We decided to fly to La Rochelle end of June already a couple of months ago; additionally my girlfriend (and solid co-pilot in one person) who truly likes the Brittany very much convinced me to make it all into one trip, thus we planned for a nice one-week-trip from Egelsbach (EDFE) to La Rochelle (LFBH) initially, proceeding to Pluguffan (LFRQ) thereafter, finally returning to Egelsbach via Luxembourg (ELLX).
This is my respective report. I have to admit: it’s my first report, so I have no idea how good this will work, however, I hope you enjoy some of the pictures and the report anyway. Not a spectacular trip, but anyway …
We left Egelsbach on Sunday, June 28. The weather forecasted was perfect: with the high pressure system already being stationary over France and expanding to the West the flight was obviously going to be totally easy. The flight plan EDFE – LFBH was for 11 UTC, so sufficient time for a Sunday morning breakfast without any hurry.
As always, the departures out of Egelsbach with the IFR pickup (Z-flightplan) are a bit special; we got in radar contact quickly but were vectored a bit to the Southeast to stay clear of EDDF’s traffic departing from RWY 18.
This is the routing (planned vs. actual).
Some clouds around us while climbing to FL 120 which was the best level for that flight according to the wind forecast.
Still in the climb we were first directed to DONAB, but shortly after to GTQ in France already.
The clouds disappeared more and more, finally having severe CAVOK conditions around us, making the trip even a bit boring. Overhead EPL we were mostly on the direct line to LFBH already, having slight crosswind and flying close to 170 GS with a FF of 13.4 GAL/h.
After crossing the Loire River we approached LFBH after approx. 3.5 hours total flight time. You can see LFBH airport in the distance close to the beachfront, in the background it’s beautiful Ile de Ré.
We had a reservation for a rent-a-car to be flexible, which can be highly recommended. The trip from the airport to the city doesn’t take much time, our hotel (Best Western Masqhotel) turned out to be a good choice being located close to the historical city centre, the old port and all that nice stuff. So we decided to have a short first walk around and then quickly found a place for dinner close to the old port area. I enjoyed fresh oysters and mussels, very tasteful.
The next day we decided to visit Ile de Ré, this beautiful island close to La Rochelle. The island is connected by a toll bridge with the mainland, the fee is 16€, but the island is totally worth this fee. We drove to the westernmost point with the light tower ‘Phare des Baleines’ and enjoyed the great views to the ‘land’s end’.
For the next day the weather forecast predicted extremely hot temperatures up to over 40 degrees Celsius, so we had to change our plans a bit; a short but intensive shopping tour through the historical district of La Rochelle with all the nice little boutiques – this was a must, and even I enjoyed the air-conditioned small shops … honestly, I was surprised how pitoresque La Rochelle is.
Later we decided to relax at the beach since every other activity would have been full nonsense that day; so we drove south to Chatelaillon-Plage and came to sit on a shadow place in a beach bar.
Together with the significantly rising temperatures the overall weather situation became more and more unstable. The forecast for the next part of our trip (LFBH – LFRQ) didn’t sound too promising the night before the flight with a cold front coming in, Brest and Pluguffan reporting TS already. Of course, the flight was only planned for the next day, so plenty of time, but anyway, the next morning LFRQ was reporting limited IFR conditions with OVC 002. But with the wind coming from the south I expected the clouds and the fog to be blown away over the next hours, so I decided to wait for a couple of hours, delayed the flight plan and kept watching the METAR / TAF. Indeed, for the early afternoon the TAF said BKN013 which was a solid basis for a ‘go-decision’.
So we left La Rochelle at 11 UTC, being in an OVC layer shortly after take-off, thereafter flying along the beautiful coastline unfortunately without any view to it. This was sad since I was really looking forward to this part of the trip and had expected of course some nice views down to the Atlantic Ocean.
Close to Pluguffan, as mentioned in the TAF, the clouds turned into BKN then, making the ILS approach into LFRQ totally easy.
Again, we had a reservation for a rent-a-car and a booking for a hotel; the hotel was situated in Concarneau, approx. 30 minutes driving distance from the airport. The hotel turned out to be THE perfect place with our suite being directly located on the shoreline.
The next day (after having oyster again and an excellent lobster the night before for dinner) we made a first trip to Concarneau, thereafter to Locronan and finally to Quimper.
While driving around I found that very special road sign collection I have to share with you:
On our last day we drove to ‘West End’ which is ‘Pointe du Raz’. Great landscape, very rough but lovely, with nice beaches on the way to there.
On Saturday, 4th of July it was time again to fly back home. My decision was to have a fuel stop in Luxembourg with Jet Fuel A1 being extremely cheap over there. Again, we had to take care a little bit for the actual weather situation since another cold front made its way through France. The weather was supposed to be totally easy the first part of the flight along the Normandy, but the front was expected after DPE.
I shortly discussed by phone with the guy from the ‘Flugwetterberatung’ about the best altitude and we both came to the conclusion that flying at a lower lever (FL80-120) would be the most clever decision. So I decided for FL100 which was a good decision. As forecasted, we had an extremely smooth and nice flight with up to 50kts tailwind all flight long up to DPE.
On the last photo one can already identify the first signals of the frontal system far ahead in the distance. But even crossing the front was easier than expected; we only were close to a CB once encountering certain downdrafts but still with the AP fully capable of handling them. Additionally, in weather situation like this one the GWX68 weather radar is doing great, in connection with the stormscope I feel truly being on the safe side.
We arrived ELLX after about 2:30 total flight time with approx. 40 degrees Celsius outside temperature again. Waiting for the fuel truck in that heat was a bigger challenge than flying through the front after all.
The last leg from Luxembourg back to Egelsbach was an easy story finally. We got a DCT RID shortly after departure, cancelled IFR about 15 minutes ahead of RID and came back home safely.
Total flight time was approx. 8 hours. Fuel used was approx. 90 GAL of Jet A1. Fun-factor was 100%.
Great trip report, thanks for sharing. Looks like you both had a good trip. La Rochelle looks like a nice place definitely on the list for this summer. Not sure how I would have dealt with 40deg C on the Tarmac…that’s hot!
What weather app are you using?
Thanks for that. I enjoyed reading it 
Do you mind me asking what the landing/parking/handlings fees were for Luxemburg?
That’s a really great report, and nice pics too.
La Rochelle is always a great place to visit (when it’s warm, of course). There is a lot going on, and you just never stop taking pictures. The airport is quite good too, with fuel etc payment in a hut airside (closed at lunchtime) and a coded gate through which you can come and go.
… thanks for your positive feedback!
@Alex_: as for my weather apps, I use ‘flugwetter.de’ as the main basis for weather related information, but this is payware. Additionally I use the GRAMETS created by autorouter and ogimet, on my iphone I finally have Orbifly installed.
@dublinpilot: landing fees in ELLX (Luxembourg) are very cheap, for the DA42 it’s below 10€. But overall you should take the following in consideration: what makes ELLX expensive is using the GAT because handling is mandatory. This will be around 70€. So for avoiding any handling fees what you need is an internal account for the landing fees at ELLX, in that case you simply tell TWR upon landing that you do have said account for the landing fees and thus you don’t need to use the GAT for paying any fees. Getting that account is easy and free of charge. However, what still remains an issue is refuelling. Again, if you want to pay by credit card or even cash you need to walk into the GAT – which is again 70K€ because of handling. The only card accepted directly by the fuel truck driver is UVair-Card which is (to my knowledge) not available for AVGAS but A1 only. So all in all: ELLX for refuelling is only recommended under very special circumstances. Landing in ELLX for visiting Luxembourg is not that much recommended, flying to EDRT (Trier) or even EDDR (Saarbrücken) or EDRJ (Saarlouis) and driving across the border to Luxembourg seems to be a better choice.
