So, I have been trying to plan a VFR route from Augsburg EDMA near Munich to my home to London every day this week, and the storms in central Europe just keep coming. Days now of TSRAs and strong winds, and low clouds….and loads of lightning charts like this: (This one is the two hours up to 20:00 local (18:00 UTC) today.) 
According to the BBC the storms are set to continue for some indeterminate number of days into the future. So rather than spend 90+ minutes or so each day looking at different weather forecasting data sources twice or three times each day, I’m thinking it might just be easier to stay put, buy a house in Munich and get my family to move down here on Ryanair, and then simply sell the family home! That way I get my life back. What do people think? Good idea? 
p.s. Munich is nice!
What do people think?
I think a weather radar for your aircraft is a lot cheaper than a house in Munich (which has the highest price for land in Germany). Originally I come from Munich but I don’t regret to have left my home town. I don’t really like flat land. Munich is totally flat and unless you climb on some church spire (or into your aeroplane) you see nothing but the houses on the other side of the road.
The weather is really unusually bad this year. We were delayed one hour on our flight back home today due to a stationary thunderstorm over our departure airfield which lasted for half an hour. After that, every flight in the area got a slot. Without a radar and the ability to quickly climb to FL300 through the gaps I would not be home yet.
Howard, if you can get to Luxembourg I can give you a lift home Monday. Might be cheaper to get a friend with an IR to fly to Munich commercially and bring you home.
That’s very kind Jason. Thank you. However, getting to Luxembourg is not easy from here so I’ll pass. (The thought of a trip in your lovely plane is mighty tempting of course. I was talking to RXH about it just yesterday when I met him down here – he kindly took me for a local flight in his lovely plane.)
The weather tomorrow actually currently looks kinda hopeful, at least in the morning, either to fly to Bielefeld (northern Germany -closer at least!) or alternatively to get to northwest France. Failing that, parking my plane at Augsburg is really very cheap so I’m happy to fly home on Easyjet and come back for it another time soon. Either way, I will visit my plane tomorrow and decide. I’m not going to take off if storms are forecast.
As far as I can tell Bielefeld (EDLI) is a Customs airport which means that I could fly directly home from there to the UK if I later file a VFR flight plan and GAR and wait four hours. Can anyone please confirm its customs status for me?
..and actually is Augsburg also a Customs airport? My records say it is – but it would be great if someone could confirm this too. My plane is capable of flying all the way home on full tanks – but just over the channel to Lydd or Shoreham would be great.
Howard
If it was me and I wanted to get home, I would do it in maybe a series of flights, very early in the morning before the buildups start.
You need to be VFR which oddly enough makes it easier because you are not tied to Eurocontrol altitudes and anyway AFAIK you don’t have oxygen. The cloudbases are mostly not that low.
Looking at the MSLP charts I can see a number of early morning departure opportunities for doing it in one flight. By the afternoon, not so great.
I would not like to do this with an IR, at Eurocontrol levels, the TB20 ceiling of ~FL200 and with this kind of stuff about, much of it c. FL250-300.
Augsburg EDMA has customs/immigration. The AIP will have details of any PNR requirements.
Augsburg is fine for a departure direct to the UK.
Thanks guys. It’s 7:15 local (05:15 UTC) and I have looked at the weather animation on Skydemon, checked the TAFs enroute, looked at weatheronline.co.uk, checked the sferics lightning map from the autorouter bot (thanks RXH for the introduction to that one) and had some other helpful input from RXH too. As Peter says, it is better this morning than this afternoon. However there are storms with lightning already to the south, other heavy rain already en-route and it’s all heading north, and it’s only early in the morning. Whilst much of the route this morning is forecast VFR, rain is forecast en-route throughout the day with storms following, and the current storms to the south are concerning me. It could be ok to fly, but why risk it? I have therefore decided not to fly today…and will go house-hunting instead
I have seen storms like this on the continent before of course during summer holidays in Italy and elsewhere, but not this persistent every-day-storms kind of weather. Is this persistent week-long stormy weather a common feature of weather on the continent? I am very surprised by it.
Finally, many thanks indeed to the pilots with more experience and more advanced licences than me who have provided help – some visibly here and some by email and messenger. I very much appreciate it.
Howard
June is the month with most precipitation during the year and majority of that comes from the weather systems we’re experiencing now. Some regions are more affected, some less.
Howard wrote:
As far as I can tell Bielefeld (EDLI) is a Customs airport which means that I could fly directly home from there to the UK if I later file a VFR flight plan and GAR and wait four hours. Can anyone please confirm its customs status for me?
@Howard : I can’t tell about Bielefeld, although I can say it’s a very nice airfield. But for customs – if it should be something in that aerea, I can recommend Paderborn-Lippstadt EDLP or Münster-Osnabrück EDDG, both international airports but without much traffic, very straightforward, generous opening hours and not expensive at all. I can also recommend Essen-Mülheim EDLE (my homebase ) which offers immigration (but no customs AFAIK) as well, opening 06:00-22:00 and brings you much closer to the UK.
Good luck!
Roland
Dortmund or Paderborn are both really good airports, with ILS, customs/immigration, and very reasonable fees.
BTW Customs is not needed for the UK; only Immigration. Well, that may change soon, with the EU referendum But even then it would take a long time for a formal EU exit to be implemented. The referendum is just a vote.
