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BuiltByNOF

Wednesday, April 23 2003

Report from Avignon, France, by John van Bladeren and Karl Hipp

Yesterday, we flew down to Avignon from Macon, France.  The actual trip was flight planned to be approximately 45 minutes.  As the weather was clear with visibilities in the 10-mile range, the flight was conducted VFR with no problems.  Our friend from Germany, Friedrich Rehkopf spent Monday morning developing and plotting this flight, along with the proposed remaining flights, using Jeppesen Flightstar.   Jeppesen's program did a very good job of pointing out the special use areas, which are extensive throughout Europe.  Both Friedrich and Karl have small printers, so the information was printed and reserved for future flights.

Macon has no tower, so the departure was like at any uncontrolled airport.  We climbed up to 4,400 feet and went south.   We had flight planned over a VOR north of  Avignon and at that point we approached a military base which was conducting operations.  Contact was made with approach control which kept us at 4,400 until past his area.  Then, a descent to 1,500 was approved, and while we were given a point to fly to, we could not find it in our database.  We confessed and continued on to Avignon.  The approach controller, when first contacted, asked us to "pass the message", like we had first heard days ago in our communications with London Information.  Now that we were enlightened to the language of European controllers, we were able to respond.  The controller was a male who was very difficult to understand, so we had to say "huh" and request "please repeat" a number of times.  It was a relief to finally talk to the Avignon tower controller.  She was clear and easy to understand, quite a contrast after the fast speaking male voices with heavy accents. 

We taxied in to the ramp at Avignon and went to what we thought was a fuel pit.  There was no one there so we went into the terminal building and tracked down the fuel dispensing crew.  The truck came to the fuel pit and we were told we could not park there.  We assured them we would move as soon as we were fueled.  After refueling, we moved N8256Y and secured it like the locals do.  However, we only used one set of sandbags.  A Cessna P-210 next to us was a little more concerned, as you can see from the pictures sent yesterday. 

This airport has commercial service and car rental agencies, so our plan was to rent a car at the airport and use Avignon as a hub for our travels for the next three days.  The car rental people were not there, so we had lunch at the airport to wait them out.  We met the owners of a British-registered Twin Comanche, Graham and Jackie from Biggin Hill in England, who gave us some hints on places to go.  We thought that the car rental people would be there after lunch, but that was not to be.  So, we took a cab into town and got settled before touring the town.

Avignon is an old town, and was site of the Popes from 1309 to 1377.  We toured the palace, Palais des Papes.  It is a spectacular structure in very good condition, considering its age.

 

Palais des Papes, Avignon, France.

 

Crane entering the palace for renovation work.

Dinner at a local restaurant concluded our Tuesday experience.   - John

The first thing after landing at Avignon, I filed our IFR flight plan to San Sebastian, Spain.  After lunch with Graham and Jackie, I checked with the handling agent and she confirmed the flight plan had been accepted.  We are now set to go, Friday at 10:00 local.

 

Princess Judy tours Avignon on a great white steed.

While Barb and John toured the palace, Judy and I had beer and wine in the square where we were entertained by a band from Peru.

 

GUY LOMBARDO AND THE ROYAL CANADIANS, a band from Peru, with Karl auditioning for lead guitar.

A French meal at a nearby restaurant finished off the day.  - Karl

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