This weekend I and my wife made an overnight trip to Læsø, a Danish island in Kattegat between Sweden and northern Denmark. Læsø airport (EKLS) doesn’t have fuel and the aircraft (a Piper Archer II) doesn’t have quite the necessary fuel capacity for a round trip with IFR reserves, so I planned for a refueling stop in Jönköping (ESGJ) on the outbound trip.
A weak occluded front affected the area around my home airport and a Cb was moving in so the flight started out with a weather deviation followed by a climb through layered clouds. When I was free of the weather ATC rewarded me with a 145 NM direct to the initial approach fix at ESGJ.
We came out on top of a solid layer at about FL90 and settled in cruise at FL100. The Archer is not a speed machine but can still give an acceptable 120 KTAS at this level. The invaluable Golze ADL system showed that the cloud cover would go away about 2/3 of the distance to ESGJ and sure enough during the last third we were flying over scattered Cumulus with a view of lake Vättern and Visingsö (ESSI, another nice destination for a day out).
ATC gave the wind as 250/16. It was certainly also gusty, if not enough to be reported as such. Given that I was landing on runway 19, the max demonstrated cross wind of the Archer being 17 kt, and thermals over the runway made for an exciting flare and touchdown. My wife (ex-PPL) commented that it was one of the trickiest landings she had experienced.
A quick self-service refueling with BP card while my wife made a lavatory stop and we were off again after 30 minutes on ground. Wind conditions made for an “exciting” take-off as well.
The airport at Læsø has runway lights and 928 metres of tarmac but no other facilities. The quite strong wind was straight down the runway so this landing was a non-event. The weather at Læsø was otherwise quite sunny and warm during our stay.
The apron is grass, a bit uneven, but otherwise no problem. We joined a Cirrus and another Cherokee on the apron. The airport is self-service and the DKK 175 landing fee is paid cash in a mailbox. There is scheduled traffic during the summer and on both our days in Læsø it was visited by a BN-2 Islander.
We rented bikes at the airport using the Donkey Republic smartphone app. The bikes are provided by a local bicycle renter. I had asked them about electric bikes and was told that it could be arranged – but then my request went unanswered and no such bikes were to be found. Pity…
Things to see on Læsø are historical and nature sites. After settling in the hotel, we were off on our bikes to a traditional salt works. Very low land in the southern parts of the island – occasionally flooded with sea water – make natural salt ponds. Evaporation gives a 12% brine which is collected and heated in pans to extract salt.
After the salt works visit and a stop at a very nice countryside café for a some cake and a coffee we went to a beach at Stokken on the westernmost corner of the island.
The beach – said to be one of the best on Læsø – is separated from the main island by a very shallow sound which you have to wade through.
Then it was time for dinner. The island has three major villages with shops and restaurants. We headed for Vesterø havn where the ferry from the Danish mainland calls.
We found a place in the harbour, “VesterØL”, which was slightly disorganised but offered a 1000 g grilled steak for two at a reasonable price. (Everything is expensive in Denmark, so “reasonable” is a relative term…)
Nice sunset over the harbour.
The next day we visited a old farm, built around 1650, now a museum. It features a roof covering of dried seagrass which was common on old farms and said to be unique to Læsø.
On the way we passed what must have been a Christmas tree plantation. Sweden imports lots of Christmas trees from Denmark.
The return flight was a bit of a race as occasional showers with PROB40 TS were forecast to form in the area around Stockholm in the afternoon. I didn’t manage to beat them, but again the Golze ADL system proved invaluable as I could plan a route around the worst weather. I did get a free aircraft wash, but only light turbulence.
In all 5h20 airborne and a nice 24 hr stay in Læsø.
Not really the weekend, but yesterday I finally got my plane back from the shop where it has been for the last 2 months (not their fault, I was away). I did an IFR practice flight from Cuers LFTF to Valence LFLU. It was HOT and windy – 36° and 20G30, with winds en route up to 40 knots (luckily mostly not headwinds).
The picture isn’t very good – it was very hazy with poor visibility. But here is La Montagne Sainte Victoire (east of Aix en Provence) from 9000 feet, along with a better one from an earlier flight from 3000 feet.
Thanks Airborne Again, looks like a very good weekend. The seagrass thatch is interesting, and I’ve just been reading up on it.
Added 5% to my total time by logging 3:50h around southern Germany. Was my first flight outside Switzerland, with customs and filing a flight plan. Also very hot, we had 34C on Saturday.
Still was a great flight, really enjoyed it, especially in the morning and late afternoon. The mid-day leg was quite bumpy, and I sweated a bit seeing the oil pressure in the lower green, and the oil temperature in the higher part of the green area. This was right after take-off. After reducing power and settling into cruise the needles return to the middle of the green area. So it was just the hot weather + start + climb, but made me quite nervous.
Some pics from the Schwenningen museum. The people there are very nice, but the outdoor exhibits have seen better days. Still for 5€ entrance you can’t go wrong.
Very nice pics, gents!
If we were to start awarding the best photo of the weekend, my vote would go to IO-390, for his pic of Beachy Head, although Dan‘s pics are always close contenders.
Thank you for your nice trip report @Airborne_Again , hope to see more of those in future!
Went out with the owner of our field in his very rudimentary trike. Joan flies anything from trikes to his Extra 300 and anything in between, either bought or built by himself. We were a little underpowered and I was a little apprehensive but supposed that we would somehow get airborne on our 800 m rwy..
Joan gave me a helmet that looked like it had already been used in anger. And when I commented on a hip belt which would probably not help much he said: “don’t you worry, in case something goes wrong I’ll be your airbag”. Comms other than sign language was impossible with this screaming 1-cylinder Polini right behind. Did not improve my Tinnitus.
Very fun flight, without the noise it really would have felt like being a bird. It was a hot day and I was dressed lightly, so it was interesting to suddenly get cold when slightly getting into a cloud. One with the elements. In the end airbag was not needed.
Thanks guys, fantastic pictures, reports, and stories 
Nice to see faces and airplanes, instead of only text.
boscomantico wrote:
my vote would go to IO-390, for his pic of Beachy Head
Same here, a super shot!
@Aart, that picture must have been taken before the flight, right?
@Airborne_Again, great report, we almost bumped into each other, that was my way from Kalajoki (EFKO) to Borglanda (ESMB) Sunday
On Sunday, JC, one of the other co-owner of the Skywagon, and myself decided to take advantage of the great weather in the region.
We first flew to ENSU, which I mentioned before.
We landed just while @RV14 was packing his tent before heading back home. He had contacted me after reading my post about the place because he wanted to check it by himself and it looked like he liked it there.
Afterwards, we flew south to Bjørli, a short but amazing flight, here is one of the picture on that leg:
We then flew back with one more stop in Folldal. A very nice day flying in the fjords and mountains!
All the other picture are in this gallery: gallery
Airborne_Again wrote:
This weekend I and my wife made an overnight trip to Læsø, a Danish island in Kattegat between Sweden and northern Denmark. Læsø airport (EKLS) doesn’t have fuel and the aircraft (a Piper Archer II) doesn’t have quite the necessary fuel capacity for a round trip with IFR reserves, so I planned for a refueling stop in Jönköping (ESGJ) on the outbound trip.
Welcome to Denmark. My parents go sailing there every year and praise the harbor – I believe it´s Laesoe anyways! Good reporting. Enjoy.
Now this is really nice installment of this series Thanks to all contributors!
