A gastronomical adventure: a New VFR tour throughout France

[EHM-1882 Gian]

No problem Eric, we "worked" like in the old days by text. Unfortunately my FS crashed down just five minutes before arriving  and I disappeared without saying goodbye>

Gian

[EHM-2758 Peter]

Old fashioned communication during our flight last evening from Vatry to Marc-en-Baroeul. Old Fashioned problems too to get a steady connection to one of the IVAP servers. That's why we left Vatry one hour later than was planned, what reduced my fuel level to a halve. Enough though left to make this leg. Unfortunately Mumble was down, so we had to communicate by means of the IVAP chatbox, which makes manual flying almost impossible. Typing and flying are two things that don't really match. I think that's why they invented the autopilot... and the copilot, the latter had a day off BTW
I do a lot VFR flying and in most countries it's obvious if and when to contact ATC if online. In France it's a totally different matter. Whether they don't like those small, tiny planes of ours and prefer the ones that fly IFR, or they're just afraid of these four who show up every week on their screen. Fact is that after we make contact with ATC, they just send us back to Unicom.



a little example of the conversation between the four of us, to illustrate:
..........
PHPBG>I switch to ATC now
EHM2589>rgr
EHM2589>LFEE or LFFF
PHPBG>LFFF
EHM2589>rgr
PHPBG>D you don't have to make contact with ATC
EHM2589>ok
EHM2589>only 122.8
PHPBG>I tax to rw28 and yes only unicom
EHM2589>rgr
EHM1829>Hi folks I cant see you, so there is a prob
EHM2589>probably we will start right now T
PHPBG>hi T gladyou're back; try to connect to antoher IVAP server
EHM1829>ok have tried without luck, will just start flying and hope for best
EHM2589>ok
EHM1829>starting FLogger
PHPBG>at HP A4 rw 25
EHM2589>right now you're with us T -)
PHPBG>cannot see you on screen T, yet
EHM2589>I can see T right now
PHPBG>me too; perfect
PHPBG>are you ready T?
EHM2589>I mean EHM1829 -)
EHM2589>We're at h/p rwy27
EHM2589>pardon me rwy25
PHPBG>28 actually
EHM1829>ok folks
PHPBG>we'll wait for you
EHM2589>sorry, my fault, h/p rwy28
PHPBG>doesn't matter it's all in the same direction
EHM1829>on my way
PHPBG>In this particular case it means you'll be last T, for a change :}
EHM2589>yep -( -)
PHPBG>Sorry D
EHM1829>hahah
EHM2589>what a luck T -)
EHM2589>Gian is coming too -)
EHM2589>ça va Gian ?
PHPBG>It's a little bit confusing with French ATC; according to LFEE_ctr we don't have to contact LFF_CTR
EHM2589>ça va G, Mumble ne marche pas pour le moment
EHM2589>we're on the chatbox
EHM2589>only h/p rwy28 many problems
EHM2589>we will waiting for you -)
PHPBG>Hi Gian, welcom
PHPBG>OK Three in line waiting at A$ rw28
EHM2589>nous sommes dans le hold point rwy 28
PHPBG>A4 I meant
PHPBG>That's what I said... in English
PHPBG>or do you prefer French G?
EHM2589>first of all G, put .chat and then add all of us, think so
EHM2589>ok you got it -)
EHM2589>We're four right now -)
PHPBG>great; supperb
EHM1829>Hi PD&G
EHM1829>at long last i am ready
EHM2589>and number 2 for this one -)
EHM2589>the better is that you're with us T
PHPBG>I think my fuel tank is half empty now ;}
EHM1829>hahaha
EHM2589>ha ha ha ...
EHM1829>oil is half price
PHPBG>Sounds crazy "hahaha"we've never had that before; What happened to EJ's Mumble?
EHM2589>tomorrow have to leave early 06h30 -(
EHM1829>oops
PHPBG>Maybe I've to go back to the fuelstation...
EHM2589>that's what I'm second in this leg -)
EHM2589>Gian n'oublie pas FLogger...
EHM2589>have to put parking brake...
EHM1829>back in one min
EHM2589>t'en prie
EHM2589>many problem with server but we will see you, come to rwy 28
EHM1829>back
EHM2589>Me and T are in server 6 thnk so
EHM1829>rgr
PHPBG>OK, let's see what ATC (our beloved friends)  is doing while we're on the way; lining up and take-off; happy flight nevertheless DG&T
EHM2589>ok guys we're ready
EHM1829>ready
EHM2589>yep thanks to you too
EHM2589>Gian is gone
EHM1829>he is back
PHPBG>airborne
EHM2589>thanks God
PHPBG>strong crosswind
EHM2589>yep very right strong wind
EHM2589>airborne
EHM1882>strange to fly silent:)
.............


In the meantime EJ did a great job, restoring Mumble (mine is working fine now). Thanks for that.

The links for the next flight of our tour:

http://doodle.com/dfbyz7deq8izygmg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/gavest5rqcnmueq/leg05%20LFQO-LFRK.zip?dl=0


Meet you all on Mumble!

Peter

[EHM-2758 Peter]

Next Wednesday the 21st of January at 20:00H Zulu at Marc-en-Baroeul (LFQO) as departure airport for the fifth leg to Caen (LFRK).

Meet you all on Mumble (it's working again),

Peter

[EHM-2758 Peter]

I was a bit late last evening (sorry for that) and when I got online I noticed David and Gian just took off from Marc-en-Baroeul airport. Because I already had prepared my flight and my C182T Skylane was itching to start this fourth leg of the tour and with a little extra power, I caught up on them very quickly. ATC all the way (Paris_CTR, Brest_CTR) and in this case, for a change, they were very friendly and helpful. Under perfect VFR conditions we viewed some beautiful scenery along the coasts of Haute and Basse Normandie and of course the harbour of Le Havre. Around 10:30 H we arrived safely at our destination, Carpiquet airport, Caen.

Next leg of the tour goes from Caen (LFRK) to Poitiers (LFBI, Biard)


http://doodle.com/8zzyeb44n3aigyrv

https://www.dropbox.com/s/tehsl3pttpeek2s/leg06%20LFRK-LFBI.zip?dl=0

Meet you all on Mumble,

Peter

[EHM-1829 Trevor]

 
  Sorry i missed the flight folks. I had headed north for two days then ended up booking accommodation for a second night.
  And thanks Eric for sorting Mumble.
  T

[EHM-2758 Peter]

Not only did you miss the flight T. , what's even more important you missed the apres-vol!  

Cheers! Hope to see you back on Mumble next week,

Peter

[EHM-2758 Peter]

Leg06 from Caen to Poitiers will start next Wednesday the 28th of January at 20:00 H Z.

Meet you all on Mumble!

Peter

[EHM-2387 Eric-Jan]

I will be needing to shut down Mumble from Thursday on until over the weekend. The last bit of dry-walling and electrical stuff will then take place. We are out of the house from Thursday onward to not be in the way, and all power will be switched off during some time of that. To prevent this NAS from dying like my previous one, I am going to shut it down for that period of time.
So that fits nicely with this flight

Have a good and safe flight!

P.S. Mumble will be up again Sunday evening, I hope.

[EHM-2758 Peter]

It took a while before we finally had a take-off clearance from Brest_CTR. Obvious he was very busy handling other traffic in the region, a Boeing had to divert to Carpiquet Caen airport and had priority to land first. Nevertheless waiting at the holdingpoint for about thirty minutes made it all very real.

To make the landing in Poitiers (Biard airport) a little bit more exiting (no ATC to prevent us from doing that) we tried a simultanious landing: Trevor on rw21L, David rw21 and I headed for rw21R. Unfortunately Gian had a FS crash not long after his departure. Frustrating, but I hope it doesn't discourage you from flying agian next week.  Besides there were only three runways available.
It's a lot more difficult to fly in formation than you think. Furthermore it's almost impossible to make a final approach and take screenshots at the same time. We ought to practice this somewhat more in the future.

Nevertheless if you take your time to search for it, some screenshots below show Davids Piper and Trevors C172.

Here're the links for the next leg, leg07 to LFSD, Longvic Dijon.

http://doodle.com/epmqvkwefcskcgdq

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3lc5io4l42vkncm/leg07%20LFBI-LFSD.zip?dl=0

Meet you all on Mumble!

Peter

[EHM-2758 Peter]

The next leg, leg07 to LFSD, Longvic Dijon is planned for tomorrow, Wednesday the 4th of February at 20:00 H Z.

Meet you all tomorrow on Mumble!

Peter

[EHM-1882 Gian]

Hope this time FS will not betray me!  I do not want to miss good wine testing in Dijon 

Gian

[EHM-2387 Eric-Jan]

I'll try to think of switching on my NAS again
It's still off, so Mumble is not working a.t.m., at least until this evening.

Should I forget entirely, Peter: you have my email address - drop me a line, and I will most likely see it on my phone.

[EHM-2589 David]

Hi E.J. at the moment 1332 zulu doesn't work, I mean Mumble or Server, but I've a message: New version available. Version 1.2.8 is now released on sourceforge. Please go to SourceForge.net to download. Is necessary to install 1.2.8 or only server problem Thanks

[EHM-2387 Eric-Jan]

Hi David,

I would wait with the new version until after this evening, just to be sure. I re-started the server yesterday evening (around 1800Z, I estimate), so I think it will all work fine now (Peter just confirmed that to me).

I don't think the new version will cause any issues, but just to be sure I would advise to stay with 1.2.7 for this evening, because that was a proven working situation. After this evening, you'll have a whole week to upgrade and see if it all works (and repair things if some-why things get broken    )

[EHM-2758 Peter]

Last evening we left Poitiers Biard at about 20:30 H. Trevor, David, Gian and me flew in formation from west to east and had a save landing in Dijon Longvic at 22:40 H. Although Bordeaux_CTR went online after we already left Poitiers, we didn't have to deal with that. We stayed low and out of classified airpsace. Along the way I tried to  get close to each one of us to take some screenshots. The results are shown below.

Congratulations to Gian. Since a long time he could finish this flight without any problem with his Flight Simulator. Keep it up, Gian.

Here're the links for leg08 from Dijon to Amiens:

http://doodle.com/gqcf48z5zgfu7v2n

https://www.dropbox.com/s/g2t80hg5j4szlz3/leg08%20LFSD-LFAY.zip?dl=0

Meet you all on Mumble!

Peter

[EHM-2758 Peter]

We will fly our next leg from Dijon to Amiens on the 12th of February at 20:00 H Z.

Meet you all on Mumble!,

Peter

[EHM-2758 Peter]

We didn't mention it last evening and actually we didn't notice it at all, but now I realize that Gian has obviously overcome the problems with his Flight Simulator. For the second time in a row he didn't encounter any problems. The four of us did, though not with the FS but with the weather on the way. From Dijon to Reims we had a clear sky, but after that fog, that became thicker and thicker as we approached Amiens. In real life flying impossible and very dangerous to do, but we had to land at Amiens (Real pilots in real life don't have to deal with something called Flightlogger). Only Trevor flew in a totally different world and reported "runway in sight" at 2.5 nm distance. The rest of us flew in a grey world. Nevertheless, thanks also to the lighting of the runway, we managed to get our planes down safely on a desolate airfield.

The pictures down below are a little differeent than the ones before.I tried some panoramic shots.

The links for the 9th leg from Amiens to Strasbourg:

http://doodle.com/bsvwp8f7mdi9af9y

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wwsykbt71muenvg/leg09%20LFAY-LFGC.zip?dl=0

Meet you all on Mumble!

Peter

[EHM-2758 Peter]

Next Wednesday the 18th at 20:00 H Z  I'll be waiting at Amiens airport with a fully prepared Cessna182T to fly our 9th leg of the tour to Strasbourg.

Meet you all on Mumble!

Peter

[EHM-1882 Gian]

Sorry folks, I missed the hop yesterday. I flew it early this morning, just to catch up. See you hopefully next week!
Gian

[EHM-2758 Peter]

Dense fog at Amiens made us (Trevor, David and me) decide to change our flightplan from VFR to IFR. At 9000 ft the world looked a lot clearer. Strasbourg Tower showed up on the screen long before we reached our destination. The poor guy had to wait a long time untill he could guid us in. Probably fell asleep while waiting for three of those light aircrafts that were crossing the north of France from west to east.

The links for our next leg: leg10 from Starsbourg (LFGC) to Thise (LFSA).


http://doodle.com/svqb4w4bhqbp4a4x

https://www.dropbox.com/s/02hsanmq2fvvef3/leg10%20LFGC-LFSA.zip?dl=0

Meet you all on Mumble!

Peter

[EHM-2387 Eric-Jan]

Nice pictures as usual, Peter! 

The double-width make them so much harder to view, through... I need to use the scroll bars to see the right halves.

[EHM-2758 Peter]

On Wednesday the 28th of February at 20:00 H Zulu[/b ] we'll continu our French tour and fly from Strasbourg to Besancon in the Comte.

Meet you all on Mumble!

Peter

[EHM-2589 David]

Sorry Peter, Wednesday 25 or Saturday 28 thanks

[EHM-2758 Peter]

Sorry, must be the old age .... It's of course next wednesday the 25th of February!

Meet you on Mumble!

Peter

[EHM-2758 Peter]

Just back from a trip of a few days, I give you the links for our next flight from Besancon to Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne:

http://doodle.com/z6thf7szuizb9wvq

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bqc5k1ntd8hhhka/leg11%20LFSA-LFLC.zip?dl=0

Hope to meet you all on Mumble some time next week!

Peter