Wild weather

Following yesterday’s request for help, a team of us were over at Malbec airfield this morning to help Philippe out with his Citius. The violent southerly winds of a couple of days ago had blown straight onto the corner of his new hangar that he only put up early last autumn and by getting under the front corner, had succeeded in peeling the plastic roof covers and the insulation sandwiched between them completely back like the lid on a sardine can.

This left the aircraft completely exposed and also allowed debris from the insulation to fall all over it and when we arrived, it looked in a very sorry state. Luckily, nothing solid had dropped onto it so the mess was nothing that a bit of time and cleaning effort wouldn’t put right, but the aircraft’s wheels had become bogged down in the mud in the by-now open hangar and also once extricated, it needed to be carefully pulled across the also boggy airfield to shelter in the barn in which I’ll eventually be keeping my Savannah.

Having a small team of helpers would not only make the job easier but would also ensure that no unnecessary strains would be put on parts of the aircraft not designed to take them and also that there would be enough eyes looking out to ensure that no damage would be done by hitting any hard objects encountered along the way. And so it was, and within half-an-hour or so the job was done.

I then went over to Galinat to see how 56NE had fared and was pleasantly surprised to find that apart from the pitot plug having been blow out and left swinging by its cord from a jury strut, nothing else had moved and all of its covers were still in place. So after replacing the pitot plug, readjusting the covers and pulling the tie-down ropes tight again, I was able to leave with a feeling of relief.

On the way, I’d noticed that not only had the River Vézère burst its banks at Thonac, but one of the little tributaries running into it down the hill from Plazac had done likewise and had not only flooded the adjacent fields but also some of the gardens of the houses on the fringe of the village. This is the wettest that I think it’s been since I’ve lived here, so I stopped on the way back to take a few shots of the river and the flooded fields.

In the next shot, the framework that can be seen sticking out of the water in the foreground is where the canoes for hire are stored during the tourist season. It’s normally on the bank some way back from the river edge, and the area behind it under half a meter or so of water is where they usually park their cars, in front of the row of trees.

This is a shot of the ‘lavage’, which most small villages still have. It’s where the village housewives used to come and do their washing in the river and although not used in the modern era, villages still keep them as a hark back to the traditional days. Today it was not beside the river but in it, and to quite a depth too.

The next shot is of the field behind the ‘lavage’, which is used for car parking on days when festivals and events are held.

The next two shots are of the garden of a house which is located some way back from the main river but close enough to the little tributary flowing into it to be flooded just like the field.

The final shot is of the fields on the other side of the road, showing just how extensive the flooding was.

I put together a short video of the flooding which can be viewed by clicking on the following image.

I was lucky that even with everything else that was going on today, I managed to find time to do some work on the planning for my proposed house developments. In particular, I was able to add the foundations to the model that I’ve built of my house and also do a few quick experiments placing it on the terrain that surrounds it. The idea is to make the terrain contours as close to the real thing as possible and even my ‘quick and dirty’ attempts haven’t turned out too badly, as can be judged by the following images.

I’ll leave this topic there for now, though, as I’ll be going into much more detail tomorrow in the hope of getting the basic model of my house completed.