Savannah – update 1

After picking me up at the little railway station at Coulommiers on Wednesday evening (24 February) Robert had dropped me off at the hotel le Grand Terre on the airfield at around 7.30 pm and given me the code to the ULM school door so I could let myself in. So after having breakfasted in the hotel, I did so on Thursday morning. Before leaving home, I’d made a temporary plastic bracket to mount my tablet on up on the top of the Savannah’s panel and it only took me a few minutes to fix it in position using the velcro strips that I’d applied to it.

So then I decided to take a tour of the hangar and take a few photographs as I went, something that I’d not got a chance to do when I originally came to la Ferté to view the Savannah. First a few shots of ASY standing in the hangar after I’d fitted the bracket and attached my tablet to it. As expected, the tablet was sitting a bit high in the windscreen but that was something that I would be able to address when the aircraft was down at Galinat, as it wasn’t high enough to obscure my vision by too much.

Next door to ASY was a beautiful Ekolot JK-05L Junior. I met its owner next day, a very unassuming gentlemen, but if you want one, allow around 56,000€ before tax! It’s an incredibly slick, modern Polish ULM that you can buy either in kit form or as a complete ready-to-fly aircraft. However, my guess is that they don’t sell too many kits to the sort of pilot who can afford that kind of outlay 🙂

Now some shots more or less taken at random around the hangar.

Tucked away over in a fenced-off corner of the hangar I was quite surprised to come across the next aircraft.

However, just a few moments later, I found myself back in much more familiar ULM territory.

And then back to the Ekolot. I took a shot of its interior through a cabin window which shows that it is kitted out inside with a walnut panel fascia, making it look a bit like a top-of-the range Jaguar. Not to my taste, but perhaps a bit more familiar to the people who buy this kind of aircraft.

And then I found myself back up at the ULM school end of the hangar where an assortment of various flexwings were parked, together with ASY.

I’d thoroughly enjoyed my stroll around the hangar by which time the weather had undergone the forecast dramatic improvement compared to previous days. So I then opened up the hangar doors and pushed ASY outside into the open air in readiness for my planned morning’s circuit-bashing. I also wanted to go and check the condition of the runway, which was extemely soft and wet, and here are a few shots that I took of the Savannah outside on the hangar apron.

Shortly afterwards Robert arrived and after the more or less mandatory cup of coffee, it was time for me to get started. Robert isn’t a multi-axes instructor and as I’d said that I’d already had a chance to fly a Savannah, he was happy to let me go straight off and watch my progress from next to the hangars. He said that after I’d done my first circuit and landing, he could see that I wasn’t going to have a problem, and so it was that I was left to myself to bang out an incredibly enjoyable 55 minutes of hacking ASY around the la Ferté circuit.