03.02.2019: I have finally updated by website with the contents from the former site from January 2010 onward. That excludes most of the building phase, which I will ad as quickly as possible, time permitting.
There might still be some errors in displaying tables, and possibly links, but I will try to correct that as well. The same applies for the menu, which I intend to change.
07.02.2019: I went on a business trip to Hanover today. It is de-icing season, but compared to some years ago this is now done quite efficiently.
I always try to get a seat on the “Alps” side, I love those sunrises over the mountains with a layer of fog in the plains.
10.02.2019: The weather is getting nicer, so I thought about going flying but the airfield is closed. It is the typical spring problem, when the ground is still frozen, but the top layer thawed. Even taxiing aircraft leave scars on the runway, so we have to close it.
11.02.2019: Another business trip, this time to Paris. At least I get to fly regularly thanks to my job. And again the same sunrise…
15.02.2019: And yet another one, this time to Berlin… I might go working for a few months abroad, so there are a lot of preparations ongoing for that, and colleagues from different countries are involved.
I booked this trip on such short notice that I could not get a window seat on the flight to Berlin yesterday morning, but I got one on the way back today. Below the plane lining up on Runway 26L in Berlin Tegel, just before sunset. We were lining up at 17:28, sunset is at 17:30.
We had a C-Series (Bombardier or Airbus…) plane with smiley stickers on it, no idea what this is for.
When getting closer to Zurich we had a spectacular view over the City and the alps, as I was for once not on the last plane…
19.02.2019: This is hopefully the last business trip this month, this time to London. Below a nice view over the city of Zurich shortly after take off.
When climbing a bit higher we got out of the mist, so the mountains became much clearer.
Below some spectacular clouds over the channel…
…and a nice view over the southern suburbs of London.
24.02.2019: The runway at our airfield has finally dried to the point where limited operation is again permitted. This was actually already the case yesterday, but I did not feel like flying when there are 25 kts of wind with gusts up to 45 kts.
But today I took the chance to go flying, the first time since the beginning of January.
The weather was very nice, quite some wind but very little turbulence. Towards the east (above) there were some low clouds, towards the west (below) a low layer of mist.
I circled the Säntis to check whether there is somebody on the terrace, but indeed there was nobody. An avalanche has damaged one of the main pylons of the cable car which carries employees and tourists to the mountain, so for the time being only employees essential to run the telecom installation go up there, and that by helicopter.
I knew Daniel with his red Kitfox was flying in the same area, and suddenly I saw him quite far below me, flying in the opposite direction.
I continued to Sedrun, where I turned back towards Lommis.
Somewhere between Schwyz and Uznach I passed a skiing area , which I only found out later is Hoch Ybrig. It looked nice, maybe that’s a place we could go skiing once.
25.02.2019: I was at the airfield again today, as my bi-annual checkflight and the language proficiency check I have to do every four years were due. I wanted to do both before my possible stay abroad, as both my flying and radio licence will expire during the stay, and for today I managed to secure a certified instructor. He told me he will be at the airfield anyway to fly to Friedrichshafen later in the afternoon for some night VFR flying training, so we managed to combine the two purposes.
I used the argument to do some training as an excuse to already go to the airfield in the morning, making a flight of around an hour and a half. Needless to say that I was about the only one going flying on a Monday morning.
The weather was even better than yesterday, quite calm and great visibility above the very thin layer of mist.
In the afternoon I did my checkflight, flying to St. Gallen (LSZR) and back. All went well, so I can fly for another to years…
26.02.2019: This morning I had to go again to Berlin, and funny enough I met a colleague from our Office in Finland at the security check. He was returning to Helsinki from a week of skiing. Once I sat down in my seat in the plane I noticed that a Finnair jet was parked next to us, another coincidence.
Below a picture taken when lining up on Runway 28, just before sunrise. From the weather I concluded that my instructor from yesterdays checkflight must have had perfect weather for night VFR flying yesterday evening.
Below two nice pictures of the city of Zurich, with the mountains in the background. I think I have to try again to get my SportCruiser certified for night VFR flying….
When turning north-east we had a great view of Zurich Airport…
…and a bit later of the city of Winterthur.
Shortly before reaching Berlin Tegel airport we passed the new airport of Berlin, which should finally open in 2021.
