A summer trip to the Baltic Rim

Finally, I find the time to continue and complete this trip report.

And rest assured, the last two days of the trip had much more flying than the other ones, and less sightseeing. So here is day 4.

After spending the night in Tallinn, I am again up early and make my way to Tallinn airport, using the public bus again. This morning is cloudy around Tallinn, but it’s supposed to get sunnier once I fly a bit to the west, which is my general direction of travel anyway, since I want to be back home the day after this one. The plan is to fly to the Estonian island of Saaremaa, the biggest island of the country. In a direct line, it’s only about 40 minutes of flight from Tallinn, but since I still have a lot of fuel in the tanks, and I want to see something, I decide to zig-zag around the western half of the country, thus at least taking a look at most of the country’s airfields, before landing at Saaremaa’s airport, Kuressaare (EEKE). I file a VFR flightplan (using Skydemon) with this zig-zag routing, which, at sightseeing speed, brings the computed flight time to about one and a half hours. Here you get an idea of the routing:

As I arrive at the airport, I am picked up by the local handling staff and am brought straight to the aircraft. What they do is they present you with the bill once you get into the ramp bus. They even have a credit card machine with them, on the bus. Slick. And clever. This way, you will hardly argue much about the amounts. As I said, it’s a bit on the high side; just shy of 100 Euros. But that really is the only gripe I have. Otherwise, everything works very efficiently (I was not expecting anything else in this country).

Here we are, back at the GA apron.

During taxy to runway 27: some “stuff” is around, but there is not really much GA activity.

By the way, during taxy, ground control – having seen my flightplan – enquires again regarding my requested routing. They ask if I really want to fly all that zig-zag that’s in my flightplan. I say “affirm, I want to see some of your beautiful country”, which is met by some approving acknowledgement.

Airborne.

Some more shots of Tallinn, as I fly past:

I then proceed westbound and cross the CTR of Amäri Air Base (EEEI). Amäri hosts the NATO Air Policing Patrols, whose mission is air defence Quick Reaction Alert (QRA), guarding the airspace over the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, using F16s. The lady TWR controller has no issue with me crossing the CTR.

Except for Tallinn, Estonia essentially is an empty piece of land.

Also, as far as GA is concerned, there is really very little there. There are essentially two types of aerodromes. The first are (about 5) “commercial” airports. The other ones are very basic grass aistrips, mostly located on the various islands, and their only real use seems to be for medical emergencies. The first strip that I “visit” however, is still on the Estonian mainland, near the town of Haapsalu, and is called Lyckholm (EELU). Not sure what its purpose is. Possibly operated by some single private person. Here it is:

The next one is located on the first of several islands – this is Vormsi airstrip (EEVO), on the hononymous island.

I then fly over to one of the bigger islands of Estonia, Hüuma. The island’s airport (EEKA) and the main town are called Kardlä. The airport does have an AFIS, an ATZ, and apparently some commercial traffic, but in this instance, Tallinn Control let’s me know the AFIS is not active, so I can move around even more freely.

Next, I turn the other direction, southeastbound and fly across the island of Muhu (no airstrip, but it has a bridge connection from Sareeema), with the mainland on my left hand side again.

The “aim” of this heading is a little island in the east of the Gulf of Riga, called Kihnu, again with its own emergency airstrip, EEKU. As I fly towards it, I see there is a shower over a part of the island, but just moving out.

Here is the nice little strip. Otherwise, the island doesn’t look too interesting. No beaches.

Next, I turn southwestbound, towards the “other” little island in that area, called Ruhnu. Its airstrip’s ICAO code is EERU.

Check the nice empty beaches on it’s eastern side. The airstrip is back there, in the middle of the woods.

Let’s make a “tour” around it.

A couple more shots of the island, before heading off for my final destination of the day.

Off to Saaremaa and its airport, Kuressaare (EEKE). Quite a few showers around at this time, but no problem – they merely add to the scenery of the flight.

Almost straight-in for runway 35.

The harbour.

Taxying in, towards the GA corner of the apron.

Parked up, next to the only other visitor, a Grob 109 motorglider from Finland.

A very cute little airport this is. My father landed here in the mid-nineties and says it was completely different back then.

I then have a coffee in the small airport bar and call a taxi for the short ride into the island’s main town, Kuressaare.

Here is the (ground-based) sightseeing and relaxing part of the day:

I check in to one of the hotels and then make a first stroll around. But before that, it’s time for some lunch, which I have here, in a restaurant located in this old windmill. The food was very good, and also noticeably less expensive than in Tallinn.

The town’s beautiful main street. Appropriately, they raised the right flags for me.

However, in some corners, one can also see some Soviet heritage. A very stark contrast.

As the sun is now coming out more and more, I make my way to the beach (just next to town) and have a swim.

Between town and the beach is the main landmark of Kuressaare, the castle. It’s German name is Arensburg, which also is the historic German name of the town of Kuressaare.

The marina.

The castle.

Some more impressions of the town.

At that point, I have some early dinner (again, very good!) and after that, given some exceptional evening light, do another tour of the castle and its surroundings.