On our last morning, a quick visit to the supermarket to stock up with fish soup, cheese and something for an inflight lunch. By the time we arrived at the airfield, the mist and murk had largely cleared and it was a routine flight back to Carlisle, albeit with rather a headwind.
So ends another adventure; minor in the context of 2013 and 2014 but mission successfully accomplished and no problems with Juliet Bravo, who now goes off to RGV for her annual.
We had a complete day in Lisbon and managed to cover the main sights. Rather longer would be required for a full exploration but home beckoned. We would have a last night away in La Rochelle, meeting up with Paul and Sally Turner, one of the two PPL/IR pilots whom we failed to meet up with on Gran Canaria, and have a good fish dinner at Andrées.
Juliet Bravo on the ramp at Cascais
The en route weather was generally good but as we flew north, we ran into a weak cold front moving east into France. At FL120, we were comfortably on top but the latest LFBH metars showed that an ILS to minimums would be necessary and so it turned out to be.
Juliet Bravo on departure from Cascais.
Phil was first, having taken off from Cascais some time after me, I was next, then Paul in his TB21 and finally Ryanair flying in from Stansted, all landing in the space of about half an hour.
Miranda and I then got stuck outside the “sterile area” which some rather tedious security guy insisted we keep clear off (we had to park on the hard standing as grass area G was waterlogged) until Ryanair departed, so we took refuge in the control tower and texted a by now worried Phil assuring him of our safe arrival, which he had not seen.
Eventually we all met up and so into La Rochelle and later to Andrée.
Hotel Dona from Seville Cathedral belfry. A PPL/IR tour stayed there in 2007.
After two excellent days in Seville, busy in warm spring sunshine (equivalent to summer temperatures at home), it was time to move on to Lisbon where none of us had been before. A direct routing was not available for some reason so we needed to take a rather extended routing via Faro.
Miranda and Phil on departure from Seville for Cascais
Miranda flew with Phil in pressurised comfort, doing her sewing as usual, and while departing after me, they managed to arrive before me at Cascais and organise the fuel bowser. A charming lady volunteered her handling services on arrival and recommended good restaurants in Lisbon as well as organising the taxi there. While handling is not mandatory as such, it would be difficult to deal with airport officialdom at Cascais without it.
A prompt start as we were keen to get to Seville as early as we could and suss out a good restaurant for the evening where we were due to meet up with Phil Caiger, flying out from Biggin Hill in his PA46 Malibu, fresh from a skiing holiday with his family.
Seville – view from the cathedral belfry
A pleasant flight in good weather largely retracing our outbound steps through Morocco before landing on a warm spring afternoon. Phil arrived later that evening and we are spending two days in Seville – a third visit for us but first for Phil.
Walking on La Gomera turned out to be somewhat disappointing for a number of reasons, not least the weather. While on the coast, it was usually quite bright and sunny, inland it was often dull, windy with occasional rain and drizzle.
On the day before departure to Grand Canaria where we were due to meet up with some PPL/IR friends for the evening, a problem arose. Grand Canaria was notammed as being out of avgas. Our PPL/IR friends with the help of a Spanish friend flying his bonanza had gone to a small club airfield on the south of the island where avgas was available and suggested we went there. However we could not find the airfield on any map, nor get any details about it from our handler so reluctantly came to the conclusion that we would have to miss out this stop and go directly to Lanzarote where avgas was available.
Met station on La Gomera
This we did in an uneventful flight and refuelled on arrival. Lanzarote did not require handling but unless you had been there before and knew your way around the officialdom, it was all but essential.
Tenerife South to Lanzarote: 200 nm in 1 hour 30 min
Jerez we know well from previous visits but it was still good to wander around again and take in a visit to the famous Riding School and go to a bogeda for a late afternoon sherry.
Tenerife South requires an arrival slot and there was an anxious moment when this failed to materialise; it needs to be quoted in the RMKS section of the flight plan, and to comply with Moroccan regulations, (IFR) flight plans need to be filed three hours before arrival in their airspace. In the end, all was well.
We took on a full load of fuel at Jerez; Teneriffe South has no avgas so we needed enough for our outbound flight and then sufficient with reserves to fly back to Gran Canaria after our walking holiday. This was a sector where Juliet Bravo’s extended range came into its own; we were able to easy overfly Morocco and save the couple of hours that any enroute stop there would entail and because we were going from Schengen to Schengen, there were no immigration/customs formalities either.
Over Morocco at FL130 with Atlas mountains in the distance
En route weather was generally fair; we took off and climbed to our initial cruising level of FL100 picking up a useful tailwind; as we entered Moroccan airspace, we were offered a climb to FL130 and more expeditious routing, which we accepted but the downside of this was a reduced tailwind, which later as forecast turned into a headwind. Leaving Morocco SW of Essaouira for a long sea leg, we routed over Fuerteventura, rather bleak looking, then south of Grand Canaria on the long STAR into Teneriffe South which added considerably to the route mileage. Mount Teidi on Teneriffe duly appeared and we began our descent with efficient vectoring by ATC amid constant arriving and departing holiday jet traffic.
Mt Teide on Teneriffe in the distance as we approach Gran Canaria at FL130
Tenerife Tower remarked that they did not often see aircraft likes ours before giving us taxi and parking instructions; our handler was there to meet us and whisk us through to a hugely crowded arrivals hall where we found our Inntravel bus to take us to the nearby ferry and thence to La Gomera to walk.
Jerez to Teneriffe South: 853 nm in 5 hours 25 min
This morning we spent an hour or so looking around Tarbes before leaving for the airport to depart for Jerez shortly before lunchtime. A weak cold front had moved in overnight giving rather dreek conditions with low cloud and the occasional spot of drizzle. As expected, we picked up a little ice as we climbed to our cruising altitude of FL120 with an overcast above and undercast below. Again, as expected both overcast and undercast slowly cleared as we flew south of the Pyrenees into Spain to reveal snow clad plateau below. By the time we were abeam Madrid, cloud clearance was complete and the landscape began to green up.
Stork’s nest
As expected ATC began to get busy on handover to Seville with many training aircraft from the commercial flight school at Jerez but no delays on approach and landed in spring like warmth. Handling is now compulsory at Jerez; we had two delightful giggly girls to do this but their knowledge of aircraft fuel and pilot requirements was decidedly skimpy!
Riding school at Jerez
Next day was a rest day from flying while we spent the day in Jerez sampling the sherry.
We had planned to set off on a Tuesday to give us a bad weather day en route and ensure we reached Teneriffe South by 5 pm local time on the Saturday when we meet up with our Inntravel walking tour. However, with very settled weather over Western Europe and still a few chores to finish off at home, the bad weather day would not be needed so we decided to postpone departure until Wednesday.
After landing at Tarbes in the late afternoon
The day dawned bright and our route at FL110 took us south to Compton VOR, Southampton, across to Jersey then south to Nantes, La Rochelle and Bordeaux before turning SSE for Tarbes. I choose Tarbes in the foot hills of the Pyrenees as I had been there in December for a test flight in the Daher Socata TBM900 and thought it would be fun to go there again and show Miranda something of the city. We landed in the late afternoon, refuelled and then went to the hotel I stayed in last time, where we found we had been upgraded! Then out to the little restaurant where we had dined in December with the Daher Socata people looking after us.
After two years flying rather longer distances, we decided to go on a walking holiday to the Canaries this year, and stop off and do some sightseeing on the way there and back visiting Jerez and Seville in Spain and Lisbon in Portugal. Our route out will take us via Tarbes, in southern France, to Jerez, to Teneriffe South and then back via Grand Canaria, Seville, Lisbon and La Rochelle. Although the Jerez to Teneriffe South would be the longest sector so far undertaken in Juliet Bravo of some 900+ nm, as we will remain in Schengen territory throughout, there are no special requirements we will need so this year we are leaving the barrel refuelling kit and Delorme tracker at home.
Our walking will be done on the small island of La Gomera; although this has a small airport, research shows that it is subject to very strong winds at times so we have decided to leave the aircraft at Teneriffe and cross to La Gomera on the ferry.
