Of course it was not only pleasure (yeah right)! I was there for a business reason but will tell you more about that in future postings.
Some pictures:
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Cockpit of the Cessna CLS+
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Single-engined Cirrus Jet
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Next Generation Turboprop: Pilatus PC-12 NG
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Eclipse 400 (single engine VLJ)
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Glass cockpit of a Cirrus SR-22
Great convention, lots to see!
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( 2.9 / 34 )Saturday the 27th of september, the airport of Maastricht (EHBK) organized a Vlaai-In (pun intented: in dutch pronounced as Vly-Inn, and the word Vlaai is a famous pie in the south of Holland).
Some 85 general aviation aircraft would fly to the most southern airfield in The Netherlands, and it promised to become a beautiful day. It was, however, quite foggy in the morning. In order to reach our landing slot of 12.00 we had to leave at 11.00 the latest.
My fellow flyblogger Ton Klaassen, just recieved his JAR-permit a couple of weeks ago, owns a part of a US-registered aircraft, a Cessna 172 with retractable gear. Very cool, my first time in a complex Cessna 172.
The journey wsa great, albeit somewhat hazy. The event a bit disappointing. I somehow expected a bigger event, but perhaps I was spolied by the dynamic "Hoogvlieger" day of a few weeks back.
Here some pictures:"
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The "complex" aircraft
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Ton as PIC
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Overhead Eindhoven
All pilots received a Vlaai (in our case: cherry-pie) before departure. It tasted great!
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( 2.5 / 26 )The Hoogvliegers foundation organises flying events for critically ill or handicapped children. The main event of the day is that every child gets the chance to be a pilot. They are the co-pilot on a very special flight, often their first, and they forget completely about their daily routine and sorrows (as do as well the parents and brothers/sisters)!
Today, a big day was organised for kids from the Rotterdam region. With the help of many parties, not the least the Rotterdam airport and air traffic control, there were many things to do. Next to being a true pilot, the children get to enjoy the fire brigade water games, policing demonstration, ride with police cars with sirens on (didn't know there were so many US-trooper cars in The Netherlands), drive in big trucks etc. The VLM also sponsored flights in one of their Fokker 50, so every child got to fly 2 times today, once as passenger, once as pilot.
I volunteer for this foundation as well, by taking kids up in the air, and introduce them to flying. Today I did 4 flights. Flying with kids requires additional attention before and during the flight, and it is quite exhausting.
The first one began with some delay because after the engine start up clearance and the propellor started spinning, one of the passengers indicated that she needed to go to the toilet. So, engine shutdown, deboard and back to the platform. When we were boarded again, a small plane ran of the runway with a flat tire. We had to wait for some minutes before Rotterdam Delivery would let us start up.
But all in all, those flights were great, the kids were great and for sure they have had a special experience.
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( 3.1 / 9 )Once and a while a group of "dutch private pilots with weblogs" meet up for a lunch. Every time we plan to come together more often, but weather, schedules, aircraft, etc prevent more than 2 meetings a year (give or take).
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This time, the weather almost got at us again, and the reservations of the different members created a split meeting with Marcel and Guus attending both meetings. Frank and Pascal attended the first meeting (having to leave due to the aircraft reserved by other people later in the day) and Rob, Ronald, Martijn, Ton and Philip (my brother in law) were present at the second meeting that day on Ameland (EHAL). Ameland is one of the dutch "Wadden" isles, in the north of Holland.
We were locked in at Rotterdam until about 3 in the afternoon. A front came over but was terribly lacking speed. It was bound to already have been gone in the morning, but the 300-feet clouds and rain drizzle, or drizzle rain kept visibility very low. At 14.45 we decided to go, but were blocked by air traffic control, who said it was not VMC. To our surprise, 2 aircraft got clearance 2 minutes later, and a call to the tower revealed they had reconsidered.
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Flying north we encountered some clouds, but they were well above 1500 feet, our ceiling under the Schiphol TMA. We flow along PAMpus (beacon with the name of a small island near Amsterdam), Enkhuizen, Hoorn, crossed over the Ijsselmeer to Stavoren, Harlingen and final destination Ameland.
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We went to lunch at 16.45 (I had a great pancake) and enjoyed the last summer-sun-rays. Great.
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The flight back was beautiful. We flew the former mentioned route in reverse, but crossed the Schiphol CTR. At 500 feet over Schiphol is always a very nice thing to do. Due to runways in use (06 and 18c) we got a fancy routing around the CTR..... where was Badhoevedorp again? (no pictures though)
Then south along the dutch west coast, with the sun getting ready to set, to the south and from Scheveningen-harbour directly to the field.
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After a bit of waiting (about 4 hours) we had a great day. Good to meet (nearly) all of you again.
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( 3 / 15 )Last week I flew to Cambridge, an exciting trip! The goal was to visit my aunt who lives downtown Cambridge, and celebrate her birthday (somewhat belated). I planned for this trip already in July, but in that weekend the weathergods prevented any (VFR) trip between the UK and the continent.
We arrived at 9.30 at the club, and start to collect the neccessary items: life jackets, tie-downs, aircraft papers, etc. We brought some drinks and food for during the trip, next to the overnight suitcases.
I had updated my navigation plan from the one I created in July already at home. The customs form was faxed to Cambridge airport operations the day before, and on my way to Rotterdam I had called dutch customs, which is needed for any direct non-Schengen flight.
The weather forecast was fine for Saturday (disregarding some scattered showers and isolated CBs), but Sunday would be tricky as some front was crossing UK from west to east. However, if we would leave early there should be no problem.
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Blankenberge (Belgium) from 1300 feet
The intended route was Rotterdam along the coast to Oostende and Koksijde (on the south side of the Belgium coast), then cross the channel (coasting-out is the right word), and in the UK via overhead South-end, Earls Colne to Cambridge.
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White cliffs of Dover, mid-channel at flightlevel 50
The weather in the UK was beautiful with some scattered clouds in the 3000's, and we were switching between London Info, and the tower frequencies of our waypoints. The most beautiful remark from air traffic control was London Info with a message to all stations (airfcraft): "Please have all a very good lookout, you are with many up there". Brilliant.
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Near Southend
At Cambridge airport, Marshall's, we filled the aircraft up for the next day and pay the landing fee + parking for the night (29 GBP in total). The fuel was actually very cheap, and I saved some 37 euro's on the total rental price.
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We took a taxi to get to my aunt's house, and went into town for a lunch (one of my favourites is jacked patato with coleslaw and cheese) and a stroll.
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Center of Cambridge
We had a great dinner at her place, cooked by living-in summer student Naïma and went to bed quite early for a saturday. I did not have trouble sleeping though.
On sunday it was different weather. Already when I woke up, the rain was pouring down, and clouds were low. The effects of the front had arrived much earlier. I called the flying club that my reservation needed extending, and that was not much of a problem.
We decided to lunch at home, and after went to airport. The sky was clearing, and the cloud were climbing at about 400 feet per 30 minutes.
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Pre-flight check at Cambridge airport (EGSC)
After an hour of waiting I decided to take off. There might be some problems underway over the channel and over Belgium, but if it wouldn't be possible to cross the channel, we could always wait it out in Southend.
The channel was indeed, full of clouds and low visibility. But Ostende had broken clouds at 3000 and 10KM plus visibility so I decided to cross.
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My mother can fly!
Nice flight, but a busy one, being the only on board with a flying license. Having a GPS is a neccessity on these trips, it helped greatly in re-assuring the position, as well as answering the continuous "what is your ETA for ..." questions from London Info!
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( 2.9 / 24 )Whoaaa! What way to better spend a part of the holidays than up in the air (except for the beach when it is really hot, and mediteranian restaurants at night)?
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I contacted the Real Aeroclub de Baleares yesterday if a flight (with instructor or safety pilot) was possible..... and it was! In their fleet they have Pipers, Warriors and Archers, as well as a Cessna 152. I have experience on the Warrior and on the 152, so no problem. A piper Warrior was available, the EC-FXS!
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In the early morning (hey, getting up at 7.30 is early during this holiday), I drove to Son Bonet airport (LESB). This field used to be the main airport for Mallorca untill 1959, and is now a General Aviation field for mainly flight schools and helicopters. Also the local forestrial watch aircraft and resque helicopters are based here.
Unconsiously I skipped multiple layers of security, but when I arrived at the Aeroclub the lady told me I really needed the accreditation of the security company. So back to the main entrance of the airport (where the gate openend automatically when I arrived), and with my accreditation (yellow sticker with name and date) back through the gates of the Guardia Civil to the club.
I had to wait a bit before my instructor and aircraft returned from a previous instruction flight, so I spend some time looking at the maps and VFR corridors. This airport is located in the vicinity of the very busy main airport, so special procedures are needed to separate the traffic.
Together with the very friendly instructor, Xisca, we set the route to fly: after take-off to the west over the mountainous area of the Serra de Tamuntana.
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Then to the south, passing the Dragonera island, and after an orbit over Port Andratx (the place I am staying).
Now east passing some beaches, and then back over the hills to the airfield, carefully not invading the airspace of Palma de Mallorca airport (LEPA). I did 2 circuits, with the first landing (on the 24) being completely crap (crosswind, heat turbulence, low approach over a road with trucks). The second one (on the 06) was OK, and once again low over the buildings of the outskirts of the city of Palma.
The weather was hot (31 degr.AGL) and humid (70%), which impacts the performance tremendously. I seldomly saw these climbrates in a Warrior when flying 75 knots.
Son Bonet is a nice airport (landingfee EUR 8.06 for a Warrior, with up to 2 touch and go's and a landing). The aeroclub is a nice place, with sufficient english to overcome communication problems. Xisca did radio, for which I was glad. I speak spanish, though have not all the aviation lingo in spanish available. Xisca talked to me in (speedy) spanish, and when I didn't understand I askd her to repeat!
Learned a lot lot today, on moutain flying, on hot weather turbulence and aircraft performance. Great! Hopefully I will fly one day from Rotterdam to this field!
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