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2001/2 Recce to Dieppe Dave and Steve took a recce to Dieppe and found that the landing fee is 11 euros and that Gerard Stephan will arrange taxis. He estimates that sufficient taxis for 11 people will cost 40 euros for the return trip. The flying club could only offer a croque for lunch (a pizza we were informed). The Bashers then carried on to Rouen where they got mixed up with the daily commercial flight and had to wait for an hour to pay their landing fee and fuel. At £3.00 for landing it was worth the wait. The cost of fuel was competitive though. The objective of the exercise was to fly along the valley of the River Seine to Deauville. This was quite spectacular and well recommended to any like minded Bashers.
Above left: Steve Roberts departs from Rouen, Right: Ships on the spectacular River Seine AYA Rally at Marmande The Met office forecast Typhoons, tempest, hurricanes, tsunamis etc and the end to mankind, so the Bashers abandoned their trip to France and settled for a trip to Compton Abbas. The day ended fine with just a few showers. Next day the Bashers were determined not to be fooled again and to get to the AYA fly in at Marmande, Pensioners take a liking to Le-Touquet Dave's Mum and Auntie have taken something of a liking to the sophisticated pleasures of Le-Touquet, in particular they like the designer shopping and the Paris Plage. The walk from the airfield to the town through the rather select neighbourhood of holiday homes too has its attraction.
The Bashers visited RAF Halton, home of the RAF apprentice training school, as guests of Mick Wilshere. This airfield specializes in Gliding and has a flight of Vigilants taking air Cadets for air experience flights. The Bashers were shown round hangars including the Pietenpol Aircamper G-PIET which was of special interest since the Daves and Chris are members of a group building a Camper. Also in the hangar were several rebuilt gliders including the first one ever to fly the English Channel, this was accomplished by accident we were assured since the flight had in fact started at Dunstable!
Above: G-BASH on the Airfield at RAF Halton and below: our host Mick Wilshere The airfield was very bumpy with a dip in the middle of the runway which we were assured was the place where a full loaded B17 Flying Fortress had crashed. Dave Leddy discovered that Mick had been an Aeromodeller, and they spent some time discussing the Fireball Trophy, for control line models which Dave had won many years ago. They also found that once a Vulcan had landed on the grass field at Halton, but had not taken off again but had been used for training by the apprentices.
Above Dave Leddy and Chris Sellen planning the route in the Halton Gilding club bus. After a bacon sandwich and a cup of coffee in the gliding club coach, the Bashers left for Stapleford. Landing fee at RAF Halton was £27.00! At Stapleford they ran into some Grumpies so yet more coffee was drunk. John Wrayton and the Night Nurse
Above:James and Justine after their flight in G-BASH John Wrayton had offered son James and his girlfriend Justine a Flight in G-BASH. Come the day and John was laid low with a stinking cold and confessed to having been on the medication since the the previous evening. Sensibly John decided not to fly, and so it fell to Dave Leddy to do the honours. James and Justine enjoyed their flight nonetheless, and were even found helping to push G-BASH to the pumps over Dicks nice new piece of concrete. Somewhere Foreign
Above: Steve Roberts with G-BASH at Norwich It had been a long winter and the Bashers were constrained to local flights to keep current. At the end of March the weather cleared and a cross country flight was possible. They wanted to go foreign, to places where the culture is alien and the natives speak in strange accents, so they set off for Norwich. Stopping only at Peterborough (Connington) to get another name in the logbook, they soon arrived to fly an NDB approach from 2 miles final hmmm. The Bashers headed for the terminal to book-in, and drink the inevitable cup of coffee. To get back out through the terminal to G-BASH they were searched, x-rayed and photographed. Steve was ecstatic "this is super value, you would have to pay upwards of thirty pounds for all this bullshit at Southampton!" he exclaimed. New Years Day Fly in @ Popham & Compton Abbas On New Years Day the Bashers had arranged to meet at Popham for the fly in. Ian Todd, Dave Leddy, John Wrayton, Dave Skertchly and Dave Esp turned up. By 2.00 it was evident that no-one else was coming so John Wrayton, Dave Esp and Dave Skertchly headed for a snowy fly in at Compton Abbas.
Above Left; John Wrayton and Dave Esp, Right; Compton Abbas still covered in Snow. Routing back to Popham the Bashers flew through Boscombe Down airspace. This is becoming a habit after the Christmas shutdown and will have to be broken once Boscombe opens again! The Grumpy Gang As Grumman fans will know, the American "Grumman Gang" Website provides a whole insight into the world of Grummans in the US. In Europe, however, the Grumpy Gang is where its at! Ian Mattaface, European Vice President of the American Yankee Association (the official Grumman owners club) suggested that the "Grumpies", as they are known, should meet up at Leicester for a "Bacon Butty" fly in. The Bashers just had to be there. Above Right: Chris Sellen and Dave Leddy fly short finals at Leicester,
Above: the chicken (see text for details) Dave Leddy and Chris Sellen couldn't resist poking their nose in, so they booked G-BASH and after an hour and half scraping the ice off the wings they headed north for Leicester. On arrival G-BASH started the second line up. Dave and Chris knew that just behind them were several more Grummans. Next to join the line was AA1 Oscar Juliet, whose owner leapt from the cockpit and stuck a chicken on the Arial! The Bashers immediately felt at home in such company. Clearly this was some "Old English" honour bestowed by Druids on Grumpies of distinction, in weird and mysterious initiation rights. How envious the Bashers were, just what did they have to do receive such an accolade?
Above: Line up at the bacon butty fly in at Leicester. 12 Grummans were there including an unfortunate Cabair Grumman "He's not with us you understand".
The Bashers had set out for Le-Touquet hoping for a last lunch before the winter sets in. As forecast there were the CBs in the middle of the channel. After a Quarter of an hour beating up and down, dodging rotor clouds and snow showers the Bashers gave up and diverted to Lydd. Denied their French Cuisine the Bashers scanned the menu in the Biggles Bar and found the following traditional English offerings:
Eventually they settled for a full roast dinner (excellent) eaten in the conservatory overlooking the apron, while watching the CBs in the distance. So thanks to the Biggles Bar a pleasant day was had after all. Holland with Chris Sellen
Above left: Chris at Midden Zeeland, Right: Leaving Popham in the fog The Basher's favourite this year has undoubtedly been the trip from Popham to Midden Zeeland via Calais pioneered by Dave and Gwyn a couple of years ago. This trip includes 4 countries and 4 FIR boundaries in one day. Dave Leddy and Chris Sellen have both flown this route recently, including the return trip direct across the North Sea at FL40 via RAPIX. For Chris's trip in late October the Bashers left Popham to find the surrounding countryside shrouded in fog, scary. Guernsey with the old SLAPAS
Above: Dave's Mum loading up the duty free Export Gin at Alderney. For those new to these pages perhaps we should explain that the Old SLAPAS are the pensioners branch of the Solent Light Aircraft Passengers Association (AKA Dave Skertchly's Mum and Auntie of 74 years and 67 years respectively). Having taken several long distance trips in G-BASH (including the South of France and Germany) they are starting to know the ropes. After a pleasant day and lunch in Guernsey, they asked if they could return via Alderney since it is "such a pretty place and one of our favorites". Hardly had G-BASH landed than they were out of cockpit and into the duty free shop. When Dave caught up with them their excuse was "half price and 75% proof dear, export quality, such good value". Viva Espana After months of planning John Wrayton and Steve Roberts made it to Spain. After flying the length of France they finally arrived at St Sebastian flying an approach over the yacht basin. With the mountains in the background it was quite spectacular.
Above: Approach to St Sebastian over the Yacht basin (photo John Wrayton) On the way home they noted that engine performance had dropped seriously so they took it to the maintenance man at La Rochelle who diagnosed a failed exhaust valve. Within 24 hours it had been fixed and the weary Bashers returned via an overnight stop in Jersey. For more details of the St Sebastian trip click here Dieppe with Kevin Jacobs
Above Kevin at Abbeville and right Kev at Dieppe At the last minute the Bashers decided to dash over to France for a decent cup of coffee. They left Popham at 12.15pm and arrived in Calais too late for a baguette. They had hoped to visit St Omer, an airfield with an auspicious WW1 history, and close to Wizernes home of the first V1 missile battery. When browsing the Delage guide Kev noticed that the runway was only 517 metres long, so they changed plans and went to Abbeville instead. Seeking an alternative to Le-Touquet (Long queues to take off and expensive landing fees), they decided to try Dieppe. Arriving from Abbeville Gerard Stephan the FISO was rather surprised by the arrival of G-BASH, the flight plan filed at Calais having been miss-keyed as G-BSAH. Consequently customs had not been informed (not that they usually show much interest!). Nevertheless Stephan pulled a few strings and in no time the Bashers were heading home at the customary FL50 via Goodwood. Stephan speaks good English so for the slight inconvenience of a phone call or fax, departure via Dieppe is a good way to avoid the crush at Le-Touquet or Calais. Call 0033 2 35841440 or fax 0033 2 35845278 . Midden Zeeland with Dave Esp
Above Dave Esp approaching Ostend and right Dave relaxing with a glass of red wine knowing that Dave Skertch would be P1 for the return trip! Dave Esp as ever was anxious to put to use the language skills gained during his "French Lessons" (Bash News passim) so he and Dave Skertch headed off to Holland. There must be logic there somewhere. First call was Calais then to Ostend and on to Midden Zeeland. At Ostend Dave Esp disappeared for an hour while Dave Skertch slept patiently under the wing waiting for him to return. After an omelet and chips at Midden Zeeland the Bashers returned to Popham in 2 hours 15 minutes direct. Caernarfon Above
Left: Moel Tyfan poking out of the cloud Right: Lenticular clouds, evidence of Mountain waves Having returned early from Belgium Dave and Steve found that they still had G-BASH booked for the next day. Rather than waste the booking they met again on Sunday and headed to Wales. After Sausage and Chips at Shobdon they decided to Route on top to Caernarfon. On the way they found the peak of Moel Tryfan sticking out of the cloud, but there was no sign of Mount Snowdon. More disturbing were the lenticular clouds which indicated the presence of Mountain waves. Liege Bashers Steve and Dave set out to fly to Germany, their second attempt at "The Dams Raid". This time they got as far as Liege before finding their way blocked by rows of thunderstorms forming over the hills on the German border. If they had waited for the storms to abate the Bashers realised that their arrival in Germany would be after any chance of hiring a car or booking a hotel. Reluctantly they turned for home. They routed back via an ILS approach to Charleroi in Belgium. This particular airfield ranks among the the most disorganized the Bashers have ever visited. Everyone was very friendly, they just didn't seem to know what they were supposed to do. The Bashers then routed overhead the Somme battlefield where at last they identified the Lochnagar Crater. Stopping for fuel at Albert, they found the Chief Flying Instructor alone with what appeared to be a lady student. The CFI seemed to keen to fill them up with fuel and see them on their way.They returned home and landed at 9.00pm from a glide approach to runway 26 which would have made Gwyn proud of them.
Photos: Top Steve Roberts at Liege, and again (Right) at Charleroi.
Above: The Bashers found the Lochnagar crater near Albert on the Somme. Above Right: The Shrine or Quadrangle Wood (found in 2003 to be Maple Redoubt). After stopping for sandwiches and coffee at Arras Roclincourt, they set heading across the battlefield to Bapaume. At Bapaume Chris throttled back and slowed down so they could look for relics. From Le Sars to La Boisselle they cruised along the Roman Road at 1000ft looking for the water filled mine of "Lochnagar Crater" near "Sausage Valley". They spotted neither but spied some preserved trench systems near Fricourt, probably "The Shrine" or "Quadrangle Wood" was found in 2003 to be Maple Redoubt. |
The Biggles Bar at Lydd
