04.07.2014: The annual maintenance of my plane is due in two weeks, together with the bi-annual review by a FOCA inspector, so I reserved a slot in our maintenance workshop for next Monday to do the work. I arranged with our maintenance crew to already put the plane in the workshop later this afternoon, so that I could already start working on it over the weekend.
Before doing this I did a short check-flight to verify that all systems are operational. The weather was nothing special, but I have not been in the air for two weeks so I did a small tour anyway.
The temperature was quite high, 18 degrees at 8’500 ft, which meant a density altitude of nearly 11’000 ft.
As the engine was warm after the flight we quickly did the compression check. All four cylinders are 5.9, which is a perfect value, so no indications of any problems. I also removed all access panels and checked all relevant points.
I also took a flight in an Aquila A-211 we had borrowed for two weeks from the manufacturer, as we are looking for a new fleet of planes for basic training. We already did the same exercise about a year ago with an Aquila A-210, but were not satisfied then with the performance.
To be honest, my reservations are still the same, 750 kt is just too much for a Rotax 912, even with an adjustable pitch propeller. And that is also not really optimal for a basic training aircraft. The manufacturer is proposing a version with a turbo charged Rotax 914, but our experience with turbo charges on club aircraft is mixed as most pilots don’t properly follow shutdown rules.
05.07.2014: I had some time this morning, so I took both main wheels and brakes apart. Everything was in good state, including the brake pads, so I greased everything and reassembled it.
06.07.2014: This afternoon I took the nose landing gear down for inspection. This is probably the most critical part on the SportCruiser, and many operators had problems with damaged nose landing gears. Our club plane even had a broken nose gear arm some weeks ago when landing, which resulted in quite some damage to the plane. Everything looked fine on my plane, probably because I’m the only pilot flying it, and used to the SportCruisers light pitch characteristics.
17.07.2014: I did another flight today, just to be sure all is fine after the annual check, as we are planning to go on vacation with the SportCruiser in about a week. Everything looks perfect, so I guess we are ready.
23.07.2014: I have been planning to do a longer tour with the SportCruiser for a while, and today we finally managed to go for it. We left the destination of our tour open until a few days ago, but in the end settled for northern Germany and southern Denmark due to the long term weather forecast (very nice and warm in the north, also nice but too hot in the south). Originally we planned to leave on Saturday, but the weather in Switzerland was very bad, so we decided to leave only at the beginning of the week. This proved more difficult than we thought, as Monday and Tuesday were still very rainy, and Wednesday started with fog, an unusual weather phenomenon for summer in Switzerland.
We decided to give it a try today none the less, and were ready at the airport by 9, but then had to sit there and wait for the fog to lift. As the first leg was across the border we had to register our departure with customs, but as Lommis only has a restricted customs clearance this has to be done one hour in advance (arrivals two hours). This was difficult due to the uncertain weather, so we were not sure when to call them. Even though the fog was still there I decided at noon to give it a try at 13:30, just after the lunch break during which we are not allowed to take off.
Luckily my prediction proved to be right, so we took off at exactly 13:30, bound for Aschaffenburg (EDFC).
The first stop in Germany also has to be at an airport with customs, which either means a bigger airport, or one where arrivals again have to be registered in advance. In Aschaffenburg that time is two hours, which comes in handy as it takes a bit less than two hours to fly there so one can call them just before departure. Two hours also means that I can take off at my increased MTOM of 630 kg, and reach the maximum landing weight of 600 kg before the destination.
Initially the visibility was quite restricted, but it improved quickly and the flight went smoothly. There was a bit of turbulence when we stayed at 3’500 ft below Zurich TMA, but once we could climbed a bit higher conditions improved.
We were sharing the work in the cockpit, as we did during the whole trip. I do the flying, radio navigation and talking to ATC, my wife does the backup terrestrial navigation. As a backup I always keep paper maps, as I have not yet done a full conversion to electronic charts as other do.
On our way north we passed Sinsheim with the famous technical museum which has both a Concorde and a Tupolev Tu-144 on display. Both can be seen on the picture below.
In Aschaffenburg nobody from customs showed up, so we only did a quick stop as we still wanted to reach Lüneburg (EDHG) in the afternoon. Lüneburg has PPR during the week, so I called them to confirm our arrival just before departure, but had to notice after takeoff that my prediction regarding arrival time was a bit optimistic due to a strong headwind of around 20 – 25 kts. I therefore went for a non-economic cruise at 5’300 rpm, but that still only means around 20 l/hour of fuel consumption. Like that we managed to reduce our delay to around 20 minutes, with a lower power setting it would have easily been around one hour.
There are few good visual marks when flying across northern Germany, such as piles at potassium mines…
…and high speed railway lines.
On our way we passed Göttingen, where we had stayed earlier this year when we went to Denmark by car.
The further north we got, the nicer the weather turned.
A good visual reference was Salzgitter, with its extensive steel production complex.
Our destination Lüneburg is not only a very nice city, but the airport is also very close to the centre, and these were the two main criteria to select it for a night stop. I used the same criteria for most stops during our trip, nice and close. The approach to Runway 07 is quite spectacular, as one flies over densely built up suburbs and around some tall buildings, but apart from that it is standard. Also the runway is nicely long (980 m).
The reception after landing was very friendly, and the “Flugleiter”, who drove to the airfield just for our landing, also took the time to help me refuel. They have regular unleaded 98 fuel, another criteria to select airports. I can fly also on Avgas with my plane, but regular 98 (“Mogas”) is better for the engine and for the purse. The difference in price is quite significant, 1.85 € instead of 2.85 €, so 1 € cheaper per litre. We took 80 litres to fill up, which means an average consumption of around 18 l/hour for both legs. This corresponds with the higher power setting during the second leg.
We walked to the city, as we did not realise that there would have been a bus, so it took us 40 minutes to reach the hotel. As it was around 28 degrees it was quite a hike, but again after 4 ½ hours of flying a welcome change.
24.07.2014: Lüneburg is a really picturesque town, and with the warm weather we had a nice dinner yesterday evening, sitting outside until around 22:00. This morning we did a tour through the city, and then took the bus after lunch back to the airport. We had only planned a short flight for the day to Flensburg (EDXF), a city we wanted to visit since a long time, but never found the time for.
After departure we turned north, passing Scharnbeck with its ship lift, which raises ships on the Elbe-Seitenkanal by 38 metres.
After contacting Bremen information we were informed about a thunderstorm in our flight path and received vectoring information to route us around it, but after that conditions were very nice.
We flew northeast towards Lübeck, where we then turned northwest and followed the coast, passing many, many campsites and holiday resorts. I have to say I feel a lot better alone high above than down there in the crowd.
We also passed one of many sites where they are putting up windmills in Germany. This is slowly becoming a pain, not that they disturb during flying but they are all listed in NOTAMs as they are not yet on the maps and in obstacles databases, so during every flight preparation one has to browse through page after page of windmill notes, an read all of them as there could always be a more important information hidden in between.
Below a picture of the famous bridge on Fehmarn, leading towards the ferry terminal at Puttgarden from where one reaches Denmark.
We also passed a cruise ship that had just left Kiel, another form of mass tourism.
Soon Flensburg came into view, as can be seen below with the airport in the green area on the left side of the picture above the city.
I have been to Flensburg airport before, a nice little airport with friendly people, so we could just tie down the plane and take the taxi they had ordered for us to the city.
25.07.2014: Flensburg is a nice town, so we are staying for two nights in a small hotel I had booked over the internet two days before arrival. It was again so warm today that we could stay outside for dinner and of course for a famous Flensburger beer.
We did some sightseeing today, including a trip to the nearby town of Schleswig to see the Gottorf castle where the famous Gottorfer Codex was on display in a special exhibition. The Codex is a series of four books with extremely accurate paintings of plants, produced from between 1649 and 1659, an example can be seen below.
They also have a giant globe on display, a copy of the original from 1664. It shows the world as it was known at that time, which is impressive as the original globe was created only 30 years after Galileo Galilei hat to denounce his writings on the movement of planets. The globe has a diameter of around 3 m and has the stars painted on the inside, where one can sit and observe the movement of the stars while the globe is turning at slow speed. It is the first form of a planetarium ever built in the world.
26.07.2014: This morning we took again a taxi back to the airport, even though there would be a bus with a stop around 500 m away, but with luggage and temperatures already significantly above 20 degrees we took the more comfortable version.
From Flensburg we flew to Ærø (EKAE) in Denmark, a small, but typically Danish island where time moves slower than in other places. It has a nice, small airfield. Thanks to a special regulation between Germany and Denmark no flight plan is required between a number of small airfields on both sides of the border, just a phone call is needed to announce the “international” arrival.
After taking off we passed Flensburg on the south side and headed straight for Ærø.
The weather was quite hazy, with some patches of rain, but they were easy to circumnavigate.
Below the last bit of the German coast, with Ærø already visible I the background.
It’s only around 20 km over water to Ærø, meaning around six to seven minutes of flight. The airfield is located 4 km from Marstal, the biggest town on the island, with a nicely long and wide runway.
Below a view of Marstal, where a ferry just arrives.
Only when turning onto the final I noticed the strong crosswind of around 20 kts from the left, which made it easy for my wife to take pictures of the runway without the nose and propeller in the way. The landing went much smoother than expected, but a wide runway helps in these conditions.
Just for proof, below the wind sock after landing, exactly 90 degrees crosswind.
We tied down the plane, picked up two bicycles and headed for the room I had rented the day before in a B&B in Marstal, which was only 4 km away.
28.07.2014: We spent two nice an calm days on Ærø, doing a bicycle tour along the coast, as well as a bus tour to Ærøkøbing and Søby. In Ærøkøbing we saw the ferry which connects Ærø to the Danish mainland, it has been painted according to the winning proposal from a school drawing contest…
We also visited the maritime museum in Marstal. That’s an impressive little museum which documents the long maritime history of the town.
Marstal itself is as Danish as it can be, with a centre build of long rows of cute little houses and a nice waterfront.
We picked Sønderborg (EKSB) as our next stop, which is not far from Ærø if one flies direct. But we decided to do “a little” sightseeing tour over southern Denmark before heading to our destination. The result was a flight of two hours and fifteen minutes instead of only fifteen minutes if we would have flown direct.
First however I had to set the instruments before departure to the airport altitude of -3 ft, definitely a novelty for me. Note also the temperature of 22 degrees at 9:45 local time.
After takeoff we did a loop around Marstal, as we had promised the owner of the B&B to send her a picture of her house taken from the air.
Below impression from Marstal…
… and from Ærøkøbing.
We then headed over to Lolland where my wife took some Danish courses last year,..
…again taking aerial pictures of the house of her teacher.
There was a very low layer of thin clouds over parts of Lolland, which made us fly “on top” at only 1’000 ft AMSL…
…but out at sea it was clear again. We passed a large container vessel on our way, always an impressive sight.
We also wanted to look at the bridge over the Størebælt, but only saw the approach section as the rest was hidden in the haze. I did not dare flying closer, as the bridge pylons are 883 ft tall and we did not fly much higher.
We then passed Kerteminde, where we have already stayed several times,…
…then flew over the northern part of Fyn towards Samsø.
We passed one of many offshore windmill farms and noticed that there was some maintenance being performed on one of them. That’s not as straight forward as on land, as you of course need a ship to go there.
After Fyn we flew over Samsø, where I had landed one year ago, and then headed south again.
Somewhere out at sea I saw some strange things in the water, which looked like the water version of esoteric crop circles, but it turned out to be some kind of fish hatchery.
On the last stretch to Sønderborg we passed Egeskov castle, that would be a house for me.
Arrival in Sønderborg was straight forward, with no formalities whatsoever even though it’s an airport with scheduled air traffic. They have five daily flights to and from Copenhagen, operated by the small local airline called Alsie Express with ATR 72s. The also have a local aircraft maintenance company specialised in the same planes, as can be seen below where several ATRs are parked behind our plane. Some are obviously being dismantled for spares.
29.07.2014: We spend a nice afternoon and evening in Sønderborg, staying at a small hotel in the centre of the town. We had again dinner outside, as it was as warm as during our whole trip so far, and enjoyed the sunset down at the harbour.
When we arrived this morning at the airport we were told that due to the high cost of Avgas the airport has decided to eliminate landing fees for general aviation aircraft in 2014. On top of that parking on grass is anyway free of charge, so we could leave with not a crown to pay. That’s what I call customer friendly. Below a picture of the airport after departure, as well as of the city of Sønderborg.
Our next overnight destination was Helgoland (EDXH), the only German off-shore island (around 25 miles from the coast, so outside the 12 mile zone). Before heading there we passed Gråsden castle, the summer residency of the Danish Queen. We took some pictures from the air,…
…only to learn later that the Queen was there for her summer holiday. Luckily we are not in America or France, as we would probably have been shot down.
To be on the safe side I decided to stop I Husum (EDXJ) for fuel, which was a good decision from the airfield point of view, but a bad one from the fuel price point of view.
They recently switched from regular Mogas to Total Avgas UL 91, which in my opinion is nothing more than a way to make money. They charge 2.45 € per litre, I don’t want to know what Avgas costs there. We therefore did not fill the tanks, but only took a limited amount and headed off for Helgoland. Before doing so we put on the life vests, you have to have them when flying over water for so long distances.
Of course we did not fly directly to Helgoland, but headed north first towards Wyk auf Föhr. We flew for quite a while over the “Wattmeer” (tideland), a really great sight from above. The Watt is dotted with proper islands and a type of island called Halligen. These are not protected by dikes, so they can be completely under water at very high tides. All the houses on these islands are built on artificially created higher ground to protect them in the case the island is flooded.
Wyk is another place I had considered for a night stop, as the airfield is very close to the town, but from what I could see from above it is a pretty touristic place.
From Wyk we headed south, passing the famous lighthouse at Westerhever, one of the nicest ones I know.
We then headed out into the blue,…
…but soon saw Helgoland appear in the mist. It’s a little less than 30 miles from the lighthouse to Helgoland airport, or 20 minutes of flight.
Helgoland consist of two island, one with the town and one with the airport and all the beaches. The airport has three runways of 480, 371 and 258 metres length. I was offered the medium one with wind straight down the runway or alternatively the long one with 10 kts wind from the side. I of course selected the medium one, but many planes landing before and after me went for the longer one. With the SportCruiser I would even go for the shortest one, but many pilots operating from airports with long runways seem to be scared by even the the medium one.
We tied down the plane, as we had decided to stay overnight, and observed a Brittan Norman Island land, also opting for the medium length runway.
I also noticed that we were observed by another “bird”, which did not seem to be bothered by the landing planes.
We then took the boat to the main island, dropped our luggage in the hotel and went for a walk around the island.
Some birds colonies are located at the northern tip of the island, where different types of birds are nesting, nicely separated by “altitude”.
The most common ones are ordinary gulls, but there are also many Trottellummes, or common guillemots. Below some pictures of these impressive birds, they are pleasure to watch flying.
We also saw some Kegelrobben, or grey seals swimming below in the sea.
It was a good idea to stay overnight, as most tourist only come by boat for the day, so after 18:00 the whole island becomes a lot more quiet.
We went back hiking after dinner, to watch the sunset from below the lighthouse.
30.07.2014: What people say is correct, after 18:00 Helgoland gets much more quiet, I can only recommend to stay for a night instead of just doing a day trip. And by he way, it was so warm even here that we had dinner outside.
Today we had the islands of western Friesland on the program, and we selected Baltrum (EDWZ), then nicest and smallest one and Borkum (EDWR) for stops, and Emden (EDWE) for staying overnight.
First we went to the airport, prepared the plane and then still went for the beach to check whether we could see some more seals. Unfortunately we did not, as it is not really the season for them.
Below a picture taken from the beach, the threshold of the runway is literally “on the beach”, with warning signs for bathers due to the low flying aircraft.
We then took off, and it happened to me what happens to every SporCruiser pilot at least once, I hadn’t closed the canopy correctly. I can confirm that this is a non-event, the canopy only opened around 5 cm with a slightly increased noise level and draught. We just did a circuit, landed again, closed the canopy, backtracked and took off again. The guy on the tower just told us to do so with no need to go back to the office. 5 minutes after the first takeoff we were airborne again and headed south, taking a last look at Helgoland.
On our way south a maritime control aircraft, a Lockheed Orion passed us, from what it looked he was informed by his controller to do so as he did a half circle around us. We were however not really close, maybe a km or so, so Bremen Information did not even inform us about the traffic.
We also passed Roter Sand lighthouse, but unfortunately my pictures of it are all not sharp. It did however look impressive, standing alone far out in the sea.
We then passed Wangerooge, the eastern most of the island, and then Spiekeroog and Langeroog before reaching our first stop Baltrum. It is not only the smallest island, but has with 360 m also the shortest runway of all of them. On top of that the runway surface is covered with a kind of cobblestone. They are PPR, so I had called them in advance and asked whether we have to do anything special as we are coming from Helgoland (laying in international waters outside the 12 mile zone), but the guy on the phone said it’s ok. I asked the same question in Helgoland before departure, but was also there informed that a direct flight is ok.
After landing in there was another guy in the office in Baltrum, who created quite a drama, telling us that we had illegally entered German territory (isn’t Helgoland part of Germany too?). He made me fill a form to apply post landing for a respective permission. I wonder whether I will hear from customs, to whom he told me he has to send the form, but the whole story was a bit irritating as I had asked at both airports whether I need to do anything, and both said no.
Apart from that Baltrum is indeed a really nice island. From what I could see there are no cars, only bicycles….
and horse drawn wagons, even for e.g. collecting the garbage as below.
After leaving Baltrum we headed even further west, passing Norderney and Juist to land on Borkum, the last one of the islands before the Dutch border.
Borkum is just the opposite of Baltrum, a busy place with big hotels, quite a lot of tourists and many attractions. The airport is also much bigger, with a long asphalted runway and a real terminal building.
There is a bus from the airport to the town, and even a train which is ferrying tourists from the harbour to the town.
From Borkum we flew over to the “continent”, stopping for the night in Emden. That’s a nice town too, with very friendly and helpful people at the airport. It is also the home base of the “airline” which operates the flights to Borkum and to some of the other islands.
We had booked a hotel in advance in the centre of the town, and did a little sightseeing before diner.
31.07.2014: Today was our second last day of our tour. We took off from Emden later in the morning for a fuel stop in Porta Westfalica (EDVY), as they have Mogas. That’s an airfield near Minden in the middle of Germany, located near the famous geological feature where the Weser river crosses a long row of hills and enters the plains. These are more or less the first hills of any significance when coming from the north, around 200 km from the coast.
On top of the western hill near the Weser-Gap lies the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Monument, which was built in 1895. It’s a good visual reference to find then airfield, which lies just south of the gap.
Below a picture taken at the fuel stop, again very easy and friendly operation.
After lunch we flew south to Mosbach (EDGM) to visit friends, passing e.g. the Eder dam and lake.
Around Frankfurt one has to decent to stay below the TMA sectors of the eastern approach, and even though the TMA only starts at 3’500 ft where we flew we decided to stay lower at 2’500 ft. Suddenly we saw a big 747 crossing overhead, and I’m sure he was not much above 3’500 ft, quite a sight
In Mosbach I did two local flights with our friends, who had never, or not in a very long time flown in a small plane. They were both a bit tensed, but flying over your own village and surroundings quickly distracts you.
01.08.2014: We stayed overnight at our friends and where then driven by them back to Mosbach for our last leg home. I did all the flight preparations based on a stop for customs in Donaueschingen (EDTD), just north of the Swiss border, as I had been told last year that they don’t have customs clearance in Mosbach anymore. I then learned that it is still possible to fly cross border from Mosbach, but not to it. As I already had announced customs in Donaueschingen and Lommis, and also registered my flight plan we decided to fly as planned, but good to know for the next time.
The stop in Donaueschingen could have been quick, but we had to wait a bit with the departure not to arrive in Lommis before 13:30. After taking off in Donaueschingen we noticed that the closer we got to Switzerland the worse the weather got. Not that it would have been a problem for flying, but it reflected the weather they had during our whole trip.
Below the Untersee, part of Lake of Constance, from here on it’s home territory.
Flying over a low layer of clouds and mist we could see some mountains, a clear sign of reaching home again.
Something similar happened as in Frankfurt, only this time it was an Airbus A380 from Emirates which passe overhead. All at the correct, legal and safe side, but always a surprise to see them from so close.
Landing in Lommis was uneventful, and nobody showed up from customs as during the whole trip.
Summary: We had a great trip to northern Germany and southern Denmark, flying to many nice airfields and seeing nice places, something to be repeated. The weather was perfect during the whole trip, and there were no issues whatsoever with the plane.
Here some statistics about our trip
Duration: 10 days
Route: Lommis LSZT – Aschaffenburg EDFC (customs) – Lüneburg EDHG (1 night) – Flensburg EDXF (2 nights) – Ærø EKAE (2 nights) – Sønderborg EKSB (1 night) – Husum EDXJ – Helgoland EDAH (1 night) – Baltrum EDWZ – Borkum EDWR – Emden EDWE (1 night) – Porta Westfalica EDVY – Mosbach EDGM (1 night) – Donaueschingen EDTD (customs) – Lommis LSZT
Distance flow: around 1’500 miles / 2’700 km, excluding smaller sightseeing detours and two local flights with our friends in Mosbach
Flying time: 19:15 hours block time
Fuel consumption: 313.5 l (16.3 l/h block time, 17.8 l/h flying time)