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This picture has been taken just after landing in Biggin-Hill (EGKB), flying there from Geneva (LSGG) in a PA32R-301 Saratoga. To date, this 3h05 minutes flight is still my longer one, and one of the most rewarding ones.

It took place one year after I got my IFR rating, and this was exactly the kind of operation which is much easier with an instrument ticket, for several reasons.

First the route was something like “Dijon (DJL) VOR - Reims (REM) VOR - Abbeville (ABB) VOR and then Detling (DET) VOR”, at FL 090. Doing the same VFR, you would have to duck under Paris TMA, and fly around a lot of military airspace, avoid Lille TMA, fly between Le Touquet and Calais, and then below airspace of London TMAs.

The routing was made simpler by IFR, but my focus on this day was much more on weather. This flight was to carry a friend, who was then staying in London area a few days with the plane. I had an airline ticket for myself in the afternoon, so timing was not totally flexible.

The decision was not easy to make because it was not a clear “GO / NO-GO” day. The departure and en-route parts were clearly go, but a cold front was due to arrive in London exactly same time than we were !

As lots of alternates were available in case we had to face up with really bad weather earlier than expected, we gave it a go. Up to Lille, the flight was totally uneventful. Cruising at FL090, with 150kts IAS, the Saratoga was just the perfect plane for this operation.

We then saw the cold front coming in. We entered IMC, and I decided I would go down to FL070 (where temperature was +1 or so, compared to -3 at FL090 when speed would be down to 120 kts IAS. Ice started to accumulate as soon as we entered the clouds, and we also got some moderate turbulence.

It took no more than 3 minutes for the speed to go down to 120kts, so I asked for decent, while still coping with increasing turbulence. We were re-cleared down to FL070, and I started the descent, but the auto-pilot was not so good at that, because of the bumps… and this is where I received a free flying lesson.

To establish a proper descent rate, I disengaged the autopilot… and we suddenly started quite a strong climb ! Here is the lesson: in pitch, the autopilot works with the trim only, and when you disengage it, the plane can be out of trim if the AP was correcting !

This is exactly what happened to me on this day. When I disengaged it, the AP was fighting against a bump, and I got a non-trimmed plane. Add the IMC and the continued turbulence, and this makes the situation quite demanding !

After reaching positive temperature, we then had a mix of IMC and VMC for the rest of the flight. I was a bit worried about working with Thames Radar, as these guys are controlling all of the London approaches, but they were smooth and efficient with us.

The clearance was as simple as “Proceed to Detling VOR, Leave Deling on radial 030, Intercept ILS RWY 21, Cleared for approach”. Compared to the complexity of some “Spaghetti-like” approaches found in other countries, this was damn good.

I later had the opportunity to fly around London VFR, and the controllers were quite helpful as well, being very directive and detailed in their clearances. I just look forward for more UK flying now…