We already wanted to share with you the route we have actually flown:
Epilogue
Our final thoughts and some facts regarding our trip will follow shortly.
We already wanted to share with you the route we have actually flown:
We already wanted to share with you the route we have actually flown:
Day 18
Monday May 19th, 2008
Leg 23: Midden-Zeeland (EHMZ) – Hoogeveen (EHHO)
PIC: Etienne
Flying time: 1h36
Landing fee: EUR 42
After arriving at Midden-Zeeland at 1700hours, we needed maintenance. The Cessna needs a maintenance check every 50hours. With a 5 hour extension (what you can do yourself in the logbook) on the plane, we could fly 55 hours instead. And we had 1h06 left after our trip to Morocco, pretty efficient. One more diversion or more headwinds and we would have had maintenance in e.g. France. Since this aircraft has a Thielert/Centurion engine, the 50-hours check only takes 15 minutes or so.
We called Hoogeveen, which closes at 1900 hours but they called us back 15minutes later that 20:00 o’clock was possible today, they would wait for us (for an additional fee). What a service!
So, we unloaded the plane very quickly, got on board, fuelled up and took off at 18:23 hours. The only things we carried with us were our headset, a map and our GPS.
To be honest, we left a bit too much in a hurry and didn’t have a look at the latest weather reports :). In the morning in France we saw the satellite images for the Low Countries and they looked good. But you never know with the weather, it can change really quickly. We were flying south of Rotterdam and we saw that the weather wasn’t that great in front of us. Ofcourse we also forgot our information with visual approach charts, frequencies, etc. But we did remember the ATIS frequency of Rotterdam, just to get a feeling for the weather conditions. The ATIS is a broadcast, updated every 30minutes, with the weather conditions at that moment at a specific airport. Though the sky was not clear, it was good weather to continue.
It really would have been something, if we would have had to divert on this last leg due to bad weather :). North of Rotterdam the weather only got better but we were having some headwinds (15kts), and we really wanted to be there before 20:00 hours as agreed with Hoogeveen airport. Under the Amsterdam area, we saw a lot of big boys flying over our head :)
At Meppel, 15 miles out, we called the tower, just to make sure if it was still open, and fortunately it was. The sky was clear we could clearly see reporting point Victor (VAM for the locals :)). We joined downwind runway 10. Just before, the tower warned us of a lawn mower which was busy on this grass airfield. Well we didn’t want to crash into this one, do we, especially not when they are cutting the field just for you :) (at least that was our wishful thinking).
After a smooth touchdown, we could feel a major ditch in the field (due to the composition of the grounds). Since the aircraft still has a speed of approx 80km hour, it is pretty bumpy :).
Anyway, we were happy that we could deliver the plane tonight, so we could sleep and dream about our adventure the next day.
Frans and Ilona were there too, and helped to park it in the hangar. We thanked Frans and Ilona for renting us their plane for the last weeks And we took a train back to Rotterdam. A bit of an anti-climax :), after flying 5 ½ hours today, we had a 2 ¼ hours to go by train. Sometimes it is just nice to get home and sleep in your own bed.
Leg 23: Midden-Zeeland (EHMZ) – Hoogeveen (EHHO)
PIC: Etienne
Flying time: 1h36
Landing fee: EUR 42
After arriving at Midden-Zeeland at 1700hours, we needed maintenance. The Cessna needs a maintenance check every 50hours. With a 5 hour extension (what you can do yourself in the logbook) on the plane, we could fly 55 hours instead. And we had 1h06 left after our trip to Morocco, pretty efficient. One more diversion or more headwinds and we would have had maintenance in e.g. France. Since this aircraft has a Thielert/Centurion engine, the 50-hours check only takes 15 minutes or so.
We called Hoogeveen, which closes at 1900 hours but they called us back 15minutes later that 20:00 o’clock was possible today, they would wait for us (for an additional fee). What a service!
So, we unloaded the plane very quickly, got on board, fuelled up and took off at 18:23 hours. The only things we carried with us were our headset, a map and our GPS.
To be honest, we left a bit too much in a hurry and didn’t have a look at the latest weather reports :). In the morning in France we saw the satellite images for the Low Countries and they looked good. But you never know with the weather, it can change really quickly. We were flying south of Rotterdam and we saw that the weather wasn’t that great in front of us. Ofcourse we also forgot our information with visual approach charts, frequencies, etc. But we did remember the ATIS frequency of Rotterdam, just to get a feeling for the weather conditions. The ATIS is a broadcast, updated every 30minutes, with the weather conditions at that moment at a specific airport. Though the sky was not clear, it was good weather to continue.
It really would have been something, if we would have had to divert on this last leg due to bad weather :). North of Rotterdam the weather only got better but we were having some headwinds (15kts), and we really wanted to be there before 20:00 hours as agreed with Hoogeveen airport. Under the Amsterdam area, we saw a lot of big boys flying over our head :)
At Meppel, 15 miles out, we called the tower, just to make sure if it was still open, and fortunately it was. The sky was clear we could clearly see reporting point Victor (VAM for the locals :)). We joined downwind runway 10. Just before, the tower warned us of a lawn mower which was busy on this grass airfield. Well we didn’t want to crash into this one, do we, especially not when they are cutting the field just for you :) (at least that was our wishful thinking).
After a smooth touchdown, we could feel a major ditch in the field (due to the composition of the grounds). Since the aircraft still has a speed of approx 80km hour, it is pretty bumpy :).
Anyway, we were happy that we could deliver the plane tonight, so we could sleep and dream about our adventure the next day.
Frans and Ilona were there too, and helped to park it in the hangar. We thanked Frans and Ilona for renting us their plane for the last weeks And we took a train back to Rotterdam. A bit of an anti-climax :), after flying 5 ½ hours today, we had a 2 ¼ hours to go by train. Sometimes it is just nice to get home and sleep in your own bed.
Day 17
May 18th, 2008
Leg 21: Carcassonne (LFMK) – Chateauroux (LFLX)
PIC: Etienne
Flying time: 2h48
Landing fee: EUR 30,86 (highest ever paid by us; fuel was cheap though)
At Carcassonne we discussed for a moment the weather ahead. There was a chance of rain and later in the afternoon even a chance for thunderstorms at our destination Chateauroux. But we would be on the ground 30-60 minutes before the estimated time of this chance would occur. We decided therefore to go.
We were flying at altitudes around 2000-2500ft over the French landscape. We did go to the more flat parts, in order to avoid climbing so we wouldn’t have trouble with the cloud base.
South of Limoges we heard a small plane on the radio leaving for Rotterdam from a field nearby, so flying a good 400 miles. This was fun to hear, and quite a ride too.
Just a interesting field we saw on our way
On our way to Chateauroux we had to zig zag around some rain and pretty gray cumulus clouds. These clouds cause quite some turbulence in the area too and we had our fair share (though not that intensive fortunately).
By continuously changing our course we could avoid all the bad weather and we were pretty happy to see our field in a sunny and dry area. Otherwise we would have to find another field nearby. In France this is not really a problem since there are plenty of airfields. (Though not all of them have the Jet A1 fuel we need every 6.5 hours)
The airfield is also used for testing by Air France
Chateauroux is an airfield in the middle of France (really the heart) and we were surprised a bit why this airfield was kind of busy. There was an Air France Boeing 747 doing some circuits for training and right before us we had an Airbus 320 landing.
Also at the airfield it self there were some old and abandoned aircraft standing (some even without engines and another with its wheels packed)
After landing at Chateauroux we looked at the weather. The chance of rain and thunder up north (around Paris) decided us to stay. We were also a bit tired after being in the air for more than 5 hours today.
Leg 21: Carcassonne (LFMK) – Chateauroux (LFLX)
PIC: Etienne
Flying time: 2h48
Landing fee: EUR 30,86 (highest ever paid by us; fuel was cheap though)
At Carcassonne we discussed for a moment the weather ahead. There was a chance of rain and later in the afternoon even a chance for thunderstorms at our destination Chateauroux. But we would be on the ground 30-60 minutes before the estimated time of this chance would occur. We decided therefore to go.
We were flying at altitudes around 2000-2500ft over the French landscape. We did go to the more flat parts, in order to avoid climbing so we wouldn’t have trouble with the cloud base.
South of Limoges we heard a small plane on the radio leaving for Rotterdam from a field nearby, so flying a good 400 miles. This was fun to hear, and quite a ride too.
Just a interesting field we saw on our wayOn our way to Chateauroux we had to zig zag around some rain and pretty gray cumulus clouds. These clouds cause quite some turbulence in the area too and we had our fair share (though not that intensive fortunately).
By continuously changing our course we could avoid all the bad weather and we were pretty happy to see our field in a sunny and dry area. Otherwise we would have to find another field nearby. In France this is not really a problem since there are plenty of airfields. (Though not all of them have the Jet A1 fuel we need every 6.5 hours)
The airfield is also used for testing by Air FranceChateauroux is an airfield in the middle of France (really the heart) and we were surprised a bit why this airfield was kind of busy. There was an Air France Boeing 747 doing some circuits for training and right before us we had an Airbus 320 landing.
Also at the airfield it self there were some old and abandoned aircraft standing (some even without engines and another with its wheels packed)
After landing at Chateauroux we looked at the weather. The chance of rain and thunder up north (around Paris) decided us to stay. We were also a bit tired after being in the air for more than 5 hours today.
Day 16
May 17th, 2008
Leg 19: Valencia (LEVC) – Reus (LERS)
PIC: Etienne
Flying time: 1h30
Landing fee: EUR 14 (incl. parking fee of around EUR 1.50/day in Spain)
Today we decided to leave Valencia in order to reach Gerona. The Metar’s and TAF’s looked good, though there was some chance that it would rain today (temporarily during the whole day).
The sky looked better today than 2 days ago when we also tried to leave Valencia. Using Servisair to being brought to our plane set us back another EUR 50,= (incl. the ride to the terminal 2 days ago after returning to the field). Not really cheap for a 5 minute ride, but less expensive than others who love to charge you for “full handling”.
At the security the Guardia Civil wanted to see our flight plan (plan de vol). Well, if you use the flight information office in Amsterdam by phone, you don’t have that :), so we had to ask the local FIO to print our flightplan and show it to him in order to let us pass. (he didn't even know how to read it!)
Finally after take off at 10:04am from runway 30 we headed northwest towards reporting point N. However, we could only fly at an altitude of 1000ft due to poor visibility. At the coastline visibility first got a little worse, though we could still see just enough. After a couple of minutes the weather got a bit better and we continued to fly over the sea with the coastline within our vision while being at 1500ft.
But after more than an hour of flying, we ran into rain and our plan to fly over the sea to pass Barcelona wasn’t really appealing anymore. So we headed back for the coastline and decided to divert to Reus, just south of Barcelona. At Barcelona, VFR traffic is not allowed and there are strict rules how to pass. Our sea route was in our view a no go today and the land route was a big doubt since it is through a valley around the city and the visibility was pretty poor.
After landing in the rain on Reus we discussed what to do with a very enthousiastic guy at the Meteo’s office. Unfortunately he had no positive news (the rain would continue and even tomorrow too). We made new plans in the cantine, and looked at new forecasts a couple of hours later. To our disappointment, we saw that Perpignan (just north of Gerona) was expecting thunderstorms and winds gusting to 35kts (variable direction). We spoke to some English blokes that just arrived from France to Reus and they also told us it was pretty bad around Barcelona and even in Carcassone (France). This all meant we stayed in Reus, also known as Salou :) for the night.
Leg 19: Valencia (LEVC) – Reus (LERS)
PIC: Etienne
Flying time: 1h30
Landing fee: EUR 14 (incl. parking fee of around EUR 1.50/day in Spain)
Today we decided to leave Valencia in order to reach Gerona. The Metar’s and TAF’s looked good, though there was some chance that it would rain today (temporarily during the whole day).
The sky looked better today than 2 days ago when we also tried to leave Valencia. Using Servisair to being brought to our plane set us back another EUR 50,= (incl. the ride to the terminal 2 days ago after returning to the field). Not really cheap for a 5 minute ride, but less expensive than others who love to charge you for “full handling”.
At the security the Guardia Civil wanted to see our flight plan (plan de vol). Well, if you use the flight information office in Amsterdam by phone, you don’t have that :), so we had to ask the local FIO to print our flightplan and show it to him in order to let us pass. (he didn't even know how to read it!)
Finally after take off at 10:04am from runway 30 we headed northwest towards reporting point N. However, we could only fly at an altitude of 1000ft due to poor visibility. At the coastline visibility first got a little worse, though we could still see just enough. After a couple of minutes the weather got a bit better and we continued to fly over the sea with the coastline within our vision while being at 1500ft.
But after more than an hour of flying, we ran into rain and our plan to fly over the sea to pass Barcelona wasn’t really appealing anymore. So we headed back for the coastline and decided to divert to Reus, just south of Barcelona. At Barcelona, VFR traffic is not allowed and there are strict rules how to pass. Our sea route was in our view a no go today and the land route was a big doubt since it is through a valley around the city and the visibility was pretty poor.
After landing in the rain on Reus we discussed what to do with a very enthousiastic guy at the Meteo’s office. Unfortunately he had no positive news (the rain would continue and even tomorrow too). We made new plans in the cantine, and looked at new forecasts a couple of hours later. To our disappointment, we saw that Perpignan (just north of Gerona) was expecting thunderstorms and winds gusting to 35kts (variable direction). We spoke to some English blokes that just arrived from France to Reus and they also told us it was pretty bad around Barcelona and even in Carcassone (France). This all meant we stayed in Reus, also known as Salou :) for the night.
Day 15
May 16th, 2008
We stayed today at Valencia. We looked at the forecasts and decided to visit the city. It was okay to see, not as nice as Sevilla though. On our way from Holland to Tanger we only needed 2 days, now we are already stuck in Spain for five days.
We stayed today at Valencia. We looked at the forecasts and decided to visit the city. It was okay to see, not as nice as Sevilla though. On our way from Holland to Tanger we only needed 2 days, now we are already stuck in Spain for five days.
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