Cliffs on the French coast: Charleroi (EBCI) to Eu Mers Le Treport (LFAE) with another pilot

See description below (with timestamps at the bottom).

Weather:

EBCI 210820Z 24007KT 9999 FEW008 16/12 Q1013 NOSIG
EBCI 210850Z 23007KT 200V270 9999 FEW019 17/11 Q1013 NOSIG
EBCI 210920Z 25007KT 210V300 9999 FEW028 19/10 Q1013 NOSIG
LFAT 210930Z AUTO 33011KT CAVOK 19/11 Q1014 BECMG 26010KT
LFAT 211000Z AUTO 33009KT 300V360 CAVOK 19/09 Q1014 NOSIG
LFAT 211030Z AUTO 33008KT 260V350 CAVOK 19/10 Q1014 NOSIG

A few months ago I was contacted by Olivier, another pilot, who said that he likes my flying and he would be happy to go on a trip together. While it might seem like that I fly alone all the time (because I don’t record short sightseeing flights with friends most of the time), I actually like flying with other people! Whenever I have passengers I feel much more relaxed, even when they are not pilots. Having a French speaking co-pilot on board meant that it was time to fly to an uncontrolled French field, as I could delegate the radio calls to somebody who speaks the language better than I do.

Olivier suggested Eu Mers Le Treport (LFAE) because this was one of the airports that he had not yet visited before on the coast, and I was perfectly fine with this choice seeing that the field was situated on top of some nice cliffs. We also took our folding bikes with us, which nicely fit in the rear seats (and meant that we needed no extra ballast for once).

After the low clouds have dried up in the morning, the weather looked good for the rest of the day, albeit with a chance of isolated thunderstorms which could form a squall line in the early afternoon. So we just had to make sure to get to the coast before the heavier storms formed, and only depart back to EBCI after the squall line passed more to the west.

The pattern at LFAE was beautiful – right above the cliffs – and we had a nice lunch at the beach in the village after a short bike ride. Going back up we had to push the bikes on the steepest parts, but otherwise they were perfectly adequate even for riding on the walking trails on the top of the cliffs.

I was the passenger in the afternoon: on the way back home we stopped at the short and steep strip of Verchocq (LF6252), which is basically a small village for people who own small airplanes, where they can just taxi from the runway to their house. It was an interesting experience for sure, especially the slightly tailwind but steep downhill departure, which we prepared and executed very professionally.

This time I left a bit more detail of the flying itself in the video, including the departure from Charleroi, since it has been a while since I did that, and because we had to wait for a record number of passenger jets before finally being able to depart, and I wanted to show that too.

00:00 Taxi request from EBCI Ground
00:50 Taxi to S4 RWY 24
02:23 Ready for departure – start of a long wait at the holding point…
02:41 Plane spotting (Ryanair, Volotea, and 3 more Ryanair) and chatting while waiting
03:35 Line up and wait RWY 24 (traffic on minimum approach speed behind us)
04:10 Take-off EBCI RWY 24 followed by an early left turn due to traffic behind
04:56 After take-off checklist with “Charleroi views”
05:09 Leaving the CTR overhead Sierra
05:29 Checking in with Brussels Information for FIS
06:29 Switching to Lille Info
07:13 Abeam Maubeuge (LFQJ)
07:37 Discussing my French
08:29 Considering some VFR on top, but for safety we are staying below
09:14 First 100 hours in the logbook 🙂
09:46 Views of the building up convective cells and more weather discussion
10:02 Abeam of what remains of the airport of Cambrai Epinoy
10:21 Initial – early – briefing about the arrival to LFAE (expected pattern, wind, cloud cover)
11:13 Switching FIS frequency (Lille Info to Lille Info)
11:51 The coast is in sight
12:00 The actual descent and arrival briefing
12:37 Abeam Abbeville (LFOI)
13:04 Above the river/channel Somme, view towards the Bay of the Somme
13:25 Sonaca 200 versus Diamond DA40
14:00 Leaving Lille Info and giving the radio to my co-pilot for the French blind calls
14:34 Initial position call on approach to an overhead join
15:09 Airfield in sight, looking out for traffic and wind cues
16:01 Overhead the field
16:42 First views of the cliffs
16:55 Long scenic turn to the left to join at the beginning of downwind
17:38 Right hand downwind LFAE RWY 23
18:20 Turning base
19:00 Turning final
19:28 Overview of the flown pattern (while on final)
19:53 Landing LFAE RWY 23
20:10 Wing-view replay
20:33 Cockpit-view replay
20:54 Satisfied with the landing and vacating the runway
21:40 Taxi to the parking
22:42 Parking and shutdown
23:11 How we choose this airport
23:48 Flight plan closing – Thanks for watching!