Alderney (Aurigny) Island is one of the Channel Islands, being part of the UK crown dependencies. Alderney is close (7 miles) to the French Cotentin Coast in which are located the beaches of  the 1944 amphibious warfare of the allied forces.

Alderney has a nice, truly aviation friendly small airport (EGHA)  which, quite probably occupies 2/10^th of the surface or at least 2/10^th of the length of the island! ! Pilot dream !!? You may live at a walking distance from the airport and maybe your plane.  map

Alderney was visited one first time, very shortly, during a refuelling stop, when en route for Saint Mary (Scilly islands); with the promise to come back for a longer term visit.

Helped by a splendid, unusual, end of September mild and sunny weather, this second visit was relaxing with plenty of interesting people to meet, and many more to see and to do, than one may expect versus the size of the island.

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  Alderney pictures gallery

 Pilot Technical info

Fly to Alderney

Farm Court Alderney Accomodation

Fromage  (Cheese) l´Aviateur® created by the cheese factory Rouzaire tribute to Clément Ader.

On October 9, 1890, for the first time ever a machine called "Avion" and dubbed "Eole" powered by a steam engine took off from a field next to the cheese factory in Gretz Armainvilliers.

In Wickwar, United Kingdom, from the sky, a huge heart appears. This heart-shaped meadow was discovered and photographed during a balloon trip by Andy Collett, British businessman.

Winston Howes, a 70 years old farmer, planted in 1995 several thousand oaks  in testimony of love to his passed away wife. The result is this beautiful poignant heart shaped meadow, visible from the sky.

Articles on The Telegraph and the Huffington Post.

• French AIP aeroplates to be downloaded and then installed in Air Navigation for iPad.

Simple, powerfull, easy to configure and to use, this programme is allowing to downlad all French AIP aerocharts and to prepare them for being installed in Air Navigation for example (instructions are in French only but with an automatic translator you will get very easely through): http://www.v2air.fr

You can download the programme from here:

For travelling in Europe e-iAIP (European i AIP) from Bishop Media AB is an iPad/iPhone App permitting to view and to download for off line consultation the AIP informations and charts available via the web. There are several apps able to do so but are limited to one or few countries. For a very reasonnable annual fee, e-iAIP allows to get the AIP information from 45 countries: 

Besides AIP infos and charts the programme has several other fonctionnalities such as NOTAM, METAR, and a database to show on a map the airspaces, zones, airports, airfields, VOR, ADF, etc .... allowing to plan a flight.

Screenshots of the different screens and functionalities :

Available in Apple store  for iphone and iPad.

August 2007. During a flight to LFLU (Valence - France) we were given the opportunity to attend the departure of a Lockheed L12A. One may wonder why this was noticeable. They were at least few good reasons to be happy to be there. The plane had spent several years at LFLU before being sold and we had several opportunities to have a look at it. This plane had a long and rich history, not necessarily due to a lot of flying hours. Although maintenance was missing for some time it was in very good shape, and of course had been revised for the long flight. That particular day it was departing for the United States. Besides being happy to see it flying, some French people were a little bit sad to see this plane leaving France as one of its last duty at the end of 1945 had been to carry the renowned French General Leclerc (late Maréchal Leclerc).

August 2007: After a low fly pass above the airfield, it became a small spot in the sky flying back to its country of origin.

Thank to an extensive work performed by the present owners the history of this plane is available.   L12A Electra S/N 1226

  Pictures

Generally speaking, UK is a nice destination to fly by, but paying quite a great attention to wheather changes, due to the oceanic nature of its climate.

Perranporth is located in Cornwall, UK, at the north side of England south west end. Maybe a map is more worth than a lenghty description...

Perranporth airfield (EGTP) is just nearby.

Perranporth was discovered by "mistake" after an aborted flight to Saint Mary (Scilly Islands) seeking for sun and somehow warm water to splash in.

The stay at Perranporth was so enjoyable, that it became "a must go there" destination. One of the determining factor making worth the journey, was the discovery of  a fantastic couple, owners of a bead and breakfast house, the gentleman being a former RAF pilot.

Read More. 

Pilot Technical info

History of Perranporth Airport

 Bolena Court Accomodation

It happened the first of october 2005 at Valence-Chabeuil airport in France (LFLU).

That day was a bad day for VFR flight.  We were there, having arrived few moments ago with yet VFR conditions, but which were becoming closer and closer to marginal conditions.

And suddenly we heard some quite harmonious noise of a Rolls Royce Merlin engine! It was simply the Duxford flying legends Spitifre "U2" and Hurricane "HAC" landing for fuel on their way back from Malta to Duxford.

They were in Malta for the 60th commemoration of the Battle of Brittain thanks to the project "Merlins over Malta - The Defenders return".

Nice surprise indeed, and what a pleasure to have a close encounter with these aircrafts.

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   Pictures Gallery

The Pilot and the Pastor go to Heaven

A Pastor dies and is waiting in line at the Pearly Gates. Ahead of him is a guy who's dressed in sunglasses, a loud shirt, leather jacket, and jeans.

Saint Peter addresses this cool guy, 'Who are you, so that I may know whether or not to admit you to the Kingdom of Heaven? '

The guy replies, 'I'm Jack, retired airline pilot from Houston.'

Saint Peter consults his list. He smiles and says to the pilot, 'Take this silken robe and golden staff and enter the Kingdom.' The pilot goes into Heaven with his beautiful robe and staff.

Next, it's the Pastor's turn. He stands erect and booms out, 'I am Pastor Bob, pastor of my church for the last 43 years.'

Saint Peter consults his list. He says to the Pastor 'Take this cotton robe and wooden staff and enter the Kingdom.

'Just a minute,' says the good Pastor. 'That man was a pilot and he gets a silken robe and golden staff and I get only cotton and wood. How can this be?

'Up here - we go by results,' says Saint Peter. 'When you preached - people slept. When he flew, people prayed.'

Have a Good One.

Fly safe ! 

Nice pictures from all over the world. They are here because they are simply nice or unusual or astonishing ! In any case, worth to be seen.