Twenty pilots - including students - stretch their wings on a club fly-out to Morocco

Marrakech or bust

CLUB: WEST LONDON AERO CLUB AIRFIELD: WHITE WALTHAM WHERE: 2NM SW OF MAIDENHEAD, BERKS MEMBERSHIP: 1000 RUNWAYS: 03/21, 07/25, 11/29 ALL GRASS FACILITIES: CLUBHOUSE, BAR, FOOD, HANGARAGE, FUEL, ENGINEERING, PILOT SHOP, FLIGHT TRAINING, TRIAL FLIGHTS, AEROBATIC TRAINING TEL: 01628 823276 WEB: www.wlac.co.uk

SO you’ve passed the PPL Skill Test, received your licence from the CAA, started to log some P1 time visiting airfields within an hour or two’s flying of your base, maybe you’ve even started an IMC Rating course... what then?

Well, if you’re a member of a go-ahead club such as West London Aero Club based at White Waltham Airfield near Maidenhead, Berks, you sign up for a two-week flying tour with Marrakech as your ultimate destination. Yes, that’s right, Marrakech, the one in Morocco. It means flying south through France and Spain, across the Straits of Gibraltar to the African continent and almost down to the 30º line of latitude. That’s an important line because that’s as far south as the club’s insurance will cover you. For 20 members of WLAC, that was the highlight of the summer of 2005, flying a collection of club and private aircraft there and back, around 30-36 hours flying time altogether (it varied according to aircraft).

The pilots took turns as P1 and as navigator, a sharing of roles which boosted the confidence of everyone taking part – for many, it was their first flight in a light aircraft overseas. “It was a big achievement for all of us – we all got there and back,” said Steve Gibbins, who started the trip as a 100-hour PPL. He started flying in August 2004, passed the Skill Test in February 2005, and was one of the more experienced pilots on the trip having fl own on two other club flyouts to Saumur and Le Havre. “You never usually get that length of time to fl y,” said Steve. “We had three to four hour long legs to fl y each day. You get time to ‘bond’ with the plane and the result is that I’m definitely more confident now. “Flying [in the south of England] is intense and you can’t go anywhere without being careful. On this trip, we could just fl y.” Steve flew a club-owned Piper Warrior II with fellow member, Julie Lethaby, also an 100-hour PPL before the trip, and instructor Mark Giordani, who had fl own to Marrakech before and who had led the flight planning sessions held at the club in the weeks leading up to the mass fly-out

One of the problems was that the Moroccan charts were ten years old – new ones were due to be published just after the trip – with VFR routes, reporting points and Danger Zones all likely to be out of date. Fortunately, all the aircraft had GPS units and waypoints were created using lat/long coordinates to plot the latest known information. Contact was made with the Moroccan embassy at an early stage by David Coe, CFI at the club, resulting in an official visit to White Waltham’s historic WWII club building by an embassy official to see if there were any details they could help with. Luck was on their side when it turned out that the Honorary British Consul in Marrakech, Mohammed Zihkiri, turned out to be a pilot himself and a big help on the ground when they all reached the desert city. “When we landed in Marrakech they really made us feel welcome,” said Julia. She admitted to being worried about flying in Morocco because the maps were so old, “but it’s a credit to the club that we did it.” Indeed, and it’s not as though the club made things easy for itself. Among the 20 people on the trip were two student pilots who had yet to fl y solo. Matt Bruce had 14 hours flying under his belt at the start of the trip and returned with 28. He flew with John Tinley, who had 16 hours and who soloed shortly after returning from the flight. With them in the club’s Cessna 182 was instructor Julian Payen who had the responsibility for overseeing everything. “Before we left it was a bit of a worry,” said Julian, “but in the end it wasn’t too bad. These guys flew very well. The first day was very exhausting – I was running on adrenalin and the weather wasn’t great.” In fact, that day’s run down the west coast of France saw Julian flying on instruments in thick cloud for an hour.

They had been due to land at Bergerac but the weather was marginal so they pushed on to Perpignan where the sun was shining and gained a day on the others – everyone eventually came together south of Barcelona. Matt and John said the whole flight was a huge confidence booster for them, not only improving their aircraft handling skills but also their radio work and navigation. “It was an adventure,” said Matt, “and I once I heard about it, I would have given up my job to make sure I was on it. “We had to navigate properly – although we had a GPS, Julian wouldn’t let us use it for most of the trip. Only over Morocco where there were no landmarks, just brown fields.” For John, the trip has also meant he has become friends with many more club members. “I really didn’t know many people in the club before going,” he said. “Now I know 17 or 18 more and I’m more into the social side. The three of us [Matt, Julian and John] have become great friends.” So what does a trip like this cost? When David Coe first put up a notice about the trip in the club house, he’d costed it out at £1650 each – and that’s pretty much how it turned out.

It was 12 days altogether, with hotels being booked on the spot as they arrived at a new airfield. The sprinkling of instructors, which included David, among the club pilots, helped, and it was also useful to have one of WLAC’s engineers along, Al Taha, who spoke French and Arabic, who also brought a selection of spares, just in case. So, what’s next? Cyprus and Istanbul are the destinations being mooted for the big club fl y-out in 2006, along with a selection of closer destinations just a day’s flying away. This is one club that really works for its members.