Day: May 30, 2015

On Monday at Malbec Wim bumped into Jean-Christophe who oversees the operation of a tiny airfield at Milhac just south-west of Fossemagne, which is 20 or so kilometres to the north of my house, and he invited Wim and me to visit at some time. Not ones to miss a chance to drop into a challenging new airfield, we decided to go this morning even though it was a bit dull and overcast.

The full name of the airfield is la Ferme Milhac-Oie en Périgord and it’s so named because ‘oies’ are geese and they raise geese in a totally natural way there, wandering around in a large flock in an open wooded area. They are ultimately destined for the table but they have an excellent life in the meantime, unlike many of the birds that are grown down here in intensive farm conditions. The main attraction of the airfield, if you like that sort of thing, is that the runway, although sloping, has a usable length of only 150 metres. This is quite short by any standards, so it’s quite a challenging one to get into, and the airfield’s literature emphasises that you must ensure that your ‘compétences’ are up to it!

I was supposed to call Wim up as I took off at Galinat but we weren’t able to make contact and missed each other. So we ended up flying into Milhac separately, me first after I’d spotted that Wim’s hangar was empty when I flew over his airfield on the way out, followed by Wim 20 minutes or so later. Both of us landed safely and Jean-Christophe, who was waiting next to the runway when I landed and I’d been chatting to, showed us around the place. It’s a splendid property with a gite and house to rent together with camping both in a couple of permanently sited mobile homes and for visiting tents and caravans, with full toilet facilities etc on site. It also has a couple of fishing lakes so all in all, it’s a really good spot to drop into either by air or road.

We eventually took leave of Jean-Christophe’s hospitality after an hour or so to head back home again and Wim suggested that if I followed him into his airfield at Plazac, we could pop into la Marjolaine for a coffee before I headed back to Galinat. It seemed like a good idea, so that’s what we did. It was the first time, actually, after all the time that I’ve been here, that I had landed at Wim’s piste and it was pure coincidence that it was today after going into Milhac, because the length of Wim’s runway is also only 170 metres. So it was a good chance to make a video showing both airfields and that’s what I did. You can view it by clicking on the following pic.

It was a pity that we were dogged by yet another overcast morning with low, dull cloud. It did clear and warm up a bit later on, but it was a bit of a disappointing day for the time of year. But at least it didn’t stop us getting a good flight in, though 😉