UK solo flight to Langenthal, Switzerland- PART ONE

Temptation

Checking my emails over breakfast on a Monday morning in mid-July 2020, sandwiched between the junk and the spam was something that caught my eye.  A message from Martin Ferid lamenting the cancellation of this years LAA rally in the U.K., and the RSA rally in France but celebrating the fact that the Swiss equivalent, the EAS, to host their annual rally, and was anyone interested in flying in? The event would be held at Langenthal in the Swiss canton of Berne on the weekend of 31st July to 2ndAugust which was in just under two weeks’ time.

I had met Martin the previous year on a trip he had organised to a fly-In to Amiens-Glisy Aerodrome in Northern France organised by the Aero-Club de Picardie. A great exponent and enthusiast for flying on the continent, Martin regularly writes about his escapades in the monthly LAA Magazine.

I liked the idea immediately but had only just got my aeroplane airworthy and legal and had only flown it for 7 hours since buying it in October 2019. So this trip felt like a bit of a stretch. I thought about it a bit more on my drive to the office thinking back to the Halton Aeroclub flying expeditions of previous years to such places as the Austrian Alps, the Italian island of Elba, the Norwegian Fjords and San Sebastián in Spain and getting more and more excited by the idea. 

When I got to the office, I forwarded the email to Michael, a friend with 10,000 tailwheel hours who had helped me get to grips with the Jodel and get it into flying condition, with the message “Sorely tempted!”. He immediately replied with the simple message “Go for it!”. This was all the encouragement I needed. I emailed Martin to tell him I was in.  

Planning the route

While I was already examining various routes in Skydemon the first thing I needed was

an up to date French chart. I ordered the IGN France Nord-Est 942 1:500 000 from

Flightstore. This had the bonus of also covering the Northern part of Switzerland,

including my destination Langenthal which would save me buying a separate Swiss chart.

My initial musings on the route lead me to an early conclusion that it was at least a two-day trip to get there. It was approximately seven hours flying time at the Jodel’s flying speed of 80kts not allowing for headwinds which can greatly affect any planning assumptions. Using a general approach used on previous Halton Aero Club Expeditions this would mean two, two-hour flights per day. As it turned out, I did two hours on day one and five hours on day two!

I had to consider various constraints in planning the route. The main restriction was that I could not fly in any Class D or E controlled airspace as I didn’t have a transponder, which is mandatory in France and Switzerland. The other legal constraint was that I would need to clear customs in and out of France and Switzerland. There were also two other preferences, an English-speaking control tower and a grass runway. In addition, each flight had to be under two hours in length for fuel reasons.

The first part of the route puzzle to be solved was where would be my first landing in Europe in order to clear customs. I would be routing North and East around the London TMA, so it really needed to be an airfield in North West France. 

There were three obvious candidates, Calais, Albert Bray and Le Touquet. But Le Touquet was in Class D airspace and while Albert Bray had a nice grass runway it was also in Class D and would also require an additional fuel stop in the U.K, potentially at Headcorn. 

This left Calais as the only option, which although it didn’t have a grass runway it did have an English-speaking ATC (at certain times) and so met the majority of the requirements. It was also only a 90-minute flight from home. I was planning to leave at midday on the Thursday as I had to do some work in the morning, so the question was how far south could I get before needing a night stop? 

Troyes would be a good place to stop, leaving a couple of short sorties the next day to get to Langenthal however it was over two and a half hours from Calais which would require another fuel stop. It was doable but felt like a slog, and after all this was supposed to be an enjoyable trip! 

I had never flown into Abbeville, but I remember in my early days of flight training, one of my instructors talking fondly of the place and adding that there was an Hotel right on the Airfield. It also had the added advantage of having a huge grass runway. Sounded perfect.

Onwards from Abbeville I looked for an airfield en-route that would meet all my requirements which wasn’t easy. However, Troyes Barberey Airfield south east of Paris in the south of the Champagne region met most of the requirements. It was 1h45m away and I had also been there before, which always provided some confidence through familiarity. It also had a grass runway, although that was shown as being only available to home-based aircraft, so worst case I would need to use the 1.5km hard runway.

Onward from Troyes there were some additional complications. Another fellow pilot, who I had also met previously on the Amiens trip had mentioned a NOTAM in the French AIP restricting flight over a large irregular shaped National Park, something that hadn’t showed up in the NOTAMS in SkyDemon. That would add some additional time as I would need to skirt to the south west. 

But worse than that was a large RA/T (Temporary Restricted Airspace) sitting right over Besançon which was directly in the path of a straight line to Langenthal and in-place until the Friday evening. To the north was some permanently restricted military airspace which meant routing to the south which would put me over my two-hour flight limit, so I would also need to plan an additional fuel stop.

As I would be crossing the border into Switzerland I would also need to land at a Customs airfield. The first airfield of any size on my track into Switzerland was Yverdon-Les-Bains at the southern end of Lake Neuchâtel. This looked perfect, grass runway, UL91 fuel and customs on demand. 20 Miles further on was Fribourg Airport, at Ecuvillens which also had all the facilities and seemed a bit more international but no grass runway. I emailed them both for information and only Ecuvillens responded, so that was where I planned to land.

From Ecuvillens it would then be a relatively short, 40minute, flight to Langenthal routing to the North of the Berne Control Zone.  The return journey would be a reversal except I would look to take a more direct route back to Troyes from Langenthal now that the RA/T was not in-place.

 Preparations

I would be using SkyDemon on my iPhone and iPad for all planning and in-flight navigation. I ensured that my subscription was up to date and that I had enough flight plan credits, as I would need to submit four flight plans as I flew from country to country. I also prepared and took along another iPhone to be used in case I lost the use of primary one. I then printed all the airfield plates for the intended landings including the diversion targets.

As I would be crossing the English Channel, I would also need a Lifejacket which I borrowed from Halton Aero Club. I already had a Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) which I had bought for previous trips.  I started to think about packing and what else I would need to take. With only me in the cockpit, weight was not going to be a problem as with a full 60L of fuel at 43Kg I would still have 66Kgs available. More of a problem would be space as apart from a parcel shelf behind the seats there is no luggage hold.
I decided to take two bags, an overnight rucksack and a flight bag. The rucksack could sit strapped into the passenger seat and the flight bag would sit on the parcel shelf alongside the tie down kit, SLR Camera bag, canopy cover and spare Oil.

In my Flight Bag alongside the usual array of charts, checklists and stationery I would also need:-

• Passport

• Currency (Euros and Swiss Francs)

• Pilot Licence and Medical certificate.

• Spare Glasses (A condition of my medical certification)

• Aircraft Docs (Permit and CAA cert plus insurance certificate)

• Copy of Interception procedures.

• iPhone & iPad cables, chargers and battery packs.

• Power adapters for France and Switzerland

• A Gilet Jaune

• COVID Masks

• Oil Funnels, Gloves and kitchen roll. 

The Aeroplane

In order to set the scene, it is worth providing a bit of background on the aeroplane that I would be flying. G-BKAO is a Jodel D112, a classic wood and canvas aircraft built by Wassmer in France in 1955, used extensively for Flying Club training in its first few years and subsequently refurbished by Valladeau in 1963.

It has a four-cylinder Continental A65 engine which develops 65bhp driving a fixed wooden Evra propeller.  A tail dragger, it has a simple joystick to control the ailerons and the elevator, rudder

pedals and heel brakes. There is room, but possibly not the available weight, for two

people, the seats being cushions on a fixed wooden bench and back, with a small

parcel shelf to the rear.

For flying instruments, it has a Compass, an ASI (Airspeed indicator), tachometer,

altimeter, climb indicator, turn co-ordinator and an attitude indicator, not sure why as it

is most definitely a VFR aircraft. You will note that it has no DI (Direction Indicator), so

navigation would be via GPS and SkyDemon or the compass. 

The engine performance is monitored via an Oil pressure and temperature gauge. The single fuel tank contents are measured using the primitive but effective floating cork dipstick which can be seen

out of the windshield, usually reassuringly bobbing up and down indicating fuel in the tank. If it ever stops bobbing up and down and settles, I am told that there is 20minutes flying time left. Something I am not keen to validate. 

The engine consumes about 18 Litres per hour, so with a 60L tank a planning assumption of a maximum two-hour flight leaving an hour’s reserve seemed about right for fuel management and comfort. Other interesting points to note is that it as well as not having a DI is also has no flaps, no primer, no mixture control and no handbrake. But what it does have, added a few years ago, is an electric starter motor which is a godsend for solo flying. The irony being, that the addition of the extra weight for the starter motor, battery and alternator means that solo flying was now more likely.

 The Radio

When I first took the Jodel out in July after the COVID restrictions were lifted, I was flying to Turweston to visit my engineer when I discovered that the handheld radio that came with the aircraft was not working properly. I was unable to talk to them until about two miles out from the airfield and well into their zone, although I could hear them ok. This had to be fixed before my trip and I didn’t have long to do it. 

On the weekend before, myself, and my flying buddy Dickey, a Jodel owner of 23 years standing, investigated the problem and did some test flights. We found the problem to be a combination of a badly connected BNC on the radio end of the coax that went to the external aerial and a lack of power to the handheld. We re-terminated the BNC and swapped out the Yaesu battery (AA) only radio with an iCom model which had an external power brick which we connected to the electrical system via a cigarette lighter connector. 

Not how I wanted the final set-up to be, but OK for the time being. We did a test flight performing radio checks with Farnborough North and Brize Norton and all came back “Readability 5” which was great. However, radio problems would comeback to haunt me later in the trip. 

Day 1 Departure – Calais and Abbeville

A pit in the stomach - spent all morning finalising my planning and packing and worrying! Probably the worst pit in the stomach worry I have felt for a long time!  It got a lot worse when I re-checked the event

registration list, only to see that a lot of the Brits had cancelled. It did look like Sunday and Monday could be a weather challenge on the return. But I am taking the HAC Club Expedition approach, which is to play the game as it unfolds. I didn’t have to be anywhere at any time.

I had sent my customs form to Calais and submitted a flight-plan for departure at 12:00pm local time.

My wife dropped me off at the strip and helped me get the aircraft out of the hanger, but she wasn’t helping with her negative comments “you’re seriously not flying to Switzerland in that!”, etc. So, she voluntarily left rather than make matters worse just to see me off.

 I delayed my Flight plan by 15 mins as there was still much faffing to do at the appointed midday departure time. I managed to overfill the fuel tank and got fuel everywhere! 

I eventually departed at 12:17 on 05 the down hill runway and did a right turn over the house and saw my wife and son waving as I banked over the garden to the East. 

Radio issues 

I called Farnborough North LARS on the radio and got no reply which immediately spooked me due to the recent radio problems. I called again and luckily a pilot came back to me with “they’re not working today mate!” Another NOTAM I missed! I changed frequency to London Information who responded and opened my Flightplan for me. I routed south of Bovingdon airfield and then followed the M25 at 1800ft to Stapleford, where I again routed south around their ATZ to avoid having to change frequency. 

Over the Thames and on to Rochester, again passing to the west of their ATZ. Normally flying around the Northern part of the M25 is one the busiest GA routes in the UK but I saw no other traffic. That doesn’t mean to say there wasn’t any! I did see a 152 or 172 around Rochester and followed it along the M20 for a good few miles before it headed West, potentially to Headcorn. 

I arrived over Ashford and during a FREDA check realised that I hadn’t heard anything from London Info for a while, so I called a ‘Radio Check’ which got no answer! Again, I panicked that the radio had failed but when I checked the frequency, it had changed. What seemed to have happened is that my kneeboard had slipped and had decided to dial up its own frequency! Switching back to London Info I checked whether I had missed anything and gave them a position report. 

 What’s beeping? 

I headed to Hythe, just to the West of Folkestone, as I had arranged to fly over my mum’s house. I descended to 1000ft and headed over the main town, making sure to keep well clear of the firing ranges to the West, which London Info had told me were active. I did an orbit and then headed for Cap Gris Nez 33 miles away across a mill pond like channel. 

Just as I started to climb away from Hythe, I heard a beeping, which I initially thought was SkyDemon, but turned out to be the carbon monoxide alarm. I was concerned for a minute or two but decided that it was probably caused by the exhaust fumes from the orbit over Hythe entering the cockpit. I pulled the batteries out and carried on. 

I subsequently switched it back on on the trip from Calais to Abbeville and from that point on it was fine. I landed in Calais on runway 06 with a 6kt cross wind from 340. The landing wasn’t my best. I handled the approach ok but didn’t kick off the crosswind crab enough with the rudder before touchdown so landed at an angle putting unwanted strain on the tyres and undercarriage.

 I taxied directly to the fuel and waited for the fuel man, but it seems in COVID times in France you still need to wait for the fuel man, but then you need to fill it up yourself. This was repeated at Abbeville later in the day. 

 Avez Vous 10,000 Euros monsieur? 

After taxiing to the Apron to park, three COVID masked customs officers came to the aircraft. They asked for my passport and pulled all the bags out of the aircraft to check them. They asked more than once whether I had 10,000 Euros in cash on me, which was ironic as I didn’t have a single cent, only Le Plastique. 

The restaurant was still open, but I was the only patron and no food service seemed to be on offer. Taking pity on me the owner offered to make me a classic French club sandwich of cheese and ham. I also had a bottle of sparkling water and charged my phone. During my pre-departure aircraft checks I noticed that the oil was quite low. 

I had brought two and a half Quarts of oil with me, but it didn’t look like that would be enough. I hadn’t flown the Jodel that much to get to know how much oil it generally used so I would need to keep a close eye on it.

I departed Calais with the controller very worried about seagulls over the airfield to the extent that he held the large turbine that had lined up after me at the hold while the bird scaring team got to work. Apparently, I wasn’t worth the bother! I saw a few but they soon cleared out of my way. 

 Abbeville 

I then enjoyed a very pleasant 40 min flight down to Abbeville at 1500ft. Luckily when I arrived a Brit was on the radio talking aviation franglais from which I could ascertain that runway 02 was in use, which I assumed it would be. 

There was no traffic in the  circuit so I announced that I would join vent arrierre pour deux herbe. The landing was fine, hard not to be, on such a wide and long grass runway and in benign weather conditions. I fuelled up and paid my landing and overnight parking fee. I then parked Alpha Oscar on the lawn at the front of the hotel and tied her down. There really wasn’t any real risk of wind, but I knew I would sleep better having done it. 

 I had been pre-warned that the restaurant at the Hotel was closed on a Thursday, but I spotted someone in the Bar. So, after moving my gear into my room I went to the bar and ordered a very large cold beer which I thoroughly enjoyed drinking on the terrace while watching the Airfield activity. 

Day 2 – Troyes, Ecuvillens & Langenthal 

Up early for what even by French standards was a measly breakfast of bread and Jam with a mini pain au chocolate.   Someone then called me from Langenthal asking me what time I would arrive. I told him that I was planning to arrive around 1:30pm local time.  As it turned out I didn’t arrive until 5:00pm! 

I checked the weather and NOTAMS and did the A check. Took off just before 9:00am local on runway 20 and headed for Troyes which required a straightforward navigation around the North East of the Paris TMA with no Class D, E or restricted airspace to worry about as long as I kept under 3500ft as I clipped the North East sections. I had a headwind most of the way so only managed 74kts ground speed and arrived at Troyes two hours later just before 11:00am.

 My preference in the Jodel is to land on a grass runway if possible, as for a taildragger, it is more forgiving having less friction than a tarmac one. I had read in the NOTAMS that the grass runway was reserved exclusively for local aircraft and so I would be forced to use the hard runway, but I asked anyway only to be given a polite refusal. Needless to say, the landing on the southerly 1600m hard runway in light and variable winds posed no problems. 

Oil crisis? 

I backtracked on the runway to the fuel pumps and filled up with 34 litres of 100LL using my Visa card at the unattended pump. Fuel consumption at 17L per hour was within with my 18L per hour planning assumption. However, the oil situation wasn’t looking great. The oil was at max when I left the U.K. and I had brought 2.5 quarts with me, but it was clear that this was not going to be enough. 

It wasn’t that the engine was burning through it but rather it was throwing it out of the engine breather tube, which I could tell by the clean oil smears on the wooden underside of the fuselage. I called the tower after fuelling and was directed to park directly in front of the small terminal building. I went in to pay my landing fees of €10 and asked the Pompiers who manned the desk whether I could buy some Oil. 

They directed me further down the airfield to an engineering firm called Troyes Aviation. I walked over to them and in my best Franglais explained the situation and managed to buy 3 quarts of Aeroshell 150W50 which I estimated would be enough for the remainder of the journey, which it turned out it was. 

 Le déjeuner 

It was a hot day 28 degrees and by this time I was thirsty and hungry, so I went to the small restaurant on site which was empty and sat myself down at a table only to be told that they were fully booked. Apparently, they had a large group booking who were arriving imminently. But after a minute or so of animated discussion I was asked if a table on the terrace would be ok.

Being an Englishman I was immediately buoyed by the idea of sitting out in the midday sun! The buffet lunch was really very good, and refreshed, I felt ready to continue with what I regarded the most difficult leg of my journey, a potential two-hour flight to the south east across the Jura mountains into Switzerland. 

I submitted my Flight plan using SkyDemon on my phone, finished my lunch and departed Troyes just before 1pm. As I was doing my pre-flight power checks, I noticed the Oil hatch flapping in the prop blast. So, I had to shutdown, unbuckle my safety harness, get out of the aircraft and latch it properly. 

Heading across the Jura

 I was a bit nervous about what I would find over the Jura. I had driven across a few times and knew that on the French side it was a gradual rise but that towards the Swiss border it was a series of steep escarpments. It was also a hot and humid day and the threat of thunderstorms was always a possibility.

As I flew nearer the steeper parts of the Jura I noticed large white cumulonimbus clouds towering up a sure sign of storms to come and I was nervous for a while until I could see that they were sitting over the Alps more than 50miles away and nowhere near my route. 

“I have no idea where you are, goodbye!” 

I had been speaking to Baile/Basle Information on the radio, who, as I didn’t have a Transponder were tracking me via reporting points, such as “Report abeam Dijon”, however the further West I got, the worse the reception was, so at some point I lost contact for a while. A bit later the transmissions continued, and I tried calling them but all I got was “Alpha Oscar, I ‘ave no idea where you are, goodbye!”.

 I climbed to 6000ft to get over the final mountain before a sheer 3000ft drop into the plain below to get under some class E airspace at 2000ft agl. The view was breath taking and I was relieved to have got over the Jura and into Switzerland. 

Low fuel at Ecuvillens 

I had a further 20 minutes to Ecuvillens and the Jodel’s fuel gauge, the cork on a dip stick, was as low as I had seen it, but was still bumping around with a couple of inches to the 20mins reserve. The circuit at Ecuvillens was spectacular, following a ravine and with views up an Alpine valley to an azure blue lake. 

As the fuel was getting low, I put some pressure on myself to get the aircraft down first time without needing to do a go-around. This was the wrong attitude as there was surely enough fuel and if a go-around was needed then I didn’t need that distraction. As it was the landing was fine, even if the Jodel did float and roll for quite a way on the 800m very hot tarmac runway.

I went straight for fuel and parked side on to the pumps. It was then I realised that I was parked on a pronounced slope with the rear of the aircraft facing downwards. This is a problem, as the Jodel has no handbrake, apparently not a requirement in 1955, even on an aircraft where the prop had to be hand swung. I gingerly took my heels of the brakes and the aircraft started to roll backwards slowly, luckily the Tailwheel rolled into a small drain gully which stopped it just enough for me to jump out and put the chocks on. 

I checked to see how much fuel was left using my wooden dipstick and found that it was 14litres which is about 40mins, ideally you would plan to land with an hour to be used for any unplanned diversion. I filled up and then taxied to the parking, checked and topped up the oil and then went to pay my fees.

I had notified customs that I would be entering Switzerland at Ecuvillens, but they were not there, but that didn’t stop the airfield from charging me a customs handling fee of about £20. It was 3pm and extremely hot and I was tired after that flight, so I went to the bar terrace that overlooked the airfield and had large bottle of mineral water and a bit of a rest. 

 The final leg 

I left Ecuvillens just after 4pm and managed to repeat the feat of not latching the oil hatch properly so had to shutdown and unbuckle, get out and latch it. This can’t happen again! It was a fantastic flight in the late afternoon sunshine over lake Neuchatel heading to the North to avoid Berne airspace and then south east to Langenthal. 

It was one of those airfields nestled in forested hills and valleys which was not easy to spot even with SkyDemon. As soon as I tuned into the airfield frequency, I could hear that there were several aircraft approaching the circuit from different directions. The normal chaos of a fly-in. I heard a Brit who would have been new to continental flying asking for the Q...F...E! to which would have elicited Gallic shrugs on the ground from the controller. 

In the U.K. an airfield will generally provide the QFE value which is the pressure setting adjusted to the Airfield’s height allowing the pilot to set his altimeter so that zero is at airfield ground level. On the continent they simply publish the height of the airfield and let you work it out. In France they do also publish the circuit height at AMSL and AGL on the airfield plates, which helps. 

Going around! 

I joined the circuit downwind with only an aircraft on finals in front of me which I watched land as I turned on to left base. I realised then that I was way too high, without any flaps I would need to sideslip to create the form drag that would force the descent. With only a few hours flying this sort of aircraft I was not an expert at this and in fact I was quite wary of it, anyway I tried and crossed controls as far as I dare to induce the slip, careful not to overbalance it in any direction. 

My inexperience showed, as even though I did manage to lose a fair bit if height I came out of the slip too early and could see on short final that I was never going to make it. Especially bearing in mind that the runway was relatively short at 585m, the day was still hot and hard braking on the Jodel is not encouraged. I applied full power and did a go-around to re-join the circuit. 

As I called downwind for the second time, I heard a Europa also calling downwind, always a worrying moment. I couldn’t see him so asked if he had me in sight which he did. This time I extended the circuit slightly to ensure that I could get the height and speed off to  get it down on the numbers which I duly did, but there was still a fair amount of braking to be done to ensure a timely exit from the runway. I followed the on-ground marshallers instructions and ended up parked on a fairly rough field alongside 40-50 aircraft. 

There followed two days of sunshine, good food and drink and plenty of aviation banter. Perfect. It was extremely well organised by the Swiss EAS guys and everyone was made to feel very welcome. But as this story is really about the journey so I won't dwell on the weekend, as enjoyable as it was.