61 Bilbao - Amiens

25. May 2007

I would like to spend more time in Bilbao - but by now, after 4 months of travelling, I was keen to move on.
 

It was again a pleasant experience in the airport, from the checking in at the information desk in the departure hall, over the traffic office to file the flight plan and pay the modest airport fee of 36 Euro, to the ride back to the plane, and the fuel truck being ready to fuel the plane. A world apart from the rude treatment in Lisbon.
 

I had filed a flight plan to go to Amiens in France, just because it was about halfway to Odense, the destination where I will complete my tour around the word.
 

I was in for a very bumpy ride about a hundred NM southwest from Paris as I flew right through a number of thunderstorms with lightning and turbulence. I contemplated a detour, but was not sure were to go to avoid the weather, so I kept a close eye on the Stormscope to try to avoid the worst turbulence.
But it was the worst weather on my entire trip!
 

Just north of Paris the weather situation eased up, as I came out on the back side of the cold front, and I arrived in Amiens in VMC, coming in on a left downwind to runaway 30. There was nobody in the tower so I called traffic with positions, but nobody responded.
 

Even so, there were a couple of hang gliders in the air, and I came rather close to one, when I turned final. But I landed without problems and taxied to the small apron.
 

Went to have a chat with a group of pilots sitting around outside a hangar, and was offered a glass of wine - and later a lift to a hotel nearby.