Corrèze, Lot and Dordogne

Wim and I enjoyed a super flight together in the Savannah today. It came about because while on a walking break last week in The Corrèze, Wim met a gentleman who mentioned that there was a small airfield in his commune that needed visitors.

He said that as mayor of the commune, he would like to keep the airfield going but with fewer and fewer visitors arriving there, if there was local pressure to close it, he would find it difficult to resist if it remained virtually unused as it is at the moment.

So this morning Wim and I set off on a round-trip taking in LF1951 Les Chansèves, near Argentat in the Corrèze, Figeac-Livernon in the Lot and Sarlat-Domme in the Dordogne, a total distance of 193 kms and a flight time in the Savannah allowing for landings and take offs of around 2 hours.

We took off from Malbec at around 10.00 am in superb, almost calm conditions after the morning mist had burnt off in most places with small fluffy patches of broken cumulus with a base of about 2500 feet, the height at which we were flying. Here’s an image showing our route.

It was almost possible to trim 77ASY and let it fly itself, although not quite, but nevertheless the flight to Les Chansèves was almost effortless and took almost dead-on 40 minutes by the time we’d joined and landed. Wim had been unable to get in touch with his contact to let him know we were coming so unsurprisingly the airfield, which has a 740 metre long hard runway, was deserted.

What a pity because it was a super little airfield with a very fine medium-size hangar that appeared to be empty as far as we could see through a crack in the locked door. Sadly, although there was a tractor there with a large mower on the back of it, the airfield grass was very long and unkempt although this failed to hide the huge potential that the airfield has. Here are some shots of the airfield environs and 77ASY parked at the top of the runway.

We thought that what the airfield could do with to revitalise it would be a fly-in as all of the requisites are there, and Wim is going to suggest this to his friend when he can get in touch with him. If he doesn’t know how to go about doing it, we could maybe give him a hand, which would be good fun I think. After having a general look around, we climbed back into the Savannah and took off heading south for Figeac.

The route took us over Biars-sur-Cère, a small town on the east bank of the Dordogne and while Wim was piloting 77ASY I took a few shots out of my cabin window as we approached and flew overhead.

A bit further on we flew close to St-Céré to the west of which there is a large chateau perched up on the top of a hill (Château de Castelnau Bretenoux). I took some shots of it as we flew past but they don’t do it justice and Wim said that it is actually a lot more impressive at ground level because then you get the full impression of its size.

Shortly afterwards we landed at Figeac-Livernon and taxied in. As we’re finding is more and more usual in our part of France, there was very little going on there.

There were two other ULMs, an old Skyranger and a Jabiru, on the parking and after we’d chatted for a few minutes, they left as there was nowhere that we could get a cup of coffee or any other refreshments and not long after they’d gone, we also took off for Sarlat-Domme. Here’s a shot of Gourdon off to our left as we flew by.

And here are a couple of shots of 77ASY parked at Sarlat-Domme, not that I really needed any more as I have tons just like them already.

Sadly for such a beautiful day, there wasn’t that much going on at Sarlat, even. In the nearly an hour that we were there, the parachute Piper Skyhawk took off and released a couple of tandem jumpers but aside fom a couple of other movements, that was about it. Luckily, although there was nothing doing in the flying club, where you can help yourself to a cold drink if you wish and leave the cash behind the bar, the Air Chateau outdoor café was open so we were able to grab a cup of coffee each.

Behind the bar there was a young English guy named Josh who apparently flies for Air Chateau and also does a bit of everything else apparently, including keeping bar if needed. He wasn’t overworked, though, because aside from us there was only a sprinkling of members of the public who’d come out with their children to enjoy the beautiful weather. It’s sad that we’re finding more and more that even quite large airfields in our corner of France are almost deserted when you go into them and you can but be concerned for their future if this continues.

After taking off on runway 28, we turned right to head back to Malbec and as Wim piloted 77ASY I took a few shots of the village of Domme perched on its hilltop. I’ve never actually visited it the whole of the time that I’ve been here and really must make the effort some time as it’s a very pretty little place.

As we flew north, we could hear the jabber of pilots at Belvès flying circuits, as they had been doing during the whole of our flight, plus one or two more from longer distances. But really, the airwaves were not half as active as I’ve heard them in the past. Our landing at Malbec was uneventful despite conditions having becoming more turbulent as the temperature increased, to something like 24 or 25 degrees Celsius.

Later on I returned and topped 77ASY’s tanks up because the next few days are going to be fine and will present a good window for my flight to La Rochelle for the Savannah’s avionics check. I’m going to call the station up early tomorrow and, who knows, if they say that they can fit me in straight away, with full tanks I could get away immediately. I’ll have to see what they say 😉