An insider's view of the Portugal fly-out
by David Broom, G-RVAN

When RV builders/pilots Richard and Viv West moved to their new home in the Algarve, Viv flew down in their RV6 G-RVSX to base it at the Portuguese south coast airfield of Alvor for part of the year. Missing the camaraderie of the UK RV squadron, Viv didn't hesitate when Richard asked what she would like for her 60th Birthday. “An RV fly-in” she replied.

A comment on the UK RV Squadron e-mail list then sowed the seed of an idea for a fly-out to that part of the world. With such a large fleet of RVs in the UK, it is fertile ground for such seeds to take root. A few e-mail exchanges later, the scene was set for 2,500-mile round trip group fly-out to Portimao over the Easter weekend in 2007. Richard and Viv willingly took up the reins and became our ‘guys on the ground’ in Portugal. Having the local support made the event much easier to put together, and more enjoyable for those taking part.

Iain Thomas and his wife Trish took the role of advance guard in their RV6A G-TOGO and set off on Wednesday 4th April. The following day 7 UK RVs and a Europa plus one French RV headed off for Portugal. Participants were setting out from different parts of the UK so each pilot made their own route-planning decisions, the only common feature being to arrive at Alvor on Friday 6th April. As it turned out, two basic routings were taken, one group electing to spend a relaxed overnight in La Rochelle with the others pressing on further south on day one to San Sebastian.

The first leg of our route was in near perfect conditions, flying from our home strip close to Panshanger direct to La Rochelle. The clear skies and light tail winds giving a journey time of just under 2hrs 30min. A short while later Mark Albery and Ben Chapman arrived from Enstone in RV4 G-MARX followed by Richard and Margaret Pybus in RV9A G-RPRV from Fishburn. Roger and Gill Hopkinson arrived much later in G-HOPY, Roger having been involved in PFA business up until Thursday afternoon. Meanwhile, Peter Waldron and Alan Weal in RV6 G-RVPW had travelled on to San Sebastian as had RV7A builder Rick Morris in his Europa Tri-Gear G-RIKS.

Good Friday dawned perfect. We set off from La Rochelle bound for a comfort break at Valladolid LEVD. Unbeknown to us, after we filed our flight plan, the Olivia terminal at La Rochelle had gone U/S so both Roger and Richard were subject to delays as they had to return to the tower and re-file. Passing overhead San Sebastian at FL85 in beautiful clear air above low broken cloud, we heard Peter and Rick departing San Sebastian and searching for good breaks in the cloud to climb high enough to safely cross the Pyrenees. Once past the hills and overhead Vitoria the broken cloud below began to disperse as forecast and the trip past Burgos and on to Valladolid was fast and gentle.

Never let it be said that Spanish refuelling lacks paperwork! It takes 10 times as long to produce the required paperwork as it does to re-fuel the aircraft. I made the mistake of buying a litre of oil at the same time and this required just as much additional paperwork as the re-fuelling. The lady in the flight office was helpful and efficient in getting the obligatory flight plan filed, obtaining the met information for us and relieving us of the landing fee ( a princely 4.41 Euros ). Roger arrived whilst we were having lunch and Mark followed closely on behind. Richard had opted for a refuelling stop at Burgos instead of Valladolid.

We set off in loose formation with Roger following us across the surprisingly green terrain of central Spain to a turning point East of Lisbon. The border region with Portugal was about the most inhospitable landscape of the trip, suitable forced landing sites were few and far between. This is also the area where it is difficult to establish and maintain VHF communications with Lisbon. A helpful Jet Jockey up in the ionosphere relayed our messages to Lisbon so at least we had managed to notify them of our arrival into Portuguese airspace.

The service we received from the Portuguese controller was professional and extensive, far beyond the normal provisions of a flight information service. As we got closer to our destination at Alvor, the radio traffic provided a pretty good mental picture of the relative positions of the other RVs en-route. It was still a surprise when myself, Peter Waldron and Roger Hopkinson all arrived in the Alvor overhead within a minute of each other with the others only minutes away.

On the ground, Richard and Viv West were waiting for us with their RV6 G-RVSX taking pride of place on the apron. Thanks to their efforts liaising with guys at Alvor airport, the weekend proved most enjoyable. Ken Tomsett, an Alvor based chimpmunk aficionado opened up his hangar to us and also made the internet facilities available to us. This made the flight planning for the route home so much easier.

Richard and Viv had also negotiated with a nearby apartment complex offering well appointed, recently refurbished accommodation at 40 Euros per night, per apartment. Excellent value for good quality accommodation, most people stayed there. Friday night saw Viv ferry us all to a local restaurant for a welcome evening meal. On Saturday those who hadn’t had enough flying the day before ventured off on local sightseeing flights whilst some of us hired cars at very reasonable prices (25 Euro per day) and explored the local area at very low level. I found this enlightening, enhancing the view that the only two places you might be able to land in an emergency are on the very twisty country roads or in one of the many lakes !

The Alvor Sky Cafe staff had laid on a Hangar BBQ for us on Saturday night and this was enjoyed by everyone, attendees and staff alike. Viv took the opportunity to distribute prizes, some of which had been donated by Van's Aircraft, to many of the attendees for a whole range of reasons. Even Rick Morris in his Europa got a prize, a Tupperware bowl of course ! (Rick and his fellow traveller, brother in law Ray, are hence forth know as the Tupperware Two.) The 'Best Built RV' category was judged by local RV pilot Carlos Costa and local RV builder Carlos Trigo. It was awarded to Ian Thomas but was renamed the concours d'elegance award as Iain had not built G-TOGO personally. Mark was awarded the prize for the most memorable arrival, possibly because he had taken the opportunity to examine the entire length of the runway on arrival!

Sunday was more local flying and sightseeing with Ken Tomsett treating us to a spirited aerobatic display in the chipmunk. Richard West was his willing passenger for the exercise and yes, he did manage to hold on to his lunch.

The only disappointment of the weekend was that 72 year old Bill Knott who had set off in RV6A G-RVSA from his home base at Inverness on Friday didn’t make it down to Alvor. Bill did well to make it as far as the Paris region in France but ran out of time. We were all hoping he would make the fly-in but it wasn’t to be. As a relatively recently qualified pilot he achieved a great deal on his trip. Well done, Bill (see details here) .

Monday saw some of us setting off homeward. Sheila and me were stopping off to meet some good friends of ours in Agen, Peter Gorman in RV6 G-RVIB was dropping off his travelling companion Tom on the Costa Blanca before making his way back to Ireland while Barry and Martine Ward were going home to France in RV6A F-PRVM. Iain, Richard, Peter, Roger and Viv (Viv flying solo in G-RVSX) set off back to the UK on the following day, Tuesday.

Although the weather was not quite as perfect on the return journey, requiring a number of ‘local detours’ to avoid large and active CB’s our journey home was by and large uneventful. The second group had more adventures to come, including a diversion into Vitoria for an unscheduled overnight stop to sit out the passing of some very active 'thunderbolt and lightning' CB’s blocking the route over the Pyrenees. Richard Pybus suffered a puncture after landing at Deauville but was able to get a (very expensive) replacement tube and return home to Fishburn. Viv had a last minute surprise when in the circuit for landing at Shoreham. A Cessna departing in front of her left the runway and she had to hold for half and hour whilst it was recovered, not really what you need at the end of a long journey.

So what started as a chance e-mail comment ended up being a thoroughly enjoyable long weekend. A number of new friendships were formed which is part of what PFA flying is all about. Well done Richard and Viv.

Now we start the planning for the Van's Club de France RV fly-in at Nuit St George on the first weekend in June.

Related links:
Mark Albery's online photo album