After leaving Jervis Bay and driving the relatively short distance north to Sydney I now have the misfortune to be ensconced in room 102 of the Ibis Budget Hotel in St Peters. And to say it’s the pits is doing it a gross over-service.

I didn’t take any photos or videos during the journey north because after the first few miles it was all just on a motorway that could have been anywhere in the world. Before leaving the comfort of my motel room in Culburra Beach I made an angled mount for my phone out of a Rice Bubbles box (we call them Rice Krispies in Britain and France) which made it far more secure and readable and Waze brought me straight to this ghastly hotel.

And that’s when my problems began. When I tried to check in the reception clerk said that the only booking he had for me was for the same dates, 3 nights from the 25th, but for January of next year! This was unfathomable. I’d made the booking direct on the hotel chain’s web site – usually I use Agoda and have never had a problem like this – and I cannot understand how this could have happened. And yes, my booking confirmation email showed the same but I hadn’t noticed as at the time I was making a number of bookings one after the other.

I was then on the phone for what, the best part of an hour trying to get the hotel to amend the booking but the same reply kept coming back. ‘Computer says NO’. This is what happens when you are dealing with idiots running a crappy hotel chain. In the end in order not to lose the over Au$300 that I’d already paid, I was effectively blackmailed into paying an additional Au$217 for the three nights I want to stay, so in effect I’m paying a premium hotel rate for what has to be the most awful room that I’ve ever stayed in, in a dirty, rundown budget hotel in a dirty, rundown area.

Just take a look at the pictures.

They said that if I didn’t make up my mind quickly, this was the last room available tonight and I would end up losing that, and sure enough, the sign outside does now show ‘no vacancies’. However it’s pretty clear from the pictures that this is a disabled room and the facilities on offer are dirty and badly knocked about. I’ve asked to be moved to a different room tomorrow for the next two nights and the reception clerk has agreed, but I’ll need to wait until about 11.00 am for the move to happen. This will delay my journey into Sydney but I think it’ll be a small price to pay. To be honest, this is not a great start to my Sydney adventures 🙁

Jervis Bay isn’t a single location. It’s actually a length of coastline spanning quite a distance comprising small inlets, beaches and developments where houses have been built and small townships have grown up. Because of the nature of the terrain and features, such as creeks and impassable rocky landscape, it often needs a drive of 30 or 40 minutes inland and back out again to go between adjacent developments.

When booking I was directed to go to Fishermens Wharf, Huskisson, which is a fairly major holiday and vacation centre on Jervis Bay, to board the whale-watching vessel. As usual Waze took me straight there and although I’d been concerned about parking I was able to just park the car outside one of the houses that go right down to the waterfront. After checking in we were all instructed to line up for boarding, which we all duly did!

Shortly afterwards, after we’d all taken our places on various levels, the boat’s engine was started and we began to head at quite a fast pace out to the opening of the bay and the open sea. I was on the highest level looking towards the stern and seated with a charming couple from Hanover in Germany.

As we proceeded seaward the water became rougher and rougher and the wind stronger and colder, especially when at one time we entered under low cloud rolling out off the land. We hung around out there for what seemed like ages, possibly 40 minutes or more, but it eventually became evident that our whale-watching trip was doomed to failure.

The waves were rolling in with the wind as breakers up to what I estimate was a height of 2 meters or more caused the boat to pitch and roll like a bucking bronco. Quite honestly with the comparatively low height of the rails around the boat, if you weren’t hanging on tightly when some of them hit it would have been quite easy to go overboard. Anyway, the master eventually gave up as it was sadly evident that no whales were going to be sighted under such conditions and he turned the boat around and began to head back to Huskisson.

So I now have a list of two things for which Australia is famous that I’ve failed to see… Koalas and whales. Hopefully the former will be rectified in due course but I may have to accept that I’ll not be seeing any whales during my trip.

On the southern end of the entrance of Jervis Bay there’s an island called Bowen Island. We were some way to the north of it while looking out for whales but on the way back the boat passed closer to it. The videos I’ve taken show the breakers crashing onto its cliffs on the seaward side and throwing up huge plumes of spray but the conditions to its leeward were far calmer and more placid. The master didn’t recommend landing on the island, however, as he said its interior is full of funnel web spiders and other nasties trying to kill you. Australia… I ask you!

We didn’t return direct to Huskisson. Instead we headed westwards towards the land to then turn and cruise north up the coast in order to view the beautiful unspoilt sandy beaches interspersed with rocky outcrops jutting out into the sea. While I was videoing I noticed that when the waves broke over the rocks they emitted a pinkish hue that you can’t see in the still shots I’ve lifted, but I don’t think it was just my eyes!

The master of the whale-watching vessel said that back in 1957 his grandparents bought a house on the development south along the coast from Huskisson shown in the next image. Apparently in those days it was struggling, the developer collapsed and the whole development was sold off for AU$100,000. Nowadays, he said, that sum wouldn’t even buy you a letterbox there.

We passed sandy beaches and coves one after the other as we wended our way back towards Huskisson.

And eventually we picked up our consolation prize for the trip in the form of a small school of Bottle dolphins criss-crossing and arcing their way through the water as they do. They seemed oblivious to the boat and the master turned around to follow them for a short while before turning back to head for Huskisson.

After we’d disembarked I decided to have lunch as it was approaching 1.00 pm. There’s a small cafe on the wharf where the whale-watching boat docks and I settled there for a Buster Burger and chips and a local lager. And by golly, it was a ‘buster’, let me tell you!

I didn’t stay long in Huskisson as I needed to find a supermarket, which seem few and far between in these parts, to buy stuff for breakfast tomorrow, but anyway, here’s a quick shot of the main street.

I found a Coles supermarket in the Vincentia Shopping Village. It’s only a short distance south of Huskisson but it took the best part of 40 minutes to get there for the reason I explained at the beginning of this post. The cafe where I had my lunch was playing all old 70s and 80s music and I noticed that they were doing the same in the Coles supermarket. I don’t know, though, whether this part of Australia is actually stuck in a time warp, but I have to admit that I found it quite pleasant.

Up again bright and early at 5.00 am this morning in Jervis Bay, New South Wales, where I’ve come to watch whales. I was up at about the same time yesterday but only because I got up for a pee a bit earlier and couldn’t get back to sleep again thinking about the 5 hour road trip I had ahead of me. Today I awoke feeling much more rested having gone to bed very tired at 9.00 pm last night.

The drive was long but not too tiring in itself. The speed limit here is only 100 kmh and most drivers keep to it pretty well. The roads I’ve driven on have all been good or very good but many of the side roads in the open country are just dirt tracks. There are lots of Toyota Landcruisers and similar vehicles with snorkel tubes so they can go through deep water, the latter because although it’s dry now, many roads have signs on them saying they’re liable to flooding.

My Chinese built MG 5 hire car has proven to be excellent, trouble-free, fast (enough), quiet and comfortable. If this is the direction in which the Chinese motor industry is going the European manufacturers had better watch out. All that I’m missing is a built-in satnav but I prepared myself for that by buying a roll of duct tape as I was leaving Melbourne.

I use the tape to stick my phone running the Waze satnav app to the car’s dashboard and other than being a bit cock-eyed and difficult to view clearly because of the angle on which the phone is mounted, Waze has performed wonderfully just as it does in France. The biggest problem is that when the sun heats up the tape comes unstuck and if I’m not careful the phone could fall down. But so far, so good.

Some of the views coming north were gorgeous, but the roads besides being only 3-lane with preferential overtaking lanes every few kilometres, have very few areas where you can stop and take pictures. When on the higher ground the views swept off into the far distance with the low green rolling landscape peppered with homesteads each in its own land of several acres. Because land is so plentiful even the more modest country dwellings have plenty of space around them, often with a few cattle or sheep on them.

That’s not true of the houses in the townships, of course, many of which sit on tiny parcels of land and are incredibly scruffy with rubbish all around them and in front onto the road. Rubbish and graffiti seem to be big problems in the parts of Australia I’ve been to so far. Where my cousin lives and also here in Jervis Bay where pleasant ‘summery’ houses line the roads, rubbish sits in heaps in front of them on the roadside, apparently for days, presumably waiting to be collected by the local authority and disposed of. It’s mostly not a pretty sight.

Many of the houses here, it being a resort area, are two storey but where my cousin lives and in the countryside the homes seem to be predominantly low, single storey, many of the older ones with rusty, old-style metal rooves. I’ve been surprised by how small many of the houses are out in the country and I guess they comprise the bare minimum amount of living space for the people living in them. There are many contrasts. One minute you’re driving through scrubby open countryside with the occasional tiny house that looks as though it could fall to bits at any minute the next you’re passing an estate with a kilometer long access road, a luxurious homestead and fenced paddocks and horses.

I took only one shot of the countryside as I was driving here, when I’d stopped half-way for a snack and a cold drink. The view shown below was far from the best I had en-route.

I arrived at the motel I’d booked in Jervis Bay at around 3.00 pm. The weather wasn’t very nice and it was quite cool actually. This time there was a friendly, on-site reception office and shortly after arriving I received the key to my apartment, which although smaller than the one in Mallacoota and less well equipped without a cooker and washing machine (which I didn’t need anyway), is much brighter and more modern-looking. I like it.

After I’d got settled in I found my way up to Penguin Point where I took some shots of the bay and the sea. It was cold, windy, overcast and not very inviting and if you ignored the houses on each side overlooking the bay you could imagine what it must have been like all those years ago when those brave men had travelled for many months thousands of miles from home and set foot on these potentially hostile shores for the very first time.

There weren’t many people about – the season hasn’t properly started yet – but I got talking to a very pleasant Australian lady who was there with her husband (I guess) and grown-up son. She knew what she was looking for and to my amazement pointed out the occasional glorious sight of a whale’s tail breaking the surface only about 500 meters off shore and re-entering the water with a large white splash. I saw a few but not as many as she did.

I bumped into her later in the local fish and chip shop where I’d gone for a take-away. Just take a look at what I got for only just over Aus$14.

Amazing… I could hardly eat it all!

I awake this morning (23rd October) in Mallacotta, a small town on the edge of the Tasman Sea in south-east Australia. I left Sale earlier than I expected, for reasons I won’t go into, yesterday morning and had to make some quick decisions the day before about how I will be spending the rest of my time here in Australia.

I’d originally intended to head north to Sydney in a few days time driving the whole way in one day and staying over there for a couple of nights but I decided to bring those plans forward a couple of days and take a more leisurely drive up the coast, which I’ve been told is beautiful, stopping over at a couple of places along the way. So yesterday I made my way to Mallacoota and today I’ll be heading for Jervis Bay where I’ve booked to stay over for a couple of nights and go whale watching tomorrow as this is a peak migration time as they head south.

I found that Sale has little to recommend it. It’s a very rural location and although its population numbers over 13000 it seems to offer a simple, fairly basic lifestyle. I arrived on Saturday and on Sunday we enjoyed a very nice roast lunch at the local country club, but the Chinese meal we had the evening before I departed was in rather less than ‘Chinese’ surroundings and left something to be desired. We don’t know what happened to the special fried rice we ordered but which was still on our bill before I pointed it out.

Sale has a wonderful park bordering a lake. When we went for a stroll on Sunday the weather was gorgeous and there were peacocks displaying their stunning tail feathers and lots of quite large ground-walking birds, black with orange beaks and pink chests. While my cousin dozed on a chair under the trees I went for a stroll down to the lake and one that I videoed evidently took a fancy to me and followed me the whole way back from the lake to where my cousin was resting. When I told her about him there was no sign and then he suddenly popped out again from behind a nearby bush.

I left Sale quite early yesterday morning to take a few videos. By then the weather had changed, which it does quite suddenly in these parts I’m told, so it was dull and grey. As the following two images show, Sale is quite a contrast to Melbourne with its strikingly tall, modern skyscrapers. In complete contrast, Sale has a ‘frontier town’ feel about it.

Heading north through South Gippsland the terrain was quite featureless with some distant mountain views. It was flat with scrubby grass with occasional large herds of predominantly black cattle occupying wide areas to take advantage of the availability of grass when it becomes dryer and things warm up. The following shot shows trees on just one side but frequently they were on both making for a rather uninteresting drive.

Conditions became more ‘tropical’ as the drive north continued. The Snowy mountains were off some way to the left but I didn’t realise that I was climbing almost imperceptibly up to higher ground. I stopped to take a few shots that show how the vegetation had changed even over a relatively short distance.

The road descended again and the land became flatter as I approached Mallacotta. There were herds of cattle on the grasslands which were much greener and lusher compared to those I’d passed farther south.

The GPS on my phone took me straight to my destination that I’d booked the day before without paying too much attention to what I was getting. It turned out to be a ‘unit’ just up from the water on a small development where there are several others. Most of the people in the other units seem to be elderly like myself because of the time of year. Although some have come just for a relaxing break I think the main interest is fishing and already before 8.00 am as I type this two vehicles have departed towing boats.

When I arrived there was no reception committee, as the following picture shows, and as much to my annoyance neither of my French phone SIM cards are allowing me to make calls, I had to jump into my car again and go to a different location (a caravan park) to pick up the key to my ‘unit’.

My ‘unit’ is the one with the yellow panel in the following pic in front of which my hire car is parked.

It’s very nice actually. It’s fully self-contained with a lounge, kitchen area and bedroom. The kitchen area is clean and very well equipped but the only surprise this morning was that when I got up the worktop was run alive with thousands of tiny ants, a bit like camping but indoors. It appears that you’re always very close to the wildlife in Australia and that includes the insects, even indoors.

As I said above, the unit is just up from the water’s edge and it was only a short walk down to take some photographs. The whole area seems more or less to be a large camping area and even at this time of the year there were plenty of campers and caravans of all types.

When I arrived, I joked with the lady in the office that I’d come to Australia under false pretences and hadn’t seen one kangaroo or koala. She said that koalas are rife in the surroundings and said if I went down to the golf club I’d see kangaroos lazing around on the greens. In fact I didn’t have to because my first sighting of kangaroos was a small group munching grass on the local football pitch.

After I left Sale yesterday the whole of South Victoria was ravaged by a violent storm (nothing to do with why I left early). Trees were ripped down, buildings were damaged and thousands of homes lost their electricity. I think it’s why the weather is unsettled further north here in Mallacotta. We caught the tail end last night with some quite strong winds which have moderated, although it’s still not warm. When I’ve finished this I’ll be packing my things and heading off for Jervis Bay where I hope conditions will be better.

My first proper Aussie breakfast

Melbourne!

After planning my trip (and paying for most of it) many months ago, I’ve at last arrived in South Australia. I’m here to visit my cousin who is the same age as me who I’ve not seen since we were small children over 70 years ago. Our families were both going to emigrate in the 1950s but on the brink of our departure my dad secured a new job and while she and her family departed the shores of Britain, we stayed behind.

She returned once to visit old family members and friends but I and my family were away on holiday at the time and missed her. Over the years we lost touch but out of the blue the best part of a year ago I felt the urge to contact her and through determination and good fortune managed to do so within 48 hours. After I had done so, as we are both of an age when time is slowly running out, I decided that I would take what may be the last opportunity to travel to Australia to see her.

So here I am. The long haul flight consisted of three legs, the second of which was for over 16 hours from Istanbul to Singapore and was excruciating. The Turkish Airlines Boeing 777 in which we flew was obviously approaching the end of its life and the seat I was in would not recline. Therefore I had to sit bolt upright for the whole flight and while others slept I was unable to do so and had the video screen on the back of the fully reclined seat in front of me just inches from my face.

My journey began at Bordeaux airport and as I was flying Turkish Airlines I took the same 4 or so hour fight to Istanbul that I have taken several times over the past few months, starting in the depressingly naff Bordeaux Merignac departure area.

But this time, instead of proceeding to Arrivals at Istanbul’s superb new airport I headed for International Transfers.

My next stop after the awful flight leg that I described above and a layover of 2 or 3 hours, was Changi airport in Singapore. Changi has been voted the best airport in the world and possesses some spectacular features and I’d hoped to see some of them, but it was not to be. Turkish Airlines had only provided me with boarding passes for the first two legs of my flight and had instructed me to pick up the pass for the final leg at Changi without telling me who the airline was. So not only did I have to discover this information, I also had to make my way through International Transfers to the correct area of the airport.

There was a queue of passengers doing the same as me and for some reason my pass took much longer than those for others to arrive. In fact mine was the last taking the best part of an hour (because of my Australian visa for a reason I could not understand) and I therefore saw none of the features and attractions for which Changi is famous. Instead I ended up with only an hour or so to wait in another somewhat dingy departure area.

The flight was yet another overnighter but this time in an almost brand new Boeing 787-8 of Jetstar, the low-cost Qantas subsidiary. So no problems there then, and at least this time I was able to recline my seat and doze for an hour or so of the 6 hour leg. I was also served with yet another evening meal, making that one on each of the three legs, so by the time I arrived in Australia I was somewhat over-fed and feeling rather bloated.

We landed at Melbourne Airport half an hour before the scheduled time but unfortunately we lost all of that as we parked away from the terminal and it took 30 minutes to get stairs to the aircraft. Australian immigration formalities have a reputation for being somewhat strict but I did not find them so except that our flight had not handed out the forms that you need to fill out declaring that you are not bringing in anything illegal and telling where you’ll be staying and what you’ll be doing during your stay. So after waiting in an enormous queue to go through automatic e-Passport Control and another to clear Immigration, I was sent to yet another to fill out said form.

With all that done, I then found my way to the SkyBus stop to travel to the city as I’d previously planned, arriving at Melbourne’s Southern Cross Station on a fine spring morning as the city was waking up and going to work.

I’d downloaded maps of the city before leaving France so knew how to find my way to my hotel which was less than half an hour’s walk away (less if I hadn’t been shooting videos on the way). My hotel is in Little Bourke Street, close to Chinatown, and was exactly as I’d expected it to be, as I’d viewed it on Google Earth.

It’s unprepossessing, not luxurious and the usual sort of place I like to stay in, without airs and graces. My room is clean but somewhat spartan and described as a ‘studio’ as it has a small kitchen with a fridge, hot-plate, kettle, toaster, a small selection of pots and pans and crockery and cutlery for two people. I’ve said previously that for three nights a hole in the ground would do me so long as it has a bed to sleep in, a shower to shower in and a toilet to… you get the picture, and this is much more than that.

I did little more than crash out for much of yesterday on arrival after the excruciating long haul flight that I’d endured to get here. However, as usual, after marking up my map with places I wanted to visit, I spent the morning wandering around the city and shooting videos on my GoPro. I only made one mistake and had to retrace my steps but by the time I got back to the hotel shortly after 2.00 pm I was feeling the strain. I’ve evidently lost some of my fitness through lack of exercise since the last time I was in Istanbul when the walking hadn’t taken as much out of me.

I’ve also made the mistake of not bringing some really comfortable shoes with me, something I may have to rectify while I’m here, so it was a relief to hobble just round the corner to one of the many small restaurants close to my hotel (the main reason why I chose it) to enjoy a superb lunch of spicy pork belly. Here’s a picture of it, but I don’t think you will enjoy it as much as I did though 😉

I’ve at last managed to put together the videos for my last flights up to La Rochelle and back. It’s been a bit challenging because the paid-for video editor that I’ve been using for several years, Corel VideoStudio Ultimate, which has been ‘upgraded’ several times without ever changing much, let me down and just refused to open. I found that an older version that I’ve kept on my computer did the same, so I think it’s something to do with an incompatibility with a recent Windows 11 update, but when I contacted Corel support the best they could suggest was that I embarked on a lengthy investigative process with them to track down the problem.

I thought this was pretty pathetic as it’s clearly a problem with their software as I’ve changed nothing at my end except allow Windows to update, so I declined anyway as in the meantime I don’t have the time. Instead I spent my time better by becoming familiar with an alternative editor, DaVinci Resolve. Don’t be put off by the name. It comes in two version, free and paid-for. I’m using the former and I’ve got into the basics in a few hours. I’ve found it better in most respects than Corel VideoStudio which has now let me down once too often so I’m aiming to stick with DaVinci in the future. I think that the Corel software is based on old architecture and is at about the end of its life. DaVinci, however, performs better in all sorts of ways and its developers keep coming out regularly with new updates.

Anyway, perhaps more of the technical stuff later. For now, here are the two latest videos. The only thing I’d like to improve is titling which I haven’t delved into yet in DaVinci but will be doing in the future.

Despite my total lack of welding expertise (and experience) my cheap Chinese welding machine came into its own again today. I was determined to cut my grass today before the rain that’s forecast for the week-end. However, my plans were thwarted. I hit what I thought were a couple of bumps on the ground but should have checked before reversing and carrying on with my cutting because the problem was much more serious.

It turned out that, as they often do, one of the securing pins for one of the forward facing rods that support the cutter bed had fallen out and the rod had then dropped out and driven itself into the ground. This happened a couple of times and because I hadn’t noticed what had happened the lug securing the rod to the cutter bed got bent and was eventually torn off.

The bed itself wasn’t badly damaged – there was just a small split where the lug had originally been welded to it – so after banging the lug as straight as I could (not easy as it’s made from thick metal and I don’t have a suitable hard surface to use as an anvil) I thought I’d get my welding machine out and see if I could weld it back on again myself.

And much to my own surprise, I managed to do it! And without taking the cutter bed off. The hardest part was getting it held in position before I could get a couple of tacks on it but after much sweat, tears and bad language I succeeded. Now OK, the results aren’t pretty but this ain’t no beauty contest. All I need is to get my mower back in working order so I can finish the job and continue using it in the future.

Here are a couple of shots of the results it doesn’t look too bad from the front but welding the back lying on my back looking upwards with a welding mask on wasn’t the easiest thing in the world.

Incidentally, when I was wire brushing the metal before welding I noticed that there was already some rust inside the old welded joint, so it was either like that from the factory or had been failing for some time. But anyway, that’s now twice my welding machine has got me out of trouble with repairs to my mower, so it has to have much more than paid for itself. I reckon at the price it was a pretty good investment.

A weather window finally materialised yesterday for me to fly up to la Rochelle in the Charente to have my transponder refitted in my Savannah and have its avionics signed off for another 5 years. And the weather window was not just suitable. Compared to other recent flights the weather was fantastic in both directions making for a safe, comfortable and above all, enjoyable flight.

As the winds were light, the flight took under two hours in each direction and having taken off just after 9.00 am, even though the skies were more or less cloudless on the way up with bright sunshine, there was no time for thermals to build up and the flight conditions were ideal. Initially I was more concerned about the screen misting up before I could take off but after cleaning it twice beforehand I got away without incident.

Mist was still hanging over the ground after take off and in the early stages of the flight north and as I flew abeam Perigueux Bassillac airport I could see that it was in a small valley and still totally obscured by mist, so no chance for any VFR only pilots who might have wanted to take off from there.

Even so the mist was beginning to dissipate by the time I passed abeam Perigueux itself and Leroy Merlin and the Auchan supermarket were both bathed in sunlight as I flew by.

I took quite a few photos as I flew north and here’s a lovely view with la Rochelle just visible in the very far distance.

The next large town was Rochefort.

After Rochefort, the next shot is approaching la Rochelle reporting point SA (Sierra Alpha) close to the coast. As I did not have a transponder I was cleared to SA and had to report when overhead.

I was offered a non-standard right-hand approach to runway 09 following the coastline as the airport was officially closed but I opted to fly the published VFR approach to 09 via a left-hand circuit to the north of the airport just for future experience. The next shot is on base leg to land, to report final.

Now some general shots of la Rochelle airport taken outside the STAR hangar where my Savannah’s avionics were being dealt with. I couldn’t wander too far without authorisation.

The flight back south to Malbec was a bit more trying than the flight up due to the warm sun inducing thermal activity, but nothing like when I flew back in July, which was brutal. To start off with I stayed fairly low but as I could go up to 6500 feet if I wanted to I eventually climbed to 3300 feet where it became calm is this was the level of the cloud base and therefore the height at which the hot air stopped rising.

I eventually went as high as 4900 feet before descending back to 2500 feet before Perigueux and a landing at Malbec.

The landing was quite tricky as will be shown in the video of the flight which I will soon be uploading.

I still need to fly my Savannah back up to la Rochelle for my transponder to be refitted and this week there is a very limited weather window. Tomorrow looks good and possibly also Thursday, but tomorrow is definitely the better of the two.

I have just checked with the la Rochelle tower for permission to fly in without a transponder which should normally be forthcoming but there’s a complication. The runway is closed to all but commercial and essential traffic from the early morning until 3.00 pm local time which would make it impossible for me to get there and back tomorrow while the weather holds.

The tower referred me to the relevant NOTAM and advised me to call the mobile number included in it to see if I can be granted permission, which I have just done. The answer… no worries!

La Rochelle is a fantastic airport to fly into and you can’t beat flying in France for being so cool and laid back!

Here’s another teaser pre my MSFS 2024 flight commemorating the tenth anniversary of the epic real flight that my friend Wim and I did up the west coast of France. The pics show la Bochet, another small private airfield at which we stopped over briefly on day 5 having left Saint Brevin les Pins at the mouth of the Loire for our final destination of the day, Mouchamps in the Vendée.

We were met by Mr Gautier who did a 35 km round trip bringing us sandwiches, which we declined as we hadn’t long eaten, and cold drinks, and then kindly took Wim to fill up our jerricans with fuel. Mr Gautier did not own an aircraft himself but he told us that his friend flew a Mooney into the airfield. It doesn’t look as though he still does because Google Earth now shows that the runway is half the length that it then was and would now be too short for a Mooney to land on.

We took off after a stay-over of about two hours to head for Mouchamps. I only took two photographs at la Bochet so my scenery relies on how I remember it as being but my efforts are a great improvement on Microsoft’s idea of what’s there.

Here’s another teaser in advance of my MSFS 2024 west coast flight. The airfield is Coutin-Carcans in the Médoc to the south-east of Lacanau and the north-west of Bordeaux. Wim and I arrived there in the early evening of day 2 after suffering bad weather en-route from Amou. The problem was sea fog on approaching the coast that caused me to turn back and make a precautionary landing at Mimizan and Wim at Arcachon, which delayed our arrivals by several hours.

My airfield scenery is exactly as Carcans was then. I think it’s gone now, maybe just one hangar remains from the look of Google Earth and street view shows a sign at the side of the main road advertising pleasure flights. When we arrived the place was deserted but it became a hive of activity the next day when we took off for Le Thou, as the real life photograph above shows.

It’s just over 10 years since my friend Wim and I made our epic flight up the west coast of France over 6 days in June 2015, Wim in his red Weedhopper which he’d named The Red Baron and me in my yellow X-Air 56NE. I’ve been thinking about commemorating it, not by doing it again because I doubt that either of us would want to repeat the experience, and I’m not sure it would be possible to anyway after all these years with the increase in controlled airspace in that part of France and certainly not without transponders. Well, sort of doing it again, but this time in Microsoft Flight Simulator.

The program has come on so far with the latest version MSFS 2024 that visually it has come as close to real life as is currently possible, which is incredibly close on high end computer set ups. Even on my mid-range machine it’s highly immersive when ‘flown’ in virtual reality wearing a VR headset and the degree of realism is very high, so I’ve been thinking about repeating the flight on my computer. There are a couple of problems though. I don’t have either a red Weedhopper or a yellow X-Air in my flight sim but I do have a red and yellow MW6 which in style and performance are very close to the real aircraft we flew, so they will do in any imagery I create along the way.

Also, most of the airfields that we landed at do not exist in the flight sim. Most of them do visually, although only as very rough strips in the grass at best with buildings that look nothing like what actually exist, because the flight sim software uses Google Earth to create the terrain over which you fly. It is amazingly accurate when viewed from the air but not so much at ground level unless software developers have taken the trouble to design accurate airfield sceneries.

I’ve done that for the local airfields in the area around where I live and in which I fly – Chateau Malbec, Wim’s old airfield at Plazac, Philippe’s airfield at Mauzens and the airfields at Condat, Galinat and Figeac, but the only two sceneries that I can find of airfields at which we landed during our west coast flight are for Montpezat in the Lot et Garonne (stop-over on day 1) and St Brevin les Pins at the mouth of the River Loire (destination day 4).

For the flightsim experience to be worthwhile the airfields at which you take off and land have to be at least fairly close visually to the real thing, not for third parties who will most likely never have visited or even seen them, but for you the pilot at whom, after all, the experience is aimed. So I started by making some rough sceneries of the ones for which there are no detailed sceneries available ie most of them, and they would have done for as far as it goes. But that wasn’t really enough, not sufficiently immersive, so I’ve begun to make ones that are more accurate based on photographs etc that I took and will do so until I either get to the point that I’m happy with the result or fed up with the work.

For the most part, in flight sim scenery design terms, the work is not too difficult because the airfields were mainly fairly sparse with just a hangar or so, a windsock and the markings for a runway. So the overall task is not too great and I’ve been working my way through it before starting on the flight itself, which will be all the more satisfying for the effort involved. I’ve also recreated the actual route that we took in the flight sim’s flight planning software from beginning to end, so it’ll be fairly easy to retrace our route in the flight sim. Here’s the route that we took on day 1 from Wim’s airfield at Plazac to Amou in the Landes with a stop-over at Montpezat.

Now a couple of shots at Wim’s airfield,the first taken in my flight sim scenery of Wim’s airfield and the second lifted from a video shot on the actual day of the flight from under the wing of my X-Air, which is why the quality is somewhat poor.

As mentioned earlier, we stopped over at Montpezat and here are two more shots, the first in the flight sim of the MW6 I’ll be using for the flight and the second of my old Weedhopper 28AAD actually in front of the control tower. The flight sim scenery designer (not me) did a very good job.

And as previously mentioned, we stopped overnight on day 1 in our tents at Amou in the Landes. As I recall, we had the only rain of the whole trip overnight and the next morning and we also had a disturbed night’s sleep because of night exercises by jets from the nearby armée de l’air airbase at Mont-de-Marsan.

The final two shots are of my Amou scenery in the flight sim and of the hangar at Amou taken during the actual flight.

I don’t know exactly when I’ll be doing the flight in MSFS 2024. It’ll be when I’m happy with the airfield sceneries that I’ve created. It’ll probably also be over the course of 6 or more days, just like in the actual flight, but when I do do it I’ll be posting stuff on here, just as I did 10 years ago.

This summer has been a bit disappointing for me. I think it has been the worst I’ve had health-wise for a long time. I seem to have been going down with little infections one after the other almost every time I’ve stepped out of my front door or gone to the shops and as a main consequence I haven’t been going out very much, certainly not as much as I would have liked.

For the past week or so I’ve had an awful pain in the back of my neck. It may have been as a result of spending a lot of time bending forward in front of my computer for reasons I’ll explain later, but it’s made sleeping really difficult. Even when I’ve been able to drop off I’ve then been waking up again and pacing around in the early hours. One time I was even doing housework at about 3.00 am to take my mind off it but fortunately it does now seem to be getting better.

The health service here in France is probably the best in the world. On Monday I got an appointment to see my local GP later the same day and he arranged for me to have an x-ray on Thursday last from which I came away with the results. They said I’ve got some osteoarthritis in the vertebrae at the top of my spine, something that is very common among older folk which is reluctantly how I now have to describe myself.

But no worries. I must surely have had it for a considerable period of time – it’s not something that develops overnight – with no real pain so I’m sure it’s because I’ve been on my computer so much lately, which I couldn’t avoid. I think all I’ll need to do is be more careful about my posture and be sure to keep my body and neck more upright while I’m sitting and walking. At least that’s what I’m telling myself.

But getting onto the main subject of this post, why have I been almost full time on my computer for the last several weeks? It’s because I’ve been researching and investigating my Chinese scam and putting together a document detailing what happened and who I think (more like know, actually) was responsible in order to see if anything can be done about it.

Here’s what has occurred. I transferred funds to a company trading on Aliexpress, the internet platform used by many Chinese suppliers of a wide range of goods, in order to purchase a mini excavator. The company appeared to be legitimate as it had a bank account in Germany and also a J P Morgan account in Luxembourg. The latter isn’t something that is easily or routinely available by anyone just walking in off the street.

Also, before I transferred the funds in question the seller’s representative, who called himself Simon, provided a considerable amount of high quality supporting material including very detailed photographs and videos purporting to show his firm’s products and factory facilities including a couple that were specially taken showing the product and accessories that I’d ordered laid out on the factory floor.

I’d tried as far as I could to check out the company’s address as shown on the documents that I’d received but hadn’t been able to confirm it definitively. Google Earth street view is often of great value in this respect but coverage in China is poor, especially in the outlying regions. I soon located the J P Morgan bank in Luxembourg but was unable to do the same for the German bank address that I’d been given because Google Earth had been unable to gain access to the street due to road works. Nevertheless, the bank’s address appeared to be genuine.

After I’d transferred the funds, contacts between Simon and myself continued for several days, a week or more, right up to the time the goods were said to have been manufactured and transported to the port for shipping to Marseille. Then all contact was lost. It was only then that I concluded that I’d been scammed and I began my efforts to investigate what had happened, how it had been done and whether the party or parties responsible could be brought to account.

I started by contacting J P Morgan in Luxembourg to check on the supplier’s account there and see if it might be possible to recover my money. My enquiry was referred to a J P Morgan VP in London who said that there wasn’t much she could do but that I needed to advise my bank, Credit Agricole in Montignac, to launch a procedure via the SWIFT banking system to recover my funds.

I did this and supplied the correspondence I’d received from London but CA were useless. I checked on their progress after several days, they said they couldn’t get in touch with J P Morgan in Luxembourg (funny how I’d been able to), said they’d been in contact with the same person I had in London and repeated what she had said, which is what I’d already told them. So after that delay the chance of getting my money back via that route is probably zero and up to today they have still done nothing, so I’ll be making a formal complaint about their dereliction of duty to their customers to Credit Agricole.

But back to the main problem. Quite fortuitously, one of my countless internet searches threw up a company with an address that was slightly different but not identical to that of my supplier company that happened to be in the same line of business. Digging into that company showed that it had a presence on Alibaba, the parent of Aliexpress that is aligned more to volume ‘trade’ type orders rather than to one-off sales to individuals and small companies and when I logged onto its Alibaba web site I was amazed at what I found.

On that site there is what they call a ‘VR showroom’ which you can view in 360 degree mode and ‘walk’ around in to view the products on show. It is constructed from real ‘3D’ shots of the company’s factory floor and as well as showing rows of finished product also shows the areas where assembly and final packing take place.

By ‘walking’ around the company’s VR showroom it was not only possible to identify from where photographs and videos that I’d received from my supplier had been taken, both interior and exterior, but also an upstairs window from where a video had been shot showing packing of machines in progress. This clearly indicated that Simon from my supplier had intimate access to this second company’s factory and facilities and also to its marketing material as one of the shots I’d received seemed to have come from that source.

So I then contacted the second apparently legitimate company on Alibaba and what do you know, I received a response from someone calling himself Si mon. Si mon’s language, style and vocabulary were so close to Simon’s from my supplier company as to lead me to conclude that they were one and the same person, but when I confronted Si mon he proclaimed to have no knowledge of anything that I was referring to.

At that point, therefore, I came to the reasonable conclusion that Si mon, an employee of the second apparently legitimate company, was operating a side scam through a second fake company with a similar but fake address using a Gmail address and product and other material from his real employer and I therefore put together a long document which I intended to send to all and sundry accusing that individual whose real name I didn’t know of running a scam under a false company name while working for his legitimate employer.

But I then had another stroke of luck, if you can call it that. As mentioned previously, the company that took my money had used an address that was very similar to that of the legitimate company and I’d been unable to turn up any more information on it. However, as I was finishing off and preparing the document for despatch I happened to look more closely at some official certificates (including ISO 9000) on the legitimate company’s web site and blow them up. What I saw came as a complete surprise because they showed exactly the same address as the scammer company’s.

This led me to a completely different conclusion, namely that the legitimate company and the scammer company are either one and the same or are at least associated. That would explain how the scammer company got hold of all of its supporting material and, more importantly, also a reputable J P Morgan bank account which had up to then always mystified me.

Information on the legitimate company is quite forthcoming, including its registered office and trading addresses and also the names of its CEO and legal representative. It also has a presence on Alibaba which must be quite a valuable source of sales for it. It therefore must have a reputation to protect, so I ended up rewriting my investigation and sending it off to all and sundry – the legitimate company’s CEO and legal representative, the Alibaba internet platform on which the legitimate company operates, J P Morgan bank and the Chinese trade minister’s office at the Chinese embassy in London.

I included the latter because the Chinese government takes internet scams quite seriously and has a law called The Anti Telecom and On Line Fraud Law of the People’s Republic of China to prosecute people and companies indulging in such nefarious activities and damaging the country’s commercial reputation.

Posting the document to the various parties alone cost me 50€ and I’m still wating for any results but it will probably take a few weeks because my document was 35 pages long and fully detailed in English, so they’ll need to translate it. I’m hoping that now I’ve shone a light on their activities the legitimate company will be shamed and will either return my money or ship the goods. I’d prefer the latter but we’ll have to wait and see how events now pan out.

The message I posted previously was sent to the person I believe to be the scammer at the legitimate company I believe he works at and the replies I received seemed to indicate to me that he’s confident that he’s got away with it. So I’ve not replied and that may have rattled him a bit.

The email address of the fraudulent company with which I’ve been corresponding has, not surprisingly, now gone completely dead but I came across another account to which I sent a message a day or so ago and left it at that.

I don’t think the scammer realises how clear a trail he has left and in the meantime I’ve put together a detailed document detailing the string of emails and events involved in the fraudulent transaction and the identity of the person responsible for the fraud. That document is now complete and my intention is to send copies to the legitimate company he works for and its legal representative, Alibaba and Aliexpress and the minister responsible for trade in the Chinese embassy in London.

But this morning I received a reply to the email I sent to the ‘other’ email address mentioned above. This may also have come from the scammer, I don’t know, who may be rattled because I left clues in the messages I sent to what I believe to be his legitimate employer indicating that I know his identity.

The emails I have since received imply that they are from a colleague of the person with whom I was originally dealing and that the latter has resigned from the company. They said that nobody has yet looked at his sales records and they would see if they could and come back to me. I said make it quick because wheels are in motion.

So what do you know. Now all I can do is see what pans out over the next few hours. In the meantime, Credit Agricole, my bank, have been absolutely amateurish and pathetic. Despite my instructing them to make a reclamation on the J P Morgan bank account into which I transferred funds over two weeks ago on the instructions of a J P Morgan Vice President in London they have done absolutely nothing, complaining they can’t get in touch with the Luxembourg bank. Credit Agricole is not a competent, professional banking organisation on the evidence of my experience.

My predictions as to what will now transpire are as follows. I believe the stuff about the colleague resigning etc is false as the company’s address is fake and the company doesn’t exist. So what the scammer will do is get access to ‘his colleague’s’ sales information and ‘discover’ the funds I transferred. He will then offer to repay them.

That way if he does he makes his (fake) company look legitimate and gets himself off the hook. And with me then not pursuing him he’s able, if he’s so inclined, to continue his activities later on when the dust has settled, as I mentioned in a previous message that if I got my money back I had neither the time nor the inclination to take things any further.

If that does happen I, of course, will be delighted. If it doesn’t and even if I continue with my present course of action I’m resigned to not seeing my money again, but just doing what I can to mess him up will be enough for me.

Have you tried it? It’ll make you smile.

Three images I created in minutes on my first attempt.

Sadly, it’s about the mini excavator I ordered from China. Despite my best endeavours to avoid such a thing happening, it looks as though I’ve been scammed and I’ll not be seeing either the excavator or my money again. I’ve spent the last couple of weeks chasing the ‘supplier’, investigating their address and their bank account but without success.

I’ve alerted my bank, Credit Agricole, after contacting the bank of the party into which I transferred my money, J P Morgan in Luxembourg, who suggested that my bank commences a funds recovery procedure. I’m awaiting to hear what their findings are, but I doubt I’ll get my money back as these scammers don’t usually leave any loopholes that make that possible.

Two things mystify me. Firstly, how did a scammer manage to open up a J P Morgan international bank account? This is not like your High Street branch which you can go into with an electricity bill and a proof of ID and just open an account. It specialises in the wealth management of international clients. Secondly, how did a scammer manage to line up the excavator and the exact accessories I ordered on the factory floor and take a photograph?

I may find out the answer to the first question but I doubt I will to the second as the factory could be anywhere in China. I’ll report the matter to Aliexpress but I won’t get any support from them as the order was not placed strictly according to their system. However, the scammer must be removed from their system and prevented from scamming other clients, not that that will stop them from restarting under a different name.

I’ll be licking my wounds and having another go with delivery late this year or in the new year after I return from Australia, although this time placing the order rigidly according to the Aliexpress system so as to guarantee my money. I’ve been scammed before when I was in business and it’s a painful lesson to have to relearn 🙁

Our second heatwave. Temperatures have been around the 40 degrees mark with almost windless clear blue skies for several days. Yesterday it got up to 39 degrees inside my house and as I type this at around 5.30 am, although it’s 23 degrees outside (forecast 17) it’s still an almost unbearable 32 degrees inside. So I can’t sleep and my electric fans are just moving hot air around.

And there will be no respite for several more days to come. The forecast for today is 42 degrees, Wednesday 37 degrees, Thursday 38 degrees, Friday and Saturday 41 degrees, Sunday 40 degrees and then a slow fall to the mid 30s. It’s almost impossible to do anything, especially outside. I need to paint my shutters but it’s too hot for that and working indoors tiling my kitchen and utility room walls would be unbearable.

Even the insects are suffering. I have thick curtains on my living room doors which I’ve had to pull as the sun has moved round to keep as much heat out as possible but when I’ve been able to open my living room doors to get a bit of air circulating I’ve been getting swarms of insects flying in, presumably attracted by the relative shade.

Two days ago I had a couple of bees flying around the tap on my kitchen sink searching for water and I keep the bowl of water I put out for my doggie visitor topped up as it’s being constantly visited by all manner of flying insects. Large grasshoppers keep coming indoors including giant green ones seeking shade from the hot sun and one little black one which I picked up to throw back outside had the temerity to bite me, which I’ve never come across before.

It’s all a bit too much now and I’ll be glad when it ends, but it looks as though we’ll have to put up with it for at least another week before it subsides.

Back to say…

It’s not long after 8.00 am and there’s been a sudden change! Evidently a cold front has come in, the temperature has dropped and because of the high humidity, we’ve now got thick mist! But it doesn’t matter. The temperature relief is wonderful and I’ve got all my windows and doors wide open with electric fans pulling the cooler air through the house.

My indoor temperature has now dropped to 26 degrees, which is a relief, and it could fall further as it’s cooler than that outside. How long it will last though, is anyone’s guess 😕

A clash of cultures. Or bureaucracies?

My mini-excavator purchase is proceeding. It began with my making an initial down-payment of 30% of the quoted cif price of the machine and its accessories delivered to Marseilles after which the various items were put into manufacturing according to the details I specified in my order. Then I had to pay the balance, 70% of the cif price, after which they were packed and shipped to the port in China for export to France.

But it actually began long before that when I did many days of detailed research into what is involved in such a transaction and what demands would be made of me as the buyer. I’ve had some experience of such matters while I was running my own business. For example, I exported an industrial shredder worth over £30k at that time from the UK to Abu Dhabi and handled all of the export paperwork and the formalities for an export finance guarantee, transport and shipping myself.

But doing so from within a business framework is different to doing it as a private individual, which is what I now am since I sold my business and retired. Then I was running a company that was registered for company tax and VAT and now I’m not, so the first thing I had to do was find out whether I could import the machine from China into France as a private individual.

The French customs authorities were extremely helpful and confirmed that I could do so, and also without employing the services of an agent so long as I was capable of dealing with the customs import procedures myself. This was good news and a great relief as although the use of an agent facilitates the processes involved it also considerably inflates the cost, in the case of a machine like mine by the best part of 100% or even more depending on what services they carry out.

So only when I knew all of this and had established the bona fides of the supplier to the best of my abilities by carrying out my own searches on them did I go ahead and place my order. After that I just expected to hear that the machine had been transported from the factory and shipped and after a delay of 30-40 days, that it was ready for customs clearance at Marseilles.

But not so. While it was on its way from the factory I was asked by the supplier for my EORI number which they said was required by their forwarder before the machine could be loaded on board the freighter. This came out of the blue and was something completely new to me. The supplier said that I could easily obtain one at no cost by applying to French customs but that I needed to do it quickly as otherwise the machine would be stuck at the port in China.

So I set to the task. A bit more research revealed that there is an on line system in France, known as SOPRANO, into which I entered my details only to find there’s no provision within it for a private individual. It asked for my SIRET or SIREN which are the registration numbers for different types of French businesses and if, like me, you have neither it only gave the alternative of registering as an ‘entrepreneur individuel’, a person in business on your own account who does not have to be registered, much the same as for small businesses in the UK.

So although I am not in business and certainly have no intention of using my mini-excavator for business purposes as and when I can get my hands on it, this is how I made my application for an EORI number. And was promptly rejected by the system, which insisted that to get one I had to provide either a SIRET or SIREN in order to be approved. So time for some more research.

Luckily although far from perfect, my French is good enough to allow me to do this and quite quickly I established that not only as a private individual am I not entitled to have an EORI number, the regulations actually forbid me from having one*. Instead I found that the export paperwork for goods imported into France by private individuals does not carry an EORI but in its place has entered the code ‘OCCASIONNEL’, meaning ‘occasional’.

I could well understand that for, for example, personal or household goods of someone relocating from say China to France, but would it also be good for items like my mini-excavator I wondered? So time to call up French customs once more who were very helpful once again. Yes they confirmed, that is how it has to be done. So time to get back to my supplier in China with the news.

And that’s when the problems arose. The supplier, or more likely the supplier’s forwarding company, was adamant that whenever they ship goods, they always have to enter an EORI number. And so a dialogue began, backwards and fowards between us. I said that it had been specificfally confirmed to me by French customs that their forwarder is incorrect, the information they are using is wrong, this is not the case for private individuals and the code mentioned above is used instead.

But they would not have it. I have sent them copies of statements made on the French customs ‘gouv.fr’ web site together with specific links to the sections in question and although at the time of writing I’ve been told that the paperwork is being processed I still have not had it confirmed that my excavator is physically being loaded for shipment.

On Friday I asked for French customs to let me have confirmation in writing of the procedure for me to forward to China but as this will not be forthcoming until this coming Monday at the earliest, I am still on tenterhooks.

The question is, what will happen if the supplier’s forwarding company stands its ground, despite being in the wrong? The problem is that with a freighter standing by, time is of the essence and there isn’t much time left for a tit-for-tat dialogue going backwards and forwards between France and China.

Luckily there is an alternative that will break the impasse – namely using the EORI number of a close friend’s French registered company. I would rather not do this unless I’m forced to by circumstances because it will introduce further complications. If their company is registered for VAT, which I think it is, it will be exempt from paying VAT on arrival of the machine at Marseilles, which is what I want to do.

Instead they might have to account for and pay the VAT in their next company VAT return which is how I would have done it if I’d still been in business. This could make things rather messy and is something I’d like to avoid. Hopefully all will be revealed on Monday and the logjam which currently exists will be broken.

Incidentally, readers might like to know out of interest how such a rapid dialogue can be conducted between speakers of two disparate languages like English (or French) and Chinese. The answer is AI. I type a message in English and it’s immediately converted into Chinese at the other end. The supplier types a reply in Chinese and I get it in either English or French, it varies. The process is amazing, very impressive and based on my current experience, works well.

*Further research has revealed that the reason for this is that an EORI number in part contains the organisation’s SIRET or SIREN, which is why private individuals, and even ‘entrepreneurs individuels’ can’t have one, despite the SOPRANO web site suggesting otherwise.

As he had promised, my contact in the Chinese supplier duly sent through the pictures of my machine and accessories out of manufacturing and ready for shipping. As well as the auger for drilling fence post holes and the 400mm bucket that it comes with I’ve also ordered a 200mm bucket, both of which are laid out on the factory floor in front of the machine.

The larger bucket will be fine for digging out for concrete bases and shoving earth around but the smaller bucket will be needed for digging out wall foundations and the trench for an electricity cable that I want to run down to the bottom of my land. I toyed with the idea of adding a ‘thumb’ to the order which is used for picking up logs, rocks and other large objects but I’m still undecided and will need to make up my mind before I do the transfer of funds for the balance of the purchase price.

The addition of a ‘thumb’ will make for a very attractive total package when I come to sell the machine when I’ve finished with it although I don’t really need it for now. However, if I buy it now it comes at a very attractive price, far less than it will be worth when I sell it later with the machine, so I need to think seriously about it.

I think my machine might be a bit smaller than the one I’ve previously received pictures of, which from the vents in the side panels was the version standing behind my machine. Is it worth making a fuss over? Probably not because I may be wrong. The different side panels may just be because my machine is a diesel as it’s difficult to make an exact size comparison and I’m told my machine is a ’12’ which is as previously pictured and ordered.

Since paying the initial deposit I’ve done further due diligence on the Chinese supplier as you can never be too careful, as I found out with my Chinese electric bike. Although I found the supplier on Aliexpress, the Chinese equivalent of Amazon, subsequent contacts have revealed a connection with Alibaba, the more ‘pro’ parent arm dealing in wholesale and multiple orders.

When I contacted Aliexpress customer services in order to get more information on the supplier they couldn’t help and referred me to Alibaba. Its customer services also couldn’t help very much, mainly I think because the transaction wasn’t done via their platform so they didn’t earn any commission out of it, and I was referred back to Aliexpress.

So I had to do more searching myself and I found links for both the company’s Aliexpress web store and also its Alibaba outlet where it is referred to as a ‘verified’ supplier. I also found the company’s own web site showing contact information where it describes its 30 year history and mentions the success it has achieved with its Aliexpress store which it established in November of last year. This ties in with what it says on Aliexpress, and I’ve also received other material eg official approval certificates in which names, addresses etc also tie up.

So I’ve done all I can really and now it’s time to press the final button, transfer the balance of the purchase price and wait for the machine and its accessories to arrive in Marseilles. And before I do, decide what I’m going to do about that ‘thumb’…

I came back to say it’s entirely paid for now. I thought it would be a false economy not to include a mechanical (as opposed to the more expensive hydraulic) thumb as it’ll allow me to clear the undergrowth out of the copse of trees next to my house. Apparently there’s a regulation that says you have to do it up to 50 metres from the building because of the fire risk. So another job to be added to the list. I was also assured that the machine is ‘as ordered’.

When I flew up to la Rochelle on France’s Atlantic coast at the end of June to get my Savannah’s avionics recertified, not only was the visit unsuccessful because the testing station unfortunately damaged my transponder but I also therefore had to fly back to Malbec without it. That in itself wasn’t a big deal. What was more so was that by the time I took off the air temperature was over 35 degrees C and the turbulence I endured during the flight was brutal.

Although I started it up, the GoPro in my cabin let me down yet again and the only video that was recorded was from outside on the starboard wing. The video I made from that footage is shown below.

This is the hardest and longest to edit video that I’ve ever made and I’m glad to see the back of it! Editing the video was fraught with as many problems as the flight itself – more actually as my video editing software, Corel Videostudio Ultimate, kept constantly throwing up sound errors. I think it’s time to move on to another package, but that’s for later.

I mention the problems, none of them insurmountable, that occurred during the flight in the video itself. I made the flight to have the six-yearly test done on my Savannah’s avionics but in the end that didn’t happen because the testing station unfortunately somehow damaged my transponder and removed it for repair. That means that when it’s been fixed I’ll have to return and do the whole flight over again.

?

I had to fly back to Malbec without my transponder but that was no big deal. I made a video of the return flight which appears in a follow-up post.

Well, it’s either the most elaborate scam that I’ve ever come across or I’ve managed to snag the best mini-excavator deal ever. I think it’s the latter but I’ll not know until I’m told that the machine is ready to be cleared through customs at Marseilles.

In either case this morning I jumped right in and transferred an initial 30% deposit into an account in Luxemburg in order to trigger production and now it will just be a waiting game.

I received another picture of the machine I’ve ordered which I’ve posted below and it’s a handsome little brute (if you like this kind of thing).

It’s not a toy. Far from it. It’s a commercial grade machine that if I was a contractor I’d be buying to use on small contracts – for digging trenches and foundations on site, for light landscape work, for general light work on farms and so on. To say that it’ll do what I want it to is a considerable understatement.

Production should take 20-30 days after which I’ll be set up to do a video inspection. I’ll then be asked to pay the remaining 70% of the agreed purchase price and then it’ll be packed up and taken to the port to be shipped, which should take up to 50 days.

So I should get the machine in around the middle of October and only then will I know that everything has gone according to plan. I’ve done all the due diligence that I can and I’m pretty confident things will work out 😉

I asked for more images of the mini excavator I’ve ordered to do the work I’m planning around my house and garden and received another video this morning. I’m very impressed. It looks to be a high quality, well made machine and compares very favourably with others I’ve seen by researching on Youtube etc.

I’m sure that it’ll be more than adequate for the work I want to do with it and when I’m finished in a year or so’s time it’ll be very easy to move on, probably for not much less than I’ll have paid for it if nothing major goes wrong. I think it will be a good investment.

I’ve had quite a few things to deal with recently one of which has been deciding what to do about getting underway with work on my garden and installing my new little swimming pool. The latter’s kit has been standing outside my house since May but other things have taken priority and it’s now fully evident that it won’t be in for this summer as I didn’t receive the official approval to go ahead anyway until early this month.

I’ve decided how I want to install it as shown in the following image. I want to kill two birds with one stone. The ‘terrasse’ at the rear of my house and the path surrounding it were never properly created and stabilised by the builder when my house was built and that now has to be done and the process of doing so will involve the use of equipment to shift soil and stone around. Stabilisation of the ground will involve the construction of a retaining wall on two sides which will also serve to enclose the pool as shown in the image.

The wall will need stepped foundations down one side because of the land’s downward slope and the pool will also need a fairly substantial reinforced concrete base because of its weight and the weight of the water it will contain. Both of these will need to be dug out using an excavator.

But thinking ahead, that’s not all. I need to relocate the ‘abri’ that I placed in front of my house before it was built down to the bottom of my land where I originally located my caravan during its construction and that will involve excavating another concrete base and after that I’ll need to extend the original ‘abri’ base in the front of the house to build a nice garage-cum-workshop. I also intend to shift the black stone that the builder laid in my driveway and around the house with white stone which again can’t be done by hand.

But it won’t end there. When the work at the rear has been completed I’ll need to complete the fencing around my house and land. That will involve removing a few posts that were originally banged into the ground, one of which was recently broken by a tractor mowing the adjacent land , and inserting quite a few more to complete the ‘cloture’ at the side and the front, which again will require the use of equipment.

You can see where I’m going with this. I recently contacted one ‘trusted’ contractor to get going on all this but he hasn’t bothered to come and see the job and I’m utterly fed up with this attitude that is so prevalent among such people here in France. Hiring an excavator costs around 200€ per day plus delivery and at that rate I’ll probably end up paying 2000€ or more just for that given the jobs that need doing. So I’ve decided to go it alone.

Fortunately I’ve found someone who’s happy to come in and give me a hand whenever I need him and that is all I’ll need – apart from the equipment. I’ve already got a motor-driven concrete mixer (I sold my electric one for a good price when I took it out of storage) so all I’ll need is an excavator and a post hole driller – an auger – and those are what I’ve been searching for for the last few days to source from, you’ve guessed it, China.

Checking the prices of second-hand mini excavators on Le Bon Coin, the hugely popular free ads web site here in France, they seem to be in the range of 4000€ plus depending on the size of the machine. However, by importing the kind of machine I need direct from China, a smallish 1 tonne machine with a 400mm bucket, I can get it for much less. Much less!

So that’s what I’m doing and while I’m at it, I’m also importing an auger that can be attached to the machine so I can complete my fence work.

I’ve posted below a couple of videos of Chinese mini-excavators. The first shows a machine with a pivoting boom in order to show this feature. It’s quite elaborate with tracks that can be made wider or narrower and other features I won’t need.

The next is the one I’m importing but with a pivoting boom. It’s less elaborate than the one shown above but will do all that I’ll need it to do. It’s also less expensive.

Finally, here’s a video of the kind of auger I’ll also be importing.

I’ve already discussed the import procedure with the French customs. The machine will be custom made to my order in 2-3 weeks with a Euro 5 diesel engine and will then be shipped to Marseilles. All I’ll then need to do is hire a heavy vehicle recovery type trailer and go down to pick it up. I’m quite excited

In aviation we have what are called TAFs – Terminal Aerodrome Forecasts, which are produced every few hours for larger airports and tell us what the weather is expected to be doing there at any particular time in the following 24 hours or so. They are useful when planning a flight not only to see what conditions will probably be like at your destination but also at any airfields along your route if they produce their own TAFS.

For me, not only is the TAF for La Rochelle useful but en route I also pass Cognac, an ‘armée de l’air’ air base conveniently half way between Malbec, my starting point and La Rochelle, which also produces a TAF. So I use both in my flight planning and they are important in influencing my decisions about the flight including whether I should even go or not.

As seems to be becoming more and more usual whenever I rely on other people for something to happen, I was let down. I didn’t make it to La Rochelle yesterday. The testing station there that was responsible for damaging my transponder said that they have received it back from repair but that they were unable to refit it yesterday and carry out the testing on my Savannah’s avionics they were originally supposed to do.

I told them that I had to fly up yesterday because otherwise the weather was going to become unsuitable for an indefinite period but they said they couldn’t accommodate me but that they could maybe fit me in today. But sure enough the TAFS yesterday for Cognac and La Rochelle looked to be ruling the flight out so at the end of the afternoon I told them I’d not be coming and indeed, although the Cognac TAF has marginally improved, the TAF for La Rochelle is still indicating a high probability of thunderstorms at about the time I’d be arriving.

Cognac TAF

From Friday 5:00 till Saturday 5:00:
Wind 300° 5kt. Ceiling and visibility OK.
Becoming from Friday 6:00 till 7:00:
Clouds broken 14000ft towering cumulus.
Temporarily from Friday 6:00 till 8:00: Visibility 3000m. light thunderstorm rain. Clouds broken 14000ft cumulonimbus.
Becoming from Friday 9:00 till 11:00:
Ceiling and visibility OK.
With 40% probability, temporarily from Friday 14:00 till 16:00: Clouds scattered 9000ft towering cumulus

La Rochelle TAF

From Friday 8:00 till Saturday 8:00:
Wind 340° 8kt. Ceiling and visibility OK.
Temporarily from Friday 8:00 till 12:00: Visibility 2500m. thunderstorm rain. Clouds broken 7000ft cumulonimbus.
Temporarily from Friday 15:00 till 22:00: Wind 290° 15kt, gusting 25kt.
With 30% probability, temporarily from Friday 22:00 till Saturday 5:00: Visibility 4000m. light shower rain. Clouds broken 7000ft towering cumulus.
With 40% probability from Saturday 2:00 till 8:00: Clouds broken 900ft.

So that looks like it and for some time to come from the weather forecasts that are currently available. That’s really annoying as it wasn’t my fault that I’ve got to make a second trip up to La Rochelle but yet again I’m the one being subjected to the maximum inconvenience and disruption because of it. 🙁

I’ve been informed that my Savannah’s transponder has now been repaired and that I can therefore return to La Rochelle for it to be refitted and the Savannah’s 6-yearly avionics check to be completed. I’ve checked the weather and it looks as though the best day for the flight will be this coming Thursday 17th July as after that the weather looks as though it will become more unpredictable.

Both of the times I’ve been into La Rochelle the wind has been off the sea making for a straightforward approach and landing on runway 27. However, it looks as though the wind will be fairly light on Thursday but from the opposite direction. The primary ILS (instrument landing system) for the commercials going into La Rochelle (eg Ryanair) is on runway 27 and it’s likely that they might still use that runway despite there being a small tailwind for them but I don’t know whether that will apply for me doing a VFR approach which is published to be to 09 to the north on a left hand circuit over the sea.

The VFR departure to the south on 09 is also slightly more complex as it takes a similar but reverse route to the approach to runway 27 following the main road out to reporting point E (Echo) before then turning to head south. It therefore looks as though Thursday’s flight could be quite interesting especially as I’ll also be entering controlled airspace without a transponder this time.

But it’s taken time, effort and not a little money as I’ll go on to explain.

This Autumn I’ve planned to travel to Australia to meet with my cousin who’s the same age as me but who I haven’t seen since her family emigrated from the UK to Aus when we were about five years old. My family planned to go as well at the same time and we’d started to make all of the necessary arrangements but my dad got what he thought was a plum new job just beforehand and we stayed behind. Up until my last house move I still had a couple of 1950’s tea chests (wooden boxes about 1 metre cubed in which tea was shipped from Ceylon as it was then to the UK) with traces of tea still in them that my dad had got hold of to pack things in for the voyage.

But I digress. A few months ago I suddenly got the urge to get in contact with Denise, my cousin, but with little to go on I thought it would be a pretty hopeless task after so long but my brother in law came across some old correspondence from 30 or more years ago with a telephone number and when I phoned it was Denise who answered. Who’d have thought it. We’ve been in touch ever since and after a while I decided that as we are nearly the last of our generation in our two families, I’d make the trip to Aus to see each other for what might at our age be the first and last time.

I set to the task of making all of the necessary arrangements with enthusiasm. I figured on travelling this coming Autumn as that would coincide with Springtime in Australia and as this was around the turn of this year I was able to snag some pretty good prices for the air fare and car hire in Australia by booking and paying months in advance. Similarly for a hotel in Melbourne which I planned to explore for a few days before then continuing my journey to my cousin’s place in Victoria, but what I totally neglected to think about was my visitor visa.

After all, what could possibly go wrong? All I’ll need to do, I reasoned, was apply for one, probably on line, pay whatever fee is demanded, provide proof of identity etc and wait for it to plop into my letter box. What? Convicts used to be transported there from England back in the day, for goodness sake, I’m not an international criminal, terrorist or gun-runner so surely it should be just a formality? Well, no actually. This could not be further from the truth and in reality I had no idea how difficult it would be to get into Australia. Here’s how it went.

First step, of course, was to make the application on line, but not so fast. This required the submission of page after page of information, not just about oneself but also, indirectly, about one’s family, one’s health, finances, reason(s) for visiting Australia, what one’s intentions were once there, who one would be visiting together their details and much, much more. The process was mind-bending and seemingly endless and it didn’t end with the payment of a fairly hefty non-refundable fee of $200AU. That was just the start of the application process.

First I was required to submit copies of various documents that went some way beyond proof of identity and passport. I had to show evidence that if I had travelled internationally previously I had conformed to visa requirements and left the country or countries concerned according to the required timescales. I also had to provide evidence that I had the means and permission to return to my country of origin or departure and the means to finance my intended period of stay in Australia in the form of official bank statements and it should also be added that all copies of documents submitted had to be officially confirmed and verified.

All of the above was tedious, time consuming but was at least under my control, but there was more in the form of two, non-negotiable additional requirements. The first was the provision of my biometrics in the form of fingerprints and a photograph taken by an Australian government approved agency, usually a local Australian consulate. There is no Australian consulate in France however, that can perform this role – the closest one is in London – so an official agent has been appointed to do so. This agent happens to be in Paris so I had no choice but to make the journey to their office to accomplish the task. The only problem was that the Australian immigration authorities only allow 14 days from the date of application for biometrics submission beyond which one’s visa application would be summarily cancelled unless one had a very good reason – and the emphasis was placed on ‘very good’.

So in double-quick time I had to make an appointment with the approved agent, book a train fare and work out how to get the agent’s office once in Paris. Luckily the agent had an available appointment within the 14 day period and I booked a convenient inter-city train from Brive to take me there. I thought it sensible to buy a senior’s rail card as part of the fare as this gave a 30% discount for a year’s travel and only cost a bit more than the saving on this one fare alone but I was still just over 100€ out of pocket. I then had to pay for the Metro in Paris, another 7,90€, plus all-day parking at Brive, 9,70€ on top of that plus the cost of the biometric procedure, another 45€, so the cost of my visitor visa was beginning to mount up.

But there was another requirement, namely to undergo a medical examination by an approved medical examiner. Very generously, in comparison with the demand for biometrics, 28 days was allowed for this but the problem was that the medical examiners have been appointed by region and the one covering south-west France is in Bordeaux ie almost the geometrically opposite direction to Paris, meaning that during my visa application process I’d be travelling almost the whole length of France. But that wasn’t the most painful bit. The medical exam itself would be costing another hefty 200€!

I thought about taking the train from Périgueux to Bordeaux but in the end decided to go by car as I found that there was quite a bit of parking around the medical examiner’s office and that would avoid having to take a bus, or more likely a tram, there from the station. My plan worked out pretty well although not knowing how long the medical exam would take, I overpaid a few euros at the machine for on-street parking. Plus I also had to fork out a further 12,30€ at the lab just up the road for a blood test.

By now by my estimation my visa application had cost me in the realm of an additional 500€ over and above the actual cost of my Australian visit which I have to say I was not expecting and which came as quite a shock both physically and to my finances. However, at least I didn’t have to wait too long for what came next. The biometrics agent submitted their dossier to the Australian authorities over a week ago but the medical examiner only submitted his results one day ago, or two days on the day of my examination at most. Nevertheless, after being advised that applications could take some time to be processed, I received notification by email this morning that my visa had been approved.

This came as a considerable relief. I’d spent quite a considerable sum on air fares, car hire and hotel accommodation, all of which was at stake, before even considering my visitor visa and it would have been painful in every sense if for some reason I’d been turned down. But luckily I haven’t and I can now look forward to packing my bags and flying off to the other side of the world in the Autumn and getting to know my cousin who I’ve only spoken to on the phone and exchanged emails with in recent months and not seen face to face in over 70 years. I can’t wait and I’m sure it’ll all be worth it.

Sorry for the awful mis-spelling of Paris in the title of this post. But I’ll continue…

I had to go to Paris on 2nd July to provide my biometrics in the form of a photo and fingerprints to the Australian immigration authorities in support of my visitor visa application. This was not the best thing to be doing in the middle of ‘la Canicule’, the hottest heatwave for many years that had been dominating the French news for several days, but having made the necessary appointment and travel arrangements I had no choice.

So I was up at 5.30 am and after a cold shower and a quick breakfast I was off to Brive to catch the 7.56 am train to Paris Austerlitz. As is usually the case, the train arrived and departed dead on time and I was able to purchase a ‘café au lait’ and a quick snack during the 4 1/2 hour journey, with the train also arriving dead on time at Austerlitz.

So so far, so good. I’d already worked out and written down my itinerary so as to avoid any unnecessary mistakes and delays – Metro Line C at Austerlitz, four stops to Les Invalides, then change to RER Line 13 Direction St Denis Université and nine stops to Porte de Saint-Ouen in Clichy. I then had a 1 1/2km walk to my final destination, the office of VFS Global on the Boulevard du Général Leclerc.

Usually walking such a distance wouldn’t have bothered me – I’ve been doing much longer distances in Istanbul for example – but I knew that it was going to be challenging in the temperature and even more so on the way back, but off I went using my Waze satnav on my phone in order to get to my 2.20 pm appointment. I had about 1 hour and 50 minutes in total following my arrival in Paris so I had plenty of time to get to my destination, but it sure was hot and there was not a lot of shade.

Is the next shot of the highest graffiti in Paris, if not the whole of France?

I arrived at my destination with time to spare albeit by that time suffering rather in the heat. After taking the lift to the sixth floor I was greeted by a message on VFS’s office door saying that the office was closed for the whole of July and I and an Iraqi gentlemen were both bemused by this as we both had appointments within the coming few minutes.

Luckily, an attractive, tall, blonde young lady in a short skirt and on towering heels then turned up to open the door that we’d been banging on and took us with her into the office. I then received some bad news. She told me that as well as bringing my passport I should also have brought the letter I’d received from the Australian immigration authorities by email confirming their demand for biometrics. Without it she said that she could not process my application and I’d have to return with it.

It was my own fault as I should have read the letter more thoroughly but she said that I should search for it in my email or try to download another copy from the Australian web site while she processed the Iraqi. I was unsuccessful on both counts but as the office was closed to the general public and therefore not busy, she said she’d see what she could do by searching out my details on the immigration authority’s system.

By now, following my walk from the station I felt as though I was in a sauna and my shirt was becoming wringing wet. She offered me a drink of water from their machine which turned out not to be cooled (yuck!) and after several minutes she returned beaming. She said that she’d found my details and would be able to take my biometrics after all which was a great relief to me given how far I’d come and how much the trip had cost me.

She turned out to be Russian with a father in Crimea who has terminal cancer and became a bit tearful when she told me about it and how difficult it was finding a way to get back to see him, possibly for the last time. After she’d finished I gave her a hug and a ‘bissous’ which she didn’t object to before giving my face a splash of cold water in the toilet and departing back into the heat of the afternoon.

The next two shots were taken at Porte de Vincennes on my walk back to the Metro at Porte de Sain-Ouen (the final image) from where I returned to Austerlitz via the same route on which I’d come.

Once again, the 4.28 pm from Austerlitz left dead on time and despite receiving a message that it would be delayed by at least 20 minutes en route, also arrived dead on time at 9.03 pm at Brive. It only took a minute or two to pick up my car from the station car park (for what I thought was a very reasonable 9.70€ for the day) and another hour to get home again. So mission accomplished and what a relief to throw all of my clothes into the washing machine and myself under a cold shower. Now just Bordeaux next week for a medical.

I made it up to La Rochelle in my Savannah yesterday but it didn’t turn out to be the flight I’d hoped it would be. It started off really well. I left at 8.30 am and as I’d prepared the aircraft the day before I left myself plenty of time and, unusually for me, there was no pressure. The sky at Malbec was bright and almost bereft of cloud and with it still being cool, I was looking forward to a calm, very pleasant flight for a change.

I’d also checked both of my GoPros, one in the cabin and the other under the right wing, had left both running while I did my pre-take off walk round and it looked as though this time I might end up getting material from both of them for a video of the flight. The take off went well and after climbing out quite steeply and avoiding Fleurac I was soon thinking to myself what a pleasure it was flying in such cool, calm conditions. Until, that is, I came to my first waypoint to the south-west of Périgueux.

It was at this point when I last did the trip that I spotted low cloud up ahead and I think something, or someone must have it in for me, because after making the right turn over the waypoint I could again see a band of low cloud dead ahead of me topping a powerful inversion.

As I approached the cloud it was soon clear that I would be flying right into it and so it was time to make a decision – over or under. The last time I’d done the trip I could see that for some way ahead there were breaks in the cloud through which the sun was shining, so I’d decided to climb over it. This time however, I didn’t like the look of it.

So this time I decided to go under. I couldn’t see any evidence of any gaps in the layer and I had no idea how far it would extend or how thick it might become. Ahead of me was Cognac airspace in which I’d have to descend to under 1500 feet to stay legal without contacting Cognac and getting clearance which I didn’t really want to do. And what if I did and the cloud extended as far as La Rochelle? Then I’d have to descend through IMC in order to land which itself would be illegal, so I made a quick but what I thought was a reasoned decision to go under this time.

And what a wise decision that turned out to be because the cloud layer extended way past Cognac airspace and it was evident as it became darker as I flew along my route that it also became a lot thicker. I never had to fly below 1200 feet, so I was always legal as the terrain, buildings etc below were never at much more than sea level, and although it did become a bit more bumpy as I was below the cloud base, it wasn’t much of a problem.

Eventually as I got closer to La Rochelle I did emerge into bright sunshine with just a few clouds so my decision proved to be the right one. I then called up La Rochelle Approach, received a squawk code to go into my transponder and was cleared as requested to reporting point Echo (E) which is to the east of the airport and visible in the chart, below, which shows my track in red superimposed over my planned route in blue.

And then came my next surprise. I was told by Approach that I should next report at reporting point Echo Alpha (EA), to the west of Echo and also shown in the above chart. This was no great hardship as although it would take me slightly right of my direct course from Echo to the runway, the distance was not overly excessive. The VFR Approach Chart from Echo for runway 27 at La Rochelle does have a bit of a kink in it taking you along the main road to avoid flying over a conglomeration of residential buildings and an approach from Echo Alpha would exaggerate that kink, but not by too much.

But it didn’t end there and you have to be ready to deal with unexpected surprises. The next thing Approach advised me that due to a departing commercial (Ryanair) there would be a 5-10 minute delay and what would I prefer to do? I suggested orbiting between Echo Alpha and Echo to which the reply came back, ‘Perfect’ (as an international airport the controllers speak good English). I only had to do so once and my track is shown as a red loop in the above chart to the east of the airport.

My clearance to land Number 1 came through shortly after so I was then able to continue my right hand turn towards the runway down the main road. The two images below give an idea of the offset that has to be flown.

And here we are on short final to land.

After landing as I approached the main turn-off I was asked to hold position to allow an ‘autogire’ to taxy out and take off. Good thinking by the controller.

As I turned off the next two shots show the route down to the main apron. The large painted yellow numbers show the direction commercials have to take for their parking gates. If they are not familiar and go the wrong way they’d end up in a real pickle among the General Aviation with few chances to turn around.

I’d wondered why I couldn’t understood the taxiway chart while doing my flight planning but it turned out that I could because Star Atlantique, who I was going to, have moved since I was last there. The following shots were taken as I taxied round to their new location.

And here’s Hotel Papa parked outside ready for its check-up.

Sadly, this was the point when things began to go downhill. First I found out that the GoPro in the cabin had stopped working half way. It was my own fault because I’d reached around to get something and had touched it. Then some time later the young engineer who was conducting the checks came in and to my great shock was clutching my transponder which he’d removed from my panel. He said that it wasn’t working and was lighting up but throwing a ‘transmit’ error code.

I said how could that be? It has been used in both France and the UK and has shown no faults in La Rochelle, Limoges and Le Touquet and with Lille Approach to name a few, so how come it’s suddenly not working? He more or less shrugged his shoulders and then the office manager came in. Had I bought it new, had it been repaired, the answers to which were yes and no.

I said it was working when I arrived so why didn’t he phone the Control Tower to confirm, which he did. No, there were no problems they replied, so that took the wind out of their sails. The outcome after some delay was that they said it would need to go off for repair at their cost, as I understood it as the whole conversation was, of course, conducted in French. Plus, of course, I’d need to get a clearance to depart from La Rochelle VFR without a transponder.

So this is why in the next image there’s a hole in my Savannah’s panel.

I’m very annoyed because I put the panel together myself and installed everything including all of the instruments plus the radio and transponder. If you want my opinion, I think the young engineer either shorted the unit out or maybe blew its output stage, possibly by powering it up without its antenna being connected. Either way, I think the problem was avoidable.

That then presented me with two further problems, one immediate and one not so. The first was departing La Rochelle and the second was that I’d need to do the whole trip again when my transponder was repaired and ready to be refitted. But first things first. I’d originally planned not to take on any fuel at La Rochelle because if everything had gone as planned I’d have got back to Malbec with about an hour’s-worth left in the Savannah’s tanks. But I’d had the hold delay and quite a bit of climbing and descending en route so I thought it would be prudent to take 20 litres of Avgas on board.

The next few pics are of taxying around to the fuel station at the other side of the main apron near where Star used to be. On the way a Pilatus turboprop pulled out in front of me heading for the runway from the main apron so I had to hold for a minute or so to give it some space.

The fuel point is on the right in the next image. You have to follow the blue line.

This is me clambering back in after taking fuel on board.

After starting up at the fuel point I requested a VFR departure without transponder with a left turn out departing along the coastline. The controller was already aware and the next few shots are of the take off and turn out including a quite spectacular view of the bridge over to the Ile de Ré.

La Rochelle itself.

The next shots were taken as I flew along the coastline. I couldn’t take many with my hand-held camera because by now the flight was already becoming pretty bumpy.

I’d originally planned to arrive at Star at around 10.30 am (which I did, exactly) and get away by mid-day at the latest to avoid the main heat of the day. But with the delay due to the transponder problem this was impossible and as I flew on flying conditions became quite brutal due to the increasing heat causing a great deal of thermic activity and turbulence. The problem was exacerbated by my need to remain below 1500 feet while again passing through Cognac airspace but was not diminished much by climbing to 3000 feet and it was with great relief that I eventually came in sight of Malbec.

I of course knew that in that heat the approach would be challenging and indeed it was, probably more challenging than I’ve ever flown it with its characteristic lift, sink and lift again on final. I can’t say that my landing was as tidy as I would have liked because I ended up a bit low and for the first time ever touched down a little bit early just on the tip of the second arrow, resulting in a little bounce. But only pride was dented and no harm was done.

So that brought to an end my somewhat disastrous trip to La Rochelle. 1 hour 50 minutes up and 1 hour 45 minutes back. And soon I’ll have to do it all over again. I can hardly wait 😕