Ussel   LFCU

Date of Visit = July 1998

Pilot: = Chris Belton

e-mail = chris@yarboo.freeserve.co.uk

Field Report = Having crossed the Massif Central we landed in the foothills to the north at Ussel-Thalamy, where the Lysanders made clandestine landings during the Second World War. We were still quite high up, at 2,500 feet, and we were camping: we nearly froze in our sleeping bags, though it was gorious sunshine during the day.

The ground radio has no transmitting facility, so it's strictly "auto-infomation", and the runway is sloping, with a hump in the middle. With a cross-wind it's not always obvious which runway you should use. If you choose the wrong one, like we did, you risk a head-on encounter with an aircraft taking off as you arrive at the top of the hump. Not sure if there's a "T" displayed, but it's certainly worth looking.

There's a public telephone outside which didn't work properly, but, unusually, it worked in our favour and let me ring long distance for un unlimited period for the price of a local call.

The airfield's set in thousands of acres of forest, and there were deer tracks around the tents in the morning. It's a friendly place, and we were given a free taste of the local speciality, a bitter liqueur made from a type of yellow gentian which grows only in the Massif Central. They hangared the aircraft at no charge and our simple C150 was much admired: "Ooh look, it's equipped for night flying". Officially there's no fuel, but they let us have some.

Photos: John Hardy