2 Jul 2026 · Europe
Provence — three generations south
- EDNW — Weißenhorn Airfield, Weißenhorn DE
- LFHO — Aubenas Ardèche Méridionale Airport, Aubenas, Ardèche FR
- LFMA — Aix Les Milles airport, Aix en Provence FR
- EDNW — Weißenhorn Airfield, Weißenhorn DE
Three generations up front in the Grumman, the rest of the family on an airliner to Marseille — and a broken rudder spring keeping my right leg busy the whole way.
A week of Provence sun was the plan, and the family split the way it usually does: Isa, Angelika and Torvina took the airline down to Marseille, while Emiliana and Helmut climbed into the Grumman with me — three generations up front for the run south.
We lifted out of Weißenhorn early and pointed the nose southwest, down across Switzerland and into the Rhône. Aubenas, tucked into the hills of the southern Ardèche, made a good place to put the wheels down, stretch legs and top up the tanks before the last short hop into Provence.
On paper that final leg from Aubenas to Aix-les-Milles is a proper puzzle — the airspace down there is a lattice of restricted and military areas, and the planned track threads the long way around all of it. In the air, with the right words to the right controllers, it opened up and we ran it more or less direct.
The one uninvited passenger was a broken rudder centering spring. With nothing pulling the pedals back to neutral, I flew the whole trip with a bootful of right rudder — a small, constant reminder that the aeroplane wanted attention, even while three generations chattered away in the cabin.
Then a week of the good stuff: Aix, the coast, and Emiliana thoroughly in command of a white Moke that she was quite sure she’d been cleared to drive solo. Torvina held down the baby end of things back at the villa.
For the return on the 9th we ran it straight — Aix-les-Milles direct back to the home hangar, the Rhône and the Alps unwinding in reverse, and one leg still working overtime on the rudder.