Return to paradise...

I remember quite well a sunny summer's day in 2010... after a few hours of cruising in a "greenhouse"-glasscockpit DA40 on a training flight along the coast of Normandy, I finally set foot on what seemed to be - from the cockpit at least - a very cosy Channel Island! However, since flight planning had rostered another crew on the same plane in the late afternoon that day, we didn't find ourselves strolling along the happy people on Jersey beaches. It was more like a RyR-style quick turnaround with just enough time to have the wingtanks filled again as well as our empty stomachs with some fresh coca-cola and a cheddar sandwich. But I left the island that time fully determined: I wóuld come back... and it would not just be for a quick turnaround! So, June 5th 2013... finally me and my crew were waiting... packed and sacked... for a VFR-flight... with splendid weather over Normandy... intense IFR at my ADEP & ADES... I was hoping that the seafog would keep its promise, as stated in the 6h TAF, to disappear. Idle hope it seemed... and to experience that the Channel Islands are as prone to seafog as they are to subtropical sea currents. However, next day, things looked a lot better: CAVOK from start to end, a firm tailwind... in the destination runway axis! As Jersey is a non-Schengen zone, we had to pass customs in Belgium, what made me decide to ferry the plane to Ostend Airport earlier that week. After a smooth takeoff in the reliable PA28 Cadet we found ourselves, coated in bright yellow life vests, soon leveling off at FL45 before traveling across the French border abeam 'Dunkerque'. On it went to Boulogne, next Abbeville (a stable and straight leg, perfectly well suited for an inflight lunch ;-)), overhead the cliffs at Etretat, Deauville... and finally, after checking the ATIS, requesting Brest Info for a QSY to Jersey Zone, where, near St-Germain, we were welcomed in 'posh' English to enter via the Island's Southeast corner, as expected with RWY 09 in use. A splendid opportunity for the crew and myself to have some real sightseeing already on places we would visit the next hours & day. After unloading the "cargo-hold" :-p, refueling & securing the plane, completing the paperwork and calling home to tell them we were all safe and alive... I soon found myself jumping from left- to right-seat steering in the rental car to have some splendid time discovering the beautifull scene and delightfull Jersey Island seafood. I was quite speachless about the stunning panoramas discovered and so happy to have finally made it quite a bit further now than just the coca-cola-with-sandwich at the bar in Jersey Aeroclub a few years ago. As usual... the time to return comes much quicker than expected. On the way back... the favourable tailwind had turned into a nasty headwind... and despite a few shortcuts enroute, it took me about 10' more of engine time to have us back in Ostend. Nevertheless it was a short hop onto the island, sure I will remember it as an amazing trip to paradise! And you, no inspiration so far for a summer trip to the sun? Well, I hope you do have now!