To this week and beyond. Up to today, the weather forecast for this week was atrocious, with winds, rain and even thunderstorms predicted. However, if today is anything to go by, things may not turn out to be quite as bad as we thought, as whereas we were expecting it to be dull, miserable and wet, it hasn’t turned out that way at all.
Sure, there was a bit of rain and even a few rumbles of thunder overnight, but not only have we been getting flashes of sunlight, the cloud has also risen and it’s possibly even just about flyable if you had a mind to.
It appears that we have to live with the Jetstream and its effects the whole time nowadays as we never seem to go more than a short period, a week or so at most, winter or summer, before it grabs hold of our weather and gives it a good shaking. Just take a look at what it’s up to at the moment.

I’ve been watching the Jetstream on and off for a couple of years or so now, and although I’ve watched as it’s gradually tracked further and further south, from northern Europe down now into North Africa, I don’t think that I can recall seeing its convolutions as extreme as they are nowadays, with violent northerly and southerly wind components being so close together, like the writhing tail of a snake. This would appear to me to be the reason why the weather can change so markedly in such a short period of time. Let’s all just hope that things don’t get any worse!
With the forecast as it was up until yesterday, for rain and winds for the whole of this week, I was becoming a bit despondent. Philippe has moved his Citius back into his now-repaired hangar at Malbec, thus vacating the barn where I will be keeping the Savannah. However, it looked as though, like it or not, ASY would have to remain out in the open at Galinat, albeit under covers, as the weather wouldn’t be suitable to make the move for a week at the earliest. But it now looks as though there will be a window on Wednesday, so that’s not quite so bad and I look forward to being able to post a few pics, and maybe even a video, of the flight over if it does happen.
Now looking a few weeks further ahead. Some readers may recall that during our west coast tour last year, Wim and I had the good fortune to land at the ULM club Aero-Focus at Le Thou in the Charente Maritime, at a very opportune time, on the day that they were holding their ‘grande soirée’ to celebrate the Fête de St Jean le Baptiste. There were 200 people there and we had a fantastic evening, vowing to return there again this year.
Wim has found out that the date is Saturday 19th June and that they would be delighted if we visited them again, so we’ve made a firm note on our calendars and have also been thinking about a route. Although the whole flight will only take 1 1/2 hours in the Savannah, so easily done in a single hop, Wim has said that he’d like to make a couple of stops along the way, at Riberac, which is just still in the Dordogne, and Jonzac in the Charente. So that’s what we’ll do and here’s a pic of the route.

We’d been hoping that the three of us, Wim, Victor and I, would all be making the trip together. However, it sadly now looks as though Victor won’t be able to join us, as it would be his first long cross-country flight and that he won’t be able to get enough experience in beforehand to ensure that he’d be able to accomplish it safely. Oh well, next year maybe 🙁
Now it’s just a matter of seeing how the days pan out over the coming week and whether I will be able to fly ASY over to Malbec. So it’s fingers crossed again, then…