BICESTER KOGS ON TOUR

So someone suggested we go off to Sisteron for a late season exped to the
Alps, sounds like a good idea, lets take the ASH.All packed we set off for Dover with Dickie Stu and Terry on board, the plan being to meet up with Strats and Phil who were travelling out by "squeezy jet" fly the Duo. Nothing could possibly go wrong! WRONG!!5 miles from Dover Dickies bus suffers a sudden loss of power oooer. Quick decision, abandon ASH in layby and find a Ford dealer, backtracked to Canterbury to a dealer who put the bus onto a diagnostics straight away ( thought this is going to be expensive) but oddly the engine power returned
during the trip to the dealer. Diagnostics couldn't find any problems mmmmm!
next bit was the bill.... NO CHarge things were starting to go our way.... Or
so we thought!!! Got to the port missed our ferry, small print says we need to pay £25 admin
and £??? rebook fee, they let us off RESULT! Stu did some number crunching and deduced that we had enough time to take a more scenic route driving through the night via Andorra and Madrid, on reflection and with 20/20 hindsight this may have been our first BIG mistake. 20 mile out of Calais the bus decided to teach us a lesson in forward planning and reduced its power to about 40bhp, this gave us enough to increase momentum to 50 mph on the flat and 20mph or less on the inclines, ( Stu's new route was going to be a bit hilly) and with 800 miles still to go
we were beginning to wonder if we would ever make it. We struggled for 3 hours when it was time for Tel to drive, after a stop for fuel we set off again, miracle, power now returned, much discussion as to what caused this but we were now happy to be cruising along at speed, 10 minutes later the bus throws its toys out again and we were back to slug bus mode. During the next 3 hours we discovered that cycling the ignition could restore the power but
after each cycle the cure only lasted a few minutes. We settled back for a long slow trip. After a second fuel stop power returned for just long enough to get us over the foothills to Grenble before we lost it again. We finally arrived at Sisteron 15 hours after leaving Calais with Dickies Cassandra continually telling us we were going the wrong way... Knackered!!

DAY 2 BICESTER SOGS ON TOUR

Well we were here, at least we would get to fly................That is as
long as at least one of us could pass through the French medical requirements. Off to the ECG Doctor Sammini to get fully wired up, ching ching 40 euro's later we were told we can continue with all the drugs, fags, booze, fatty foods and sex, no dicky tickers here. Next to Dr Neuveux for a full medical, ching bl.....dy ching another 80 euros, methinks a JAR medical before we leave is the best way to go, however all this does allow us to fly here until 2011.Back to the airfield a bit more paperwork, rig the ASH, fed and watered and all fit to fly tomorrow. Then it RAINED, followed by thunderstorm followed by power outage, maybe Dickies bus has jinxed the weather too!