Visited LDLO for some beach time and great food. Bonus: two Kodiaks at ramp.
We went to the dinosaur museum near Bembridge EGHJ with the kids. I’ll post some more photos separately
I flew the Diesel Beaver to Toronto, over the factory where it was built in 1954. I was going to take it to a fly in in central Ontario, but the smoke from Quebec forest fires was so bad that even 100 miles north of Toronto it was not VMC!
I did some camping on Alderney.
Beautiful wx, and a super destination.
Last weekend I flew IFR to Lyon-Bron for two nights in the city with my wife and two friends. We had a great time! This could easily become one of my favorite destinations, there are a lot of concerts, events and of course restaurants to explore.
Bern vectored us over the city for traffic separation.
Sunday afternoon it got really hot for the departure. I had to manage temperatures during the climb (the threads on SID climb gradients come to mind) and now I’ll update the climb data on autorouter for a more realistic profile at 30 degrees OAT.
GA is pretty awesome, isn’t it :)
This weekend was a great adventure, something I have not done for a long, long time.
“Emmie” (=my DR253), a glider friend and I flew to Gap in the French Alps out of EDQN.
Saturday:
Departing Neustadt an der Aisch in late morning. As we needed fuel, we decided to have a stop in Mosbach on the way. Unbeknownst to us, Mosbach was closed so we diverted to Walldürrn. Nice little airfield – never been there before but I promised myself to go there again.
From Walldürrn we flew to Pontarlier. As the day was hot and bumpy we decided to wait for the evening to push on. Hanging around at the aeroclub we had a chat with the local FI who recommended the VFR transit through Geneva airspace at FL100. I had not considered flying this transit, as it was not on my French IGN chart for some reason. We collected all relevant info, Skydemon had it too, so off we went through Geneva. Great views of the lake with the Mont Blanc in the background and airliners landing and departing under us! Really recommended.
After this it was straight to Gap where we spent the evening with an old friend. Emmie could spend the night in my friend’s hangar next to his L-19 and a few other nice aircraft. She loved it.
Sunday:
Flew from Gap to Colmar (where my friend and I come from). Arriving in Gap at 21:30 the day before, we did not realize how busy and chaotic the place can be during the day. There were quite a few aircraft in the pattern, plus 3 parachute jump aircraft already rotating at 9am. Everyone was starting and landing on runway 03, except the parachute aircraft who landed in 21, grabbed the jumpers at the end of 03, then started in 03 again. Departing in 03 with someone on final 21 is… unusual to say the least :D
The flight to Colmar was the longest of the trip, 2 hrs 28 minutes flight time. Throughout this trip Emmie surprized us again and again how fast and comfortable she is :)
As the day was hot and both of us were tired (too many beers and too little sleep with our friend in Gap) we decided to stay in Colmar for the night. We spent the afternoon with the glider club, where both my passenger and I are past members. Emmie could sleep with gliders on that day. She loved it too.
Monday:
Uneventful flight from Colmar to Hof where Emmie was expected for her annual. After the Alps, the “flat” landscapes of the Schwarzwald and Franken, plus a sky void of gliders and other “weekend flyers”, seemed dull. This night Emmie will sleep at the mechanic’s. I hope she will love it also… ;)
