Barcelona - this weekend

An ordinary weekend is also nice for Barcelona I think…every kind of weekend will do! :-)

Here is the write-up of my last longer flight of this year. Because I had a short nightweek, I suddenly had time for a long weekend. Because I fly only VFR, and the weather isn’t sure on long term, I had 5 possible destinations: Venice/ Lido, Sabadell (LELL), San Sebastian (LESO), Dublin Weston + Isle of Man or Prague, just to be covered in all the possible directions.

Two weeks before the trip it seemed that only LELL and LESO would be a realistic option and half a week before departure, it became clear it would be Sabadell.

The plane is a Mooney, M20J, IFR equipped and certified, with a good autopilot (3axis), a simple TCAS system and a stormscope. A nice plane to fly. We would fly with two planes. The other one is also a Mooney M20J, also IFR certified with autopilot (single axis) and a simple stormscope. They would depart from EBCI.

Two pictures of a previous trip to the UK.

Leg 1: EBAW (antwerp) to LELL (Sabadell)

Planned:

Detail:

Actually:

We would do the whole leg at once. It is only 621nm, so that had to be possible with our plane. The airport of departure was EBAW, because it is close to where I live, it opens early and it is IFR + VFR (more chance to depart). The day before departure, I flew the plane from EBZW to EBAW and put it in a hangar for a night.

The weather would be cloudy overhead Belgium with an overcast 3000ft at EBAW the day of departure until after Paris. At LELL, it would be CAVOK. The meteo also predicted large areas with fog in large parts of France, without any ground sight. The other plane decided to cancel the trip because of the fog and only VFR, we departed because except the fog at some places and the clouds in the beginning, it would be really nice weather.

I prefer flying on long distances between FL 60 and FL100 so I filed on my flightplan FL85 with a departure in the direction of BUB (Brussels VOR). Because of the clouds we had to stay below at 3000ft, right after Brussels we saw a gap in the clouds and took our chance. The reward was a nice and sunny VFR on top.

After Belgium, the clouds were gone. And the rest of the cruise above France was eventless with some headwind. TAS 150, GS mostly under 125 kts. There were indeed large areas with fog, but when looking direct under you, you could still have an impression of the area. A nice VFR on top.

We choose a route between the Pyrenees instead of above it for the scenic part. There was not much wind or gusting. No clouds so we could go for it. An easy, short, but beautiful passage between the mountains. Unfortunately too short. ATC was a bit worried, we had to confirm 3 times we were in perfect VMC.

We entered Sabadell CTR via VRP Echo. Around the CTR of Sabadell, you have VFR sectors, with different altitude, depending on the class A above. Depending on where you are, it keeps you very low, because of the elevation of terrain around LELL. Although the elevation of the runway is around 500ft, the circuit is at 2000ft. Lucky for me it was Rwy 13, so I could make a big circuit around the city to lose the extra 500ft.

After landing I asked immediately to fuel up. This is important to do, because the fuel station is on the other side of the airport. We also had to wait for the man of BP, so you loose some time with fueling. After fueling we received progressive taxi instructions to our parking stand. We tied down the plane (under 5.7T you have to tie down the plane) and went to the C-office, just to say hi.

After a short taxi-drive of 5€ to Sabadell Sud Train Station, we had a train taking us in 30 minutes to the center of the city for about 7€ pp.
We had a beautiful hotel in the center of the city and we spent 2 whole days visiting this nice city. It was nice, warm and sunny (20 to 22° and in the sun even 25° at some places). It was my first time to visit Barcelona, so I was really impressed. Worth visiting another time!

Coming back would be more challenging.

Leg 2: LELL (Sabadell) to EBZW (Zwartberg)

Detail:

The days before, the meteo forecast predicted windy weather in Belgium. Cloudy before noon with a low ceiling and some showers. A little bit higher ceiling in the afternoon, except very low ceiling (400ft at some places) above the hilltops. Mostly dry, because of a warm front.
Saturday evening, the SIGMET predicted severe turbulence in whole Belgium below 4000ft with an overcast before noon, and broken after noon. Generally before noon it would be very bad, to the evening it would be progressively better, but still severe turbulence.
Unfortunately I don’t have the SIGW any more from Sunday, also I can’t find on the internet a TAF or SIGMET history.

The day of departure the weather at whole the routing was fine, except for Belgium with still severe Turbulence and a low overcast ceiling. The METARS were all similar to this:

EBLG 151320Z 25021G32KT 9999 BKN019 14/11 Q1014 TEMPO 22025G35KT
EHBK 151255Z AUTO 24018G29KT 200V280 9999 SCT018 OVC022 15/11 Q1013 NOSIG
EBAW 151250Z 25020G32KT 220V280 9999 BKN022 16/11 Q1013 TEMPO 25022G35KT

In the afternoon it would sligtly improve. But we weren’t sure it would be possible to land. We had luck, the runway of EBZW 21, was more or less in the axis of the wind and turbulence, that was an advantage.

Then the second dilemma: the clouds.
We fly VFR and Belgium would be overcast or broken. Where should we descent? If we would descent, it had to be after Paris, just before the Belgian border. But then we would be in the middle of the severe turbulence above the hills, also not a good situation.

Because it would be a long flight and the updated SIGMET changed from severe to moderate turbulence in the afternoon under 4000ft, the weather info from before noon would be outdated. We decided to ask the current weatherforecast of EBLG around Paris and make then the decision.

Before departure I called the tower of EBLG to ask them if it would be possible to descent in their CTR/TMA or via their ILS if it would be necessary. That would be no problem and I was welcome. (They know the plane because we regularly fly there approaches as exercise )µ-

After paying 67€ for landing + parking (thu – sun), we could depart. I had filed my flightplan at 10.30Z. Sunset in Belgium would be 15.57Z.

Departure was without any problem. This time I choose a scenic low level route following the coast of Spain. After that, we would climb out at MEIZE till FL85 for the main part of France, to have the benefit of the TAS. A nice combination.

Again, the main part of the flight was beautiful sunny (a little bit hazy) weather. No headwind this time!

When we were inbound MMD VOR, we asked the weather of EBLG via ATC (I had no connection with telegram to get it via autorouter). At EBLG it was: broken 2000ft, wind 280/22kts. We decided to stay high to avoid the turbulence and to descent with EBLG tower by a hole in the clouds, so they could also provide separation.

With Brussels Departure, we went from FL85 to 55 when they did a handover to EBLG for further descent.
Indeed it was broken. EBLG offered us to descent in their CTR for separation and we got cleared when we were ready for descent. Because we have a good AP, we did a stable descent with 500ft/min on the AP although there was one hole in the clouds we could have used.

We were again visual at 2000ft across the runway. And indeed there was a lot of gusting! What a difference! Above the clouds nice, stable and sunny, below: grey and windy (28018kts) with a lot of gusting (but not in the metar anymore, so already less than it was before).

EBZW is only 10min further, but I wasn’t sure with this wind I would manage to get the plane down. I decided to have a very, very low treshold to divert to EBCI or North France (I still had fuel for about 1.5h flying).

EBZW:

My circuit was not to be impressed this time. A lot of gusting on downwind and base and I deceided to land the plane at 80kts instead of the usual more or less 70, depending on the weight.

But I was lucky EBZW has trees around the field, they broke the wind a little. It was still gusty, the windhose went up and down in all the different directions, but it was achievable. I put him down after almost 5h of flight and was really happy with my hot chocolate milk in the bar. 