Hamm to Calvi (LFKC)

Initially my friend and I were looking at flying to Burgas in Bulgaria but with Covid, those plans were thrown out the window. With time to kill and his trusty P28A waiting, we were considering flying to Vienna or Budapest but again, the weather that direction wasn’t looking too good, but it did look nice to the south west so we elected to fly to Cannes (LFMD) via Colmar (LFGA). Routing was pretty much direct, transiting Dortmund airspace from November to Sierra then via COL VOR, passing abeam Koblenz and heading over the top of Ramstein, crossing into France close to Zweibrücken.

Although the departure date was a Saturday, when we contacted Strasbourg approach, they told us that ‘Bitche’ was active and we should route around it. Fortunately I knew that they were referring to LFR228B, what surprised me was that it was active according to NOTAM from 6500 – FL165 – we were at 3000feet…. hmm….. either way, we skirted around it, transited the airspace of Strasbourg and landed at Colmar.

Colmar is a great GA airfield, 1.6km of asphalt and relatively low prices – €12,80 for the landing fee and €1,60 for AVGAS. Just outside, about 200m to the north of the terminal entry was a grill bar – nothing special to write about but at least we had food and drink. Access back to the aircraft is simple enough – walk back into the terminal, pay the landing fee / fuel and then head to the apron, however you need to remember the code for access which is the first 4 digits of the tower frequency then press button A (so 1190A).

Once airborne, we routed towards Cannes Mandelieu Airport (LFMD). Initially we climbed to FL075, heading direct towards Bourg Ceyzeriat (LFHS), turning south towards Grenoble (LFLS) but as the flight progressed, the convective activity was increasing hence we asked for FL085 which was granted and then FL095. This was within the Charlie airspace of the Lyon TMA but the controllers were very helpful, asking that above FL085, they wanted us to take an IFR level, so we climbed to FL100. The further south we went, we could see that the TCUs were getting thicker – looking across, we could just see the tip of Mont Blanc peeking out of the clouds. As we approached St Etienne En Devoluy airfield (no ICAO code), the clouds were reaching from FL 75 (or less), up above our altitude so we decided to descend and divert slightly right of track, taking us out of the foothills of the Alps were we could see heavy rain was falling in some valleys, aiming direct for Le Luc Le Cannet (LFMC).

Cannes was very busy with 4 aircraft being on approach, including a helicopter which was converging on us so we decided to circle for spacing, flying overhead the airport to join downwind for Runway 17. We landed, parked on the grass apron and enjoyed an evening in Cannes.

Initially our intentions were to fly to Calvi but they require 72Hrs PPR; I didn’t realise that when I was looking at locations, so when I sent off my request for PPR on the Friday, I was surprised to see a response from them on Saturday afternoon with a link to this document. I filled it in, requested for Sunday PPR, deciding that if they didn’t grant us PPR, we’d either stay a day longer in Cannes or head down to Ajaccio Napoleon Bonaparte airport. Sunday morning I received the PPR – not that anyone asked us for it….

My friend uses Sky Demon and so he plotted his routing via SW, DC, XC, WC; we paid our fees at Cannes (around 27€ for landing and one night’s parking) and walked back to the plane. If staying within France, and if you’re parked on the grass apron, you don’t have to go via the main terminal but can leave it (and all the hassle with the border staff / security checks), turn right, walk alongside the fish ponds, towards a building in your 11 o clock. There is a security post there, show a pilot’s ID and they allow you in. We started up, taxied to refuel – again, the price of fuel was around €1.60 / liter for AVGAS – surprisingly cheap for such a large airfield.

Whilst taxying, Ground asked us our intentions. We advised them of our intentions to fly to Calvi at which point they asked whether we had filed a flight plan. Negative. I’m used to Sky Demon saying ‘it appears your flight will require a flight plan’ but in the case of the chosen flight – LFMD → LFKC, none was required however it IS necessary. So we parked the plane on the grass apron to the north, next to the flying club, walked back to the terminal, filed the flight plan and wanted to leave. Unfortunately the border officials weren’t too happy with that. They asked whether we were pilots – we were – and asked us to show our credentials. Having received my FAA licence piggy backed onto my EASA licence last year, I always have that licence in its handy credit card size in my wallet. I showed this, they let me go. However my friend had his licence in his pilot’s bag which was in the plane. He was told that he couldn’t leave the terminal unless he was a pilot or had an agent bring him to his plane. He offered to go back to the plane, pick up his licence and bring it back – which finally they accepted….

The flight was pretty uneventful but you realise how big the Med is when you see you’ve been flying for an hour, of which 50 minutes are without sight of land. Approaching WC, we were asked to route to November and offered either a 6knot tail wind on the straight in approach to 18 or circle for 36 – as the runway is 2.3km long, we landed with the tail wind. Service at Calvi was significantly better than Cannes, the fuel truck came by within minutes, the costs were moderate with fuel around €1,80 / liter, landing fees of €25 plus 4€ per night parking plus local tax of 12€ plus VAT – so approx 50€.

We stayed at the Best Western Plus Santa Maria at L’ile Rousse in the north of the Island – a fabulous location, with it’s own private beach, a pool and on the opposite side of the road, there are places to rent boats – from 6HP (without needing a licence) up to 225HP powered machines, jet-skis, Segways, Scooters. In the town, there are plenty of good restaurants, my particular favourite was Restaurant L’Escale – great food; being british, I got sunburnt quite badly even though the usage of Factor 50 was used frequently and liberally. On the last evening, my friend wanted to try out the A Siesta Restaurant, which is directly on the beach. Unfortunately I elected to stay on the deck of the restaurant, didn’t have the food on the beach….

The trip back to Cannes was also uneventful, however when checking the NOTAMs, I saw that airfield parking for GA was full; we had initially decided to fly back to Cannes, spend another night looking around the town and return the following day via Colmar; if no parking was available, there was no way we were paying for landing at Nice, but were considering flying to Grenoble and looking at the area. Fortunately, just as we were landing, another aircraft was departing so we were able to fill up the tanks and take their parking on the grass apron….

The next morning we departed back to Colmar but as we were airborne, Sky Demon noted a new NOTAM for Colmar – AVGAS not available! We contacted Bale Approach who rang Colmar – unfortunately, yes, they had run out of AVGAS…. So quickly we replanned and flew to Strasbourg Neuhof (LFGC); the airfield has 2 grass runways of around 800m, the positive news was that they had AVGAS and no landing fees – the negative point was that the price of AVGAS was €2,01 / litre :( We refuelled and headed back to Hamm, completing the final leg at FL95, skirting the Frankfurt and Cologne Charlie airspaces – lower was too bumpy…. After 14 hours flight time, we returned, having once more experienced the joys of flight…..

Below are some pictures….

Base, runway 17 at Cannes (LFMD)

VRP November, Calvi (LFKC)

Right Base Runway 17, LFKC

If you’ve got it, flaunt it……

Sunset over L’Ille Rousse

Cannes….

Rainbow over the foothills of the alps….

something to do with 007, perhaps?

I was thinking of asking if Mr Bojangles was at home….. and if he fancied giving a demonstration in tap dancing……