I was up early yesterday and walking in the dark, so that I could fit in a hike before we went off to Toulouse for the flight to UK. Just a short 7 kms out on the plain near the village. Not on the plane, you understand, although if I had done the same walk a couple of weeks before, I may have had a bit of a surprise.
Our lovely neighbour Ange was out for a walk with a friend in the same area when she came upon an aircraft in a field. There several bent bits, the wings were being removed and the fuselage was being loaded onto a truck.
This was the aircraft which tows gliders up from the Puivert airstrip. It seems that the pilot is 80 years old and has been performing this role for 50 years. To save fuel, he cuts the engine on the way down and reignites it for the landing. Presumably this does not always work, which accounts for an amended aircraft in the wrong place.
Our own flight later in the day was less dramatic, although not entirely without incident. But we did get here in the end.
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