Eighty-six miles of sea, one great museum and a two-hour lunch: the club goes to Caen
Saturday 10 October 2026 — and there are still seats.
Quimper was always going to be a hard act to follow. Ten aircraft, thirty people, five tables around the Vieux Port at Bénodet and everybody home in golden light. The obvious thing to do about a day like that is to do another one — so on Saturday 10 October the Guernsey Aero Club is going to Caen, in Normandy, and the invitation is open to members, friends and anyone who fancies the day.
It is a shorter run than Quimper: 86 nautical miles east, about 47 minutes at 110 knots, and a shorter sea crossing than Brittany. Caen-Carpiquet has customs on the field, full ILS and RNP approaches at both ends of the route if October decides to be October, and landing and parking fees of roughly €13 for the whole day — the flying is the easy part.
Twelve minutes from the apron stands the Mémorial de Caen, one of the great museums of the Second World War: the occupation and the liberation, the Battle of Normandy told where it happened, the Cold War galleries, the Nobel Peace Prize gallery and the underground bunker beneath it all. We are arranging group entry and an English-speaking guide, and we will have two and a quarter hours there with a lecturer to give the visit some shape. It is a museum that rewards four hours, so this is an introduction rather than the whole thing.
Then the coach takes us into the Vaugueux, the old restaurant quarter tucked behind the château: cobbled, half-timbered, and half a dozen kitchens inside two hundred metres. Two unhurried hours over lunch, split across two or three houses in exactly the way that worked so well at Bénodet, so that everyone eats what they actually want rather than a set menu somebody else chose. Anyone who finishes early has the château ramparts, the Musée de Normandie and the Abbaye-aux-Hommes — with William the Conqueror’s tomb — all within a short walk.
The shape of the day: departures from Guernsey between 08:35 and 09:30, slowest aircraft away first; on the blocks at Caen by 10:25 French time; the museum from 10:45; lunch from 13:30; wheels up again between 16:20 and 17:05; and on the ground at home between 16:10 and 16:55, with an hour and a half of daylight still in hand. And then, from five o’clock, a toast to a good day at the Aero Club bar. On the ground it works out at roughly £53–£63 a head for the museum, the guide, lunch and the coach, collected by each pilot in the usual way.
One thing said plainly: October is not August. This is not a fair-weather trip and it is not being advertised as one. It is planned for pilots who are equipped and current for whatever the day turns up, which is why there is an ILS at both ends. If you would only want to go in good weather, please put your name down anyway and withdraw in the week beforehand if the forecast looks unkind. That is a completely normal outcome and nobody will think twice about it.
To book, by Friday 2 October, pilots should send Richard Alberg (via WhatsApp or the Club) their name, aircraft type and registration, probable passengers, and whether they could carry additional passengers and up to what total weight. That last question is what puts people in seats. Withdrawals close on Tuesday 6 October, when the customs manifest goes to the douane and can no longer change.
The Guernsey Aero Club runs fly-outs throughout the season — France, the Channel Islands and beyond. To put your name down for Caen, as a pilot or as a passenger, come and say hello at the clubhouse, email or get in touch through this website.