20 Jul 2025 · Europe
Corsica — down through France
- EDNW — Weißenhorn Airfield, Weißenhorn DE
- LFLE — Chambéry Challes-les-Eaux Airfield, Barby FR
- LFKB — Bastia Poretta Airport, Lucciana, Corsica FR
- LFLE — Chambéry Challes-les-Eaux Airfield, Barby FR
- EDNW — Weißenhorn Airfield, Weißenhorn DE
Two up front in the Grumman, the rest of the family on an airliner — everyone converging on Corsica.
Corsica was the family’s summer plan, but not everyone travelled the same way. Gisela, Isabella and Emiliana took the airline down to the island. Raymond and I flew the Grumman.
On paper the direct line to Bastia runs straight across northern Italy — but that’s not how you actually get there in a light aircraft. The Alps sit squarely in the way, and Italy is genuinely miserable for GA: PPR everywhere, mandatory handling, fees on top of fees. So the sane route is the French one — southwest down the Rhône and Provence to the Côte d’Azur, then out across the water.
We lifted off from Weißenhorn early and pointed the nose southwest. Chambéry came first — a customs and fuel stop tucked under the Chartreuse massif, where the mountains rise straight off the end of the runway. From there we followed the corridor down to the coast, St-Tropez glittering off the wingtip, before the long water leg across to Bastia.
Raymond kept himself busy the whole way, running DK9XR/AM — his callsign with the aeronautical-mobile suffix — chatting to ham operators on the ground while the coast of Corsica slid up over the horizon.
A week of Corsican sun later, we flew the whole thing in reverse: out of Bastia in the cool of the morning with the mountains still hazy, back over Chambéry for fuel, and across the Alps to the home hangar. Emiliana, meanwhile, had found the one aircraft at Bastia she was cleared to fly solo — a coin-operated “Big Boss” jumbo by the terminal doors, sunglasses on, fully in command.
Four legs, four landings, a little over 1,100 nautical miles, and a fortnight of island summer in between.