March 2007
Distance Traveled:	80 Nautical miles
Location of Start:	Macon
Location of Finish:	Roman St. paul (Rhone Valley)
Average Speed:	Approx. 100 MPH!
Time Flying:	55 minutes
Flying Conditions:	Growing overcast, rain, winds 40MPH when landing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  We were down at the airfield by 7.45 AM to find it drizzling, andweather forecasts for further down the Rhone Valley not favourable- the Mistral was blowing  hard.

 

Pierre, the Chief Flying Instructor for the microlight airfield we had flown into arrived, advising Brian that, if we turned out of the Rhone Valley before the high winds were funneling through we could make an airfield called Gap, and perhaps onwards from there.

 

We headed off in improving local weather, making excellent time with a 40mph tail wind. Beautiful scenery below being described to me by Brian; valley floor very wide there; best speed over ground an amazing 117 mph; weather began deterioriating before we could make the turn out of the valley, with growing turbulence, clouds darkening and lowering- very exhilarating flying conditions, being blown around quite a bit, and me still finding it difficult to follow our track accurately due to relying on my compass heading with the angle of bank not working.

 

Brian wisely concluded our safest place was on the ground, with us throttling back and descenting  from some 2,000 feet through fairly heavy rain as soon as Roman St. Paul was seen below; a grass airfield with sheltering woods down one side.  An exciting landing, with the wind almost across the runway now at some 40 mph- a great time as a blind aviator to definitely defer to the vast experience of Brian to bring us down safely- 3 clicks on the trim, plenty of reserve power, flying the wing into the wind as we landed, and we taxied into the shelter of the woods into almost perfect calm, making us wonder what all the fuss had been about!

 

My only regret was our wing camera not functioning to capture the moment!

Fabulous French hospitality once again, with Fred, the forthcoming chairman of the local flying club immediately arranging hangar space for us and a local hotel.

 

We both slept for 3 hours this afternoon- our first chance to catch up on much neglected sleep recently- hard to believe that we only left Biggen Hill yesterday- seems like at least five days ago!

 

Red sky tonight, so should be good conditions tomorrow for an attempt to reach the Mediterranean Coast towards Italy…

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