Things can change quickly

So there I was planning my next flight taking in Montauban and Fumel and now it’ll have to wait for a few weeks. The reason is that there’s something much more exciting in the pipeline because for once events have collided to give a positive result.

I recently made plans to meet a friend in Saumur in the Loire for a couple of days and as the local airfield is only a couple of kilometres outside the town, I thought I’d fly there. And then an idea came to me.

I haven’t seen a dentist since I’ve been in France and I’ve now got a little bit of dental wear-and-tear, nothing serious, to be seen to. I couldn’t get in to see the dentist here that everyone recommended until late in August so booked an appointment at another local one. Unfortunately, I’m not happy with the work that he’s done so want to sort something else out before things go too far.

It then occurred to me that Saumur is over a third of the way back to the UK and that instead of heading back to Malbec, I could quite easily continue on to the south of England. And by seeing my old dentist, the potential saving in dental fees compared to what the dentist here in France has quoted for what should not really be a lot of work could more than pay for the flight!

And not only that. As it would give me a chance to meet up with family members, some of whom I’ve not seen for many months, taken all round it would be a win-win situation, so I’ve been planning hard for the past few days to see if I could make it happen.

And I can. I’ve now planned a flight to Saumur on 10th August. It’s a relatively short hop in 77ASY really, taking just over 2 hours, so I can leave Malbec at about 10.00 am and arrive at Saumur at around midday, where my friend can pick me up, having driven down from Normandy.

After a couple of days, she’ll head back there and I’ve then planned a flight north to the UK on 12th August via Abbeville, where I’ll land, take on fuel and file my flight plan. The Abbeville leg will take just under 3 hours and then it’ll be just a short hop of just under 1½ hours to Headcorn, where I’ll book in and close my flight plan. From there I’ll then have a final leg of another 1½ hours to land at a private strip in Dorset, close to my sister and brother-in-law’s home.

So in all it’ll take me 6 – 6½ hours, subject to winds, to get from Saumur to Dorset at a very reasonable cost of less than 150€ for fuel, plus landing fees, and I don’t think that you can argue too much with that!

Here’s how my first leg from Malbec to Saumur looks, flight time subject to winds just over 2 hours.

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Here’s the next leg from Saumur to Abbeville.

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And here’s the final in-bound leg from Abbeville to Dorset via Headcorn.

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It’s always nice to have a bit of flexibility built into any flight plan, and I’ve managed to achieve that with this plan. As my dental appointment is for 15th August, it isn’t essential for me to arrive in the UK until August 13th or even 14th at a pinch. This gives me a three day window more or less, in case the weather doesn’t play ball, which surely should be enough, even for the UK in August for goodness sake!

Now for the return flight. I initially considered flying back to Malbec directly from Dorset but as I want to meet up with other family members in Kent, I decided that instead I’ll fly to Rochester, where I’ll land and park 77ASY overnight. I’ve planned that flight for 19th August and once again it’ll be just a short hop of about 90 minutes. It’ll also have the advantage of giving me a shorter and less tiring flight of only around 6 hours the next day back to Malbec.

Here’s how the Rochester leg looks and also the first leg of the flight on 20th August back to Malbec via Abbeville, where again I’ll take on fuel.

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From Abbeville I’ve then planned to return the way I came, via Saumur, where I’ll take on more fuel. If I can get away from Rochester by 08.00 am on the Saturday, that should mean that I’ll arrive back at Malbec at around 05.00 pm local time, giving me plenty of time should there be any delay for any reason en route.

So that’s it then, all the planning done except for adding the wind numbers into the spreadsheets. I’m really looking forward to it because it’ll be great fun and also because it’s one of the reasons why I acquired the Savannah. I just hope that the weather gods play ball when the time comes!

2 thoughts on “Things can change quickly

  1. Many thanks Bruce. Someone said to me the other day that the best way to give God a good laugh is to tell Him your plans, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed right up until the day I take off that everything will stay running smoothly 😉

  2. May good fortune smile upon you and give you clear skies, gentle following breezes, trouble-free and enjoyable flying, Roger. 🙂

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