Where have you been? What have you seen?
#1766881
We embarked on our summer holiday tour last year on the 31st of August. My partner, Agatha and I, accompanied by our (then) one-year-old daughter Alice, set out from Sherburn-in-Elmet at 1000Z on the first leg. It was a pleasant day, and our first flight was to Lelystad, in The Netherlands. We were not alone on this flight. The first leg of our holiday coincided with the aero club‘s end of summer fly out, so a group of five aircraft made the direct North Sea crossing. The final part of the journey is particularly interesting, low-level (below 1500 feet) over the Dutch coast and an inland sea to join the circuit at EHLE. We felt we were almost touching the blades of the wind turbines as we approached the airfield through buzzing swarms of microlites.
Image
Image

After landing, the crews of the five aircraft amassed at the airfield, before travelling into Amsterdam for a canal cruise and group dinner. The canal cruise was a tad chilly, but then a good dinner was had by all.


Returning to the airfield the following morning, We said goodbye to our friends, the remainder of whom were flying back across the North Sea to Sherburn, some after first visiting the splendid aviation museum at Lelystad airport. We refuelled, and set out on a planned three and a half hour leg through the Netherlands, Germany and over the edge of the Czech republic, to arrive in Weiner Neustadt in Austria. In the event, we encountered significant convective weather halfway southwards through Germany, and so diverted to the west to avoid it. Our revised routing kept us clear of Czech airspace, and instead took us on a more scenic final leg towards Weiner Neustadt, turning eastwards and tracking the Danube past Linz and towards Vienna. This was spectacular in the slanting late afternoon sunlight, with some spectacular build-ups off our port wing.
Image



We landed at Weiner Neustadt at closing time. The airfield team were extremely helpful, refuelling us after our four hour and three minute leg (blocks to blocks); 3.9 hours of this was airborne time, covering a distance of 532 nautical miles at an average speed of 138 kt, and a maximum altitude of 10,000 feet.

After parking up and unloading our baggage, we had a pleasant dinner at the good little airfield restaurant, while we waited for Agatha‘s brother, Imre, who lives nearby, to collect us and drive us to his house for a few days.

Over the next three days he kindly drove us around the local area to see the sights, including a glorious day swimming in Lake Balaton, the other side of the Hungarian border, and visiting the conservation zoo and royal citadel city of Vezsprem.


Our peregrinations continued on the 5th of September, when Imre dropped us off again at Weiner Neustadt. We all enjoyed a very good lunch at the airfield restaurant.
Image

Following this, we set off to fly southwards towards Croatia. Our routing took us over the southern Austrian city of Graz, and then into Slovenian airspace, more or less less directly overhead Ljubljana. As we entered Croatian airspace, the Alpine foothills fell away behind us, and a glorious vista of glittering azure sea opened up. Emerald Islands stretched down the coastline as far as the eye could see. We were vectored slightly inland, before being given a “direct“ to our destination, the beautiful island of Losinj, and town of Mali Losinj. On final for LDLO from the west, we had the town and lagoon, with its ancient seaport, one time home of Marco Polo, to our right, just beyond the starboard wing tip. We decided have to stay there for five nights, exploring by foot the town and island, with its pine woods and rocky beaches.
Image
Image


On this leg of the journey, I logged 1.8 hours for the 229 nautical mile distance, (1.6 airborne) with an average speed of 139 kn, mostly at flight level 85.

After a glorious week, we flew the short hop northwards to The beautiful, and extraordinarily well preserved Roman city of Pula. From an extended down wind, we had stunning views over the intact amphitheatre, even more spectacular than the Coliseum. As we turned base, We could see an EasyJet entering the runway and lining up. I was amused when the controller asked him to expedite for the light twin turning final!

We spent two nights in Pula, but two nights is not enough. The temple of Augustus, the amphitheatre, the many Roman gateways and triumphal arches look today much as they must have looked in the time of the Caesars. I would recommend a couple of days in this wonderful city to anyone.
Image

Image


The journey from LDLO, Losinj, to Pula, LDPL, took only 20 minutes, including the circuits; we flew at a leisurely 110 kn, at 2000 feet.

The next leg of our journey was on the 12th of September. We had originally intended visiting Venice, but, as we were a little short of time, and have visited Venice Lido Aerodrome before, we decided to push on directly to Cannes Mandelieu, LFMD. We crossed the Adriatic almost due west, coasting in near Bologna and crossing Italy north if Pisa and onward toward Corsica, before turning north-westwards to Cannes. The flight from Pula, LDPL to Cannes, LFMD, involved 2.3 hours airborne, at an average speed of 147 kt and a maximum altitude of FL85.

The runway at Cannes runs north-south. We approached it over the sea, with the city glittering to our right, and the hills rising ahead of us and to our left, down the coast towards St Tropez. We joined right down wind after following some well-charted reporting points in the bay. Again, the views were spectacular.

We had arranged to stay in a self-catering apartment for a few nights, more or less on one of Canne's delightful sandy beaches, and just to the west of the city centre. We elected not to stay too close to the centre, as it was the international yacht week, and correspondingly frantic. On the other hand, this meant that there was a lot to see and do, in those moments when we were not swimming or lazing on the beach. Despite the crowds, we were still able to get a table at Astoux et Brun, one of my favourite seafood restaurants; though whether or not it is better than the venerable Le Perard in Le Touquet, who could tell?



After two relaxing days, and three pleasant evenings in Cannes, it was finally the last day of our holiday, and time to fly home. We left our accommodation, and returned to the airfield; formalities completed, we taxied to the pumps for fuel, and set off for Le Touquet, following our usual route. This involved a hard climb to clear the lower slopes of the Alpes Provencales. This was challenging given the very high temperatures that day. It was conducted fairly rich of peak, with cowl flaps open, and still we had to take several pauses from the ascent, to keep the cylinder head temperatures somewhere near reasonable. We then set out north-westwards across the lower reaches of the Alps, routing towards Lyon. After Lyon, our course took us onwards towards Troyes VOR, TRO, and over Albert-Bray, before turning westwards again to Le Touquet. This leg involved 3.5 hours airborne, 522 nautical miles, at a maximum altitude of FL95 and an average speed of 148 kt.



Our brief stop in Le Touquet allowed us to refuel, have tea and cakes at L’Escalier, then clear customs and depart for Sherburn. Again, we followed our usual routing, heading pretty much due north to JACKO, then Gamston then direct.

For the final leg, we were airborne for 1.7 hours, for a track distance of 240 nautical miles. The maximum altitude was FL85, and the average speed 139 kt. All in all, it was a most enjoyable family summer holiday.


Technical notes: most of the route planning was done using SkyDemon and EuroFPL. Weather planning involved numerous web resources, primarily the Met Office surface pressure charts, the Meteox.com website (rainfall radar, cloud, infra-red etc), and ogimet.com meteograms for cross-sectional cloud and temperature charts. TAFs and METARs were sourced using SkyDemon and AeroWeather; flight plans were filed using EuroFPL. Accommodation was booked on the fly, using booking.com, to allow for maximum weather flexibility. Our aircraft is a PA 39 C/R twin Comanche, built in 1970. We have standard navigational equipment and an S-tech 50 autopilot. We flew at typical cruise power settings of 22 inches, 2300 rpm as these give us a reasonable fuel burn (roughly 28 L per hour per side) at between 140 and 145 kn while maintaining acceptable CHTs.
Last edited by A le Ron on Tue May 05, 2020 9:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
mick w, Dave W, Paul_Sengupta and 4 others liked this
#1766925
Rob L wrote:Pula looks a great place to visit! Thanks for the trip report :thumright: .

Some of your photos are interesting...like an airbag for the child seat; I was not aware those exist.

Are all Twin Comanches contra-rotating?

Rob

No, the majority (designated PA30) were unidirectional. The last of the PA30 C series, from 1970 onwards, were produced with contrarotating engines and redesignated PA39 C/R. This represents only the last 100 or so twin coms built. Some of the B and C models have subsequently been modified, mostly on the N register. The contra-rotating twin com is definitely the most desirable.
#1766995
Next time you follow the Danube towards Austria, make sure to make a lunch stop at EDMV Vilshofen: one of my favourite airfields in Germany. But there are so many things to see from the air in continental Europe!

The flight from Wiener Neustadt to Graz can be fantastically scenic if following the GAFOR routes through the mountains. I've never ventured even further south into Slovenia and Croatia, but it's on my bucket list.
A le Ron liked this
User avatar
By Dave W
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1767011
Slovenia is lovely. We visited LJBL Lesce/Bled last year on the way back from Poland (don't ask!) and I would thoroughly recommend both the airfield and the Slovenian FIS.

The restaurant on the field was probably the best quality and value of an airfield restaurant that I've ever experienced, and watching the sun go down over the mountains was delightful.
A le Ron liked this