The last day of our adventure for Phil with him flying the leg to his home base at Biggin Hill, 530 nm in 3 hours 30 min. The weather forecast suggested that the best time to leave was around midday local; the overnight front had cleared to the east and the next trough was just making its way into France and so this turned out to be. After a wander round Avignon, we were out at the airport and airborne into initially a 20 kt headwind, which soon become a crosswind and eventually a tailwind with ground speed rising to 185kt. We started at FL100 but soon climbed to FL120 above SCT/BKN cu,sc with occasional higher buildups and climbed further in north France to FL140. By this time, there was significant CB activity but apart from a brief moment of heavy rain on the approach to Biggin, we managed to avoid any turbulence and icing.
Apart from the relatively short flight to Carlisle tomorrow, here the adventure ends and a great success it was. I will post a postscript setting out some overall reflections in a few day’s time and in due course, a write up will appear in PPL/IR Europe’s house magazine Instrument Pilot. I shall certainly go to Africa again in a year or three and there are other exotic destinations in mind as well. Meanwhile thanks to all who have read this blog and I hope it has been interesting and given you a flavour of what we have been up to over the past month.