Flying in Pyrénées with Gilles

I have always wanted to learn mountain flying. I love mountains, and find it fascinating to see them from air and close. In the beginning of July I asked members of the “Aeroprakt fans around the world” group on Facebook, whether they would recommend a flying club where I could rent an Aeroprakt A22, and fly it in the mountains together with an instructor. That was the way I got in touch with the Aeroclub Leon Morane, which has its home at the Tarbes Lourdes airport LFBT, in Hautes-Pyrénées of southwest France, at the foot of the Pyrénées mountain range.

We agreed on timing, they booked Gilles, a mountain flight instructor, and one of their A22 for me. On 12th September, after a thorough briefing, Gillles and I took off for the mountain flying training.

The city of Lourdes where I stayed during that week:

And the mountains… I had flown in the mountains before – in Poland, Slovakia, probably other places, but those mountains were significantly lower. The real taste of mountain flying came on my flight over the covered in snow Kebnekaise in Sweden (read more here). In Pyrénées, it was just a dream:

Gilles had tought me how to fly in the mountains, and I practised flying over the ridges. We were going south, with the intention to land on some of the airfields.

Needless to say, it was increadibly beautiful:

The first aerodrome was Peyresourdre LFIP. Of course, we didn’t fly directly, the picture below is just for illustration:

Peyresourdre is a controlled airfield located at 5,193 ft. The runway is 470 metres long, but the slope is steep. The wind wasn’t favourable, and we didn’t land. Instead, we practised the landing pattern – the way it is done in the mountains.

Then Gilles and I flew a bit around, where I again had a chance to plactice flying in the mountain valleys:

Selfie in the sky – I appreciated being airborne:

We soon headed for Artigues, a grass aerodrome at 2,428 ft, with 310 x 20 metres runway:

We decided not to land due to the weather conditions, but practised landing pattern with low pass, etc.

Gilles’ conclusion was that we wouldn’t be able to land anywhere in the mountains that day, but I was so happy just to fly in the mountains! I asked whether I could practice more, and we turned back to Pyrénées. However, the turbulence was so high, we quickly had to abandon the idea and flew home.

Landing on runway 02 in Tarbes Lourdes airport (in 17 knots tailwind!):

With Gilles and F-JHKY in front of the hangar:

It was a wonderful day. Gilles is a former French Air Force fighter pilot, and today – a certified mountain flight instructor. I was grateful to have a chance to learn from him. Several more days with mountain flying were waiting ahead!