Navigation Mont St-Michel

Clear sky across all of France — the perfect opportunity to see Mont Saint-Michel in the sunshine.

A quick glance to the weather reports shows ideal conditions for VFR flight. There are no specific NOTAMs reported. I begin my pre-flight inspection of F-HASH. The fuel tank contains 85 liters of AVGAS, which is too much to take off with four people as it would be an overload. I discuss this with my instructor, Michel, who suggests we use a DR400 with less fuel in its tank. So, it will be F-HBZH that takes us on our navigation flight.

After starting up, I transmit a radio message to the tower and take off from runway 14.

At 2000 feet and heading north, visibility is exceptional. We can already see the coastline after a few minutes of flying. The SIV frequency is quite busy with both military and civilian traffic. The Mont St-Michel appears before us, proudly standing on the azure sea. I maintain a certain distance to avoid entering the R zone that surrounds it.

Back to Rennes in the opposite direction. The controller integrates me for runway 10 because another DR400 is performing touch-and-go landings. I land and taxi off the runway via the second exit on the right; the first is occupied by an A319 at the holding point.