Today cold temperature but sunny weather. With Sabine we decided to go to the sea.

Due North to the bay of the Somme river, a small stop at Abbeville, unforutnately the café was closed and then back to Nangis.

A lot fo windmills on the way.

Le Tréport

Cliffs

The bay of river Somme, wildlife reserve, low altitude overflying is prohibited.

An under the sun a picture showing the green color of the livery.

After some adventures, the plane is back in the hangar at Nangis. First I almost missed my plane to Perpignan due to traffic jams. And then, the only place in France where the weather was not sunny was Lézignan. I waited for the fog to clear up and flew due east for a few miles before beaing able to turn north and reach Nangis after a 2h20mn flight.

This is the city of Clermont-Ferrand.

And to the west of the city the Puy de Dôme summit.

This week we fly to our home region, Alsace the most eastern part of France. In 1h20mn we reach Mulhouse-Habsheim overflying area we often cross on the roads.

This is Troyes.

Then Langres.

My mother's home village Burnhaupt-le-Bas.

And Mulhouse.

After the arrival, first flight for my Dad. He was a great helper during building as we riveted the wings and fuselage together.

The next day, despite windy weather I got a few passengers. First Tom, it was his first flight ever.

Then my nice Pauline.

My nephew Benjamin was a bit reluctant, but we got to fly a few minutes.

And another niece, Estelle.

We are now ready to fly back under an overcast.

Some rain as we fly north of Belfort.

We then overfly the Orient Lake near Troyes. The Seine reservoir seems to have been filled up by the recent rains.

The we had to zigzag a bit to avoid a few rainshowers.

The goal of our first cross-country flight was to see the paint shop and also to see Sabine's parents in the Landes. For agenda purpose we will first fly to the Landes in south west of France Our first scheduled stop was supposed to be Angoulême. Here we cross the Loire river under blue skies.

The weather deteriorates and after Poitiers the clouds cover the skies and the ceiling get lower and lower. As Angoulême is under a thundestorm we decide to land at Limoges to our east.

We refuell and stop for lunch at the airport restaurant. After a 1h40mn stop we continue our flight and finally see the coast line, our destination Contis and it's lighthouse. After 3h12mn of flight since Nangis we land at Mimizan.

Next day we are stuck on the ground by bad weather. The day after, the weather clears somewhat and we can fly to Lezignan to the the paint shop Aéro-styll. Crossing the Toulouse area has to be done at low level by following a tortuous track and overflying some waypoints, this is one over small lakes.

This is the medieval city of Carcassonne just a few minutes before landing at Lezignan.

After the flight back to Mimizan I made a short flight with my stepfather.

Flight back to Nangis we follow the coast line to the north along the Pyla dune.

We overfly Marennes and the ponds were oysters are grown.

And the Ré island and La Rochelle.

We the turn east towards Saumur our scheduled stop. The weather deteriorates a bit, we have to dodge some rain and land at Saumur between two showers. We will stay for 2h30mn waiting for the weather to clear.

We cross the Loire north of Blois and land at Nangis after 2h45mn of flight since Mimizan.

A few lessons learned from this week of flying.

The plane worked perfectly, but we have a small glitch with the autopilot. The plane slept for the first time outside a hangar and we have some rain getting in if the cover is not installed.

I will have to add a few things to the flying kit (tools, oil...).

Overall ATC, both civilian and military, was very helpfull, only difficulty was the crossing of the Toulouse area (thanks GPS!).

Today, first small cross-country flight to Brienne le Chateau ex NATO airbase now dedicated to parajumping.

I had the camera on the wingtip but the recording failed. We didn't take any still pictures either.

In total 1h30mn of flighttime today.