John Lloyd from Hunsdon Microlight Club, Herts, reached us after a marathon flight. When John said he was coming to see us, we assumed he would take the usual route as outlined elsewhere on this website, but he's made of sterner stuff than that!! He arrived at La Baule recently, having travelled from his base about 20 miles North of London, in his Mainair Blade 912, but coming via the South of France and Barcelona in Spain!! John is seen here preparing his campsite outside our hangar ready for an early start the next morning.
The next morning John was planning to fly out to Belle-île, which you can see detailed elsewhere on this website. Here on the right you can see John's well-prepared cockpit as he is preparing for the flight out to Belle-île. From Belle-île his plan was to return via a tour of Britanny to the UK, which was duly carried out on schedule. John's total distance in flight was 2,500 miles!
Also from Hunsdon Microlight Club, a long-held ambition was realised by Steve Winter, seen here after arrival at La Baule with his Mainair Sports Blade 912. Like John, the direct route Hunsdon to La Baule was too short for Steve, who reached us via Belgium and Luxembourg!! Steve stayed with us overnight, and then was itching to get back in the cockpit to carry on his 'European Tour'
Steve is seen here the next day getting ready for departure. His plan was to make a tour of the Britanny coastline, which he managed to carry out by carefully routing round an area of deteriorating weather.
Right, another two long distance adventurers who made it to La Baule! Seen in the Anglais-Volant hangar are Mark on the left and Paul on the right. They arrived at La Baule in Mainair Blade 912 (Mark) and a Pegasus Quantum 912 (Paul), stopping off during a trip all round France and into Spain, but starting from the North of Scotland...
Here, both their aircraft are seen in our hangar after a stay of 2 days, with preparations being made for the next leg of their trip to Bordeaux, further to the South. Trips of this magnitude, and that of John's and Steve's above really show the capabilities of modern flexwing microlight aircraft.
Mark and Paul refuelling at La Baule, just before their departure to Bordeaux. The 4-stroke engines used in these aircraft can be run on leaded aviation fuel (Avgas 100LL), as seen here, but their preferred diet is standard 95-Octane unleaded motor fuel (Mogas).
Aircraft left parked by the fuel while they go in and pay for that and their landing fees. You can see from the sky above that the weather for their takeoff was not exactly ideal, with an angry-looking sky, and a turbulent crosswind on the runway. However, modern flexwings handled properly can cope with turbulence at least as bad as a 3-axis microlight can, as can be seen in the two formation take-off photos below............
