Every two years the Aéro-Club des Grèves du Mont Saint Michel hold an international fly in at Avranches. Not being the sort of flying club to miss out on an almighty piss up, five aircraft -- TB9 G-CMED, Katana G-BYMB, Warrior G-BTUW, TB200 G-HEVN and Twin Comanche G-UAVA -- went down for the event. I went in the TB200, with Ian Melville. Ian flew the outbound leg, and I was responsible for getting us home.

The route was pretty straightforward -- head South! Enstone -> SAM -> MP -> LFRW, climbing as high as we could reasonably get for the 75nm sea crossing between Southampton and Cherbourg. Customs was being provided at Avranches on both days, so there was no need to stop enroute.

After departing runway 26, we climbed to 2500ft and called Brize Zone for a transit. This they gave us at our current altitude, and so we headed straight through. Immediately outside the zone, they kicked us over to Farnborough Radar, who gave us a FIS (Flight Information Service) until we neared Southampton. By now we'd climbed to flight level 40. A quick call to London Information established that the danger areas in the Channel were 'cold', so we'd be able to follow our intended track and not need to divert around them. Call Southampton Radar for a transit. Last time I'd tried to speak to them, they didn't even reply. This time however we got a response: "Standby, remain outside controlled airspace". When they came back to us and we passed our details and the transit request, the message was still "Remain outside contolled airspace", but as we neared the zone boundary, "Golf Victor November, transit approved at FL40, Radar Control Service." We were in!

Once through and out the other side, Southampton passed us across to Bournemouth Radar, who gave us a RIS (Radar Information Service) all the way to the FIR boundary. Over the Isle of Wight, we climbed to FL65 for the sea crossing. As we approached Cherbourg, some 30 minutes later, we gave them a call to let them know we'd be passing overhead, but given our altitude they really weren't interested and passed us straight on to Deauville. Deauville Info in turn informed us that they only provide FIS up to FL55, so we elected to descend a couple of thousand feet.

Nearing Avranches, we switched to the Common Traffic Advisory Frequency (CTAF), 123.5 and listened in. There were several aircraft in the circuit and joining, mostly from England or Ireland. The airfield itself was much easier to spot than we'd been led to believe, and we joined to land on runway 04. As we taxied in, a marshal appeared to guide us to a parking spot on the recently mowed field next to the taxiway.

Out of the aircraft, we were directed to the club house, where we registered. €50 a head got us the landing fee and vouchers for dinner and bousson (drinks). Sylvie, our host was also arranging hotel accomodation. My hotel turned out to be the Altos, about 15 minutes walk from the town centre. A bus was laid on to take us the 5km into town and back. We'd just missed one and the next would be in an hour, so we spent the time looking around and getting a snack and a beer or two. Once in town there was enough time to freshen up at the hotel before the next bus arrived to take us back to the airfield. Others decided they would camp, and set up tents by their aircraft, or just sleeping bags under the wings.

Dinner was at 8pm, starting with hors d'oeuvres and sweet wine. Here I met up with Peter Dodds from Liverpool, who I'd previously met last June at Enstone (see here). Rows of trestle tables were laid out in the hangar, and the meal followed the French style of many small courses with long gaps in between. Home made entertainment was provided in the form of party packs - balloons, streamers, squeakers, and pea shooters. These fired half-inch coloured cotton wool balls, and very quickly a massive fire fight broke out! Later a live band provided music to dance to. At the end of the meal -- well into the wee small hours -- the bus started to shuttle the weary (and not entirely sober) back to their hotels.

Sunday morning dawned ~~bright and sun~~ er, dull and overcast. The first bus back to the airfield came at 9am. getting off the bus, we were greeted by the sight of hung-over campers quietly sipping coffee and eating croissants in the hangar. Our intention had been to spend the day looking around the town, and fly back late afternoon. The TAFs however, indicated that the weather would progressively deteriorate through the day, suggesting an earlier departure would be prudent. So we filed a new flight plan for a 10:30 departure, and went off to preflight the aeroplane.

Visibility was still around 10K when we took off, but as we climbed out of the circuit, the cloudbase rapidly descended to around 1200ft... 1000ft... 800ft... Conditions were definitely not VFR, and we were quickly faced with the choice of continuing at very low level, possibly not legal, and below the level of a number of masts known to be in the area, pushing on through the cloud in the hope of breaking out on top, definitely not legal without an Instrument Rating (IR), or turning back. Really, for us it was a no-brainer, and we headed back to the airfield at 800ft with virtually no forward visibility and only partial sight of the ground. Over the radio, we could hear Uniform Whiskey also heading back. Ian was giving me vectors into the circuit from his GPS! Never before have I called "Left base, 500ft, not visual with the runway" (and hope never to again). But then there it was, and I was high, so full left boot and lots of right aileron in order to slip it in - I really didn't fancy having to go around and lose sight of the field again! The AIP entry for Avranches says Sea Fog can roll in very quickly and with no warning. Well they weren't kidding!

Back on the ground, we met up with the Uniform Whiskey crew, and decided to head into town for some lunch and a 'regroup'. Visibility was now being measured in 100s of metres rather than kilometres, and shortly after it started raining. This was much worse weather than any of the forecasts had suggested, and it seemed certain that we wouldn't be going anywhere today. So we bought hotdogs and then sat in a cafe drinking coffee and watching the town parade.

Johnny, the pilot of Uniform Whiskey had a military IR, and was convinced he could make it IFR, and so headed off to the airfield. We, however, decided to cut our losses and headed off to check back in to the hotel. At the hotel, we met Ian and Trevor, two pilots from Blackbushe, who'd come across in a Cessna 172 and were also stranded. So we all went into town, and over dinner compared experiences and plans for the next day.

Monday now, dawned... foggy again. Ho hum. After breakfast we took a taxi to the airfield to check on the weather forecasts. Still not great. Customs had departed by now, so we'd need to stop at a customs airport on the way. Cherbourg was the obvious choice, but completely fog bound. As was Dinard, but with thunder storms into the bargain. Through the morning, it started to look as if the sun would burn off the fog, and indeed there were occasional patches of blue. If we were going to go, we were looking for a window between the fog clearing, and the storms from Dinard arriving. The weather was better to the East, so that's where we were looking for a Customs Airport. Around lunchtime it had cleared sufficiently for us to make a dash -- Le Havre.

Sylvie kindly agreed to call ahead and arrange for Customs, and we set off with the most basic of flight planning -- DCT! We were able to fly comfortably at 2500ft for much of the trip, but as we started to get near the coast, the cloudbase dropped rapidly, and by the time we called Le Havre Tower for joining instructions we were down to 1200ft. Le Havre cleared us to join right base for runway 05, and we struggled to see the airport until we were on final - Ian again giving vectors from the GPS. We were told to report short final as we were number 2 to a Cessna 172, currently landing - it was Ian and Trevor!

On the ground, we parked next to the 172, and walked across the apron to the terminal, from where we were directed to the crew briefing area. The landing fee was just €8.64! Getting a weather update, we could see that although the cloudbase here was 1200ft, and legal VFR, the English coast was completely socked in, although further inland was fine. Trevor had an IMC rating and decided they could fly low across the Channel as far as the FIR boundary, and then file IFR for the rest of the trip. Ian and I decided -- again -- that we'd get a taxi into town and find a hotel.

Tuesday. Low cloud and mist. But at least it wasn't fog. Also on the positive side, the UK coast was clear. Here in France though, it was a waiting game to see if the mist would lift enough before the afternoon thunder storms were due... Ian had left a message on my mobile, saying they'd got back okay, but the UK had been solid IMC almost the whole way to Blackbushe. We'd definitely made the right decision in staying.

At 11:30 we decided to go for it. We filed a flight plan for 12:30 departure, and cleared customs (three burly officials had turned out just to check the two of us! They scrutinised our passports, asked us if we had anything to declare, told us not to leave the airport before our flight, and left!) All that remained was to preflight and refuel. "Le Havre tower, G-HEVN request engine start and taxi to the aeroclub for fuel" One of the firemen came out to the fuelling bay and filled us up. We then left the plane on the nearby grass and he gave us a lift back to the terminal building to pay. There was still half an hour before our filed 'off' time, so we stayed for a quick cup of coffee.

Back in the plane, we were cleared for a VFR departure from runway 23, with immediate right turn onto track. The controller confirmed to us that the French danger area was not active. Once outside his ATZ, we were handed over to Deauville, and on approaching 50N, to London Information. London informed us that D040 was active, and as we couldn't raise Plymouth Mil for a crossing service, there was no option but to divert around.

The mist only gave us about 5km visibility, and the cloudbase kept us below 1300ft, and the crossing to Goodwood (GWC VOR) was 90nm, including the diversion. Then about 30 miles from the English coast, we were suddenly in clear air, clouds at least 5000ft above us! We stayed where we were though, not wanting to tempt fate(!). Over land the base dropped again, and we only got to 2200ft briefly before having to sit at 1900 for the rest of the trip. We finally arrived back at Enstone, at 13:15 local, just two days late!