Sun Jul 31, 2016 3:28 pm
#1473790
16th to 23rd July 2016
Grumman AA5 G-BEZF (150 hp)
EGTC-EBKT-EDKM-EDGE-EDCJ-EPWR-EPOP
EPOP-EPWR-EDCJ-EDLN-EBKT-EGTC
Flight time (Skydemon airborne time) 16 hours 30
Engine hours (tacho) 17.9 hours
Logbook time (brakes to brakes) 17 hours 35 minutes
Fuel used c.540 litres (so about 31½ litres an hour at 110 mph IAS at sea level)
Saturday 16th July
On time departure from Cranfield who still send DEP messages. I contacted Luton for a transit on track but when they asked whether I wanted one with a 700 foot cloud-base I declined and went through the Luton-Stansted gap just below the cloud-base at around 1200’. This low cloud and poor visibility was a recurring theme for the entire trip. Dodged around Stapleford then direct DVR including a Southend transit. After the Thames, the cloud began to lift and I was in a continuous climb to FL60 by mid-channel. The glide calculator on Skydemon showed us feet dry for the entire crossing which is what I wanted. Mid-channel, London Info gave me an unexpected frequency to call (I cannot remember who). When I called, they were not interested so I went to the obvious, Lille Info.
A nice cruise to EBKT Kortrijk at 3000 feet (Belgian restricted areas were cold) then join downwind along the river slotting behind a Robinson on a straight-in. Self-service fuel pumps next to the terminal and the amount I needed was exactly as calculated (about 32 litres an hour). A quick passport check to enter Schengen then up to the tower to sign-in.
EBKT proved to be an excellent destination. It has border control facilities, a good size hard runway, instrument approaches for those with full IR plus both a flying club bar and an excellent high quality restaurant called Biggles. There is a very nice aviation themed hotel, The Bell X1, about 100 metres from the terminal. The airfield takes no money on the day, you sign in, log the amount of fuel taken and wait for an invoice in the post. In addition to plenty of light GA, there are based business jets and I think over in one corner a small military facility (we could see a Skyvan / SD3-30 and a Gazelle). We ate well sitting in the sun on the first-floor balcony at the Biggles with Lynda having a glass of champagne to start the holiday. The flying club bar and the control tower are built onto what I take to be a German wartime concrete bunker.
We were off again after 2¼ hours. Departed on the westerly runway then left turn to head north-east and thread our between and under the Belgian and Dutch airspace. A full IR rather than my UK only IR(R) would have been nice here as the cloud came down so there was no chance of VFR transits to get higher. Skydemon kept us legal and the only traffic we saw was a Dayglo orange paraglider / motor over its field at one of the CAS choke-points. We were handed over to Dutch Mil who other than telling us that we weren’t showing Mode C ignored any requests for information. Changing to EDLV frequency, my request for a transit overhead was immediately granted. We wanted to overfly because Lynda lived here as a child when it was RAF Laarbruch. We noticed a large music event on the edge of the airfield. Exiting the zone we turned east and changed to Langen Info.
It continued low cloud and murky as we made our way across industrial Germany We heard several traffic warnings to other people mentioning an airship (especially interesting because I am currently part of the Hybrid Air Vehicles team) One pilot asked “Did you say airship”, came the reply “Yes, a Zeppelin”. We turned south for the Mohne Dam (sorry but I’m a Brit so over-flying The Dams was essential), flew along the lake towards the dam (at a respectable height) taking pictures then turned south to do the same at the Sorpe Dam.
Next, we needed to find EDKM (Meschede Schueren). The land was quite hilly and I kind of expected the airfield to be at the bottom of a valley but in fact it is on top of a hill and, aided by GPS, I spotted it by noticing the control tower peeking between two other hills. On landing, this proved to be a beautiful, friendly small airfield mostly for gliding but with some based powered types. I proudly thought that we would be a rare foreign visitor but not long after us a French registered TB landed, they had been to Norway earlier in the week.
More fuel, cash required, plus coffee and cake then away again (we might have stayed but the on-site accommodation was reserved for glider pilots), this time for a shorter flight to EDGE Eisenach-Kindel. We arrived near closing time and the place was very quiet although there were a couple of 3-axis microlight departures. More fuel was bought then the Fluglieter offered to run us to our hotel. This was the Flieger Schule which he suggested and had been top of my list during pre-flight research. This proved to be a very nice mid-price hotel built in the 1930s as a school for Luftwaffe mechanics. It was converted to a hotel after reunification. After a decent dinner in the grand hall, I went to bed with a slight headache, “just tired” I thought.
Sunday 17th July
However, next morning, I had a worse headache and churning insides. I nibbled some melon for breakfast and went back to bed. Come the afternoon, awake but not terribly well, we took a taxi into town for cash then out to the airfield to collect some items we hadn’t expected to need. In the airfield café, we had a rather good iced coffee with ice-cream which restored my spirits somewhat. Back to the hotel for an early dinner of the excellent local sour soup then an early night. Returning from dinner, I helped a sheep in a neighbouring field untangle its curly horns from a mesh fence.
Monday 18th July
Before going to bed, I had filed to arrive in Poland at our ultimate destination, a small grass field called EPOP Opole. Overnight, I had a voicemail, in English, from the German authority saying that Poland had suspended Schengen so we had to travel via a larger airfield for border control (actually this was in a NOTAM which I had failed to assimilate). So, run around, re-plan for EPWR Wroclaw which also required booking handling, which in turn had a NOTAM saying they needed 48 hours’ notice! In fact this proved not to be a problem and we quickly received an email acceptance from the agent. The texts were flying backwards and forwards with cousin Richard waiting for us at home in Opole town.
We had an easy scenic but rather thermic flight to EDCJ Chemnitz-Jahnsdorf. It’s a pleasant friendly place but there’s nothing there and it’s in the middle of an industrial estate. The flugleiter will sell you bottle of water or sugary pop but that’s it. There is a pleasant pilots’ room with a PC but its browser is hopelessly out of date so it’s of little use. I have since emailed them suggesting they replace it with Wi-Fi. We went for a short wander in the industrial estate to get the timing of our arrival in Wroclaw closer to the slot we had been given (an unnecessary precaution as it transpired that the handling was all very casual). We saw some tiny concrete bungalows, still inhabited relics of the GDR we guessed. Modest we thought but as Lynda said, a better solution to homelessness than the current one in Milton Keynes which is to leave dozens of people on the streets. We night-stopped at EDCJ on the way back, details of the very pleasant local town of Stollberg are below.
Airborne again and the weather remained good but thermic as we left Germany and headed for Poland. We crossed a couple of bits of the Czech Republic (the border wiggles a lot) as well. A power station with a strip mine alongside was particularly striking.
Over Poland, the cloud started to come down so we had to turn north around some modest hills. We were cleared straight into the Wroclaw zone, joined downwind for the westerly runway, landed, back-tracked and followed the Follow Me to GA parking and fuel (not self-service). The agent asked what we needed. “Just fuel and border control” I replied. “We are in Schengen, you don’t need border control” was his instant reply. Ho hum. So for the minimum fee, about 90 Zloty or GBP 20, we were off. Well, not quite, first time I started-up the agent waved the credit card machine at me, I thought he had said that the bill would be sent (which is what they do at EBKT) but what he meant was that the receipt would be sent. Then after paying, when I called for taxi I was sent back to file a flight plan (for a fifty mile flight within Poland). The ever helpful agent let me do that on his ‘phone then we really were on our way. While this was going on, we could see as Scandinavian registered Archer having what appeared to be similar conversations. An unusual sight while were there was an Avanti pusher turboprop air ambulance arriving to collect a patient. The Archer, a local Tecnam and us taxied and departed in turn during a gap in the airliners.
It must have been VMC because the controller gave us VFR clearances but I was straining my eyes to see through the drizzle. Lynda told me later that she was doing the same and she usually leaves all that to me. Anyway, all was well and the weather had cleared when we reached EPOP. The approach to the 710m grass runway 30 is over woods and a hangar. Fine in a glider with airbrakes but requiring some concentration in a spam-can. Anyway we were well clear of the obstacles and stopped in half the runway. The club had saved a hangar space for us then it was off home with Richard and Zofia for food and beer. There followed two days of tourism in the town of Opole, a small place with interesting and attractive architecture, both medieval and communist, plus a fascinating outdoor museum of old wooden buildings.
Wednesday 20th July
On Wednesday night, I tried to file for EPOP to EDCJ but was rejected again so re-filed via EPWR. I was told subsequently on EuroGA by a German who regularly does similar flights that flight plans are not in fact required for Germany to Poland so one could simply ignore the NOTAM about border control and fly in with neither flight paln nor talking to an Info service. Hmm. Interesting as it would be to see a Mig 29 close-up in the air I’m not sure I want to risk it. The weather for central Germany showed lots of potential for CB and storms so I plotted a route with plenty of diversions. Hoping to maybe make as far as the western edge of Germany in two flights on Thursday.
Thursday 21st July
Despite cousin Richard’s sat’ nav’ taking us down a closed road en route then the person with the hangar key being late, we were away from EPOP before my expected time (I’m a pessimistic planner!). For the 710m grass runway, the density altitude was not as bad as I had assumed in my pessimistic calculations plus I used what little I know of short-field take-offs. Consequently, the departure was no drama and no frighteners.
No delay getting into EPWR and straight to the refueling point. The handling agent this time did at least call border control to be told that they weren’t interested so we were away after just 25 minutes stationary. Cleared out of the zone not above 2000’ was bumpy as it was already pretty thermic. Once clear of the zone it was up to the calmer air above the inversion at 4500-5000 feet. The weather began to deteriorate in Germany but we thought we would be good to continue past EDCJ to EDGE. A minute after telling Munich Info that we were doing this, we heard him tell someone else of CB and storms in the Eisenach area so it was back to plan A and land at EDCJ. With no Wi-Fi and a pretty hopeless old PC it took a while and a lot of swearing to deduce that the storms were going to last all day. By then it was raining heavily. The ever-helpful flugleiter telephoned all three of my pre-selected hotels, one was full and two did not answer. He persisted and found what proved to be a very nice and well-priced pub B&B type place, Zur Guten Quelle, in the nearby town of Stollberg.
The town was small and quiet. We think we had arrived in the middle of town holiday week as nearly every shop, place to stay and place to eat was closed for the week. The B&B appeared to be only partially open, I found the Wi-Fi code by wandering around the bar area (closed) until I found a likely looking code stuck behind the bar. That said I did manage to get a hair-cut and buy socks during our very relaxing afternoon in Stollberg. The only place open for us to get a very late lunch was a family owned café / ice cream parlour, Café Eisbeere, which was excellent and cheap plus had Wi-Fi. Dinner proved to be trickier but we did eventually find one eatery open which was once again excellent and cheap. Stollberg felt like being in rural Scotland or Ireland. The weather was looking good for Friday so I filed flight plans and a GAR hoping to make it home with stops at EDKZ and EBKT.
Friday 22nd July
In fact, we made it only as far as EBKT. We were away early from EDCJ and had a good cruise across central Germany above the inversion at 4500-5000 feet. I did make one attempt to go lower but abandoned that as the cloud got closer to the ground. Back home, I would have used my IR(R) to climb through cloud. In Germany, I found a gap, honest.
Approaching EDKZ, the radio was silent so back to Langen Info and asked that they call the landline. It turned out that the place was PPR (a UK-only curse I thought) and had no intention of opening that day. I subsequently checked their web site and found no sign of PPR. Anyway, Langen started to suggest diversions to the north around Bochum but the weather was coming down and I abandoned that and headed south west where I knew the ground was lower and the forecast better. Langen eventually suggested EDLN Monchengladbach. They were most helpful, giving me a vector straight into their zone onto a seven mile final.
The airfield also appeared to have its own clear sky and good visibility. My landing was something of a get-me-down-now but all was well. The first person we met, took our landing fee but was otherwise utterly dismissive and unhelpful. Yet again, there was no Wi-Fi. After a snack lunch, I took my problem to the Safety Management System Officer and she proved most helpful, sorting out faxing my flight plan (yes, they still have that infrastructure over there) and printing me a page of TAFs. Self-service refuel with credit card in the pump and we were on our way again.
Once again, the visibility became awful as we left Germany then threaded our way through Belgium’s ridiculous overlapping network of zones, restrictions and large area NOTAMs. We were followed into EBKT by a biz jet. Tired after the day of gazing into poor visibility and thinking hard, I decided to stay the night at EBKT. The Bell X1 hotel is 100m from the airport buildings and had a room available. It proved to be as good as it looked on its web site and had the added interest of rooms named for pilots (and in one case a RAF aircraft repair unit which was based there in 1944 / 5). The building itself is a rather interesting between the wars design. The only slight disappointment was a rather thin breakfast. For dinner we returned to the excellent Biggles where the waitress recognized us from the previous week. An excellent dinner was enlivened with two based aircraft doing circuits, a PA28 and a Citation.
Saturday 23rd July
Saturday dawned unflyably cloudy and misty so I delayed the flight plan and GAR departure times two hours. We departed at 1230 local into reasonable visibility and a low cloud-base. Belgium is flat west of EBKT so this would not be too bad except for wind farms, masts, etc. Skydemon was busily warning of those as they appeared either side of our track, the visibility wasn’t so bad that we need it but it was a useful thing to have. Cloud and haze vanished almost instantaneously as we entered the Calais TMA and it was up to 6000’ for the channel crossing. We achieved the crossing always within glide range of land then it was straight down to 2200’ to duck under both cloud and the London class A airspace. The Southend controller was working hard with both light and CAT traffic so I cancelled my request for a transit and went around the zone. Talking to Farnborough, I asked them to assist by setting up a Luton transit which they duly did. The transit was excellent fun although with two quick orbits to slot us behind and above the landing airliners I’m not sure it saved a lot of time. Exit the zone and into Cranfield for one of my better landings. Unload, clean the windscreen and home. Job done.
Conclusions:
1. An excellent and most enjoyable trip.
2. If I was doing this a lot I would get a full IR but as I will do it at most annually and more likely less than that, it just isn’t worth the time and money.
3. Despite the length and complexity of this my first foreign trip (not counting a hop from Eglinton to Donegal in 2010) and only my second very long one (I did Halton to Kirkwall in 2012); the trip was within my capabilities as a 400 hour PPL.
4. All the hours I spent planning and researching in advance were well spent although of course all my plans were adjusted on the move as described above.
5. Air Traffic Control / Flight Information Services are staffed by marvelous and helpful people.
6. If I cross Belgium again, I will go south of Charlois, Belgium is a nightmare for VFR-only to the north.
7. Wi-Fi is not so common at mainland Europe airfields as it is in the UK.
8. Skydemon is worth every penny.
EBKT
A near perfect small airfield. Fuel Eu 1.96 a litre
EDKM
A beautiful welcoming airfield in the German hills. Fuel Eu 2.26 a litre
EDGE
Functional local airfield with nice café. Fuel Eu 2.73 a litre. Landing Eu 9. Parking Eu 6 a day.
EDCJ
Functional local airfield with no catering. Fuel Eu 2.26 a litre. Landing Eu 9. Parking Eu 6 a day.
EPWR
Commercial airport. Welcoming and helpful for light GA. Fuel priced in Zloty, about GBP 1.26 a litre. Landing in Zloty, about GBP 19.
EPOP
Helpful small grass airfield. Asked us for a Eu 50 donation for landing and three nights hangarage.
EDLN
Largish airport in a control zone. Dozens of light GA based there with some biz jets and signs that they have some commercial traffic. It appears that they also have rides available in a Tante Ju and a DH Dove. Helpful if you find the right person.
Grumman AA5 G-BEZF (150 hp)
EGTC-EBKT-EDKM-EDGE-EDCJ-EPWR-EPOP
EPOP-EPWR-EDCJ-EDLN-EBKT-EGTC
Flight time (Skydemon airborne time) 16 hours 30
Engine hours (tacho) 17.9 hours
Logbook time (brakes to brakes) 17 hours 35 minutes
Fuel used c.540 litres (so about 31½ litres an hour at 110 mph IAS at sea level)
Saturday 16th July
On time departure from Cranfield who still send DEP messages. I contacted Luton for a transit on track but when they asked whether I wanted one with a 700 foot cloud-base I declined and went through the Luton-Stansted gap just below the cloud-base at around 1200’. This low cloud and poor visibility was a recurring theme for the entire trip. Dodged around Stapleford then direct DVR including a Southend transit. After the Thames, the cloud began to lift and I was in a continuous climb to FL60 by mid-channel. The glide calculator on Skydemon showed us feet dry for the entire crossing which is what I wanted. Mid-channel, London Info gave me an unexpected frequency to call (I cannot remember who). When I called, they were not interested so I went to the obvious, Lille Info.
A nice cruise to EBKT Kortrijk at 3000 feet (Belgian restricted areas were cold) then join downwind along the river slotting behind a Robinson on a straight-in. Self-service fuel pumps next to the terminal and the amount I needed was exactly as calculated (about 32 litres an hour). A quick passport check to enter Schengen then up to the tower to sign-in.
EBKT proved to be an excellent destination. It has border control facilities, a good size hard runway, instrument approaches for those with full IR plus both a flying club bar and an excellent high quality restaurant called Biggles. There is a very nice aviation themed hotel, The Bell X1, about 100 metres from the terminal. The airfield takes no money on the day, you sign in, log the amount of fuel taken and wait for an invoice in the post. In addition to plenty of light GA, there are based business jets and I think over in one corner a small military facility (we could see a Skyvan / SD3-30 and a Gazelle). We ate well sitting in the sun on the first-floor balcony at the Biggles with Lynda having a glass of champagne to start the holiday. The flying club bar and the control tower are built onto what I take to be a German wartime concrete bunker.
We were off again after 2¼ hours. Departed on the westerly runway then left turn to head north-east and thread our between and under the Belgian and Dutch airspace. A full IR rather than my UK only IR(R) would have been nice here as the cloud came down so there was no chance of VFR transits to get higher. Skydemon kept us legal and the only traffic we saw was a Dayglo orange paraglider / motor over its field at one of the CAS choke-points. We were handed over to Dutch Mil who other than telling us that we weren’t showing Mode C ignored any requests for information. Changing to EDLV frequency, my request for a transit overhead was immediately granted. We wanted to overfly because Lynda lived here as a child when it was RAF Laarbruch. We noticed a large music event on the edge of the airfield. Exiting the zone we turned east and changed to Langen Info.
It continued low cloud and murky as we made our way across industrial Germany We heard several traffic warnings to other people mentioning an airship (especially interesting because I am currently part of the Hybrid Air Vehicles team) One pilot asked “Did you say airship”, came the reply “Yes, a Zeppelin”. We turned south for the Mohne Dam (sorry but I’m a Brit so over-flying The Dams was essential), flew along the lake towards the dam (at a respectable height) taking pictures then turned south to do the same at the Sorpe Dam.
Next, we needed to find EDKM (Meschede Schueren). The land was quite hilly and I kind of expected the airfield to be at the bottom of a valley but in fact it is on top of a hill and, aided by GPS, I spotted it by noticing the control tower peeking between two other hills. On landing, this proved to be a beautiful, friendly small airfield mostly for gliding but with some based powered types. I proudly thought that we would be a rare foreign visitor but not long after us a French registered TB landed, they had been to Norway earlier in the week.
More fuel, cash required, plus coffee and cake then away again (we might have stayed but the on-site accommodation was reserved for glider pilots), this time for a shorter flight to EDGE Eisenach-Kindel. We arrived near closing time and the place was very quiet although there were a couple of 3-axis microlight departures. More fuel was bought then the Fluglieter offered to run us to our hotel. This was the Flieger Schule which he suggested and had been top of my list during pre-flight research. This proved to be a very nice mid-price hotel built in the 1930s as a school for Luftwaffe mechanics. It was converted to a hotel after reunification. After a decent dinner in the grand hall, I went to bed with a slight headache, “just tired” I thought.
Sunday 17th July
However, next morning, I had a worse headache and churning insides. I nibbled some melon for breakfast and went back to bed. Come the afternoon, awake but not terribly well, we took a taxi into town for cash then out to the airfield to collect some items we hadn’t expected to need. In the airfield café, we had a rather good iced coffee with ice-cream which restored my spirits somewhat. Back to the hotel for an early dinner of the excellent local sour soup then an early night. Returning from dinner, I helped a sheep in a neighbouring field untangle its curly horns from a mesh fence.
Monday 18th July
Before going to bed, I had filed to arrive in Poland at our ultimate destination, a small grass field called EPOP Opole. Overnight, I had a voicemail, in English, from the German authority saying that Poland had suspended Schengen so we had to travel via a larger airfield for border control (actually this was in a NOTAM which I had failed to assimilate). So, run around, re-plan for EPWR Wroclaw which also required booking handling, which in turn had a NOTAM saying they needed 48 hours’ notice! In fact this proved not to be a problem and we quickly received an email acceptance from the agent. The texts were flying backwards and forwards with cousin Richard waiting for us at home in Opole town.
We had an easy scenic but rather thermic flight to EDCJ Chemnitz-Jahnsdorf. It’s a pleasant friendly place but there’s nothing there and it’s in the middle of an industrial estate. The flugleiter will sell you bottle of water or sugary pop but that’s it. There is a pleasant pilots’ room with a PC but its browser is hopelessly out of date so it’s of little use. I have since emailed them suggesting they replace it with Wi-Fi. We went for a short wander in the industrial estate to get the timing of our arrival in Wroclaw closer to the slot we had been given (an unnecessary precaution as it transpired that the handling was all very casual). We saw some tiny concrete bungalows, still inhabited relics of the GDR we guessed. Modest we thought but as Lynda said, a better solution to homelessness than the current one in Milton Keynes which is to leave dozens of people on the streets. We night-stopped at EDCJ on the way back, details of the very pleasant local town of Stollberg are below.
Airborne again and the weather remained good but thermic as we left Germany and headed for Poland. We crossed a couple of bits of the Czech Republic (the border wiggles a lot) as well. A power station with a strip mine alongside was particularly striking.
Over Poland, the cloud started to come down so we had to turn north around some modest hills. We were cleared straight into the Wroclaw zone, joined downwind for the westerly runway, landed, back-tracked and followed the Follow Me to GA parking and fuel (not self-service). The agent asked what we needed. “Just fuel and border control” I replied. “We are in Schengen, you don’t need border control” was his instant reply. Ho hum. So for the minimum fee, about 90 Zloty or GBP 20, we were off. Well, not quite, first time I started-up the agent waved the credit card machine at me, I thought he had said that the bill would be sent (which is what they do at EBKT) but what he meant was that the receipt would be sent. Then after paying, when I called for taxi I was sent back to file a flight plan (for a fifty mile flight within Poland). The ever helpful agent let me do that on his ‘phone then we really were on our way. While this was going on, we could see as Scandinavian registered Archer having what appeared to be similar conversations. An unusual sight while were there was an Avanti pusher turboprop air ambulance arriving to collect a patient. The Archer, a local Tecnam and us taxied and departed in turn during a gap in the airliners.
It must have been VMC because the controller gave us VFR clearances but I was straining my eyes to see through the drizzle. Lynda told me later that she was doing the same and she usually leaves all that to me. Anyway, all was well and the weather had cleared when we reached EPOP. The approach to the 710m grass runway 30 is over woods and a hangar. Fine in a glider with airbrakes but requiring some concentration in a spam-can. Anyway we were well clear of the obstacles and stopped in half the runway. The club had saved a hangar space for us then it was off home with Richard and Zofia for food and beer. There followed two days of tourism in the town of Opole, a small place with interesting and attractive architecture, both medieval and communist, plus a fascinating outdoor museum of old wooden buildings.
Wednesday 20th July
On Wednesday night, I tried to file for EPOP to EDCJ but was rejected again so re-filed via EPWR. I was told subsequently on EuroGA by a German who regularly does similar flights that flight plans are not in fact required for Germany to Poland so one could simply ignore the NOTAM about border control and fly in with neither flight paln nor talking to an Info service. Hmm. Interesting as it would be to see a Mig 29 close-up in the air I’m not sure I want to risk it. The weather for central Germany showed lots of potential for CB and storms so I plotted a route with plenty of diversions. Hoping to maybe make as far as the western edge of Germany in two flights on Thursday.
Thursday 21st July
Despite cousin Richard’s sat’ nav’ taking us down a closed road en route then the person with the hangar key being late, we were away from EPOP before my expected time (I’m a pessimistic planner!). For the 710m grass runway, the density altitude was not as bad as I had assumed in my pessimistic calculations plus I used what little I know of short-field take-offs. Consequently, the departure was no drama and no frighteners.
No delay getting into EPWR and straight to the refueling point. The handling agent this time did at least call border control to be told that they weren’t interested so we were away after just 25 minutes stationary. Cleared out of the zone not above 2000’ was bumpy as it was already pretty thermic. Once clear of the zone it was up to the calmer air above the inversion at 4500-5000 feet. The weather began to deteriorate in Germany but we thought we would be good to continue past EDCJ to EDGE. A minute after telling Munich Info that we were doing this, we heard him tell someone else of CB and storms in the Eisenach area so it was back to plan A and land at EDCJ. With no Wi-Fi and a pretty hopeless old PC it took a while and a lot of swearing to deduce that the storms were going to last all day. By then it was raining heavily. The ever-helpful flugleiter telephoned all three of my pre-selected hotels, one was full and two did not answer. He persisted and found what proved to be a very nice and well-priced pub B&B type place, Zur Guten Quelle, in the nearby town of Stollberg.
The town was small and quiet. We think we had arrived in the middle of town holiday week as nearly every shop, place to stay and place to eat was closed for the week. The B&B appeared to be only partially open, I found the Wi-Fi code by wandering around the bar area (closed) until I found a likely looking code stuck behind the bar. That said I did manage to get a hair-cut and buy socks during our very relaxing afternoon in Stollberg. The only place open for us to get a very late lunch was a family owned café / ice cream parlour, Café Eisbeere, which was excellent and cheap plus had Wi-Fi. Dinner proved to be trickier but we did eventually find one eatery open which was once again excellent and cheap. Stollberg felt like being in rural Scotland or Ireland. The weather was looking good for Friday so I filed flight plans and a GAR hoping to make it home with stops at EDKZ and EBKT.
Friday 22nd July
In fact, we made it only as far as EBKT. We were away early from EDCJ and had a good cruise across central Germany above the inversion at 4500-5000 feet. I did make one attempt to go lower but abandoned that as the cloud got closer to the ground. Back home, I would have used my IR(R) to climb through cloud. In Germany, I found a gap, honest.
Approaching EDKZ, the radio was silent so back to Langen Info and asked that they call the landline. It turned out that the place was PPR (a UK-only curse I thought) and had no intention of opening that day. I subsequently checked their web site and found no sign of PPR. Anyway, Langen started to suggest diversions to the north around Bochum but the weather was coming down and I abandoned that and headed south west where I knew the ground was lower and the forecast better. Langen eventually suggested EDLN Monchengladbach. They were most helpful, giving me a vector straight into their zone onto a seven mile final.
The airfield also appeared to have its own clear sky and good visibility. My landing was something of a get-me-down-now but all was well. The first person we met, took our landing fee but was otherwise utterly dismissive and unhelpful. Yet again, there was no Wi-Fi. After a snack lunch, I took my problem to the Safety Management System Officer and she proved most helpful, sorting out faxing my flight plan (yes, they still have that infrastructure over there) and printing me a page of TAFs. Self-service refuel with credit card in the pump and we were on our way again.
Once again, the visibility became awful as we left Germany then threaded our way through Belgium’s ridiculous overlapping network of zones, restrictions and large area NOTAMs. We were followed into EBKT by a biz jet. Tired after the day of gazing into poor visibility and thinking hard, I decided to stay the night at EBKT. The Bell X1 hotel is 100m from the airport buildings and had a room available. It proved to be as good as it looked on its web site and had the added interest of rooms named for pilots (and in one case a RAF aircraft repair unit which was based there in 1944 / 5). The building itself is a rather interesting between the wars design. The only slight disappointment was a rather thin breakfast. For dinner we returned to the excellent Biggles where the waitress recognized us from the previous week. An excellent dinner was enlivened with two based aircraft doing circuits, a PA28 and a Citation.
Saturday 23rd July
Saturday dawned unflyably cloudy and misty so I delayed the flight plan and GAR departure times two hours. We departed at 1230 local into reasonable visibility and a low cloud-base. Belgium is flat west of EBKT so this would not be too bad except for wind farms, masts, etc. Skydemon was busily warning of those as they appeared either side of our track, the visibility wasn’t so bad that we need it but it was a useful thing to have. Cloud and haze vanished almost instantaneously as we entered the Calais TMA and it was up to 6000’ for the channel crossing. We achieved the crossing always within glide range of land then it was straight down to 2200’ to duck under both cloud and the London class A airspace. The Southend controller was working hard with both light and CAT traffic so I cancelled my request for a transit and went around the zone. Talking to Farnborough, I asked them to assist by setting up a Luton transit which they duly did. The transit was excellent fun although with two quick orbits to slot us behind and above the landing airliners I’m not sure it saved a lot of time. Exit the zone and into Cranfield for one of my better landings. Unload, clean the windscreen and home. Job done.
Conclusions:
1. An excellent and most enjoyable trip.
2. If I was doing this a lot I would get a full IR but as I will do it at most annually and more likely less than that, it just isn’t worth the time and money.
3. Despite the length and complexity of this my first foreign trip (not counting a hop from Eglinton to Donegal in 2010) and only my second very long one (I did Halton to Kirkwall in 2012); the trip was within my capabilities as a 400 hour PPL.
4. All the hours I spent planning and researching in advance were well spent although of course all my plans were adjusted on the move as described above.
5. Air Traffic Control / Flight Information Services are staffed by marvelous and helpful people.
6. If I cross Belgium again, I will go south of Charlois, Belgium is a nightmare for VFR-only to the north.
7. Wi-Fi is not so common at mainland Europe airfields as it is in the UK.
8. Skydemon is worth every penny.
EBKT
A near perfect small airfield. Fuel Eu 1.96 a litre
EDKM
A beautiful welcoming airfield in the German hills. Fuel Eu 2.26 a litre
EDGE
Functional local airfield with nice café. Fuel Eu 2.73 a litre. Landing Eu 9. Parking Eu 6 a day.
EDCJ
Functional local airfield with no catering. Fuel Eu 2.26 a litre. Landing Eu 9. Parking Eu 6 a day.
EPWR
Commercial airport. Welcoming and helpful for light GA. Fuel priced in Zloty, about GBP 1.26 a litre. Landing in Zloty, about GBP 19.
EPOP
Helpful small grass airfield. Asked us for a Eu 50 donation for landing and three nights hangarage.
EDLN
Largish airport in a control zone. Dozens of light GA based there with some biz jets and signs that they have some commercial traffic. It appears that they also have rides available in a Tante Ju and a DH Dove. Helpful if you find the right person.
