That weekend started on Friday… the main problem of any retiree of course being no more weekends nor vacations. But well, nevertheless left base to fly to Schwaebisch Hall EDTY, landed, then taxied to the northerly runway/airfield of Schwaebisch Hall-Weckrieden EDTX. Weird. Went there as a maintenance/flight advisor for 2nd first flight for a Swiss to German register homebuilt. All went well, so flew to attend part of the German homebuilder’s fly-in at Bad Dürkheim EDRF West of Frankfurt. Great welcome (but for the crosswind).
Today 3 of us pesky RVs left, and presently spending the night at Midden-Zeeland EHMZ, another very friendly place with a superb grass runway.
Return to base might happen tomorrow Sunday, no clue about when, nor the route 
Jon, his passenger, and his BX-2 Cherry
Some other animals
Approaching EHMZ
EHMZ, sweet dreams…
Great place, was also there today but trying to ‘catch up’ on the cycling
Then saw this aircraft from 1957, what a beauty
Yesterday I took a couple for their first ever flight in a light aircraft (DA40D). It always makes me aware of how privaleged and yet how blasé we private pilots can get in thinking that everyone has flown in a small plane by the time they reach their middle years.
First question asked, before boarding, do we need sweaters or coats? It was 30° on the airfield and I had to think how to answer it.
I assured them that t shirts would be okay as we would not be going very high.
After boarding and passenger briefing, the 2nd question: “Will it be okay to take photographs?”
From LFFK we flew out to the coast just south of La Rochelle before crossing to allow photos of Isle d’Aix, Fort Boyard and the coast of the Isle d’Oleron then back and along the beaches of the Isle de Ray and across the water again to the Bay of Aiguillon and back along the canal past Marans and back to LFFK.
There was a lot of traffic in the La Rochelle TMA, when entering approach gave me a transponder code and the only time we spoke again was when they gave me traffic warnings.
Meanwhile my excited passengers were bashing off loads of photos on their mobile phones and MMS ing them to friends from the air. Isn’t modern technology wonderful. Who would have thought we would be able to do that, 30 odd years ago ,when I started flying. We didn’t even have GPS then just map and watch. I pointed out one of the well known landmarks we always used to find our way home.
Very happy passengers at the end and wanting to know when they can go again, perhaps inland next time.
Like Dan i used the German Homebuilders Annual meating to get some flying done, and looking at those pesky Homebuilds ;)
while passing by Dan’s Aircraft i thought i knew the Aircraft from somewhere but couldn’t remember from where, next time i know and will come to say hi! :)
Saw this strange long nosed RV7A – looking through the Hole in the Cowling it looked like some 4 or 6 cylinder inline Engine – but it looks pretty sleek
EHMZ, early morning, finally some fresh air, but spooky settings 
I never managed to follow the low level beach following coast West of Rotterdam/Amsterdam from the Netherlands into Germany, and was curious. So, after some consultation and serious decision making, some of us decided to follow my plan, and we headed North North-East after departure. The weather being really nice, but well too hot and sticky to my liking, we observed zillions of people crowding the nice looking beaches.
But this part of the Netherlands is, at least thru my eyes, as desolate as I’ve seen around Amsterdam and other places. Anything natural, as in relating to nature, has simply been erased, remodelled, modified… everything is artificial, oil refineries follow docks, compounds merge into malls, suburbs lead to the next city, business and commercial estates, factories… nothing I really fancy. Probably due to some post-Scotland traumatic sequels
We finally reached the beautiful Watten Sea and its islands, a nice change. Fuel/defuel quick lunch stop on the island of Borkum before taking off again to cross Germany North to South and back to base. All in all a very pleasant but pretty busy week-end.
Approaching a quite busy Borkum from the West
PS
@quatrelle, please say hi next time. We spent a good time sipping some beer and singing karaoke with the owner of that beautiful Cessna.
@Matt_FK, same, please say hi next time. IIRC this -7 sports a LOM engine. Makes for quite a long nose, not sure about the performance though.
Did a 100h/yearly today on the Savannah. Lots of work, even though we didn’t find a single snag
Visited Namur. Busy place. Great restaurant and facilities. People looking for camping at the airfield should check out EBNM.
mmmh, that’s quite a paintjob on that An-2
Nice photos, Dan!
gallois wrote:
esterday I took a couple for their first ever flight in a light aircraft (DA40D). It always makes me aware of how privaleged and yet how blasé we private pilots can get in thinking that everyone has flown in a small plane by the time they reach their middle years.
First question asked, before boarding, do we need sweaters or coats? It was 30° on the airfield and I had to think how to answer it.
I assured them that t shirts would be okay as we would not be going very high.
After boarding and passenger briefing, the 2nd question: “Will it be okay to take photographs?”
I took 3 guys in their 30ties for a flight on Saturday, and it was their first time in small airplane also and they did ask if they should have their jackets on or not. That is a fairly usual question in my experience when flying with people who never flown in small aircraft before. Note that it can be wise to ask, if you get a flight in Trondheim in winter in the Piper Cub, you probably want your jacket :-)
We flew north west first over Steinvik and Frosta to the northern shore of the fjord until the ferry route Flakk-Rørvik. We followed the ferry route (albeit much faster than the ships below us :-)) and took a round over the city before coming back to ENVA via Selbu lake. Beautiful weather, they enjoyed the flight and so did I!
On Sunday, no flying, instead did some work in the garden around the house.
