UK solo flight to Langenthal, Switzerland- PART TWO

 Day 4 – Return departure, Basle & Colmar

 Where’s the GAFOR gone? 

After some early morning rain and checking the weather, my initial view was that I would be staying another day in Langenthal. However, at breakfast the three Europa pilots were looking to head away early as the GAFOR route across to Basle was open but would probably close later. Alistair was also planning to get away to Annecy as soon as the Airfield opened for departing flights at 10:30. 

I therefore re-appraised the position and as the weather to the west in France looked OK I submitted a flight plan for an 11:00 am departure following the GAFOR route North to Basle and then heading West to LFSM Montbeliard where I had requested customs clearance. I had a quick chat about the weather with one of the locals who the previous day had delivered a presentation on Mountain flying. He was full of confidence regarding the weather, and even suggested that I could fly directly over the mountains without having to fly the circuitous GAFOR route S51 which added another 20 minutes to the flight.

 By the time I had loaded the Jodel and fuelled, I had to delay the Flightplan to 11:30, but as it was, I was airborne at :15 past the hour. I departed on 05 and headed North once clear of the Zone. I changed frequency to Zürich Info and requested my flight plan be activated and they then directed me to Basle information. I did something, that I had done previously on this trip, which I will try to avoid doing again, and that is to parallel the SkyDemon track rather than intercept it and follow it.

If I was thinking ahead, I should anticipate the runway in use and set the route from the expected exit point of the ATZ rather than from the centre of the runway. By paralleling the SkyDemon track but on the same heading I initially missed the entrance to the GAFOR route. The land north of Langenthal is a flat valley plain and you can see the low Jura hills running SW to NE.  I assumed looking at the geography that the GAFOR route would follow the plain, but I was wrong. I followed the plain to the NE and then saw that according to the SkyDemon track that I had completely missed the turn for the GAFOR. There was instead a very narrow entrance which without the accuracy of SkyDemon I think would have been difficult to find.  

 Anyway, I did a 180-degree turn, found the entrance and followed the narrow valley and was rewarded with spectacular views and some beautiful scenic hill flying. 

 Weather Diversion

 I called Basle Information on the radio just as I exited the GAFOR valley route. As soon as I mentioned ‘Negative Transponder’ the controller warned me to stay out of the Basle ATZ. There were a few claggy clouds sitting around the top of the hills and some lowered cloud in the distance but that was still above the surrounding mountains. But when I exited the GAFOR valley and headed SW towards Dittenden to avoid the Basle CTR the landscape looked much more mountainous than I had anticipated, and the weather looked a lot more ominous with menacing dark clouds obscuring the top of the mountains and claggy cloud and haze below.

I asked Basle Info for a weather report for Montbelliard LFSM and did an orbit while waiting. The controller came back and reported that she was unable to get the report. Whilst doing the Orbit I noticed that I could see straight down the main runway at Basle International airport about 8 kms away to the East. It was inviting me in! 

Straight away, I requested a Weather Diversion and the controller immediately told me to head directly to the airport asking whether I had visual on an A320 departing on runway 15, which I confirmed I did. She then told me to call the Tower, who were aware of my request and asked if I was OK with a straight in approach on 33 as there was minimum wind, even though it was the opposite direction of what they were currently operating off. 

As I approached an EasyJet A320 was asked to hold short of entering the runway pending  my arrival. I flew a good approach and did a smooth touchdown on the 4km tarmac using the brakes so I could exit as soon as I could at Foxtrot.   I was then passed to ground and spoke to a very nice controller, who welcomed me to Basle to which I replied that it was an unexpected visit, to which she replied, “this is Murphy’s Law!”. 

While taxiing, I was asked how long I would be here, to which I guessed 2-3 hours. I was directed to follow the Marshallers van to parking place 46 in between a couple of large biz jets. I was asked whether I wanted ground transportation, but I declined while I remained in the cockpit and got my thoughts together. I shut down the engine and opened the cockpit door and sat back to think about my options. 

There weren’t any that immediately came to mind, the weather wasn’t improving and the route to Montbeliard was right through the middle of it. I decided to head for the terminal and re-think my plans and potentially organise for an overnight stay. I called the apron and requested transportation and then removed my overnight and flight bags, chocked the aircraft, covered the pitot tube and put the canopy cover on. The transportation driver had quickly arrived and gave me a ‘whatever’ shrug when I gestured that I needed some time to secure the aircraft.

Back in the terminal I exited an eerily completely deserted and darkened arrivals hall. EuroAirport Basel-Mullhouse-Freiburg Europort airport as it is, not straightforwardly called, is a schizophrenic place. You can exit to France, Germany or Switzerland. The convenient thing for me was that I needed to go through French customs, which is why I was headed for Montbeliard, so I exited through the French channel and made a point of explaining my situation to a French customs official who couldn’t have been less interested. 

I headed for the arrivals Information desk to pay my landing fee. Due to COVID restrictions they didn’t want to take any money but would send me a bill. Who knows why? Anyway, I filled in the form and declared a Weather Diversion and wrote ‘Strasser’ in big letters across the form just to get the point across. While I was happy to pay any fee to cover the relief of seeing that inviting runway, the voluntary Strasser agreement meant that fees should not be charged for a weather diversion to stop pilots worrying about such things when they are in weather trouble. 

I then got some food and drink and found a quiet area of the departure terminal to plan my next move. 

What to do next? 

I examined the weather picture and could see that there were major thunderstorms heading this way for at least the next two hours, so I had plenty of time to re-plan. Just before leaving Langenthal, I was sitting outside the Airfield restaurant having a coffee and doing my final bit of planning when a couple of locals came over to chat, and one of them mentioned Basle, Colmar and Strasbourg as potential alternatives if things were not going well. 

Colmar was only 35mins away due North across a flat plain and looked like it would get me out of the way of constant steam of storms heading north east from the Alps, however the storms were getting worse. I studied the weather information and there was a huge storm due about 5pm but after that there was a 90 minute weather window where it looked like I would have time to get to Colmar, which would get me away from the Alps weather systems and also would be a more pleasant place to stay overnight. 

Another piece of learning from one of the Swiss flyers at Langenthal about flying in France was to always call ahead to the airfield as situations regarding fuel, facilities and procedures are often different from what is published in the AIP. So, I called the tower at Colmar and asked for permission to land there and there was a "of course, no problem". 

The panic then set in. I was now going to go to Colmar but only had a limited weather window with which to navigate the airport exit procedures. Other experiences of flying GA into international European airports had taught me that this could be a lengthy and tortuous affair. Luckily, I had asked the helpful man at arrivals information what the procedure was for exit and he had told me to go to the ‘oversize’ departure gate 33. 

Which I did, and the "je suis un pilote" seemed to work. I went through the gate, directed to a desk to complete some paperwork and guided through the obligatory x ray luggage machine. Interestingly I had a water bottle filled for my journey which if you had been flying commercially would have been confiscated, but as I was GA it was taken away for some sort of test but then returned intact.  I was asked to wait by a door when within a few minutes a driver arrived to take me to my aeroplane. It must be said that my whole experience at Basle was nothing but very good and very friendly. 

 Wet Cockpit

 The driver directed me to the van and then another driver turned up to tell me that he saw my Pitot cover fly off during one of the storms but managed to recover it and put it back on. Great news but tempered by the fact that as we approached the aircraft across the soaking wet tarmac, I could see that the canopy cover was now not covering the aircraft! 

The driver dropped me and my luggage off by the aircraft and I could see that the aircraft was very wet and that there was definitely going to be water inside the cockpit due to the way that the doors do not close to provide a weatherproof fit. What seemed to have happened was that while the canopy remained clipped together, I hadn’t tightened it sufficiently and the wind had got underneath it and blown it around the fuselage. 

I stepped up onto the wing, opened the door and looked in the cockpit and could immediately see to my horror that the radio, headset and seats were all very wet. I pulled some clothing from my overnight bag and started to dry all the items, my biggest concern being the radio. As I unclipped the handheld radio from the centre console the BNC connector fell off the end of the coax cable along with all the tiny components that make it up, scattering across the cockpit floor and rolling underneath the seats. 

Perfect! I was sort of in a hurry and now I needed to repair the cable before I could even test that the soaked radio still worked. Those who know me will tell you that I am all fingers and thumbs when it comes to anything fiddly like this. However, I took a deep breath, tried to relax and focused on finding the bits and putting it back together. Once completed I connected the cable back up to the radio so I could test. I switched on the Master electrical switch, powered on the radio, put my headset on and called ground for a radio check.   To my huge relief everything worked. 

A botched departure 

I carried on with my pre-departure checks and then called ground for start-up, and I was quickly given clearance to taxi.   I am sure they couldn’t get rid of me fast enough, although to be fair they didn’t show it. I was directed to holding point Golf around midway along the runway for a departure on runway 15. Departure clearance was given, and I took off and then made a left-hand turn to fly downwind behind the terminal. 

This is where my smooth departure starts to unravel. I had sat in the terminal for close on five hours waiting for a gap in the weather and planning my next flight but had totally neglected to study the departure procedures for Basle. So when the controller, who was still asking me to squawk although I kept telling her I didn’t have a transponder, asked me to route to November Echo, I had no clue. 

Fortunately, being adept at using SkyDemon I quickly located the plate found NE and set a direct route to it and then repeated the procedure when asked to route to November. But I did beat  myself up a lot over that one as it could have been extremely embarrassing, but hopefully a lesson learned. 

Arrival in Colmar 

Out of the Basle Zone and now heading for Colmar with the weather behind me, it turned into a pleasant 40min flight with the Vineyards on the slopes of Vosges to the west and the open plain of the Alsace Valley below. I left Basle control and called Colmar for a very quiet and straightforward downwind join of the circuit and yet another landing on tarmac, the fifth in a row! So much for grass runway preferences. I fuelled up, tied down, giving extra attention to the tightness of the canopy cover and then went to the tower to pay my fees and organise a taxi into town to the Hotel I had booked while I sat in the cockpit waiting for the fuel man. 

 Day 5 – Colmar to Troyes

 The next day following a pleasant evening in Colmar, sitting outside at a restaurant eating some nice food and drinking some desperately needed beer, I planned and checked my route west across the Vosges direct to Troyes. The plan was to get to Abbeville by the end of the day where I had managed to move my hotel booking.

It was now obvious that I was not going to be home on Monday as I had originally planned, but to be honest, I was enjoying the extended trip and work were being flexible, so it wasn’t a big deal. Le Massif De Vosges and the Plateau Lorrain I had a fairly relaxed departure from Colmar not leaving until about 10:30 local time for the two-hour trip to Troyes. 

The flight over the Vosges was delightful with rural Alsace Lorrain landscape unfolding below. As I got nearer Troyes and descended from the 5,000ft, which I had been cruising at to get over some military airspace, down to 2,000ft the flight became more turbulent with a lot of gusts rocking the aircraft about. I wasn’t particularly worried, but the wind did seem stronger than had been forecasted and this could be an issue if it put me out of crosswind limits at Troyes and a potential divert to Brienne Le Chateau. 

Gusty approach to Troyes & Weather check 

I called Troyes and got airfield information and landed on the Northerly tarmac runway with the wind well within limits although still feeling gustier than what I was being told. Also looking ahead to the north, the weather looked quite threatening. I fuelled up and parked on the Apron and started talking to a French pilot who was in front of me at the Fuel station with a G- registered C152.

I talked to him about the weather forecast and that it looked like I would potentially be stuck here for the evening. He told me about the Golden Tulip hotel which was right next to the airfield. He also helped me get the aircraft parked overnight opposite the flying club hangars and gave me a lift to the Hotel which although wasn’t far, with my baggage was a real help. 

The Hotel had a room and gave a 10% discount for anyone coming in from the Airport. I checked in sorted myself out and then thought about the next day. I was still three flights and just over four hours flying time from home. I checked the weather and was glad to see that my decision to stay in Troyes seemed like the right one with a band of thunderstorms over the North of France. 

The forecast for the next day looked very good overall but with windier conditions in the UK later in the day. With this in mind, I decided to leave as early as possible from Troyes in order to get back to the UK early afternoon. I went back to the airfield to pay my fees, including parking at €0.50 per hour, and organise a 7:30 local time departure. As the airport building would not be open at that time, I was given a code to access a side gate which was almost right by the aircraft. I went back to the aircraft via the gate to test the code and topped up the Oil ready for the next day. 

Back at the Hotel I submitted my Customs departure form for Calais and my GAR form for arrival back at the Farm Strip in the UK. I then had an enjoyable dinner in the Hotel restaurant and was early to bed in readiness for a 6am alarm call 

 Day 6 – Abbeville, Calais & Home

An early start 

After a quick coffee and pastry in the hotel while checking Weather and NOTAMS, I walked to the airport, through the side gate and readied the aircraft. The canopy was still covered in dew which I shook off as much as I could before packing it away in its bag. The fuel check showed a couple of mm’s of water in the fuel drain, for the first time on the whole trip.

I departed the still deserted airport at 7:35, climbing out on 35 for the two-hour flight around the North East of the Paris TMA to Abbeville. It was hazy with the sun still low and I was glad I wasn’t flying to the East where the glare from the sun created a bright haze which would have been difficult to fly towards. 

Fog on the Somme 

It was a smooth flight with pockets of mist and fog here and there over the beautiful French countryside.   Well it looked wonderful,  but I did then start to wonder about the potential for early morning fog at Abbeville. That wouldn’t be good. My concerns got worse as I neared Amiens, which sits on the Somme River, which seemed to have some large fog banks following its course, the same course that ran through Abbeville and then onto the Channel. 

I flew to the North East of Amiens-Glisy airfield at about 2000ft and tuned in to their frequency. It looked to me like the bank of fog was sitting right on the airfield but there was an aircraft taxiing for departure, so on the ground I guessed it was haze and maybe at a few hundred feet above. 

I was still a little worried and considered my diversion to Albert-Bray which at this point was only 13miles away but by the time I got to Abbeville would be 35miles away and would eat into my fuel reserves significantly. I re-checked the chart and could see that Abbeville was a good few miles from the river and was also on a slight hill and as the mist was not widespread, I was possibly worrying too much. As it was, I arrived in the overhead in bright sunshine to see a microlight arriving on 20, to which, as no-one was responding to any of my radio calls in English and in Franglais, I followed suit.  

 Cat tricks

 I taxied to the fuel pumps, chocked the aircraft and went to the airfield office which although the door was open, the presence of an arrivals log and an honesty box pointed to there being no-one around except for a cat which ran in after me, jumped up onto a bar stool which then spun round a couple of times. I wasn’t sure whether this was it’s regular greeting party trick or a complete one off! 

Who’s paying? 

I went back to the fuel pumps to see a man and a young girl hauling a Robin aircraft from the hangars towards me. The young girl, a 14-year-old student spoke good English and I explained my predicament. Pas problem as the Flying Instructor had a key for the pump. They filled up and then I filled up and at the time I was wondering how I was going to pay for this. To cut a long story short, the Flying Instructor had been more helpful than he should have been and seemed to be in some sort of trouble with the Aeroclub manager with a lot of cries of ‘désolée’. 

In the end the Aeroclub manager was more than helpful and I paid the club what I owed for the fuel using a credit card and departed for Calais at 10:40. Calais The 40 minute flight and eventual landing in Calais was uneventful. Landing on runway 24 in sunshine with light and variable winds. I fuelled up, even though on paper I had enough fuel to get back I was always told to never miss an opportunity to ‘fill ‘er up’,  just in case. 

I then parked and went into the terminal building to pay my fees and hopefully get some water, Coffee and a sandwich, in that order. I also filed a flight plan, as I was crossing borders and flying over water, for 12:35 local time. 

Radio problems and Poor Airmanship 

On departing Calais, I requested that they activate my flight plan and then when I got to the edge of their zone heading down the coast to Cap Gris Nez, to ensure the shortest possible channel crossing, I requested a frequency change to Lille Information. 

This is where I must sadly admit to some poor airmanship. I couldn’t raise Lille Information. I could hear the controller and traffic, but they could not hear me, it seemed that the radio gremlins were back. Now what I should have done at this point was to have headed back to Calais and sorted the radio out on the ground. But I think I got caught by the infamous ‘pressonitis’. I was nearly home, the Channel looked fine, I could see England. So, I headed across the channel without a fully working radio which I don’t think is illegal but is without doubt foolhardy.  

 There’ll be low clouds over the white cliffs of Dover

 To make matter worse as I headed towards the coast at Folkestone there seemed to be a large amount of cloud. I had checked the UK weather in Calais, and everything was CAVOK with the winds forecasted at the Strip to be straight down the runway 8kts. As I got closer, I could see the cloud base getting lower. 

Perfect, I had a faulty radio and the weather was closing in. The Swiss Cheese holes of the risk analysis were starting to line up! As I approached Folkestone the cloud seemed to be sitting right on the cliffs, I looked to my right and I could see the white cliffs of Dover where the cloud was slightly higher. I made a right turn towards Dover careful not to infringe the air space restrictions in place to protect the drones patrolling illegal immigrant boats. 

I passed over the cliffs at 900ft! Not anywhere near what I was expecting. I tried not to panic.  Aviate, navigate, communicate in that order was what I was always taught. The aircraft was performing well and the cloud base, although low, seemed to get a bit higher as I flew inland. I still had a desire to get on the ground and gather my thoughts, so I looked for a diversion airfield, Maypole and Clipgate were close, but these were small airfields and if I needed help with the radio there probably wouldn’t be any. Headcorn, a larger busier airfield to the West of Ashford would be a better bet and wasn’t far away and so I plotted a course.  

 Back on track 

As I got closer to Headcorn the cloud lifted significantly, to the extent that I could see the Thames estuary and beyond to the North. I re-considered my position. I could simply re-join my original course and head around the London TMA as planned. I wouldn’t be able to get a Radar service, but I would be able to talk to airfields en route, if the experience at Calais was still valid. I decided to do this and so changed course for Rochester. 

As I got closer to Rochester, just south their ATZ, I called them for a radio check and traffic information which they duly provided, I then asked a favour, explaining my radio difficulties and that I had just crossed the Channel on a fight plan and was continuing to my destination and could they relay this to London Information. The helpful controller told me to standby and then duly came back with the message that London Information were now fully informed and then he wished me well on my onward flight.  

Crosswind at the strip? 

During this period, I had also noticed that the wind was much gustier than I had anticipated, to the extent that I was struggling to keep my height and speed constant and was experiencing the most uncomfortable leg of the whole journey. I passed to the South of Stapleford ATZ and tuned in to pick up the latest QNH and weather at the field. I heard the controller tell someone on final that the wind was 340 at 10kts. 

This spooked me. I was expecting 250 8kts and a so a gusty wind from the North West which was almost across the farm strip would pose a bit of a challenge for a novice like me. I thought about alternatives and one immediate one was a diversion into RAF Halton which was only a couple of miles from the strip and where I was a club member and had dispensation to fly-in, and although COVID restrictions had suspended this, I assumed a weather diversion wouldn’t be a problem. Anyway, before making any rash decisions I would fly over the Strip and check the windsock first. 

 The Border Force out in Force

 I flew over the Chiltern ridge and onto the Vale of Aylesbury plain just to the west of Wendover, keeping out of the Halton ATZ and headed for my house and the nearby Strip. As I flew overhead, I was distracted from looking at the Windsock by the presence of three uniformed officers and a car parked next to the hangar. 

The Border Force, who everyone had told me ‘Never turn up!’, had done just that. I didn’t have anything to worry about, but it was a distraction that I needed to remove from my mind as the next landing would be potentially be one of the most difficult of the trip. The good news was that according to the windsock the wind was exactly as forecasted, and I had spent thirty minutes worryingly unnecessarily but at least I had considered it and planned for an alternative. 

I landed OK and taxied up to the Hangar to meet the waving Border Force team. I did remember to close my flight plan on SkyDemon before exiting the aircraft. The Border Force team were friendly, polite and gently inquisitive and seemed very interested in the Jodel, a pleasant change, they informed me, to checking Bizjets at Farnborough. 

The Border Force left, and I tidied up the Aircraft, put it back in the hangar and walked back to the house to reflect on a brilliant trip, a significant personal achievement and some lessons learned. 

Some stats from the trip 

• 6 Days overall 

• 11 Flights during 5 flying days 

• 16 Hours of actual flying 

• 1200miles covered 

• Four flight plans and Customs clearances. 

• Average speed 74kts. 

• 5.5 Quarts of Oil used 

• 9 Fuel fills at c. £500. 

• About £1400 for the whole trip including accommodation, food, tickets for the fly-in, fuel & Oil, landing and parking fees.