Short but sweet

Now that the weather is a bit more stable, Wim and I decided that we’d do another small tour today landing at a couple of local airfields, Condat and LF2454 Terrasson. Here’s a shot of the route I planned for myself – Wim’s was to be a bit shorter as he needed to fly direct back to Plazac from Terrasson due to other commitments.

Condat is a long tarmac strip perched on the top of a hill like an aircraft carrier. It had been closed but was reopened to ‘avions’ and ULMs back in 2011. Like Malbec, it’s classed as an ‘altiport’ with landings always uphill and take offs in the opposite direction, whatever the wind direction.

Terrasson is a short grass strip to the east of the town close to the river Vézère and is a very active sports and activities club as well as being a ‘base ULM’.

Wim originally wanted us to do the flight yesterday as both airfields would have been active and full of other pilots but I couldn’t make it, which unfortunately meant that just as for last week, both airfields would probably be deserted when we landed.

Here’s a shot of 77ASY ready to go at Malbec before Wim arrived at 9.15 or so.

And here’s a shot of Wim getting ready to set off again in the Red Baron.

I took another shot of my house as I flew close by. I’m now resigned to the fact that because the Savannah has an enclosed cabin, I’m never going to get as good quality photographs from it as I did from the X-Air as they will always be taken through perspex.

Wim had landed several times previously at Condat but it was a first for me. The runway looked huge in comparison to others that we’ve been to and both of us only needed the first few dozens of metres to land and pull up in. Here’s a shot of me standing in front of the airfield’s clubhouse which was really impressive for a private airfield out here in the sticks. I reckon that somewhere like Headcorn even, back in the UK would give their right arm to have such facilities.

Here are a couple of shots of the clubhouse itself which show what I mean.

Then things happened that caused our plans to go completely awry. Wim had taken off to head over to Terrasson and I was about to follow him when a white van drew up. It would have been rude of me not to have acknowledged the driver so I switched off and got out to have a word or two. I was really glad I did because it turned out to be Roland, the airfield’s owner.

To cut a long story short, we chatted away for half an hour or so and I was given a tour of the hangar. It turned out that Roland and his wife had come to clear up after the revelries of yesterday and from the wine and nibbles that had been left over, it appears that there’d been quite a party. What a shame that we’d missed it!

Roland said that it was really inadvisable to fly into Terrasson as even as recently as Saturday, it had a lot of standing water on it after recent storms. I said that in that case, I’d just fly over there and if Wim was still on the ground, do a runway pass without landing, as that way he’d know what my intentions were. Then I’d just carry on with the flight that I’d planned for myself, as after Terrasson Wim had planned to route directly back to Plazac anyway.

But just as I was about to taxi to the runway, Roland attracted my attention and pointed skyward, and there was Wim returning. He landed back at Condat and we all then continued with our conversation for another half hour or so. But Wim eventually had to leave, so we both then bade our farewells to Roland, promising to return for the beers (alcohol free) that he’d kindly offered us, with Wim taking off first and me following.

My next landing was to be back at Malbec, but I planned to take a slightly circuitous route, taking in Terrasson as planned, but without landing there as Wim confirmed that it was very wet, Thenon and the small airfield at Milhac that Wim and visited several months ago. I wanted to do a practise approach there but without landing, before returning to Malbec.

Here are some shots that I took of Terrasson, the first while approaching at fairly low level from the west after having dropped in over the hill and the others from the other side of the old town after I’d turned to head back west again for Thenon.

Here’s a shot of La Bachellerie that I passed over while heading for Thenon.

And here are a couple of shots of Thenon itself.

I got my practise approach in at Milhac before climbing away and turning south to head back to Malbec. It didn’t take long to get there and after setting up for a long final approach, I landed there without incident. Here’s a final shot of 77ASY on the hard-standing outside the barn before I ticked it up for the night.

So yet again, a very enjoyable and eventful flight, as always seems to happen when Wim and I go flying together. I didn’t get back home until lunch time although the total flying time was only 55 minutes – the rest of the time was spent socialising! So as the heading says, short, sweet and very enjoyable 😉