Finally retired and on permanent holiday, it was time to take the L4 Cub on an epic adventure. The 80th anniversary of D-Day would do nicely:
I wanted to fly down in stages, taking it easy and not pushing too hard. Due to the D-Day invasion area airspace being closed on the big day, 6th June, the plan was to assemble that day at Saint-André-de-l’Eure airfield (LFFD) near Évreux, and then fly the beaches on the 7th. The airspace restrictions would still be in place, but Macron, Biden etc would be long gone and we would be allowed in. Maybe…
The team at “L-Birds back to Normandy” did a huge amount of work in the weeks leading up to the event; in order to get accreditation from the prefecture we all had to send passport details, licence number, medical certificate, shoe size, favourite colour and mother’s maiden name. Also payments for the hotels in Évreux and Caen.
Our plan was to start on the 4th, a couple of gentle days down the UK, then cross the channel and get to Saint-André on the 6th. The weather had other ideas – while France looked lovely, Scotland was forecast to be pretty dire…
I woke on the 4th to howling winds. The automatic weather station at the airfield reported a gust of 55 knots at about 0700, with strong wind warning in force:
The radar showed well-defined fronts with intense returns, but in between was clear. The fronts were moving in the direction I wanted to go, so there might have been a mobile gap to fly in…IF the winds dropped.
The winds didn’t drop. I stood in the hangar listening to the roof rattle and gave myself until 1400 to decide. It stayed wild as the time approached…and I decided to can it for the day. It would mean that I would have to fly the whole length of the country on the 5th to catch up, but that was workable…just.
Cancelling also meant that Brenda had to drive back to the airport to pick me up, but by doing it before 1400 I was able to cancel my hotel at the half-way point with no penalty, so there was that one slight ray of sunshine…
D-Day itself was postponed by 24 hours due to wild weather in the channel, so the trip was already quite realistic. If all went well, I’d be crossing the channel on the 6th, just like the thousands who made the same trip 80 years ago.
The 5 June simplified weather summary from the Mountain Weather Information Service showed wind but not as bad, and a tailwind for the southbound flight to Rochester, with improving weather all the way:
We went to bed hopeful…