In the past we had enjoyed the competitive side of microlight flying so entered the various rounds of national competitions to qualify us to be part of the UK team going to the 2006 European Microlight Championships in August. This year the event was to be held in Nördlingen, in the Bavarian region of Germany. The serious part was to do well in the competition, the adventure was to fly there and back.

Flying abroad (in a microlight) was something we’d never done before so for some time before departure day I’d been researching answers to all those niggly questions that pop into your mind – usually in the early hours of the morning. (A notebook on the bedside table is a must!). Like what are the radio calls you should make when joining an airfield circuit in France? How do you file a flight plan to cross international borders? What are the telephone codes for international dialling? Etc etc.

One last minute job was to adorn the nose of the ircraft with ‘QinetiQ’ (where I work) stickers in  return for special leave I’d been granted for some of the competition days. The aircraft 100 hour service  had been carried out (it would have fallen due while we were away) and life  jackets had been bought. So, loaded up with a tiny tent and sleeping bags and armed with my ‘really useful folder’ of info for flying abroad, we set off from Chilbolton one Friday evening for the first leg of the journey.

Since this was to be our first channel crossing, I was definitely going for the narrowest strip of water possible so we routed initially to Headcorn airfield in Kent which is a favourite jumping-off point for cross channel microlight flights. Not only that, but Jim Pearce was temporarily based there as he was flying the plane for the Headcorn parachute club and offered us a bed for the night. This meant we could put off having to squeeze into the tiny tent a little bit longer.