The 2002 Le Touquet Fly-out

After a great year of fly-outs we decided to round off the summer with the most ambitious one yet - a trip to France.

I'd been crossing the Channel every weekend since I'd had the CT, but I thought it would be great to assemble a microlight invasion force from Cloudbase and travel en-masse. For those who hadn't been before it was chance to make the big sea crossing in company with others who knew the way, which always makes things a little easier.

CT ready for departure

The idea was planted and we began to gather participants. The response was good, and we ended up with three Shadows, two Jabirus, my CT and two Cessnas booked for the crossing. As usual, the last few days before the trip involved constant checking of the forecasts for the coming Sunday. The UK Met Office seemed to think it would be quite nice, while the French equivalent was more pessimistic. Given the choice, we decided to select the English weather on this occasion, and sure enough, Sunday turned out to be a perfectly nice day, partly cloudy but fine for flying.

Everybody gathered early at Cloudbase and started checking the aircraft, poring over maps and filling in their flight plans - a new experience for some. John Timms and I chipped in with advice and examples so it didn't take long until the fax machine was busy bombarding Heathrow Flight Planning with all our documents.

Getting ready to go

In a last-minute change of plan, John Meldrum decided to travel with Keith Diamond in the Cloudbase Cessna rather than in the Shadow, so the microlight count was down by one.

We were soon ready to set off. We were travelling in separate groups for the first leg, since Ashley and Steve in NH didn't have the range to get all the way to Le Touquet and were stopping at Lydd to refuel, and I was going there too in the CT with Howard to meet up with Julian and Dan Harris who were joining us from Rochester in their Jabiru and Shadow.

Dan's Shadow and Julian's Jabiru

The Lydd contingent set off first and had an uneventful flight down to the Kent coast, with the CT managing to get there first. After what seemed like an age, but in reality was merely a long time, Ashley and Steve arrived in the Shadow. The flying Harris brothers from Rochester in the form of Dan in his Shadow and Julian in his Jabiru arrived soon afterwards.

We refuelled (with tax-free fuel since we were leaving the country) then said hello to John Tindall, who was on duty at the Lydd Aero Club that day and was amused to see so may Cloudbase flyers passing through, and finally had a quick snack in the Lydd canteen.

Having fortified ourselves we then got ready to set off over the sea. Just as we were about to leave Len and Corky turned up in a Cubair 172 to drop off their passengers, one of whom had been suffering in the bumpy air and was about to head home by train.

We left them to catch up with us and got ready to leave. After taxiing out for Lydd's runway 04 we took off in reverse order of speed, with the two Shadows going first, then the Jabiru and finally the CT.

Climbing out of Lydd

Our route took us east along the coast to Folkestone before turning out off the coast for Cap Gris Nez. Lydd soon got bored with talking to all four of us and handed us to Manston for the crossing.

We climbed in a loose formation as we flew along the coast with three of us ending up above the broken cloud layer while Ashley and Steve elected to stay beneath it.

Those of us higher up were rewarded with a lovely crossing, with magnificent and beautifully sunlit cloudscapes all the way across. It was a great opportunity for air-to-air photos, and Howard got some great pictures of Julian and Dan as we flew.

Before long we were approaching France south of Cap Gris Nez. The cloud layer was thicker over the coast so we dropped below it as we approached Boulogne. At that point it was time to call up Le Touquet.

They were hosting a big airshow that weekend and as soon as we switched to their frequency it was obvious that they were busy. The controller was doing a great job though, switching effortlessly back and forth between English and French and keeping everything running smoothly. As soon as we made our initial call he came back with full joining instructions, which saved a lot of time and kept the airwaves free.

There turned out to be quite a strong wind which kept the approach interesting but meant that our groundspeed was so slow that we were all able to easily make the first turnoff from the runway. With so many aircraft there, they were using the cross runway for parking and we were all marshalled into our parking spots.

We soon spotted John Timms and John Samuel who had flown direct from Redhill in the Jabiru, and John and Keith who'd done the same in the Cessna.

After clearing Customs and Immigration (easy, since there was nobody there) and paying our landing fees, we queued up for taxis into town and started the important task of selecting a restaurant. We actually managed to find a place that could seat twelve of us together so we all settled down for a good long French lunch. I had a fine fish soup followed by a steak that I thought was perfectly done, but which everybody else seemed to think was still moving on its own!

Le Touquet

After lunch most of us did a bit of quick shopping. Le Touquet seems to specialise in both chocolate and fish shops and most people took advantage of one or both.

At the sight of a queue at the taxi stand and no sign of any taxis, we decided to walk back to the airfield. It wasn't too far, and gave us the chance to see some of the very nice holiday homes set into the wooded gardens typical of the town.

Ashley, Howard, Keith, John, Steve

We'd all filed our return flight plans as soon as we'd arrived, so we had no more formalities to delay our departure. That's worth doing, as you theoretically have to file the plan 60 minutes before departure, though in practice the tower at Le Touquet seems to get them through from Lille rather quicker than that.

On the return flight we were all going separately. John and John made an early getaway in the Jabiru and Howard and I got away not long afterward. Julian and Dan also got out OK, with Dan being the last to go before departures were suspended for a while for an air display. That left Ashley and Steve sitting in a queue on the taxiway until the display finished which was to spoil their travel plans somewhat.

Approaching the English coast in the CT

Everybody else had an uneventful Channel crossing. I went quite high again and had some more good views on the way home to Redhill. It's not a long flight when you go direct - it takes about an hour in the Jabiru - so we were soon back at base and unpacking our purchases.

A little while later John and Keith turned up in the Cessna with the news that Ashley and Steve had had to go into Headcorn. The delay on the ground at Le Touquet meant that Lydd had closed by the time they reached it (it closes at 5:30 on a Sunday) so their re-fuelling plans had been upset. Apparently Headcorn were very helpful both with their unexpected arrival and with closing their flight plan for them.

It did delay their arrival at Redhill though, and the runway lights were on by the time they came into view on the downwind leg at just after 7pm.

Late home

Still, that still left a reasonable period until closing time, so as soon as NH was safely put to bed those of us still left at the airfield set off for the Dog and Duck for a debriefing session.

Everybody agreed that it had been a great day and had enjoyed the whole experience. Doing the Channel crossing for the first time is a great achievement, and doing it in company makes it all the better. It'll be hard to top the Le Touquet fly-out in a hurry, but we'll have to start thinking of ideas now for next Spring.

Alasdair Arthur, October 2002