Le Touquet, April 2001

After returning from my PPL course in Florida, I decided to check-out in a C172 at Denham so that I would better be able to take friends and family up for little sight-seeing trips. Unfortunately, other than an hour of general handling work in November, the weather kept stopping me from progressing this.

I was booked to go on a trip organised by the social committee at The Pilot Centre to Le Tourquet scheduled for 31st March, but that was also cancelled due to high winds and low cloud.

The trip was rescheduled for Easter Monday (16th April) and when I woke up that morning, it was looking very grey out. I was not impressed!

I arrived at the school at 8:30am and there was already a couple of others there. The weather was waiting on the fax machine and it indicated good visibility and a cloud base which wasn't too low. A descision was made to go. Hurrah!

I already had my flight plan from the previous attempt, so it was just a case of plugging in the wind (I would be flying the leg there with someone else flying back). The route for the trip there was:

Looking at the map, I decided that Stapleford should be fairly easy to find snuggling between the M25 and the M11 with Elstree and the Lea as good visual clues en route. Paddocks Wood didn't seem that promising (this was the suggested route, not my own choosing), but I was hoping the railway line and the airfield marked as Old Hay (not in my '99 copy of Pooley's - a '01 version is on its way!) would be visible enough! The next leg was even more daunting with 48nm to the French coast with possibly only the point of land marking Lydd sticking into the Channel to give visual clues! I was beginning to think that I might be relying on the GPS for some of this!

Leg 1 - Denham to Maple Cross

With four people with bags and almost full fuel, poor old G-BOJS was at her maximum weight and needed lots of forward trim for the take-off. I was very impressed at how well she climbed, though! Much better than a C150/C152! There was a little cross-wind, but nothing too difficult. We were also using runway 06 so Maple Cross is just on the extended cross-wind leg and easy to spot. We continued our climb to just over 2000ft and turned eastwards on our first heading.

Leg 2 - Maple Cross to Stapleford

Elstree is easy to spot as you fly overhead due to the big, square Hillfield Park Reservoir South of the runway and the end of the M1 running past the West of it. We were no more than half a minute out so the wind forecast was holding out pretty well. We spoke to Elstree briefly as we passed to let them know we were there and to listen out for local traffic.

Once past Elstree, you can easily see the Lea valley, but it can be difficult to be certain how far North or South you are off route as there wasn't much else to get a fix on visually.

From this point on, the visibility was soo good that we could easily make out the various features of London - especially Canary Warf and The Dome.

Once over the Lea, you can see the M11 and you start to see the M25 curving back down, so Stapleford becomes easy to find and we passed directly overhead at 2300' about a minute after expectation. They were opperating A/G radio so could provide us little assistance, though we kept an ear out for possible conflicting traffic. Then we changed course for Paddocks Wood and station to Thames Radar.

Leg 3 - Stapleford to Paddocks Wood

According to the map, just under half-way olong the leg there was lots of towers. What I didn't realise was that some of those towers belong to the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge and as we passed overhead it was clear we were on track. The GPS was showing a couple of knots less ground speed that I was expecting, so I guess the winds were a little less East of London than forecast, but not by much.

For a while after crossing the Thames there was little to see to be certain of position, however before long, the M20 appeared to our right and we also recognised its confluence with the M26.

Tonbridge was not (to me!) clearly established visually, however Paddocks Wood proved easier to recognise than I had feared. The railway line is incredibly long and straight there and a train passed as we flew over just to clarify the sighting. A quick glance at the map suggested old Hay should be about and, as I looked down to my left, there, indeed, was a grass strip. Excellent! New heading, extra confidence and the long leg to France...

Leg 4 - Paddocks Wood to Boulogne

After over 10 minutes of trying to maintain an accurate heading, the coast finally started to materialise out of the distance. At first, it seemed a fairly uniform smudge between land and sea, however as time went by, a triangle of land solidified. Lydd was dead ahead!

Lydd were very busy but we stayed with them until mid-channel. This was the most disconcerting part of the whole trip. Nothing but water ahead with land retreating rapidly behind. Crossing at just under 2000ft (due to the cloud-base) meant there would be a large stretch where we would be unable to glide to land if the engine failed. There were several little boats which we would be able to reach, but that was little compensation.

Fortunately, there were no problems and the French coast appeared out of the gloom. Yes - gloom - as the weather in France was looking decidedly cold and wet!

A large town lay on the coast just ahead and slightly to the left of us. There are no other large coastal towns nearby according to the map, so this was identified as Boulogne, though I would have preferred something a little more obvious for recognition.

We signed off from Lydd mid-channel and listened to Le Touquet ATIS to check local information and then tried to raise Lille Information a couple of times but were met with silence. We heard one of the other planes in our group getting the same response, so we just changed to Le Touquet Tower and turned down the coast.

Le Touquet airfield is easy to spot as it has a very distinct river inlet next to it. We turned left just before this to enter downwind for runway 32. The poor guy there seemed to be a bit hassled with all these planes suddenly descending on him from the UK, but handled everyone extremely well.

The Town of Le Touquet

I had originally formed the impression that the town was a very small place, but it is actually quite a size and extremely beautiful. I would very much recommend a visit!

We walked into the town and looked around for somewhere that could fit 13 of us for lunch. We ended up at a little place (I think the name was The Diamond Rose or something - I am not going to attempt the actual French!) and had an extremely delicious meal. Those of us who were passengers for the return journey were able to partake in a glass or two of wine!

After the meal, we realised that time was beginning to press on so we took taxis back to the airfield. The winds were looking very similar to earlier and planning was completed and plans filed very quickly.

As a passenger for the return, I was able to sit and watch the world go by. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't any where near as nice as it had been earlier (we had to dodge a couple of rain clouds over the Channel) so there wasn't really any opportunity for taking pictures. Those I did manage to get are below. I guess I'll just have to go again sometime soon to get some more!

Overall, it was an extremely enjoyable trip. Many thanks to Richard for planning and organising it! I shall be grinning for a while to come!

At Le Touquet planning the trip home.
G-BOJS ready for the return journey.
The view of the terminal buildings during the takeoff roll...
...and from the air as we depart the circuit.
Although England was fairly hazy, I did manage to get this one of Folkstone showing the entrance to the Channel Tunnel!