Capt White’s Tour de France PART DEUX – VICTOR-HOTEL returns to the UK

Having received confirmation from Raphael at Guimbal that VICTOR-HOTEL was ready for collection, we had to put a date in the calendar. Never an easy task as it is always busy especially during the summer but with this year’s weather patterns attempting to foresee a gap in the rain was like finding a needle in a haystack. The first suitable space in the calendar was to travel down on Tuesday 2nd July to fly back on Wednesday 3rd July so everything stayed crossed for that. Keen to build his skills, Capt Rutt (aka Tony) took the opportunity to be my wingman on the trip.

The morning of our trip required a slight detour via Skytech to drop the Jet Ranger for a service, then straight back to Stansted airport for the lunchtime flight down to Marseille. A short delay on the way out still left enough time to stop by the Guimbal factory on the way to the hotel. I just wanted to physically see the helicopter and make sure everything is in place, paperwork etc. and to have a look around to find out exactly what’s been done before our planned departure the following day.

Guimbal were, as always, very welcoming and Raphael took us on a tour around the helicopter and went through the extensive list of what had been done to it… there was a lot… basically we were flying back a brand new Cabri G2; reconditioned engine, gear boxes and many many extras, it looked really good and the paperwork was all in place so I couldn’t see any reason why we couldn’t take it home the next day, fabulous!

We organised to return first thing Wednesday morning, because they had some people collecting a new Cabri and they obviously didn’t want us to overlap. We said ‘au revoir’ and headed to the hotel where after a quick freshen up it was out for Tapas with Tony.

08:00 the next morning we were champing at the bit to get to Guimbal, it took us half an hour to get a taxi in the morning, so needless to say that caused a delay at the factory. Time can disappear quickly on the ground and we had quite a journey ahead of us together especially with the addition of a strong headwind during the first leg. All told the journey was looking like possibly 9 hours flight time, so now were pushing it a bit. Unlike when I dropped the VICTOR-HOTEL back in March, British summer time was on our side with the late sunset playing to our advantage, but we’re already thinking of contingency plan to stay overnight in Le Touquet.

Once we arrived at the factory we had more than the time causing us an issue… Guimbal had fuelled for us and the fuel gauge wasn’t working. It wasn’t just misreading, it wasn’t calibrated correctly and no matter what they did they couldn’t make it work. AARRGHH! So….. they had to

install a new one for us which delayed us by another hour. As you can imagine time really was getting tight now for a same day flight to UK.

Guage replaced, all was well, functioning correctly, no leaking and measuring the correct amount. We said goodbye and of course thank you, fired her up and it started beautifully and at last departed out of Les Milles, Aix au Provence just outside of Marseille.

You may remember it’s quite a complex route out due to military air space and when you look at the charts it all looks a bit messy. However, they’re very good at telling you if an area is active or not as quite a lot of the time they aren’t actually active. But you don’t know that really until you get airborne as it’s not always NOTAMed. As predicted it was very windy, however this is what the Cabri does well… It’s fantastic fully articulated rotor heads meant no issues with mast bumping, very active governor so it’s great at controlling RPM. Fenestron is brilliant in the wind and we were nice and heavy with myself, Tony and fuel on board which gave us added stability. Sure enough VICTOR-HOTEL performed perfectly well, climbed out and rode through any bumps and turbulence without any stress or worries. Otherwise, the weather was really good. It was lovely and clear with a nice high cloud base so we didn’t have any issued with that it was just simply the wind coming over the top of the hills. As Tony is a 44 pilot I had forewarned him that it might be a little bumpy initially but not to worry we’re in a safe little helicopter.

We took the route down in reverse as planned, beginning North North West out of Aix les Milles and fairly straight for quite a while. With our first fuel stop at Saint Etienne we flew directly over the alps. Although we could see snow in the distance, there wasn’t the blanket that I had in March. It did, as you can imagine, get slightly colder though… We set off in 32 degrees and in shorts and we certainly paid for our wardrobe choices later on.

A couple of hours of flying saw us land Saint Etienne. Having been there before, I am vaguely familiar with the airport. They’re very friendly and easy going which makes it all the more pleasurable. It used to be an international airport so has huge arrivals and departure lounges and customs facilities, which are barely used now almost like a ghost town as Tony and I were almost the only ones there. Fuel took a little while because of the processes there, but fortunately not too long as we were keen to claw back as much time as possible and it was difficult to do so while flying as we were already doing 90-100 knots which is about the most the G2 was capable of, certainly new and heavy, up to maximum continuous power. There was certainly no time to sit in the sun, dipping a croissant in a coffee so with heli fuelled and a lunch on the go we were back in the cockpit for the second leg – Saint Etienne to Troyes.

Lifting and flying pretty much North, North West we had a bit of controlled airspace and high ground to negotiate but the cloud base was high so not a problem and we had all the space we needed vertically. The various controlling authorities provide a flight information service which is very similar to that in the UK, but they tend not to break it down. You fly through a lot of class E airspace and class D which is basically radar control, but it’s very easy, very relaxed and very straight forward (lucky English is the language of aviation – phew!) You are pretty much on radar the entire time which is reassuring as they’re always warning you of other traffic, not that there

was much traffic at all, it was really,really quiet. Still a bit of head wind on the second leg initially, but by that time we were in central France, the winds are shifting around a little bit so instead of a headwind it slowly became more westerly. We flew past Saint Yan (our contingency stop), but we had enough fuel to get to the next planned destination Troyes Barbery.

Not as large as Saint Etienne, but a nice little airfield and super easy fuelling because you can land by the fuel pump. Pop in your payment card and fill up, a bit like filling up your car at pay at pump. We nipped inside to pay the landing fee. Bit of excitement here which meant another minor delay here as the air ambulance was picking up a patient, needless to say we gave them priority and kept out their way. It appeared the man who ran the airfield was everything from man behind the desk, controller, fire marshal, refueler, he was doing the whole lot so he was helping them, but he got us out as quick as he could… but time was ticking….

Our aim was to be out of Le Touquet by 19:00 French time, 18:00 UK time and 17:00 UTC time. Le Touquet shuts at 19:00 along with their customs which meant if we don’t get out by 19:00 we were stuck. Back at the flying school they checked with Le Touquet airport to see if they were okay to hang on for us and whether we could land directly at the fuel pumps and therefore expedite the operation there so we can be away as smoothly as possible.

Again, it’s really 2 hours in a straight line from Troyes to Le Touquet in a North Westerly direction. We routed via Paris which is great because we can see/speak to them and take a look at the planes going out of Charles De Gaulle. It was getting very overcast now with some fairly big showers around, fuel burn calculations all fine but dodging showers would have held us up significantly.

We had worked out we’d be landing at Le Touquet at 18:45 local time, that gave us 15mins to land, refuel, get through customs, pay the bill and attempt to grab some more inflight snacks from the vending machine. They were terrific, they allowed us to land at the fuel pumps. Hi-vis on, Tony took charge of fuelling and I did the paperwork. A ‘Home Alone’ style dash across the apron and into customs officers assuming we were from UK so we had to explain that we were clearing to leave. It took a little time to unravel our original destination but we got it sorted eventually. Fees and fuel paid, Tony headed to the vending machine to get our dinner for two… Crisps and a snickers and ran back to the helicopter whilst eating the crisps and snickers as we go.

Chopper check complete, it was time to head home. We couldn’t believe it, 20 minutes from rotor stop to rotor start, this would usually take minimum of 45mins to an hour. The temperature dropped considerably from the 30 degrees in Marseille and there were quite a few large weather cells that we would have to negotiate. Taking our preferred route from Le Touquet, along the coastline and past Boulogne to Cap Griz Nez then across to Folkstone. I know I always say this but use shortest distance possible across the channel, it’s also used by the ferries so a good way to keep as safe as possible over the water. We were blessed by good visibility and cloud was

okay, nothing too low thankfully so that kept us away from any drone activity. Said hello to London information in the UK and once back in blighty there was a bit of shower dodging to contend with but otherwise fairly easy. It’s worthy of note to look at the direction of travel of the rain, sounds simple but it makes it easier to see which side of the showers to fly to then avoid them. Timewise we were now able to relax a little now as were back in the UK and our ETA still in line with our flight plan just in case border force were to meet us. O the home straight now just coming West bound around the M25 from Stapleford and it was slightly biblical as the rain was parting ahead of us and inbound to Elstree. We had made it. and in just under 8 hours which was pretty good considering all our delays at the beginning of the day. I then jokingly saying to Tony “It’s only customs that can keep us from our dinner now, but don’t worry we haven’t been checked in 27 years.”

There was virtually nobody at the airfield, tower gone but a white van in the car park. As we get closer two people get out all dressed in black uniform putting on some hi-vis. And sure enough when we hover taxed over and parked up they came wandering over. It turned out they had been there since 3pm where they we waiting for two other aircraft to inspect and when they saw the schedule they noted that there was another one coming in (which was us) so they though they might as well stay and inspect us too! Tony and I waited for them do their bit; check passports and just make sure we haven’t got any naughty goods or any extra passengers on board (under the seats perhaps?) or anything like that. They didn’t keep us for very long so once paperwork complete it was an uber ride home.

Here’s what Capt. Rutt had to say about the experience:

“Was an honour to be asked to go on the trip with Paul. Passport at the ready, then a quick stop at the Guimbal factory once we had landed. Then an evening with the boss for dinner before an early night ready for the big fly back the following day.  With amazing views and the Cabri flying like a dream, I was handed control a few times between fuel stops. Flying over the southern point of the Alps and with the up and down drafts, the Cabri G2’s stability really comes into its own.
Thank you Paul, for this amazing experience. Every day’s a school day with Capt. White.”