Wellness Friday

If you work for the right company you can fly during business hours!

The taildragger brotherhood

A visit to the annual taildragger brotherhood fly-in at Paray Le Monial June 16th. 

Barbecue Tignes 2019

The super friendly team at the Tignes aeroclub organized a barbecue inviting friends and mountain pilots end of March. Irresistible... 

Snowplay - Glacier and Skiing

Just another amazing day in our French Alps...

"The difficult choice between skiing and flying" - the movie

The weather has not been great this winter. I had the skis on the plane for 2 months before finding a window in the clouds and winds. Wednesday March 14th was the magic day...

Autumn is for flying

When the sun stay low and the air is cold and stable it is the perfect time to go fly in the mountains, enjoying the sceneries and discovering mountain airfields. 
I'll stop here, the film talks for itself...

Uphill landing

Corlier is beautiful mountain airfield with a 16% even slope. Not my best film but a September moment to share...

Taildragger pilots have more fun

For better viewing conditions see the film on YouTube - click this line

The french taildragger brotherhood (Confrerie des pilotes de "traine-queue") held their yearly fly-in on June 18th. As a first timer in the meeting I got my "Traine-queue" diploma and had a great day. Going without my cameras was obviously not an option so I hope you enjoy the film.

Now with sound (again)

Back in November 2016 I posted my film Old Dreams Never Die on YouTube. In less than 2 months I got more than 2000 views (that is a lot for one of my films in that short time) and a lot of very nice comments (thank you!).

...and then something happened that might be of interest for those of you who make and post videos on YouTube...

I don't monetise my films, primary because I’m a pure and altruistic person but also, and only way down the list, as you need more than my current 87 subscribers and millions of views rather than my 35.000 total views (thanks mum!) to make any money out of it….

This allows me to, rather than using free elevator music, use almost any copyrighted music that I like – and through pure magic YouTube identifies the music and monetises it for the benefit of the copyright owner! Talk about win-win!

There are exceptions to this where you cannot use the chosen music at all but in most cases the policy is “Monetised by copyright owner” and "Ads can appear".

You can also verify the policy for your chosen music in advance HERE

If you read the fine print on YouTube you will find the following
Note: Copyright holders can change their policies and issue copyright takedown notices under certain circumstances. Your video's status could change in the future (and may even be removed from YouTube) if the copyright owner changes the policy that applies to the music in your video.

After 2 months and the 2000+ views (with all the music) I suddenly discovered that the entire film had been muted due to copyright infringement on 2 songs that both are (still) listed as If you use this song:

Playback: Viewable worldwide

Advertising: Ads can appear

There is no explanation given to the change in my video’s "status" (maybe it was seen as offensive…?) and I didn’t even get a mail from YouTube when it was muted…

I have now replaced the 2 songs, one by the same song but performed by another artist and one by a completely different song. They are both to be monetized by the claimants and I hope the status will not change...

For a better viewing experience you can CLICK THIS LINK to see the film directly on YouTube or you can see it here on the blog by clicking the image below.

Close to Christmas (again...)

This has been a great flying year in despite the not always cooperative weather... greater in terms of quality (100%) than quantity (42 h)....
A year ago I did my first flight after completely rebuilding my plane after the the incident you have seen in my film "I had a dream" back in August 2013 (see it HERE again).
The real flying started in March with fine-tuning of the plane (and the rusty pilot). After long preparation, and thanks to good weather, I got my "revenge" when completing my "tour de France" in a 2 week flying adventure that you can see in the film "Old Dreams Never Die" (see it HERE again or scroll down to the previous post). 

I hope your year was as good and that 2017 will be even better!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Sorry, no new Christmas film this year but this one is almost a tradition by now...

For a better viewing experience see the film directly on YouTube by clicking HERE

Old Dreams Never Die

NOTE Muted by YouTube!
Without forehand notice this film has recently been muted by YouTube. This is due to copyright issues with 2 of the songs in the film. As I don't make any money on my films I count on YouTube monetizing them to pay the copyright owners. Works perfectly 99% of time... but not this time, the author of 2 songs refused and the entire film is muted...  I will be uploading a new version shortly.
This is the story about my 2 weeks flying in France during August 2016. 
The trip start close to the alpes and the first destination is the Loire valley castles before going to the Atlantic coast and the 3 islands Belle Ile, Ile d'Yeu and Ile d'Oleron. From the islands down the coast to the Basque country before going inland to Massive Centrale and the center of France. The trip end with a short visit to the annual Ultra light festival at Blois before heading back to the mountains.

For a better viewing experience and control over resolution settings (the film is available in Full HD) you can view directly at YouTube by clicking here (opens a new  browser window)

French Avid Flyer Association Meeting 2016

While preparing the film about my long flight this summer I just finished a "souvenir film" from this year's French Avid Flyer Association meeting. It is not really telling a story or showing any amazing scenery, it is just a souvenir and probably of little interest to anyone outside of the association....
The meeting was held at Sagy, a private airfield, in Burgundy. The chicken with crayfish (a classic french dish) at the restaurant and the grilled chicken Sunday lunch was obviously local, from Bresse (where else?) but the champagne was flown in by auto-gyro!

"La mise en croix"

Thank you Alain, Daniel, Thierry and Octave for precious helping hands while putting the wings back on the plane...

Covering has started

The 1.5 minutes in the film represent a full hour
I agree, watching this film is like watching paint dry (but it only lasts 1.5 minutes while paint take much longer..!). It is not very exciting, nor is it particularly instructive as you don’t really see the details. But there is a message in the film…
Using Oratex provide a lot of flexibility. I had already, actually a few days ago, prepared the fuselage and the fabric by applying the glue. So when I decided to skip lunch and work on the plane instead for one hour I could easily do that and know that I could stop on top of the hour, roll the plane back in the barn and with clean hands and without having to change go back to work. I can pick up exactly where I left at a later time (after dinner, lunch tomorrow or this weekend)... 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

No new flying Christmas greeting this year as my plane is still under reconstruction. I'll do better next year, and while waiting for that - here is last years Christmas greeting (still very valid)..:

A shorter than planned flight

I had this dream about a long flight across France, by the castles of the Loire valley out to the Atlantic coast and to some of the near the coast islands (Belle Ile, Ile d’Yeu and Ile d’Oleron). Then down to the Basque country and then home again across the mountains in the center of France. 
With the rest of the family visiting the grandparents I had a week available and the weather forecast was very promising. So I made my flight plan, loaded the plane, rigged my cameras and took off an early Saturday morning. I had planned a stop for lunch just before flying over the amazing Loire valley castles. And there is where the dream ended…
I made a hard landing (I can list all the reasons but in the end it was a pilot error…) and damaged my landing gear. 

As mentioned I had rigged my cameras for my dream trip but the final film is obviously shorter than I hoped for. I hope you will enjoy it anyway:

The repair will require some welding and rather than patching I have decided to re-cover the entire plane. I have been delaying this year after year so I guess this is an opportunity. I will be using Oratex (I did a stress test on Oratex in September 2011, you’ll find it in the archive) but more about this new project later.

Summer time is meeting time...

Flying across France to the yearly French Avid Flyer Pilot meeting I added another 7h30 to the engine and I'm now approaching 60 spotless hours.
I know, I know, it is nothing and it is still way to early to judge the reliability... However, seeing other identical planes take off with their Rotax 582 or (strong but heavy) 912 I'm comforted in my choice of Victor 2 - I can easily out climb them all with my low weight and high power!



For Avid Flyer owners in France...
As you can see the French Avid Flyer association (l'APA) is still going strong. The French Avid Flyer Yahoo Group has been reactivated and you can sign up here.

I love the smell of snow in the morning

You know, one time we had a hill snowed for 12 hours. When it was all over, I landed there...

A planet called Langogne

As promised in my last update I have published a film from my last flight. I have done 2 versions, one long and one short. 

Unless you are my mother - or one of my friends who were with me in Langogne - the short version might be more than sufficient...

Langogne in quiet place at the east edge of Massif Central with a small airfield just outside the village. The gliders are long gone but you see the traces of them.

There are several altiports in the area and an excellent instructor available.

The short version (14 minutes)

The long version (38 minutes)

An autumn flight to a nearby field

Some views of the engine when I drain the excess oil from the cylinders, some engine sound when starting up. The rest is just for your eyes...