This page shows the progress of a student, Paul Day who arrived at La Baule one July Monday, having started his training in the UK. With the better weather available here, Paul progressed so well that by the following Saturday, he was ready to undertake the first of his navigational training flights. The following photos show the progress of the flight, and the day that was enjoyed by student and instructor. At left is shown the Blade warming up in the parking area at La Baule with Paul at the controls and the Instructor directing things from the rear seat. At this time all the pre-flight checks are being carried out, to make sure that everything is OK for the flight.
In this shot the required airspeed of 45mph has been reached, and Paul is just lifting the nosewheel clear of the ground.
Just after lift-off. The aircraft is climbed away at an airspeed of around 50mph, and for this particular flight, we are aiming for a cruising height of 6,500ft, as we have a 25-mile sea crossing to do to get to Belle-Ile. Once leaving the circuit, Paul is responsible for both flying the aircraft, and the navigation.
Just before leaving the mainland, passing over the town of Le Croisic. At this stage in the flight, we have reached around 4,500ft. Paul cannot see the island of Belle-Ile, 25 miles out, so must rely on his calculated compass headings.
A close-up of the beautiful inlet to the salt-marshes at Le Croisic at low tide. The scenery is a bit different to that found in the UK....
Paul has had the aircraft at it's cruising altitude of 6,500ft for some time now. We are about two-thirds of the way across to Belle-Ile, and shown here is the island of Hoëdic. At this stage of the flight, he should be about 2 miles to the South of Hoëdic, and this is our position at the time the photo was taken, so he is exactly on track. By now, the island of Belle-Ile is clearly visible.
About 6 miles out from Belle-Ile, still at 6,500ft. Belle-Ile means "Beautiful Island" in English, and in this photo you can see where it gets it's name from!. As we are now within gliding distance of the island, Paul is about to start his descent. Our destination airfield is right in the centre of the island. At this point, Phil is talking to the airfield on the radio to get permission to land. We're about 20 minutes from touchdown.
Paul has now descended to 1,500ft and is preparing to enter the circuit for Belle-Ile airfield. The airfield runway can be seen above left centre of the photo, just behind the side wires for the wing. We're only about 5 minutes from touchdown.
Flying finished for now!! After landing, we have secured the aircraft, and as it's such a lovely day, we decided to walk into the main town of Belle-Ile, called Le Palais, about 3 miles. Shown on the right is the view from a lovely restaurant overlooking the port of Le Palais where we had a typical 3hr French lunch!! As you can imagine, this flight is very popular with our students.....
After lunch we spent some time on the beautiful beach of Donnant, shown here at left, from 500ft. After our relaxing afternoon, we decided to do a sight-seeing tour of the island before the navigational exercise to return to the mainland.
Seen here on the right is the tiny port of Ster Vraz used as a night stop-over for various types of yachts and motor boats. Our height is still 500ft.
