I'm just back from France where I've had a superb weekend with my aircraft.
With fine weather
forecast across the continent it seemed too good an opportunity to miss. As
it happened, once again the forecast was... at variance with actual, and it
rained in Essex on Sunday. Lucky, I was out of the country !
I'll keep it fairly brief this time, just to summarise where I've been and
anything which I think might be relevant to others contemplating a similar
excursion.
My routing was as follows:
Rayne (nr Braintree) via Folkestone, Le Touquet and onward to
Toussus-le-Noble near Versailles, Paris for customs. (2hrs)
Toussus to Annecy, south of Geneva. (2 hrs) Spent the night in the
beautiful medieval town, by the lake for just 40.
Annecy to Chambery (25 min) to pick up fuel and then onward to Sarlat/Domme
(1hr 55min) in the Dordogne.
Domme to Perigueux (20 min) for fuel and then back to Toussus, Versailles
(2hr). Second unscheduled night in Paris, due poor UK weather. Usual tourist
haunts... been there... seen that ..... Boy was it hot overnight !!(28C).
Toussus to Rayne (2hr), via Cap Gris Nez and Dover after early morning mist
had lifted over the Seine. For once the weather was better in England !
The entire trip was accomplished without any mechanical problems. The Rotax
"quatre-vingt chevaux", as the French describe it, never missed a beat.
Indeed, I found that I could cruise at between eight to ten thousand feet
(enough to induce a sore head !) at around my regular 5350 RPM. (Flydat)
What seemed astonishing was that the engine continued to return an economic
16 - 18 litres/hr on 100LL, no different from it's low altitude figures and
yet my ground speed was frequently in the region of 132 knots. Could the
plenum chamber mod. have helped by way of force feeding the engine with air
?
I know that TAS increases by approximately 1 1/2 % per thousand feet, but I
had always thought that this would be accompanied by a decrease in power
(measured directly by RPM) and a corresponding increase in fuel usage.
However, at 9000 ft, I could still substantially climb with max RPM down
just a couple of hundred at most.
This impressed me enormously. If I can gain the extra few knots in what (I
believed) were essentially calm conditions, with no cost in efficiency then
I will definitely use this technique more regularly in future. The Navaid
autopilot held track to a couple of degrees. Thermals were non-existent. I
had nothing to do but relax and admire the views.
The views were magnificent. Annecy nestles by a turquoise lake at the foot
of the Haute Savoie region of the French Alps. Snow capped Mt Blanc stood
proudly in the distance.
Within the Dordogne it was fantastic to see the familiar landmarks of Domme,
Rocamadour, Castelnaud and Beynac from above. I should really have booked to
stay at least one night.
Alan
PS. The landing fee at Domme was 1. Ouch !
NB:
1/ FX is an unmodified mono Europa Mk 1 with a Rotax 912 and fixed pitch
warp drive prop.
2/ The one negative aspect of the trip was the generally poor and
inconsistent performance of my Terra tranceiver. I'd trash it, if I could
find a reliable equivalent unit for the panel.
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