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Tuesday 20 August 2013

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.