Swapping the Jersey Islands for Texel Island

 
I have been suffering a wee bit from cabin fever, ever since the gorgeous Summer weather decided to up sticks and bolt to the southern climes of this fair continent that is Europe. But since I have the Wooden Wonder, aka "Nippy", I thought that I'd make the best of the cards that Summer had dealt us and planned a long weekend chasing the sun south.

I've always wanted to visit the Jersey Islands, and as a pilot, it's also a destination which provides a nice challenge to add to your skillset. You are effectively flying in Class "A" airspace and so need special dispensation from ATC to complete the mission.

The plan was to take a leisurely flight to Jersey, stopping off at picturesque Dieppe for lunch on the way.  But as is the case with all the best laid plans, the weather was less obliging. A large trough of low pressure was edging southwards from the UK and Ireland and was forecast to settle along the Northern French coast and hover over the islands for the entire weekend, hampering any effort to get there and back and also resulting in us choosing to spend a weekend in the rain. Once bitten and all that, I decided to stay away from volatile weather systems and chose the old adage of "better to be on the ground wishing to be in the air, than being in the air wishing you were on the ground", so I decided to scrub the Jersey trip.

Initially I was a little bummed. I checked to see what the weather was going to do elsewhere. Funnily enough, as is usually the case, Mother Nature was playing silly buggers and plonked a great big HIGH right over Holland. So we decided on a short hop over to Texel. A recent development has been the transfer of Nippy maintenance from the Wallet Grabbing Extortionists in France to a more able and reasonable AME actually on Texel. So I arranged to meet them on Saturday, have them look the plane over and discuss what is required to have them take over the job of applying TLC to Nippy from now on.

The sight of having one of the Aviodromes DC3's sat next to us at the run up area got Malinka's pulse racing. She was amazed at the size of it compared to our little Nippy. The DC3 had 21 POB and was off on a pleasure flight around the polder. I pushed the throttles to max power and we were shooting up into the hazy skies above. A brisk 30 minutes later and we were on final for Runway 04 and a greaser of a landing on Texels' green sod. 

A very nice meeting with the new AME has meant that we're really happy with the decision to have to folks in Texel look after Nippy from now on, and given it's a 30 minute flight to Lelystad, I will certainly save money on the simple logistics I getting down to Strasbourg and back. 

Au Revoir Extorqueur.....Goede Dag Verfrissende Verandering.

Pan Pan Pan ........ Diverted to Eindhoven

Day two of our weekend away, and it was one of those times when you review the weather, expect one thing but experience another. You remember I mentioned the Summer Sun a few days ago? Well it's gone on vacation!!

I filed the flightplan to Lelystad as an exact reversal of the route we took yesterday. The weather showed rain showers on the radar moving eastwards. Given the speed they were moving, it was reasonable to expect them to have dissipated by the time we were taking off. But that was not to be the case!!

When we arrived at the airfield, the tower was closed for 30 mins due to a "lunch-break". As we sat outside the cafe we opened the charts and I decided to avoid Dusseldorf on the way back. I didn't want to deal their ATC, so we routed in a westerly direction and avoided their CTR. BUT, and this is were it gets interesting, to the north where I wanted to go, there was low hanging clouds, rain showers and general nastiness to be avoided at all costs. 

Malinka didn't seem fazed at all. She figured out the day before that her travel-sick tummy was a result of being dehydrated and flying on an empty stomach. She stocked up on good hearty German cuisine earlier for lunch, and she was happily staring out the window and looking for other aircraft as we trundled along. 

I continued my track westwards, passing South of Moechengladbach, eventually turning North over Roermond. Langen had me switch over to Dutch Mil Information and they cleared me to cross the Vokel and De Peel CTR's. But as we passed about 10 NM's east of Helmond, I had to descend due to a lowering cloud base. With the weather deteriorating all around me, and my warm and fuzzy meter rapidly moving towards the red arc, I told Malinka that I was going to declare an Emergency and divert due to the weather.

I declared a Pan Pan Pan with Dutch Mil who immediately swung into action. They asked me which direction I had the better visibility. I could see clearer to the west. The consensus was to divert to Eindhoven, so they gave me a heading to steer. I was also trying to avoid the showers that were ahead of us, but Dutch Mil helpfully obliged by giving steering headings to enable me to intercept the ILS for final to runway 22 at Eindhoven. At one point she asked if I had the airfield in sight, mentioning that they'd turned the runway lighting to FULL to help me find it. It wasn't long before we had the field in sight and I was asked to contact Tower for a smooth landing. 

After I landed and taxied off the runway, I got a little confused and I think I called Eindhoven Ground "Lelystad Ground". I guess that my brain had decided to relax after working hard to get us on the ground. We were marshalled to the GA parking and parked NP beside a Canadian AF A300 parked beside us. The Marshaller helped us refuel (at €2.70 a litre, I will NEVER be buying fuel in Eindhoven again) and then he drove us to the Flight Ops Office so we could consult the weather radar and make a decision on when/if to leave for Lelystad.

Malinka and I looked at the weather radar in Eindhoven and decided that the front was passing through and we could be off again in an hour. Eindhoven then tried to charge me €80....YES!!! €80 for a landing fee. Guess who won't be coming to Eindhoven anytime soon!! I told them that I had declared an Emergency and that the fee should be waived....which it was.


An hour later, we were strapped back into "Nippy" and soon on our way again. This time the weather was clearer (a small bit of clag just north of Eindhoven was all we had) and we were edging closer and closer to Lelystad. Malinka wasn't impressed with the landing I made in Lelystad, having given a thumbs up in Koln and Eindhoven and a thumbs down at Lelystad. I guess I was just glad to be back and was not bothered that I didn't pull off a greaser :-)


Lessons learned? Well, my training paid off. But I will ask the FIS for more frequent weather updates next time I come face to face with a lowering cloudbase. Oh, and the quicker you let ATC know, the quicker they can put an action plan in place to help get you out of the predicament you're currently facing. 


A HUGE thank you to the girls manning Dutch Mil Info today. Malinka and I truly appreciated your professionalism and help today.

To Koln for Koelsch and Wursten

Yesterday saw a milestone as a plane owner. We decided to spend a weekend away somewhere, and decided to use the Robin to get us there. It was a daunting prospect given that it's Malinka's first time flying in the Robin with me. Malinka's flown before; when we flew in Florida in 2008 and on a few jaunts to Texel and back) but she preferred to sit in the back where she could sleep. Given that the Robin is a cosy cockpit and that she has no "back seat" to fall asleep on, I was a little worried she'd hate it straight away.

The destination choice? It had to be somewhere close (about an hour's flight away), somewhere fun, and somewhere we knew we'd really enjoy. So we decided on Koln. We bought love the beers, food and atmosphere in Koln. So it was settled....Koln.

I also had a plan B up my sleeve. Our friends Andrew and Angelina decided to come to Koln also. Only they were taking the car. Which meant if Malinka really hated flying in the Robin, she could get a lift back with A&A in the car.


I filed the flightplan Friday evening and we were up early to get to Lelystad. When we arrived, we quickly pushed the Robin out of the hanger, fueled up and headed off into the wild blue yonder.


The planned routing was as straight a line as was possible down through Dusseldorf and into Koln Leverkusen airfield. Leverkusen is a grass field, extremely busy with glider activity from the filed, both in the form of glider towing and winch launching. The transit through Dutch airspace was uneventful. But when we approached Dusseldorf's Class C airspace, I contacted Langen Information and explained to them that I would like to transit overhead Dusseldorf (as filed) and to ask them if it was possible. This was a good 10-15 mins before I would even reach Dusseldorf's Control Zone (CTR). The response?? NEGATIVE. I was pretty pissed off because I was at a height that would not conflict with their approaches, and a deviation around the airfield would add another 15-20 mins to the flight. SO I turned left 30 degrees to avoid Dusseldorf.


But then our luck changed. Langen called back, gave me a heading to steer and told me that I was approved to cross the airfield. NICE!! As we got closer, I called Dusseldorf tower who gave me a Squawk code and asked me to transition from reporting point "November", which is at Duisberg, north of Dusseldorf airport. Now, here's the thing. There was a NOTAM closing airspace over Duisberg (which the Controller should have been aware of), so rather than overflying the closed airspace, I flew abeam November. The result??? A piss ant controller whinging at me. I decided to ignore his pissy comments and carried on as cleared. When I cleared his airspace I called to inform him and got a "Hmmmm, well I suppose you are" Seems he wasn't as bothered about me crossing afterall if he wasn't paying attention to where I was. Anyway, bygones.


Malinka was by now getting twitchy and asking "Are we there yet?". With the turbulence from the clouds above she started to feel a little queasy. But we were only 15 mins away after crossing Dusseldorf.


I told Langen I was switching to Koln Leverkusen and set-up for the descent. With the airfield in sight, Leverkusen was keen to let me know about the traffic in the pattern and gliders in the area. I had traffic pass underneath me and slowed down to follow him into the pattern. I was number three for landing, behind a glider being  towed and the plane that had passed below me. Malinka perked up a bit when she saw the airfield and I stabilised us for a long final behind the landing traffic ahead of us. When we landed, we rang the guys who were trying to find the hotel in their car. The fun bit was the teasing we had when we met up about who was quicker. Given we left an hour and a half late than they did, and check into the hotel 15 minutes behind them, I think we were quickest on the day :-)


It was so much fun to travel together for a weekend away. And with the landing/overnight fees of only €5.50, we'll be back again soon.

Enjoying the Summer sun

It's been a fantastic Summer so far, and no shortage of flyable weather days. The only downside to all this sunshine is the fact that I'm slogging away in the garden building a pond rather than up in the air flying. But I managed to escape the garden last week and got up for a few hours, and even managed to bring one of my best friends along for the ride too.

The plan was to take "NP" across over to Texel, meet with a potential new Aircraft Maintenance organisation, and then carry on South along the Dutch coast and back into Lelystad. The only thing to put a spanner in the works was the wind....it was STRONG, and it meant that as time was pressing on, we had to cut short how far South we'd ultimately go, in order to keep to our "other world" schedules.


With Andrew joining me in the cockpit, I decided to take it easy and let him try his arm at flying while I took care of the radios, nav and looking out for traffic. We refuelled the plane and were soon up and heading for the coast.

The trip to Texel is really very simple and straight forward, and it's pretty difficult to get lost. The basic route is to head for Lelystad city, follow the dyke across to Enkhuizen, then follow the coast to the beginning of the Afsluitdijk, and you should already be able to see the island of Texel in the distance.

Andrew took the controls early on into the flight after he had snapped some interesting photo's. As we made our way closer to Texel, I contacted Ed who was working Texel Radio that day and we were told that runway 22 was in operation. Andrew though was having doubts. It seems that I had neglected to mention to him that Texel was a grass runway. So I was oblivious to the reasons why he kept asking where exactly the runway was, because he was looking for a strip of tarmac rather that a grass runway. It was only until I had lined us up on final that he let out a "Oh....it's grass" that I realised why he was having issues.

We paid our landing fee and had a quick bite. A few poses in front of "NP" and we were climbing back into the cockpit and starting her up again. In the beginning, taxiing out was quite a bumpy affair. The ground is all chewed up from those Cessna Caravan's that take the skydivers up for their parachute jumps. But I soon found that by keeping to the far right where the grass was longer and greener was much smoother.

I took-off and held "NP" in ground effect for a while, building up speed before yanking back on the stick and climbing fast. I think Andrew liked it because there was a grin on his face and a slight "woohoo" from his headset. I love doing those soft-field take-offs. I asked Ed if he could open the flightplan I filed earlier so we could transition across De Kooy's CTR (Control Zone) which is Class C and we switched the radio over to De Kooy Tower.

De Kooy were nice and let us transition North to South directly over the airport. Andrew took the camera out again and started snapping at the harbour with all the Dutch naval boats and the ferry docked in Den Helder. When we cleared De Kooy's CTR we headed straight for the coast. With the headwinds blowing quite hard at around 25 knots we decided to see how far South we could get before having to cut across Schiphol and head back home. Andrew was flying again so I started to snap away at the people on the beach. Sadly, we were too high to spot anyone laying topless on the sands below :-(

I was half expecting to see some traffic flying in the opposite direction but it seemed that we were the only plane out flying that afternoon along the coast. We got as far as Zandvoort when I decided that we would need to head back or be late for our appointments. So I called up Schiphol Tower and requested permission to transit their CTR West to East and exit via the Amsterdam Sector. As is usually the case with chaps working the Schiphol Tower, our request was approved. We were asked to enter via Hoofddorp, pass west of the tower and enter the AMS Sector from Badhoevedorp. 

Andrew got almost giddy at this stage with the prospect of overflying Schiphol. Again, camera at the ready he was snapping away happily. He got some nice shots and enjoyed the view, while I aimed us towards Museumplein from Badhoevedorp. When we entered the Sector we did a few tight turns for some city shots before exiting Schiphols CTR near Ijburg.

The last time Andrew had come flying we tried to get a picture of his house in Almere, but it was too far away for anything decent, so we made our way towards his neighbourhood and made a tight circle around his block so he could photograph it from front to back. I almost had to do a wingover to reposition myself for another shot from the opposite direction, but I think he got off a few decent pics.

Andrew flew us then towards Bravo at Lelystad and I did the pre-landing checks before taking back the controls and landing us safely. It was a fantastic Summer flying day, and I got to fly along the Western coastline this time, something I had never done before. I think Andrew is well and truly hooked on this flying malarkey. The next planned trips are a boys day out to Germany, and I'm planning to fly to Cologne next weekend (weather permitting). With the ever present High's over this part of Europe, it's shaping up to be a great Summer for flying!!

Happy Birthday to me :-)

I managed to get up today and fly a few circuits. It was a little birthday present to myself.

Although the weather was a bit iffy. Stiff cross-wind and rain showers meant I stayed in the circuit. But still nice to get up :-)

Back In Business!!!!

At last....the Weather Gods played nice and weather forecast remained true to reality. I have managed to fetch "NP" from the mechanics and bring her back in time for the Summer weather.

The only downside to getting "NP" back is the LOOOOONNNGGGG train journey down to France. It took me seven and a half hours, with a 6am start to get there. I really HATE early starts, but needs must. And the one thing I noticed when I was figuring out the quickest/cheapest way via train is that, unlike airline tickets and the Sabre system they all use, there is no central database or tool or way of planning and pricing your train tickets for intra-European rail travel. 

Sure.....I can look up the train times on most railway company websites. But most of them only give you times to services they will profit from (e.g. the Dutch railway website only gives you the times for trains that transit via Brussels or Paris because they make money from Thalys service which they co-own). In the end, I found that the most "independent", if you could call it that, of websites were the ones from the German and Austrian railway companies.

I planned the route the night before, updated the GPS with the weather early in the morning before leaving and set off for the train. The easiest and quickest (and also reasonably priced) route was to get the train from Schiphol to Utrecht, then hightail it non-stop to Offenburg (that's in Germany) with one last change to Strasbourg. Easy peasy. The ONLY thing I forgot to do was power my iPod for the journey down there. D'oh!!


When I finally arrived at the aerodrome, I could see "NP" waiting outside, all washed and ready. I chatted with Christian (the owner of the maintenance company) and we talked about what had been done, the exorbitant price he charged me, and what may need doing a year from now etc etc etc. 

But before I left I had two issues. Firstly there was absolutely bugger all fuel in the tanks. Secondly, there was a discrepancy in the Tach hours of the plane. Based on the Tach reading when I left the her behind and when I picked her up, the engine was "ticking over" for three and a half hours!!! The only explanation I can come up with is that the plane was flown by someone, but of course everyone swears blind that she was never flown!! Needless to say, I am NOT impressed. 

Enough, time was ticking and the weather was starting to look dicey at the airfield. The winds were picking up and there were grey clouds starting to appear and gradually getting lower and overcast. I filed the flightplan, loaded the logbooks and fuelled the plane. The weather all during the trip down through Germany was gorgeous. It was only until France that it started to get cloudy and cold so I was eager to get a move on. Since I was the only person flying at the airfield it wasn't long before I was lined up and opening up the throttles.

Heliostat Power Station, right nextdoor to a coal powered one

 

Soon after take-off the wind started to get choppy. I called the folks in Strasbourg Approach and asked them for a RAS (Radar Advisory Service) and permission to climb to FL050 where I figured the air would be a wee bit smoother. When I reached 4000ft though the cloudbase was lower than I had expected, so I stopped the climb until the cloudbase increased. Soon enough though I was reaching the German border, and as predicted the clouds quickly blew away. I called the guys in Langen Info and continued my way North. The forecasts predicted reasonably stiff winds from the North East, so I was crabbing about 20-25 degrees to the right in order to stay on course. 

At one point I lost contact with Langen on the frequency I was using (I could hear him but he couldn't hear me) so I dialled them up on another frequency and continued the route. I settled on course at FL050 and enjoyed the view, passing by Spangdahlem AFB, the coalfields of western Germany and the vineyards running along the Rhine.

Spangdahlem AFB

Germany's airspace was pretty quiet, but as soon as I reached Holland it started to get more lively. Obviously the Dutch were making the most of the good weather. I routed overhead Arnhem and headed straight across the Dutch Army's firing grounds (they were closed thankfully) and started the descent for Lelystad.

Open Pit Coal Mine

The Power Plant whose neighbour is the greener Heliostat :-)

On the line-up for the VFR reporting point called "Bravo" there was another airplane in the vicinty, at around the same altitude. We exchanged position reports and he I figured out he was  behind me, but moving considerably faster. With the bubble glass cockpit though I was able to spot him passing behind me to the right. I called out that I could see him and he passed and set up for "Bravo" while I followed behind him. The wind here was still strong and I was really crabbing on the approach to Downwind, and again on Base. Since the wind was so strong, I held off lowering flaps, and only put in half. It meant I landed a little faster than normal, but with the wind gusting a little, I wanted to give myself a chance to land in one piece. A long float and soft landing and we were home. Total time to get back was 3.3 hours.....less than half the time it took Europes railway network to get me there and not bad given the strength of the wind on the day :-)


She's tucked away in bed now, waiting for our next date. With the nice weather we're enjoying, I know it won't be too long.

Making the best of the sunshine

As I mentioned at the end of my last blog post, Curtis seemed keen to get up again for another sortie, only this time he wanted to go up in a plane that would let him stick his camera out the window. The solution was a simple one. We would go up in one of Polder's C150's and he could snap away to his hearts content.

The only difference with today's sortie was the choice of venue. Whereas the previous flights had been around the Flevopolder, Curtis had recce'd the areas around Lisse and Noordwijk. The only concerns I had about Lisse were managing the approvals with Schiphol to pass through their CTR (control zone) on the day, and then once we got to Lisse, making sure I stayed OUT of their control zone. Lisse is right on the edged of the CTR and can easily result in an infringement if you don't keep an eye on where you are at every given moment.

A quick call to Schiphol in the morning confirmed that it wouldn't be a problem to pass through, given the time of day we planned to be up in the air. And the airspace all in all was much quieter. Far fewer GA pilots out and about enjoying the sunshine. Our plane today was PH-ALI and was sitting all washed and cleaned on the apron. A quick refuel and safety briefing and of course checking that the windows opened for Curtis and we were off.

There was almost no wind and the "ALI" was simply cutting through the air. The fastest speed I noticed was 112kts. That's the fastest I've ever got from a C150!! I called Schiphol tower just after leaving Lelystad and was given a Squawk code and the local QNH settings. But Schiphol called when we were just overhead Almere and said they had not altitude read from our transponder. After fiddling with it, the solution was to just switch it off and then switch it back on. That seemed to work.

We were asked to Squawk 0060 and to report when entering the CTR. Ten minutes later and we were overhead the two large towers at Ijburg and I reported back to ATC. They asked me to steer direct to the Control Tower via Badhoevedorp. When I had reached the suburbs of Amsterdam they changed their instructions and asked me to head for the Mexx building on the A10. That meant a quick 180 degree turn to the left, by which time they gave another steering heading which would bring us right alongside the control tower. The best bit was their instructions to descend to 500ft :-)

We buzzed the tower and steered west to overfly Hoofddorp and eventually exited the CTR right over Lisse. The next 20 minutes or so was spent circling the many fields, watching from traffic and trying to make sure that wherever Curtis wanted to photograph did not mean I was venturing into Schiphol's CTR without their permission.

It took us just a few minutes to figure out the best line to take for the best angle, and of course to avoid the strong sunlight, but it was a lot of fun steering to each field and then circling it and off to the next. It was almost like being a bumble bee who buzzs from one flower to the next.

The route back was less complicated than the route in. We overflew Hoofddorp again and then straight on to Amsterdam city centre. I managed to get some photo's of my house from the air, a first for me, and we did a few orbits of the city centre before heading back across the water towards Almere. I thanked the folks in Schiphol Tower for their cooperation and then got ready for another smooth landing back on Terra Firma. All in all another great flight and of course, Curtis was well pleased with the photo's he managed to capture.

Tulip Fields/BBQ Extravaganza!!!

A few months ago, I received a very pleasant, but unexpected surprise as a result of my blog. I received an email from a really nice family who found my photo's on the internet. It turns out that one of the tulip fields I flew over and photographed last year was one of their fields. They are tulip growers living not far from where I live and they emailed me to find out more about how I took the photo's. We exchanged several emails and I was invited to visit their greenhouse to learn all there is to know about growing tulips, and when we said our goodbyes we were presented with the freshest bouquet of tulips as a gift, straight from the grower himself. 

I regaled stories of my flying adventures, and waxed lyrical about my joy and love of flying and I invited them to come and join me on a tulip hunting adventure in April. The initial plan was to go flying the Sunday that the horrendously named Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupted and all the airspace was shut solid. Unlike my friends in the UK who were happily buzzing Gatwick and Manchester airports, everyone in Holland was grounded.

But in the meantime, I had another pleasant surprise. Once again, out of the blue, a professional photographer had found my blog and wanted to go tulip hunting. GREAT!!! The more the merrier. Curtis, my new photograper friend, and I exchanged a few emails and it turned out he was planning to come to Holland the same weekend I had pushed back the initial tulip flight to, so I suggested he join us that same day. 

Then Marina met a couple from her homeland of Ukraine and after a few glasses of wine when we all made our acquaintances, she announces I am a pilot, to which we recieved the obligatory "COOOOL" response. Marina told them about the planned tulip flights and instantly they asked "Can we come too??". Suddenly my dream of my own airline (aptly named Pendair) doesn't quite seem like an unobtainable dream :-)

Finally, our best friends, Andrew and Angelina, joined us for a boat cruise around Waterland in Noord Holland and we talked about the tulip weekend. And yes, you guessed it, they were hooked too. That's three plane loads of people all booked for Sunday. I made a quick call to Wouter in Polder Aviation and he said I could have their new C177 Cardinal for the afternoon from 2pm, BUT, I would need a check-out ride in it first. No problem....well, only one, but it's a minor one....I would have to be there at 9am for the check-ride, and then wait until 2pm for everyone to arrive. A small sacrifice to pay.

With so many people planned to come flying, Marina thought about having another BBQ flying day, similar to the one late last Summer. GREAT IDEA. We called everyone and they all agreed it was a great idea. So we agreed Marina and I would arrange the food and drinks and bring our portable BBQ. We set off for Makro (the local cash and carry) and bought all the provisions and then some and Marina marinated everything the night before. The BBQ was on for Sunday.

Then the first snag, of many, made it's appearance. Our tulip growing friends were not able to make it. They were really excited about coming, but unfortunately would not be able to join us and asked to take a rain cheque to another time. Fear not.....Angelina and Andrew mentioned on Facebook about their upcoming adventure, and that got others asking if they could come along, so once again the planes were fully booked :-)

The plan was for everyone to meet at Lelystad at 13:00. Marina and I loaded the car the night before, I made my way to the airport bright and early to get checked out and Marina would follow at 13:00 and me me and everyone else there.

That's when the second snag made it's appearance. Keep in mind that it's been a full six months, yes, count them, one, two, three, four, five, six, since I last flew, which was when I flew "NP" down to France for her annual. I have been unable to get her since (snow storms in Europe this Winter, volcanos in Iceland) and had shied away from renting anything if I was flying alone. Now also bear in mind that I'm flying in a new airplane type, which has several key handling differences, one of the biggest being that a) it's got a less powerful engine, b) has an all moveable elevator (an elevon) and c) has an ASI (airspeed indicator) in MPH instead of KTS which means a new set of speeds to memorise, and you can see where I'm going with this. A rusty pilot in a new plane is not exactly a successful mix.

Eelco, my instructor arrived and briefed me on the differences between the Cessna 177 I was about the fly, and the C172 I know so well. We refuelled and started her up and off we flew. The check-out would consist of the usual few steep-turns, stalls, practised forced landings and touch and go's. The first few steep turn exercises were a bit all over the place. Given there was so much haze and not much of a horizon, it was difficult to begin with, but I got it nailed eventually. Then we practiced stalls. Stall recovery in landing configuration was good, but stall recovery in a clean configuration and fully stalled were a bit slow in the beginning. Eventually I got the drill down perfectly though. We then headed to the field and Eelco pulls the throttle to idle "Engine Failure" he says. OK, run through the drill, look for a field. Since we weren't very high to begin with, I had to get her to V BG (best glide) quickly and then look for a suitable field even quicker. The first attempt was criticised because I chose a field that would have had a tail wind instead of a head wind. A new nugget which I NEVER considered, and I'm shocked I was never told about it before, was to look at the windmills and where they are pointing to figure out the wind direction and THEN choose a suitable field. The second attempt was carried out flawlessly.

That done, we headed back for the circuit to practise landings. That's when it all went a bit tits up. Getting the set-up in the plane in the downwind took a lot of practice. I ended up being too low in the downwind, over compensating, then getting too high on final. Then when I flared, I was over controlling with the elevator and we had to go-around after a baulked landing. Second attempt I was a bit better with the altitude but was way too fast on final. Third and fourth attempts I was better with speed and height, but wasn't spot-on with compensating for the cross-wind. The last attempt was a total greaser. Perfectly executed and was greeted by a loud "YESSSS!!!" from Eelco in the P2 seat. "THAT'S what I want you to do each and every time!!". We ran out of time and made that the last one and agreed to do two more later that morning. If they went OK, then I would be signed off. Phew...The rust is starting to flake off :-)

Everyone arrived at 13:00 on time. The plane was for our new Ukrainian friends, Maks and Tanya, to come fly first. Marina took everyone else to the woods to set-up the BBQ. I got up again and managed two more greasers and went in to sign the paperwork. While we waited I showed Maks and Tanya around the hangers of Lelycopter's and introduced them to Albert, one of the pilots there. A short 15 mins later and we were in the plane and ready to go tulip hunting.

Maks was all questions and excitement. Tanya was all smiles and big eyes. We took off and headed straight for the nearest tulips fields in the Flevo polder. I gave Maks the controls for a few mins and had to keep repeating to him not to be afraid to actually turn the plane, and to stop climbing or descending. The landing though with a full load was a little different than the last greaser I pulled off with Eelco and we bounced a little bit upon landing. I was so PISSED with myself, because as all pilots know, everyone who is NOT a pilot judges a pilot on his flying skills solely on how well/bad he lands the plane! D'oh!! We had flown for about 50 minutes. By the time we had landed, Marina, the amazing logistics planner for the day already sent the next batch over.

Now it was the turn of Andrew, Angelina and Curtis. Andrew had planned on sitting up front and flying, but Curtis needed the use of that seat for his tulip photo's. Andrew kindly gave up the seat on the proviso that he sit up front on the next lift. We took off and again headed all over the polder. Andrew brought along with him his portable GPS device and tracked the entire flight. At home later that evening he downloaded the data and sent me the track overlayed on a map of the Netherlands. This time I ventured a bit further South to Naarden. By now the skies were getting VERY busy. We had traffic off to our left about 200-300 feet higher. I have no idea if he saw me, so I gave him a wide berth and had Andrew help keep an eye on him. We circled Naarden, everyone snapping off like the paparazzi and headed back for more tulip fields. Curtis and I were getting the hang of figuring out the best line to take for everyone to take pics and we circled a few fully bloomed fields several times. Alas though the fun had to come to an end and we headed back. But the tulip fields just kept on giving...there so many more on the route into the circuit, so everyone was happy. This time though the landing was as smooth as silk :-) Having said that, Angelina looked a LITTLE bit green as it had turned a little turbulent as the heat of the day resulted in a lot of thermal activity. But she still enjoyed her flight.

Curtis wanted directions to the tulip field near the run in to the circuit, so off he went to photograph from the ground. Andrew had to drive back to pick up the girls for the next flight, so I relaxed and chewed the cud with the guys in Polder, trading war stories. When Andrew came back they came bearing gifts.....a gorgeous burger, cooked by my gorgeous Marina. Pendair has now graduated to in-flight catering :-)

Once again, everyone climbed in, a quick taxi to the active and we were off. This time though we were getting pressed for time. Wouter needed the plane back soon and I wanted to make the most of the daylight. Andrew took over the controls and flew the girls around the Polder. I kept a sharp eye on any potential traffic and also made sure we stayed below the Schiphol TMA. I have to say that Andrew did an amazing job flying. All those hours mucking around on Microsoft Flight-Sim had paid off. He knew what all the dials were, he knew what to expect from the handling of the plane, just was not used to the real sensation of flying. He nailed the altitude the whole time and eventually built up his confidence about "controlling" the plane and not being afraid of it biting back. I had him steer us back towards Bravo (the run point to the circuit at Lelystad) and took control about 2 mins out. Great job Andrew!!! Again, a good set-up resulted in a smooooooth landing and I was happy that the last of the rust on this pilot flaked off for good.

In all, I logged a little over 4 hours in the saddle, logged 10 landings and flew with 8 people yesterday. I was completely knackered, but in a good way. The highlight of the day was listening to everyone share their stories of the days experience and look at the amazing pics everyone had taken. And of course enjoying the efforts of my amazing Marina's BBQ while enjoying a few well earned COLD beers. 
 

Huge thanks to Andrew and Curtis for letting me use some of their photo's on my blog.

Seems like Curtis wants to go up again on Tuesday, so maybe I'll go up again!

VFR flights allowed again

Well, it seems the powers that be are finally relaxing the rules after having realised that the ash cloud will not affect VFR flights. 

KLM sent up a 737 on Saturday evening and flew up to FL041 (41,000 ft) and came back with no reported problems. Likewise Lufthansa have sent up two flights from Frankfurt to Munich and back and also reported nothing untoward going on, so the pressure is on Eurocontrol to re-open the airspace across Europe.

My only concern now is that the gorgeous weather remains long enough for us to go flying this Sunday. Plan is to have a fly-in BBQ again at Lelystad and take two groups of friends up to find the tulip fields.

Fingers crossed

Below is the NOTAM update with the VFR restrictions being revoked

A0471/10 - DUE TO VOLCANIC ACTIVITY IN ICELAND AND THE 

RESULTING ASHCLOUDS IN THE AMSTERDAM FIR, ALL IFR 

OPERATIONS ARE PROHIBITED. 
VFR FLIGHTS ARE ALLOWED AT OWN DISCRETION. 
IN ADDITION OF NORMAL APPLICABLE STANDARDS AND RULES, 

PASSENGERS TRANSPORT IS ONLY ALLOWED IF THE FOLLOWING 

RULES ARE ADHERED TO:
1)9 OR LESS PAX SEATS IN THE AIRCRAFT, 2) MAX TKOF WEIGHT 

5700KG OR LESS. 

AFTER COMPLETING EACH VFR FLIGHT A PILOT REPORT SHOULD 

BE FILED IMMEDIATLY TO VULKAAN(AT)KNMI.NL CONTAINING 

FOLLOWING INFORMATION:
ROUTE, ALTITUDE, DATE AND TIME OF FLIGHT IN LOCAL TIME, 

OBSERVATIONS REGARDING (ASH)CLOUDS. EVEN WHEN NO 

OBSERVATIONS HAVE BEEN MADE A PILOT REPORT IS MANDATORY. 

WHEN EMAIL IS NOT AVBL A PILOT REPORT CAN BE MADE TO 

LOCAL ATC BY RADIO OR AIRPORT AUTHORITY. 

ALSO, CAA-NL STATES THE PITOT TUBE SHOULD BE CHECKED 

CAREFULLY BEFORE AND AFTER EACH FLIGHT AND ALSO INCREASED 

MONITORING OF FLIGHT SPEED AND HEIGHT INDICATION AND 

WINDSCREEN TRANSPARENCY DURING FLIGHT IN THE RISK
AREA.

Volcanic ash ruining my weekend plans

A0450/10 - DUE TO VOLCANIC ACTIVITY IN ICELAND AND THE RESULTING ASHCLOUDS IN THE AMSTERDAM FIR, ALL CIVIL IFR AND VFR OPERATIONS ARE PROHIBITED.

POLICE, SAR AND HEMS FLIGHTS ARE EXEMPTED. SFC/FL245. 17 APR 07:05 2010 UNTIL 17 APR 18:00 2010 ESTIMATED. CREATED: 17 APR 07:06 2010 

The above is the current NOTAM issued for Amsterdam's FIR.

In short they have basically shutdown the entire airspace over the Netherlands and are not allowing anyone to fly. This is a total bummer, because right now, I am in my garden looking up at THE most perfect flying weather imaginable and I am grounded. :-(

The even more frustrating thing is that the ash is a) not really anywhere near Holland, and b) only affects aircraft flying higher than FL200 (20,000 ft). We private pilots typically buzz around Holland at around 1,500 - 3,500 ft flying VFR (visual flight rules) and would not be affected by the ash cloud. But the powers that be have decided otherwise. My flying friends in the UK on the other hand are enjoying the fact that the British have shutdown IFR traffic but are allowing VFR traffic, which means all the private pilots pretty much have the skies to themselves. Lucky sods. Sadly though, the Dutch are not as cooperative.

Assuming the airspace is reopened by tomorrow (I will check back at the NOTAM's later today to find out the latest) the plan is to take friends for a tulip hunting flight over Holland. They themselves are in the tulip growing business, and they wanted to view their fields from the air. I also want to get up and see the fields again and enjoy the majesty of colour, the carpet of natures finest blooming in all its glory.

Now, if they only but a cork on that volcano in Iceland so I can go flying tomorrow I'll be a happy boy again.

Pics from trip to Spa

As many of you will have read from my previous blogs, I had tried to ferry the Robin to Strasbourg unsuccessfully last year and ended up having to divert and spend the weekend in Spa, Belgium.

As luck would have it though, the weekend I made my unplanned arrival, they were celebrating their centennial, which meant there were quite a few interesting and exotic visitors to the airfield, including of course myself :-)

I have finally got round to downloading the pics from my iPhone and I thought I would share some of them with you. Can anyone spot my little Robin in the background? :-)

An interesting pic from the iPhone of the HEMS heli based out of Aachen in Germany.

My bundle of joy is parked in the grass in the back-ground. Pictured here is an OV-10 Bronco.

Yours truly sitting in the cockpit of an Antonov AN-2

A replica of the plane flown across the English Channel by Bleriot

A stunning example of the Beachcraft Staggerwing

Some pics from the Strasbourg flight

On the journey South from the Netherlands to France, you begin to notice subtle changes in the landscape. For a start, you begin to notice hills....a geographic concept unknown in Holland :-) Here are some small hills in South Western Germany peeping out from the mornings mist burning off.



This is a photo (below) of Geilenkirchen NATO airbase right on the German/Dutch border.

 Just below my wing, about 2,000ft below me you can see a NATO tanker climbing out from the airbase I passed over only a few seconds ago. I was cruising along at 6,500 ft and he was told not to climb above 4,500.... presumably to avoid me.

This is a pic of me in the cockpit. Even with the glass bubble cockpit, it was still a little chilly in the Autumn sunshine. However, the fresh-air vents are opened fully in the summer because it's like a greenhouse in there :-)

Another pic or yours truly. As you can see, there's plenty of headroom in the cockpit.

View of France from the cockpit, looking straight-ahead.

Finally got down to France

For those of you who either follow my blog, or who know me from flying out of EHLE, you'll no doubt know that I've been trying to get te Robin down to France for her annual for the best part of eight weeks now.

Each attempt swept me up in a new adventure in its own right, but always resulted in my having to put said tail between said legs and scurry back to Lelystad and wait out the weather for another day.

Waiting out the weather is easier said than done. For a start, it's the worst time of the year to go planning a long cross-country in Northern Europe. Autumn is in full force, bring strong trade-winds, unpredictable weather, and of course the shorter days, especially now since the clocks went back.

Back in August, I tried to fly down to Strasbourg. We had planned to go on vacation to Ukraine in August and so I figured I'd fly "NP" down before we went on our hols. I picked a weekend that worked, timing-wise, but wasn't looking so good weatherwise. The night before I worked on the flightplan, loaded it into the GPS, scribbled everything onto the charts and packed up for the trip.

All things being equal, in the ATL it should take about 2.5 - 3 hours in NIL wind and with an econocruise setting in flight to eek out as much fuel as possible. I was happy with the paperwork and I logged the flightplan online for a very early departure the next day. But that's when the fun started. I arrived nice and early, but some idiots buried my plane at the very back of the hanger. It took forty mins of moving 5 other planes out of the way before mine was on the ramp outside. That put me back a bit. But before long I was off.

I planned to route down through western Germany and then pop over into France, but as I approached Aachen on the Dutch/German border, the weather decided it wasn't going to play along with my plans. So I diverted to Aachen, parked up and ate my sandwiches with the folks in the tower. A couple of hours later, things looked like they were brightening up, so I jumped back into the air, only to be scuppered once again. As I was cruising along at about 1200ft, I noticed that the trees were very close, combined with an ever decreasing cloudbase. Not wanting to be one of those statistics you read on the accident reports in the monthly pilot magazines, I decided to divert again...this time to Spa. I had only managed an extra 15 mins flight from Aachen :-(

However, as luck would have it, I landed in Spa when they were celebrating their 100th anniversary as an airfield!! There were lots of exotic looking aircraft from bygone era's, and the staff there kindly arranged a hotel for me for the night and drove me into town. The next morning was even worse. I had to wait until midday for the mist to burn off and the weather to the South was the same as yesterday, so I flew home.

Vacation over, everyone back to work and Autumn settling in. But the annual was still not done. So I kept looking at the weather, hoping for a break. Finally, a break in the weather DID come. I took a few days off, planned the route again and managed to make my way South for the annual. This trip was less of the scud running exercise from the last time, but more a case of climbing, cruising, admiring the view and simply enjoying being a pilot. There were only two cock-ups on this trip. The first being the moment ATC in Holland told me I had flown through their active shooting range. They only told me AS I WAS EXITING. And they got all hot and bothered about it. I had called them up to ask for Flight Information Service (i.e. keep me away from other planes and places I shouldn't be near) so I was amazed they were having a pop at me for something they should have sorted out 5 mins earlier. But that's the Dutch for you....nothing is ever THEIR fault, it's always YOUR fault. I used the Irish charm offensive, apologised about the infringement and went on my merry way.

The other was a similar nature, but in France. I planned to skirt around a restricted area (not enter it, just fly around it) but the French guys were going nuts that I was close to it....I never infringed that airspace, but that's cause the French guys were awake at the radar screen, unlike the boys in Holland. The only downside to the annual is of course that the plane is not out of action until I get her back. And getting her back will almost certainly mean a 9 hour train ride (yes folks, that's how long it took me to get back after dropping her off) back to France and more fretting about the weather window. I just hope the current series of cyclones buggers off soon so I can get NP back soon.

Uploaded the Robin's Flight Manual

After several weeks of translation from French into English (and extensive use of the dictionary I might add) I have finally finished the English version of the Flight Manual for the Robin ATL I own.

Funnily the flight manual I got when she was purchased was simply a photocopy of something the previous owner used and there was no original manual to be had anywhere.

But using the power of the internet, I managed to find a .pdf version of the manual in French and went about making my own English language version. Each evening I had free I would fiddle about with the dictionary and MS Word and work on it.

I'm really pleased with the outcome and printed out the new English flight manual and had it bound. So now it'll stay with the aircraft or with me. I also worked on a checklist for the ATL. I based it on the layout I got from a wonderful FBO based in Florida. Everything for their C172's managed to print out on a single A4 sheet of paper. So using the checklist from the manual, I devised my own version for the Robin.

I've uploaded both the checklist and the manual for any other Anglophile ATL drivers out there to use at their discretion. Hope you enjoy using it as much as I do.