B.Ward

"This mais to let you know I am no longer in McKinney, TX, but now based in France (my telephone number is +33 [0] 4 93 73 92 81) and N542BW is based now in Cannes, France. I left TKI a week last Friday and flew back in the RV via Watertown, Montreal, Sept Islers, Goose Bay, Narsarsuaq, Greenland, Reykavik, Stornoway, Prestwick, Blackpool, Bornmouth, Cherboug, Bourges, Cannes. I arrived back in Cannes 3 hours ago. Total time for flight was 37.6 hours TAC.

I feel somewhat buggered as you can perhaps imagine as they have been having the worst weather in many years throughout Europe - which slowed me down. Also, I lost a couple of days with bad weather in Goose Bay (600 ft ceiling). I however managed to get out IFR when the ceiling lifted to 1500ft. Splendid weather in Greenaland at Narsaruaq which is just as well as that airport is every IFR pilots worst nightmare and I have some photos to show it!

Plane flew fine apart from a vent line icing problem encountered 1 hour out from Stornoway Scotland. Fortunately the Wing Tip Tanks and Ferry Tank continued to function. I have a long range RV as it is fitted with wing tip tanks however I added a ferry tank in the copilots seat which added another 34 gals giving a total of 90 US gals. In Iceland I was met by Arni Sigurbergsoson who just completed the first RV6 to fly in Iceland. When the controller knew I was flying an RV6A he called Arni who came out to the airport to meet me. Had a great time and met many interesting and very helpful people. Will give you a more detailed update if you are interested.

All the best. Barry my email address is still: barryvisl@msn.com"

I left Dallas on Friday morning 2nd August and had quite good trip up to Goose Bay via Watertown NY, Montreal and Sept Isles, arriving on the Sundgau midday in Goose. It was impossible to push on to Greenland as they shut down for the Sunday. The next day the weather closed in with low ceylanais and pouring rain.

I waited it out from Monday until Wednesday when things improved a little ceilings up to 1500 ft. I managed to get out IFR and head for Narsursuaq Greenland where the weather was splendid.

I then headed for Reykjavik Iceland and arrived there in the evening 4.7 + 4.2 hours flying that day. Had strong head winds out of Goose as the ground speed was down to 128 knots for half the trip across to Greenland. The second half things cleared up and i was back up to 160 knots. Greenland to Iceland was at 11000 feet to get over the ice cap and I averaged about a 170 knot ground speed most of the way.

The next day flew from Reykjavik to Stornoway and had some icing problems with the main tank vent lines 1 hour out from Scotland. Was at 11,000 feet in and out of cloud which probably caused the icing and fuel pressure to drop to zero on both main tanks. However ferry tank and wing tip vent lines did not freeze. Was intending Prestwick but decided on Stornoway to look things over. Obviously when I landed everything was normal hence I suspect the icing.

Weather was bad in Europe so next day could only get as far as Prestwick. Had to then wait things out until the afternoon of Saturday where it was possible to make it as far as Blackpool. On the Sunday made it to Bournemouth where yet again the weather closed in after I landed with 400 foot ceilings drizzle and mist etc. Even the small airliners to the Channel

island stopped flying

On Monday the weather had improved in Bournemouth so I headed across the channel to Cherbourg where again the ceilings were down to 900 feet however the horizontal visibility was 6 miles or more.

After Cherbourg headed on to Bourges (2 hours) for a fuel stop and think things over. Most of the flight was below 2000 feet but the terrain is flat up to Bourges. I decided on Bourges as it was about the half way point and

perhaps Michel Jaoul would be out at his hanger, he wasn't.

After Bourges I headed for Cannes again staying below the overcast and having to shoot across several ranges of hills and valleys to reach the river Rhone.

Once in the Rhone valley things improved as I had hoped for and eventually managed to get up to 7500 feet. There was a strong Mistral blowing so I was making 195 knots with a point at 200.

Arrived in Cannes at 4 pm Monday local time. Total time for trip was 11 days and 37.6 hours flying time.

I have attached 3 photos. The first one shows the approach into Narsursuaq the second one is after the landing at Narsursuaq and the third one is taken at 11,000 feet over the Greenland Ice Cap.