Somme by air

Today I travelled over to Abbeville in Northern France with the flying club for a weekend jolly that I almost missed out on.

Crossing the channel by ferry with my fellow Turb Team crew buddies, we were delighted to see the sun shining after the epic thunderstorm and heavy rainfall of the day before when quite frankly we all thought the trip would be cancelled.

On arrival at L'aerodrome d'Abbeville we were greeted by the warm hospitality of motel and restaurant owner Pascal who seemed to run the place almost single handedly.

Our French Turb owner friend Jean Marie was there to greet us. Sadly he had to drive up from Paris and leave his Turb behind due to bad weather to the South.

Five of the Tiger Club aircraft flew in formation for a photoshoot with Jean Marie in one of the Cubs as camera ship. Jean Marie writes for French flying magazine Info-Pilote and is quite the talented photographer.

After the shoot I took to the air in my friend's beautiful 1947-built Cessna 120 tailwheel aircraft for a flight north to the coast. He gave me the controls for most of the flight and it was lovely to fly her again. I can't wait to get current again on my licence. Lack of time and money ever the problem.

We flew at 1500 feet over the Somme and I was overwhelmed by the sheer beauty of the landscape from the sandbanks where seals bask in the sun to the lush green woodland and pretty villages between to the quaint marina on the seafront with an old steam train just visible from the air.

Sadly we didn't see any seals this afternoon as the tide was in, but the fleet of colourful kayaks made for an interesting photograph as my friend eased the aircraft through some graceful 360 turns, our friend Tim chasing our tail in a Turb not far behind.

After landing my friend told me the water filled holes dotted all over the coastline are actually bomb holes from the Great War. A permanent reminder to the great loss in the battle.

Much merriment and aviation chatter was had this evening as we exchanged Turb flying tales with Jean Marie over a few glasses of vin rouge. The flying club's Anglo-French relations look set to have a bright future with more fly outs both sides of the channel planned already.

Look out for a future issue of Info-Pilote magazine www.info-pilote.fr for the Tiger Club cameo from this weekend!