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Capt White’s Tour de France – VICTOR-HOTEL goes back to Guimbal for 2200hr overhaul
The Cabri G2 needs an overhaul every 2,200 datcon hours and by the end of 2023 VICTOR-HOTEL was fast approaching that figure so I knew that in the first few months of 2024 it would be due and chose this time to fly it down to its birthplace the Guimbal factory in Aix en Provence in the south of France. Originally scheduled for January/February thanks to the weather the timing was pushed into March. Next was the task of picking a date in advance that would likely have suitable weather not an easy task this year with many days seeing all four seasons at a time! So, looking at the long range forecast/shutting our eyes and pointing we put our chips on for Monday 4th March.
It is possible to get there in a day and catch a flight back to the UK that evening if there is one. But there is always the risk, especially this time of year of getting stuck somewhere due to weather. When you think of the south of France you think of the Cote d’Azur those beautiful beaches and shimmering Mediterranean Sea but there’s some pretty substantial hills and mountains to get over, up to about 4,000 ft or more. It’s far safer to spread it out over two days, so if I did have to land mid-trip I’d have the next day to finish the journey and catch an afternoon flight back to the UK.
With the departure date fast approaching the weather really outdid itself; constant weather systems, low pressures, occluded fronts coming through bring us driving rain and windy days wreaking havoc in our training schedule. However, the forecast kept suggesting that believe it or not the 4th would be quite a nice day and Tuesday for that matter. Final checks on Sunday and flight plan filed, I was ready to go! Important to remember just because you’ve planned to go doesn’t mean you should. Have a plan B in place, particularly when traveling any distance where heading home may not be an option.
Now at this time of year, daylight is at a bit of a premium and to get down there all in one day its about 7 or so hours of actual flight time plus of course you need time on the ground refuelling so it means setting off pretty early in the morning to stand a chance of arriving in daylight. Not that I need an excuse but I flew the helicopter home the day before which would give me a bit of a head start. I’d still have to travel via Elstree in the morning to complete the customs side of things as home is not currently approved for overseas departures (must add that to my to-do list). A 7.30 start, a bit misty murky but thankfully it did clear reasonably quickly and shot off down to Elstree. ‘Parked up’ for a moment to check for any customs officials that wanted to see me and ran inside the flying school, I say ran, I walked into the flying school just to make sure I got everything I needed and headed back to RJVH
At that time in the morning the Elstree tower isn’t manned (or womanned) and they would usually be the ones to activate the flight plan, but thankfully it is possible to activate it airborne. My plan was to talk to Heathrow as I got close to their zone, possibly even through it. Once lifted, I got straight on the radio asked not only for transit but it they could try and activate my flight plan… They couldn’t find it! So I thought goodness me here we go… barely away from the aerodrome and there’s an issue. Luckily someone found it and duly activated it – hoorah.
I took our well-trodden path from Elstree through city zone then take a South-East heading for Folkstone, always choosing the shortest distance across the channel (Folkstone to Cap Gris-Nez) straight on to Le Touquet who were now expecting me. The channel was nice and clear, you could see all the way across from the UK to the French coastline. Le Touquet is a super little airport, it isn’t very far and conscious of making my workload as easy as possible the obvious place to clear customs/passport control and refuel as well. It was quiet there, hardly surprising at 09:40 on a Monday morning. Popped inside, said hello to the customs officers, stamped my passport (filling up nicely now), took the opportunity to use the facilities and a quick refuel myself. Worthy noting their fuel bowser is still not working and no plans to replace it at present which means you now have to go to the fuel pump on the stand and it looks like they only have the one fuel pump so it could be quite fun in busy summer fingers crossed the bowser is back in business by then.
10:10 I’m back in the helicopter, next stop Troyes (Barbary). So far the weather had been fantastic, very clear, very light winds, little bit of cloud around but nothing low level. Out of Le Touquet South-East bound, the routing takes me past Paris control zone, but you speak to the controllers anyway and pass through some of their TMA’s (Terminal Moving Areas). The controllers are exceptionally friendly and very helpful allowing me to almost fly a a dead straight line from Le Touquet to Troyes.
The landscape between Le Touquet and Troyes is relatively benign, flat mostly and carved up into farmland with a few towns and villages to aid navigation but nothing significant. I was warned by a previous controller that Troyes was currently only French speaking, clearly the accuracy of my French at the beginning of my call before they politely continued in English was of concern to them. As it happened there was nobody there… possibly a lunch break or something. Fortunately it was a quiet little airport and made a blind call i.e. I just announce what I’m doing. I didn’t even need to join a circuit pattern I could literally join on more or less a right base to final. Straight down and with a tiny bit of headwind so that worked out beautifully. Again there is nobody to speak to, but I have been there before so I’m loosely familiar to the layout of the airfield and of course we look at all of our plates beforehand. Plates have a layout of the airfield, description of it and facilities, circuit patterns, all the information that pilots require to use it. In the UK we use Pooleys plates but good ole SkyDemon has a very useful link to the French Aeronautical Information Service that has all the French airports listed with their plates or perhaps plaques. Time for more fuel, it’s great you can land at the fuel pump, put your credit card into the machine, punch the right sequence of keys and there you go fill your helicopter up and even get your receipt. Still nobody around, except a little Cessna had started and taxied away. Better have a look around for someone to take my landing fee… I found my way into the building, somebody said hello and I realised it was effectively the air traffic controller was literally sitting down eating his sandwich. Landing fee paid it was merci beaucoup, lunch by the pumps and a reminder of my next sortie.
The first leg from Elstree to Le Touquet was about 1.5 hours and then the Le Touquet to Troyes was almost exactly 2 hours from start to stop. The next leg had a couple of options… because I was flying solo I could take full fuel in the Cabri which means it can do (potentially) 4 hours without refuelling which would get me all the way to Aix en Provence 301 nautical miles away. Theoretically that’s 3 hours cruising at 90 knots so should have the fuel for it, of course any holds ups, any delays, if there is a bit of a headwind that develops that may slow me down would increase the journey time meaning you’ll have to find fuel.
It’s good practise in this situation to make notes of how much fuel you should have at certain points so you can keep a close eye on it and either complete the flight as intended or fuel at Saint Etienne. After there the airfields are a few and far between and I still had the mountains to go.
Plan B in place, I departed Troyes at 13:50 (French time) so I had only been on the ground for a smidgen over 30 minutes with a potential 3 or 4 hours flight ahead hoping that VICTOR-HOTEL and conditions allow me to get to Guimbal in one hit well before sunset. Heading south-bound the landscape remains much the same, acres upon acres of farmland but unlike UK where the hills and mountains are mostly to the North here the further south you go the landscape becomes little more hilly and you notice the ground starts to rise up to meet you, not significantly yet, maybe 1,000-2,000 ft.
As I approached Saint Etienne, I was quite relieved to hear the controllers speaking perfect English and again super friendly. Time for a fuel check… at the current pace the wind was looking like it was to remain very, very light and even turning possibly post the mountains into a small tail wind. At the current fuel burn and timings id still land with my minimum fuel plus another at least half an hour of fuel. Satisfied I didn’t need to stop, I explained that as I flew into their airspace as they were semi expecting me and they kindly let me transit right overhead
Now from here the views get a lot more interesting, the ground does rise and even though it’s the beginning of march and the outside air temperature its quite nice at 15 degrees as the altitude rises, yep sure enough there’s snow at the top of the mountains. Only a little bit at first but as I carried on and continued to climb it got thicker and thicker until it was completely snow covered beneath me. I love flying over snow like that, it looks very pretty.
I was really pleased the cloud base was still playing ball as putting down here would have been interesting. There’s a valley that goes from Saint Etienne down to Marseille, the problem is that valley takes you straight through a very complex military area. The air space is active at different times of the day so your workload is raised as you work out whether you are in a ‘hot’ or ‘cold’ area. The times are published and you can of course speak to the controllers but there are a whole load of restricted areas towards Marseille so really you need to try and keep clear of those because its complicated for even an experienced pilot. This means if your cloud base is low you can’t get over the top of the mountains. The forecast for the next day was really good anyway so if I did get stuck it looked like I could just carry on the next morning.
I was flying to the west of the Alps, it’s only the very end of the range that spans from Switzerland but mountain none the less. I double checked with the controllers where the various restricted areas are and were they active? They said yes, they are – YIKES! This meant I couldn’t go through which required a minor detour around and back into the safe airspace.
Descending back down again, everything started to get a bit warmer and the snow became less and less. Got onto the radio for Aix en Provence. They have a couple of circuits there, usually the helicopter circuit pattern is to the South West of the airfield and the airfield runway direction is North-West to South-east so it’s diagonal. And then the aeroplane circuit is to the North-east side so that’s fine she was happy for me to just go over the top and basically an overhead join. Which is actually one of the first ones I’ve done in my entire flying career. Obviously I know how but have never needed to… another tick in the box! Round we go and down we come and landed there and shut down VICTOR-HOTEL and I at just about 17:30, and before sunset. Miriam who had been coordinating my arrival was there to greet me on the helicopter apron. As was someone taking photos and I was papped again!
VICTOR-HOTEL will be there for approx. 3 months. Ironically the engine gets taken out and sent back to the UK for overhaul and then sent back to France. In the meantime Guimbal will strip the aircraft as necessary and they’ll then take the gear boxes out, rotor gear box, the tail rotor gear box will be stripped apart, inspected and overhauled and then it all gets put back into the aircraft. There is a bit more to it than that of course.
Whilst I was there I took a photo of their 5-seat turbine Cabri model – G5 perhaps? I don’t know what it’s going to be called. No timescale as yet, but the concept is definitely there and its going to be 5 seats, 4 main rotor blades interestingly enough, but with a fenestron tail rotor so looks like a big G2.
Back at the hotel at Marseille airport ready for my flight home, I totalled up my hours over a cocktail… 7.6! That’s 7 hours 36 minutes of rotors running time which has certainly boosted my March hours and added some interesting entries to my logbook as I near my 10,000 milestone.
If you are interested to know more about the Cabri G2, flying abroad or what’s Capt White’s favourite cocktail please email training@elstreehelicopters.co.uk
