Since March 2002 I had been "aircraftless" due to the unfortunate demise of my Rallye MS880B G-BAOG.

This was written off when a Robin DR400 ran into it at full throttle on the apron at Rochester. Since that time I have been looking for another aircraft and viewed a number of Rallyes before I looked at the Gardan Horizon type.

I like the slightly unusual, rather than the PA28 or C172 breeds, and so it was I saw an advert for a Horizon close to home. The owner kindly showed me around and I made other enquiries of the marque. A friend e-mailed me a copy of a report on the Horizon from January 1998 Pilot magazine. Here G-ATJT was reviewed and a very nice aircraft it sounded too!

To cut a long story short the one that I looked at was in such good condition and with a low hours engine it was not immediately affordable - some other lucky pilot will get that one. Undeterred I cast around the Internet and saw another Garden type the GY100. This was a later concept for Yves Gardan and sadly only very limited quantity were produced. I investigated the possibilities of importing the GY100 I had seen from France but I think it was going to be too onerous for a "one of a kind type" to bring it to the UK, despite its very good handling qualities on my test flight.

Just by chance an e-mail turned up asking if I may be interested in buying a 4 place aircraft from Germany. With the secondhand market for aircraft in UK being a bit depressed and even more so in Europe I had nothing to lose. The aircraft on offer was the Gardan Horizon GY 80-180 and was eventually to become mine.

I visited Germany via Ryanair from Stansted and was met by the vendor in Hahn. He took me to Eaglesbach a GA airfield near Frankfurt. We climbed into a Robin 100 and then tried to fly the rest of the way to Mosbach. Unfortunately even in August the weather was against us and we had to return and sit out a shower. Eventually we made it to Mosbach. Here I first saw the all blue Horizon sitting at the back of the hangar looking forlorn.  I spent about 2hrs looking her over and taking a few pictures to review once home. I unscrewed inspection panels and had a good look round before taking a test flight. She flew well and we did a couple of touch and goes and a landaway. We were in a bit of a hurry now as my return flight was booked at 10pm and we were 4hrs from the airport. The vendor took me back to Frankfurt central station and I caught a bus to Hahn for the return flight.

It was to be a protracted negotiation with the vendor but eventually settled on a price and conditions, one of which was an export CofA and an inspection by a British Engineer - David Hockings- whilst the CofA work was being undertaken.

The next question was how to get back with the Engineer. Once the date was known a request went to David H. who was going to undertake the survey for me. It was going to be quite time consuming and expensive to catch a scheduled flight so I asked another Rochester Flyer Steve R. if he would be up for a trip into the Rheinland ! He was, so with finances agreed and with the addition of another cost sharer, Nick, we set course in G-BJVV for Worms airport where the CofA work was being carried out.

A beautiful day CAVOK all the way and it must have been a smooth ride as David spent half the time reading the newspaper! As soon as we got to the higher ground in Germany I experienced mountain wave for the first time. It was just like surfing. After about three and a half hours Mannheim came into sight. This was where we were to pass through customs formalities. Passports shown, it was a swift lunch for all in an "eat as much as you like" for a few quid place opposite Mannheim Terminal. It was a very good lunch and I got to sample all the desserts.

We left Mannheim for Worms at around 1oclock and it was only about 15 minutes before we were landing in Worms. Time was short, as we wanted to be home by nightfall, so while I went with Dave to look at the Horizon Steve and Nick (our cost sharer & co-pilot) went to do the fuel and flight planning for the return leg.

As we entered the workshop we quickly asked for the prop to be taken off as I didn’t want to get stuck with a corroded crank Lycoming. Other inspection panels were quickly removed and as David inspected I took notes. Only a few notes however - one was for the oil pump AD to be done, the others for a few Scats and pipes that would need replacing in the UK as we have different life lengths. It was noticeable that the aircraft was very "dry" - not water dry but a lack of grease and oil on cables and moving parts. Apart from that it was declared fit. A quick visit to the "little boys" room and we were soon on our way back to Rochester - only 3hrs this time due to the tail wind, just in time to retire to the Tiger Moth pub for a couple of glasses of thirst quencher. We were all a little dehydrated due to not wanting to drink too much as there is no on board loo in VV - come to that what happened to the in-flight meal and stewardess.

The next problem was getting a substantial number of Euros together to pay for the purchase. Contacting a Forex company it seemed that there were not many special deals for large bundles of Euro notes so I contacted a Forex dealer in the city and asked what sort of rates I would get for Euros on a credit transfer. Surprisingly the rate was nearly 5% better than that for buying Euronotes thus reducing the cost of my new baby to a much more reasonable amount.

And so it was the long wait for a weather window started. The export CofA was done, the money had been "exported" and I had booked a Ryanscare ticket to Hahn. With a day to go the weather turned foul and I had to cancel the trip. More frustration and studying of long range weather forecasts. Steve R booked some advance availability on G-BJVV the Robin Aiglon that had taken us on the engineering inspection visit. On the 6^th November the availability and forecast for Germany looked good. An early start and 4 of us pitched up at Rochester to find an 800 foot cloudbase. We decided to make an airborne decision and, since we almost flew into a large cloud on climb out, made the decision not to go. A week later two more air tickets were booked, again to be cancelled due to more grotty weather.

FINALLY on 24^th November there appeared to be a one day weather opportunity so with other bookings for the group run Aiglon kindly given up I arrived at the crack of dawn to pick up Steve R. By this time he had got used to me collecting him at unearthly hours to make flying attempts and at first thought this was to be the same, as a thunder storm passed through. Our other co-pilot for this latest attempt, Marek, was already at the field when we arrived and after all the ground checks were complete and a report by the arriving FISO that the cloud was on the deck at Dover we were airbourne at 07:25.

Flight plan activated - briskly we swept into the air, tracked the North Downs ridge at 1500'. Steve R asked if we would be happy crossing the channel at this altitude and as it was were able to climb to FL 45 by the FIR boundary. Our intended customs airport was to be Kortrijk in Belgium. However the fog that was lying over the low Belgium ground was starting to lift to form a broken cloud layer. We radioed ahead and they gave us broken at 2000' Continuing our flight we came to the conclusion that the weather report was a shade optimistic and we eventually saw the Runways at 800' downwind. A fast approach and landing got us safely down for us to go on a "hunt the door" expedition to find the non-Schengen passport officer.

The slight hiccup I have not thus far mentioned was that the Vendor of my new aircraft could not get the keys from the maintenance workshops in Worms. The Chief Engineer was not contactable by phone. So it was here in Kortrijk we were to make the decision to go home or continue. A phone call to the vendor to discover he was going to the Engineer's house gave me enough confidence that we should continue. The poor viz around Kortrijk was already well on it's way to evaporating as we climbed to FL55, and then we had an hour of CAVOK across Belgium (overhead Charleroi and Chievre) until the ground started to rise and scattered cloud down at 3000' started appearing. Brussels told us we should check in with Luxembourg for our 7 minute transit of their airspace, so we dutifully did. Poor man, he sounded so bored, saying hello and goodbye to all the other VFR bods about. Hahn was sitting under a patch of completely clear sky, but ahead of us there were 4 layers of thin cloud, looking like plates on a kitchen shelf, to about 6000', and we didn't like the look of them. Tendrils of fog were tickling Hahn's outer perimeter, and we turned North to stay in good VMC and consider our options. These were a ticklish few minutes. Hahn was bolthole #1, but might not be there for too long. Worms was less than 20 minutes away, with recent quoted weather of 7k vis, overcast at 3000'. Now we were going North, the Rhine and its valley was ahead, with an IFR (I follow Rhine) option to get us to our destination (Worms' circuit actually crosses the Rhine). In the back-seat I was advocating a route short of going this far North and skirting the edge of these strata at 4000', and even drew a line on a map and passed it forwards. Marek (steering) had quietly noticed that there was less need to go North and had already turned back parallel to our original track and called out a couple of airfields he'd spotted. Eventually Worms "hove" into view. Marek positioned us for a downwind join, Steve R flew a v. tight circuit and landed. Worms is small, informal, A/G, and clearly were aware who we were. As Steve taxied for fuel they welcomed us and I noticed, from the back seat, they must have the keys as the engine on the Horizon was running "Oh yes", a D reg, Himmel Blue aeroplane. I remember now, that's why we've come......

So all we had to do now was load the fuel, check out the airplane, read the book on how to fly her and take off - eazy peazy………

I spent a few minutes with the Checklist kindly provided by the owners of G-AWAC, learning where all the fuel drains are and giving her a thorough going over. Marek who was to be the formation navigator shifted his gear from 'VV' to 'ZZ'. The apron was crawling with new friends, interested in where we've come from, where we're going. Steve did a fine job in keeping them away from me. I did not want any distractions. I had a little unfinished business with the vendor who was suddenly presenting an extra bill from the Maintenance company. This was a puzzle as I had paid up and had just enough money in Euro cash for the fuel and a snack. Non of us had eaten since 6am, our stomachs were knotted with an adrenaline high, and we were about to do another 3 hours flight home. We had agreed a plan for the return: I would lead, and Steve would keep us in sight, behind and to the right.

We had a long list of suitable and allegedly legal air to air frequencies and settled on 123.45, assured this was OK by ATC, at least for Germany. The tower was happy for us to do a closely sequenced departure, and were OK with us possibly using their frequency for initial, brief, air-to-air calls. A gentle right turn out would put us on track to KIR VOR, and I would climb to FL45. Nav would be map and compass with some ADF and a fair bit of GPS. I was to make all initial calls to controllers, along the lines of: "D-EAZZ is in a 2 ship formation with G-BJVV, from, to, etc etc. Steve was a little nervous if he should get lost and not be able to see us. Off we went and with Steve's information from Worms tower…. 'With the departing aircraft in sight', he was off too. At 300', I disappeared from Steve's view. The air was full of molecules which couldn't quite work out if they wanted to be clouds or not - that's what 7k vis means. After Steve's initial finger trouble with Com2 we were able to raise him on 123.45 and tell him that was Hahn below us. Ground stations were entirely happy dealing with us as a formation today - very easy, quite informal, no big deal. We settled into a FL65 cruise, over a scattered, sometimes broken, layer down at 3000', ploughing towards the CAVOK clearly visible in the far distance, and gradually it all came together.

Pretty soon we were talking to Lille who seemed fed up and eventually told us to call London - this was 15 miles inland of Cap Griz Nez... We coasted out at FL6 something - the highest Steve's ever been it turns out. What a time to discover you don't like heights ! I set course for home and decided to see what she could do we settled into an 85% cruise and soon 140Kts was seen on the GPS. Beginning the descent as we coasted in at Dover the speed built a little more. Steve was left a little way behind and this allowed us a nice gap as we pointed straight at EGTO. We called up for the second time to Rochester. The first time being at Calais !! to get some advance weather info. We requested joining and landing, and some time later Steve R made his call: "Rochester Information, G-BJVV inbound" "G-VV, pass your message" "G-VV is a Robin Aiglon inbound to you", blah, "10 miles to run", blah, "VV *was* in a two ship formation with a Gardan,….. Hmmmm . The laughter in the tower was transmitted, as I was just about to turn final. - Most of the folks at EGTO know all about the sad demise of my last aircraft and our attempts to go off and collect the replacement. It was a fairly big circuit, I have to get used to slowing down from 135 knots all went well until this Aiglon called up downwind for the reciprocal runway !! - I think his mind was beginning to go by now.. We landed and after a short while there was a small gathering on the apron, admiring the new blue inhabitant and shaking congratulatory hands with Marek and I. Steve missed the first bit of this, sprinting to the Gents.