I have a few days either side of the weekend of 18-19 April so will attempt a proper European long cross country.
Aircraft is a 1951 90 HP Piper Super Cub – no gyros, no electrics, drum brakes by appointment. It is strictly Day VFR – it even has a placard to that effect in the centre of the panel if that was not obvious to the pilot.
Planned block TAS will be 78 knots (roughly 65% power), which translates to 4.75 US gph, which with 35 US gallons fuel capacity translates to 5:45h endurance with VFR reserves.
Hoping for good VFR with gentle zephyrs, but my personal minima is at least a 2000’ ceiling and 8 km, with surface winds below 20 knots. The ceiling and visibility go up to 3,000’ and all the 9’s for mountainous terrain with the proviso that there is also no mountain obscuration.
http://www.aopa.org/News-and-Video/All-News/2014/July/28/Training-Tip-Mountain-obscuration
The link above shows not one, but two Super Cubs; bless.
Routing is expected to be Andrewsfield or Stapleford to Lydd to pick up some duty free AvGas. Depending on turn around time at Lydd, would aim to reach Limoges on the first day (Thursday) – with Tours as an alternate (need to check AvGas and customs availability). The next day would be an early morning departure for Sabadell via Perpignan to skirt the Pyrenees, although routing across the mountains via Puigcerda might be a plan if the weather is CAVOK.
The return flight might be a one day marathon with Sabadell to Limoges, and Limoges to Andrewsfield.
Filing the flight plan will be via Austrocontrol, and it will be the first time I will be using the new AOPA GAR facility.
To make the navigation interesting the trusty Garmin 196 will remain at home, so old fashioned ded reckoning will be the order of the day. Hopefully the navigation will not be too “interesting”. The SC is mode S equipped, and in addition to the 1970’s King 175 COM, I will carry an iCom transceiver. The first two run on a motorbike battery, and will carry a spare battery. The odd position check with ATC will not go amiss.
Will carry a PLB and a life vest for the channel crossing.
This week the SC is due up in Yorkshire so will check my fuel consumption, but 17-18 litres per hour at 2300 RPM has been the norm.
Expected fuel purchases in Europe is around 220 litres total, which at around EUR2.50 a litre I hope will only cost around EUR550 plus landing and parking fees. If LELL is expensive I have a micro light field nearby which is happy to offer hangarage at EUR10 a night.
Will take a Canon pocket digital camera but also an old SLR with film.
If any Barcelona residents would be happy to buy a beer or two – main purpose of trip is to visit my daughter who works there.
Nice! Wish you a good trip.
Take the GPS. You never know…
How are you planning this? Is it all being done with paper charts? That’s a lot of work, but I suppose cub speeds give you a lot of thinking time if plans need to change!
Enjoy the trip. It sound wonderful!
Interesting to compare your “airplane” figures to my “microlight”.
Fuel burn: I base my planning on 15 lit/h but usually can make do with 12.
Speed: 70-75 knots IAS so you beat me there, though not by much
Fuel capacity: this is astonishing to me, can you really take 133 litres? Is all of that carried in the wings? Mine takes just 58 litres, 29 in each wing…
Surely such an amount of fuel must take up a great part of your carrying capacity? What are actually your empty and (legal) max. loaded weight? Mine are 280 kg resp. 450.
That sounds like a great flight and you can never have too much fuel in a Cub, potential headwinds versus cruise speed being what they are. Have fun and enjoy the view!
A million years ago (mid-80s) a guy I know flew a Cub-like Nord aircraft Link from the UK to a field near Barcelona where they were filming Empire of the Sun. The radio quit just after takeoff so he flew the whole way there low level, following rivers, stopping in France someplace along the way for fuel and never talking to anybody. Apparently after he arrived some Spanish authority arrived but by then he had departed the scene. There were a lot of planes there with red dots on the side, and nobody knew anything! He says it was a fun flight 
Chris, tempted but will leave the thick gray line (the 196 being B&W) at home.
DP – yes paper charts and a plog.
Jan the SC has an Empty Weight of 410kg and an MTOM of 680kg – in fact the useful load is very similar to the 150hp SC. The fuel is in the wings, with no header tank, hence you solo from the front seat.
Silvaire great footnote – I hope I am not troubled by the Guardia Civil. May envy the extra 15-20 knots of a Luscombe if I encounter headwinds. 75% power allegedly should deliver 87 knots, although I knock off 5 knots for planning purposes.
With some research it must be feasible still today to traverse Europe, perhaps not non radio, but squawking VFR and on a listening watch.
I hate to say this but I would never fly in France without a GPS – except trivial local flights, club to club etc…
I am not saying this because visual nav is hard on that route. It follows the coast to a large degree. I say this because – like most of the “southern world” – France is dead easy until you p1ss off somebody who thinks they are important, and the perfect way to do that is to bust one of the nuclear zones. The Les Blayais one is right where you want it 
Also, on a weekday especially, the huge R31A1 etc zones are an issue which need to be checked out. I did that route VFR many times, though not since 2005.
Went down to Mimizan recently, all the way down the Atlantic coast, and had a superb service from the military ATC who asked for only one slight detour that added perhaps 10 miles to the journey.
the SC has an Empty Weight of 410kg and an MTOM of 680kg
Wow! So with just 10 hp more you have a whopping 90 kg more payload AND go 5-10 knots faster!
I know my pride and beauty is not a queen of aerodynamics but am surprised to see the Cub do so much better.
The fuel burn figures help me to digest, though.
