Sticky situation – really!

On the way back from Intermarché I thought I’d pop into Galinat and make sure that 56NE was alright as it’s been over 4 weeks since I was last there. It’s tied down just inside the airfield entrance which is just a drop-down from the road through a gap in the trees and as I entered, I could see that everything was just fine.

I only drove a few yards from the road and parked on the grass in front of the aircraft and as I exited my car I could see immediately that the ground was very soft and shquishy underfoot. This came as no surprise because as I drove up the hill, I’d noticed a lot of water flowing off the hillside and a few signs of adverse weather, such as some downed trees and broken branches.

I was therefore pleased and relieved to find that 56NE was safe and sound where I’d left it and that its covers and tie-downs, when I checked them, had hardly moved. I also checked Regis’s Zenair while I was there and re-secured a bungee that was no longer holding a small tarp over its engine cowling and prop and then went to see what condition the runway itself was in.

Despite itself sloping and having a steep downward slope away from it on its western side it was, if anything, wetter than the apron area where I’d parked my car. I suppose this was not surprising really, because with the hills of the Dordogne being so rocky, water has to flow the whole way down over their surface from the top to the bottom in order to escape, thereby explaining the water flows that I’d seen lower down on my drive up to the airfield. The situation at Galinat is also exacerbated by the airfield being only half-way up the hillside, meaning that it stays waterlogged all the while water is draining down from higher up.

It was then time for me to think about getting my car out to drive home and despite the condition of the ground, as it’s front-wheel drive, I didn’t think that this would be a problem. I couldn’t have been more wrong, because after reversing back on almost level ground for only 10 metres or so, my wheels began spinning and I was stuck in the mud. I stopped straight away before I dug myself in and after finding that my left wheel in particular was already down 2 or 3 inches in slimy mud, looked for something to put under my wheels to give them more traction.

I tried handfuls of broken twigs, the way that they always do in the films, but this didn’t work. Direct action therefore seemed a better idea so I then decided to enlist the help of a young guy who, by luck, happened to be flying a model RC aircraft towards the lower end of the runway and see if he could push me out.

Even that didn’t work and I only succeeded in digging my wheels a bit further in. He then tried placing some larger branches behind and in front of the wheels but they still didn’t have the desired result. I said that I’d best go to find Christian, the airfield owner, who I’d noticed had been at home when I drove by his house, to see if we could get hold of a tractor and the young guy kindly offered to drive me down there. As we descended the hill, we passed Christian driving up it in the opposite direction, so after turning round, I explained my problem to him.

He returned to the airfield with us and after a few more unsuccessful attempts to push the car out, got a large shovel out of his old Volvo which he used to dig shallow metre long holes in front of the wheels. We then placed the cut branches under the tyres along the length of the holes to give them something to grip on, and with Christian in the driving seat, because he knew which direction to head in if the car was eventually extricated, we gave it another go with the young guy and me pushing.

This time we were successful and somewhat to my consternation, Christian went heading off over the grass down the hill in my car! Before disappearing down the ever-steepening slope, he turned right though and headed for the runway before stopping short and turning parallel to it on its western side. Then he kept going before disappearing from sight.

I had visions of having to recover my car from a muddy field at the bottom of the hill using some kind of heavy-lifting gear, but there were no worries on that score, because pretty soon my car was hurtling back up the hill on the road to the airfield. Christian had known all along of a route from the airfield off the hill back onto the road and this was what he’d used.

After he’d pulled up and got out of my car there were congratulations and hand-shakes all round and then I filled in the holes in the grass that Christian had dug earlier in front of my wheels as best I could. So that was me out of a sticky situation that I certainly don’t want to repeat in a hurry. In future, while the weather is as wet as it has been, I’ll leave my car on the roadway outside the airfield entrance and check the state of the ground on foot. After all, next time I might not be so lucky that help will be so close at hand to get me out of such a sticky situation 😉