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A few months ago (Mollis to Duxford etc)

Since years i was keen to fly myself to Duxford to the flying legends airshow. After we canceled the Trip in 2013 in EDRZ due to fog on the Mainland site of the channel, it finally worked out in 2015. Here you see about what im talking (sure all of you know ;-))


I reserved our brand new DR401 quite a while ago, so in case the weather would be good we could go…. now we know, the weather in 2015 was great ;-)) So i had to organize a fellow pilot, as i did not want to do (finance) the flight alone. Lucky me, my fellow pilot Jürg said yes and with him the adventure could start and was fun ;-)

A few facts:
We did plan the trip theoretically without any papermap. 2x Jeppsen VFR and as a back up of the back up easyVFR. But we had some Maps in the gear…. but soon we realized…. not usable. The Jeppesen app did work all 8h without any error, even it was quite warm at lower flight levels. But we do not fix the Tablets on our knees but on Ram mounts, so cooling might be better.
The Aircraft is a DR401 with the CD155 diesel engine.
Total flying time 8:17h
Attached you see the routing (according google) LSMF LFOK EGSX

The parts where easyVFR was running i have the following routingpicture. Mollis to Vatry.

Coast to EGSX

EGSX LFQQ

All pictures are our own ones and not reworked at all, and shall only be used (anyway not good enough) after contacting us.

All airports we flew in we reated on EDDH

To check the weather inflight I used for the first time Autorouter via the Telegramm Messanger App. Only 1 thing to say, great ! It did work quite well up to FL55, radar images were heavier to get in.

Here a link to my trip in April to Northern Germany

After the forecast for the weekend was initially very good it changed nearly daily to the bad side. And as the forecasts were not equally from differnet sources, made it not easier. On Wednesday we decided for a go.

Friday HB KLZ at the fuel station in LSMF

This picture is already over France, other then Colmar, France was new for both of us. But we soon found out, flying VFR here is relaxed and easy, we soon realized that FIS is more like a normal ATC (like Croatia). The 2 day we had to work with the French FIS we were very happy.

Base for LFOK, there are Airlines calling it Paris east ;-)

HB KLZ alone on a huge tarmac. The airport is quite convenient for customs (no PPR) but has no Avgas.


By the way, the first time i got a Met Briefing envelope. This for about 16 Euros all incl.

On our way to the UK

We did get the life jacket on only inflight… do not do this …. took ages…. here with them on (as you can imagine, we did not needed them)

French coast (as we were told not to, we did not tell the aircraft that a huge ocean is in front of us)


quite busy down there… so check were you land without crash into a pot.

UK from above, not too different from the country before….

We crossed Southend and as we were in touch with Southend director we desperately needed to change to North Weald, but no way to get trough to him. So when EGSX was insight we changed frequency, called EGSX and did land..

A nice welcome about 6 Spitfires and Hurricanes lined up in North Weald.


The Airfield has some buildings form the WW2 times, beautiful charming location with a lot of traffic. As we got to know, Breitling did present their Battle of Britain Watch this day.




After we finally found the final parking spot for our aircraft we could make her? ready for the night.

We stayed over night in Harlow were we got some nice fish an chips and other stuff…

The next day the flying legends airshow was taking place, we took the train from Harlow to Duxford and then walked about 25 Minutes to the airflied, not alone! Why they do not have shuttle buses ?! a Swiss guy will never understand this.

















As the weather turned out to be not so good on sunday morning, we decided at breakfast to leave the show early and to cross the channel on Saturday to Lille

HB KLZ waiting for us.

We were ready quite fast so we could even advance our flight plan, and off we were.

Village close to Lille

LFQQ inside, nice airport, but handling mandatory, as i read that waiting times are not unusual if arriving without notice we did this, and so we were handled very quick.

Some pictures from Lille



Last day and the weather was rainy, lucky we did cross the channel the day before.

soon after take of the weather was getting better, as forecasted.

were we came from

the more to the south the better the weather

For customs we flew to EDSB, i knew this airport quite well from my NVFR training and other trips.

After fueling a last time we were off for our homebase. The by far bumpiest part of the trip.

Back in the Hangar.

was a great trip and hopefully not the last time in the UK and Duxford

Last Edited by luckymaaa at 31 Dec 18:51

A great report, luckymaaa

Your plane looks very nice. How old is it? Was the diesel engine factory fitted?

I also plan to visit Mollis sometime. I looked into it some 10 years ago but it was military and apparently inaccessible (practically speaking).

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

A great report and lovely photos! Seems like you guys had a great time!

Thanks for writing it up!

Colm

EIWT Weston, Ireland

Peter wrote:

Your plane looks very nice. How old is it? Was the diesel engine factory fitted?

You can find the answer about this aircraft here

So the answers are 2014 and yes.

LSZK, Switzerland

How old is it? Was the diesel engine factory fitted?
I also plan to visit Mollis sometime. I looked into it some 10 years ago but it was military and apparently inaccessible (practically speaking).

Hi Peter,

as Tomjnx wrote it is a 2014 and factory fitted Diesel, it was one of the first DR401 (wider cabin). If it flys it is great, had about 3 weeks ago still 90% power on 11’000ft.
Only the take of performance is slightly behind out old Lyco DR40, but only until you get airborne ;-) and it flys with 75% about 125-130 KIAS FL85. But it is/was a long way until it is working reliable…..

Regardings Mollis, i gladly would welcome you here, but there are a few restrictions at least for the time being who might make it uninteresting to fly in.

- no Hangar (so no overnight stay! not my rules!)
- no Customs
- no landing aids (but 1800m concrete)

+ beautiful aera
+ close to lakes, mountains for hiking… similar to LOWZ
+ nice approach
+ still affordable hotels and restaurants
+ about 20Min walking to the train station with trains all 30Min. (but i gladly drive you there or to the hotel) Car rental is also possible, still would need to check were.
+ LSZS rated FI, so you could do LSZS familiarization with your aircraft from here, only about 30min flight.

;-) not to many negative points in the end ;-) …

Have a great 2016

Best regards
Lucas

Last Edited by luckymaaa at 01 Jan 10:31

Can one fly to Mollis LSMF intra-Schengen e.g. Le Touquet (LFAT) to Mollis?

Does LSMF have “Exit Customs” (e.g. Wangen-Lachen used to have when I went there in 2004).

Is there really no overnight parking at all? How can anybody visit, other than a quick lunch trip?

Are there any beginner ski slopes (by that I mean no more than a standard ILS ) ?

Very tempting! My Annual starts on the 7th Jan and I have a funeral to go to before that (not mine, yet). So later in January.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

As i wrote… not my rules !

Can one fly to Mollis LSMF intra-Schengen e.g. Le Touquet (LFAT) to Mollis?

Officially not, might be possible if we tell the relevant people you want to do the LSZS familiarization.

Does LSMF have “Exit Customs” (e.g. Wangen-Lachen used to have when I went there in 2004).

also here officially not, local pilots can do it, but visiting aircraft below 2.5t not.

Is there really no overnight parking at all? How can anybody visit, other than a quick lunch trip?

There is only one big Hangar and apparently it is full most of the time and if not… expensive, about 50 CHF a night.
Leaving the Aircraft outside is no option.

Peter wrote:

Are there any beginner ski slopes (by that I mean no more than a standard ILS ) ?

yes there are in Elm oder in Amden (one chairlift only but nice views), but first they need snow !

Peter wrote:

Very tempting! My Annual starts on the 7th Jan and I have a funeral to go to before that (not mine, yet). So later in January.

far too young Peter….
Conclusion, i would skip this kind of trip until the Airport of arrival is a bit more customer minded…

Last Edited by luckymaaa at 01 Jan 12:57

Lovely trip report, and great photos. Thank you.

Oxford and Bidford
Last Edited by ploucandco at 01 Jan 16:17
Belgium

There is only one big Hangar and apparently it is full most of the time and if not… expensive, about 50 CHF a night.
Leaving the Aircraft outside is no option.

50 CHF is not a lot if you come out with a clean frost-free plane.

Do you mean outside is not an option because of frost?

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom
14 Posts
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