![]() Radio communications with Toulouse information and Blagnac’s tower went well and we quickly got clearances to cross the CTR and the axis of Blagnac’s airport runways. The flight to Auch went very smooth even if it took longer than estimated (55′ of engine running in total) (1). ![]() If not, at least we would have trained the crossing of Blagnac’s CTR plus landing in Auch, an aerodrome I had never landed in before. We knew we would not make it (12:53 + 00:44 ~ 13:37) but we decided to give it a try and see if we still were able to get some food. That was good as we were late in departing and the guy at the restaurant had told us to arrive before 13:30… when preparing the navigation I had estimated the return flight in about 62 minutes, plus some plus 10% due to the wind, plus some 10 minutes per integration and taxing in each aeroport… that woud make it about 88 minutes or 44 minutes per leg. “ Fox-Golf-Sierra-Bravo-Juliet, DR-400 au parking ACAT, 3 personnes abord, avec l’info Bravo, pour un vol destination Auch, sorti en début de vent arrière piste 15, pour rouler au point de arrête. After receiving the keys of the plane a bit late, at 12:53 I was starting the engine. ![]() Destination: Auch.Ī friend, Rapha, had also recommended Auch and he was going to join us for the trip, but other activities prevented him for being early at the aerodrome. So, at 11:30am we drove to the aerodrome. I had booked an airplane in the aeroclub for last Saturday some weeks ago and we were lucky again in having good weather for the day, mostly clear and sunny in the beginning. At first thought he recommended: Auch, Cahors and Gaillac. (2) Between Airbus Operations and Airbus SAS (the headquarters or “ le quartier chic” as labelled in the documentary).Ī couple of weeks ago I asked my flight instructor about destinations for a short flight excursion (from our base aerodrome in Toulouse – Lasbordes), a nearby aerodrome with a nice bar or restaurant with some spots worth to see on the way. A400M), fighters (Eurofighter) and former Astrium) and Airbus Helicopters (former Eurocopter). (1) Formerly EADS, which encompasses Airbus commercial airplanes, Airbus Defence and Space (including military transport aircraft (e.g. Be sure of it, Airbus Toulouse is the biggest one, followed by Michelin in Clermont-Ferrand and PSA-Peugeot Citroën in Montbéliard (Airbus Helicopters in Marignane comes 5th).Įven better, they published a handy map downloadable here with those top 100 factories. If you want to study geography of France, you’d better start with this map.Īn old post I wrote about the “ Impact of Airbus in Toulouse employment” making some numbers using the concepts of direct, indirect and induced employment to gauge the impact of Airbus in a mid-size city like Toulouse. You can see here the latest listing of the top 100 factories in France. The reports and listings published by the French business weekly magazine “ L’Usine nouvelle“. To put this into perspective I will refer to and wanted to share the following sources: Airbus employs about 30,000 workers in France, over 15,000 in the Toulouse area (2). Over half of those work for Airbus, the division which builds commercial airliners such as the A380. In this post, apart from sharing the documentary I wanted to reflect on its title, “ Airbus, the biggest factory of France“.Īirbus Group (1) employs over 130,000 workers world-wide. It was good to see the documentary with the family as it let us show where we wander around along the year. The documentary opened with amazing scenes of the transportation of A380 components by road to Toulouse, it then covered different scenes of life at Airbus in Toulouse: the A380 final assembly line, the preparation and execution of flight tests (with again the A380 as flight test bed to test the Trent XWB 97k engine), inspections by the airlines of the finished product at the delivery centre, the factory and the Airbus lycée at Saint Eloi for apprentices, the cabin mock-up centre, last-minute negotiations and payment process at Airbus headquarters in Blagnac ( “le quartier chic”)… It provides a good view of the life in Toulouse around aviation, including details down to traffic jams, lunch at the canteen, checks at the security gates, etc. It can be watched in the website of the programme here (it lasts about 47′, in French). ![]() Last Sunday, March 27th, the French TV channel M6 played, within its programme 66 minutes, the documentary “ Airbus, la plus grande usine de France” ( Airbus, the biggest factory of France).
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