We arrived at Headcorn after just 1 hour 20 minutes in the air. Flying across the English countryside in the still evening air was a relaxing way to start the adventure. Surprisingly, the South East is the most wooded region of England and when seen from the air you can well believe it. During the course of the evening, a number of other microlights from the UK team turned up at Headcorn so at least we would have company for the channel crossing. We had been keeping an eye on the weather forecast which was threatening to develop into thunderstorms and sure enough there were periods of rain and flashes of lightning throughout
the night. I was glad we weren’t in the tiny tent.

Next morning was bright and clear so back at the airfield we filed the flight plan and after waiting for confirmation that all had been accepted, donned the lifejackets and prepared to take off. The destination was to be Abbeville with Le Touqet as an alternative diversion airfield. Approaching the Kent coast we could see that the weather was clear all the way across the channel and it was even possible to see the hazy outline of France. The crossing took about twenty minutes and we were soon passing over the comparative safety of the French coast at Cap Griz Nez. I guess it’s human nature that despite having flown nearly 100 hours with this particular engine, you still expect it to stop mid-channel. Rationalising that the engine doesn’t know it’s over water helps a bit, but even so, senses are heightened. Did the engine note change then or was it just my ears popping?....

On reaching France we had to make a rapid adjustment not only to the different appearance of the landscape but also the change in style of the air maps we were using. However the visibility was good making it easy to navigate to Abbeville, our first landing field in France. We were the second of the aircraft in our loose formation of seven to arrive in the circuit and conscientiously made the radio calls in our best French, ‘Vent arrière’ (downwind), ‘Finale; piste zero deux’ (finals runway 02). I was sure we were impressing the locals with our airmanship and command of their language but then one of our number made the call ‘Vent derrière’ which indicated that his wind was coming from a different location entirely and rather ruined the semblance of
professionalism. Flight time from Headcorn to Abbeville was 1 hour 30 minutes. We stopped at Abbeville for just over an hour, had a snack and topped up fuel tanks. The perceived wisdom among the others in the group who were experienced at flying abroad was that if fuel was available then you should fill up the tanks - you could never be sure that fuel would be available at the next landing field so ‘get it while you can’!