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Solo cross-country EHRD-EDLS-EBSP-EHRD 3.8.2019

Hello,

I’m currently planning a solo cross-country flight as part of my PPL training for Sunday, 3.8.2019, in the hope that the weather will be agreeable (and my instructor signing my solo order of course). We have a small fleet of Robin DR40 with the 135hp Diesel engines at the club, and my idea at the moment is to leave Rotterdam in the morning around 9:00 to 9:30 (all times local time), fly to Stadtlohn EDLS to refuel the plane and myself, leave around 12:00 from EDLS to Spa EDSP for lunch, and leave Spa at the latest at 16:00 to get home in time. Since it’s part of my exam preparation, the planning and navigation is done with the paper chart and stopwatch (but there is a GTN750 in the plane, as well as Skydemon on phone/tablet with me just in case).

The first flight EHRD-EDLS looks planning-wise unproblematic as it’s almost a direct run to the East; I’ve considered to fly over the Deelen CTR, but as it’s military, chances are probably low that they are active on the weekend, so only keeping sharp lookout for the gliders from neighbouring Terlet.

Second flight is currently planned from EDLS to Venlo, to MAS VOR, and from there using the VOR to track south to EBSP, FL55 if weather permits, and hoping for the routing as proposed accepted by Beek Approach when crossing their TMA. Plan B is to follow the Beek VFR arrival/departure route from BRAVO to UNIFORM and picking up the MAS VOR radial from there. I was last time in May with a colleague as passenger in Spa and remember the interesting location behind the slope of the hill and with the trees at the threshold of 23, but I assume the active runway will be 05 for an easier final.

Lastly, and here my questions start, is the flight EBSP-EHRD with a planned routing at FL65 via LNO-FLO-BUN and from there more or less northerly to arrive at Dordrecht / ROMEO arrival: Here it’s stated that I should use IFR levels, so FL60 for the legs, and secondly, how is in practice the procedure to get clearance for entering the general Class C? I assume that with the proposed track, and passing through the Liège TMA, I could call Liège APP and they coordinate the climb; or should I call after leaving EBSP circuit Brussels Info and let them sort the climb coordination out? Will they accept a call such as “PH-blabla request climb to FL60 as filed”?

If anyone reading here has suggestions how to improve that day trip, I’d be happy to hear them; and if anyone is by accident also visiting one of those fields, let me know and we can have lunch or get a coffee!

Cheers,
Sebastian

EHRD / Rotterdam

I’ve seen those Jet-A Robins at Rotterdam last
month, nice! Your preparation is very good I think.
For Class C just ask Info if they can coordinate or if you should contact the applicable atc unit yourself.
Depending on how busy it is on a atc frequency for controlled airspace, consider keeping your transmissions short and precise (even if it means omitting the lenghty „vfr from to, type robin…“ blabla). A short „Liege Radar, HB-ABC, request to cross controlled airspace from Town/Waypoint A to Town/Waypoint B, FL060“ is enough. Enjoy your flight!

Last Edited by Snoopy at 01 Aug 20:19
always learning
LO__, Austria

First of all, yes you need to fly IFR-levels in controlled airspace in the EBBU FIR. Second, due to the close proximity of EBSP to EBLG you can better call EBLG APP directly. Since you’ll be flying on a sunday the FIC will be too busy to make coordinations (when the wx is hardcore vmc).

In theory however you need to cross the EBBR TMA at FL090 or above. In practice FL060 might be granted but be prepared to accept an alternative level. When EBLG APP hands you over to EBBR APP, just call in with your callsign and level. Don’t start a 2 minute monologue, they have all the details they need by that time. If they grant you FL060, prepare your camera for some heavy flying metal in the vicinity of FLO.

Enjoy !

EBST, Belgium

Many thanks for the tips and information! I’ll finish preparing my navlogs for the flights, and fingers crossed that the decent weather keeps for the weekend!

Happy landings,
Sebastian

EHRD / Rotterdam

Hi,

short update and a few practical questions (@Peter maybe move the thread into Learning & Starting out due to context)

In the end, today’s trip ended up being planned and prepared from Rotterdam/EHRD to Teuge/EHTE, breakfast, further to Texel/EHTX, and retour to Rotterdam. It seems that no one at the club knows at this time definitively if solo students are insured with our aircraft if they leave the Amsterdam FIR, so for the moment, everyone does the solo cross-country inside the Netherlands.

With only light wind today, the paper navigation was even easier than usual, but in preparation for my exam/skill test, I see that I have a huge problem doing it the way they want to see it, i.e. keep the heading from the nav log, apply with the 1:60 rule a correction when drift is noticed, return with time-keeping back to the planned track, etc. What I did (and while Skydemon was running for logging and “pre-lost” purposes in my pocket, I didn’t use it for the sake of training) was that whenever it was clear that I wanted to head towards a specific feature (bridge, etc.) or along a suitable highway segment, I of course headed towards those points.

It seems to me that the navigation as taught in the books does not really serve a useful purpose: Assuming I have a countryside with decent landmarks, it’s easy to always have some practical point on the horizon, home towards it, and remember to apply a little bit wind correction for the next leg; and if the countryside is monotonous and does not provide helpful landmarks, how the h*ll would I figure out my drift error anyway? Leaving one of my instructor’s gem that VORs are not allowed for navigational use for VFR (huh?) aside, if I have a useful VOR in range, it’s easy to use it together with another line feature to get fixes every few minutes or so, so also no sense in waiting until a huge error that is visible has accumulated and then corrected. I’ll grind my teeth a little and will train it as required for the exam, but maybe I am missing a point or someone can provide some hints and tricks – I’d be grateful!

Cheers,
Sebastian

Last Edited by Sebastian_H at 04 Aug 16:41
EHRD / Rotterdam

Done

Leaving one of my instructor’s gem that VORs are not allowed for navigational use for VFR (huh?)

When they say gorillas are an endangered species… look no further than your instructors

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Sebastian_H wrote:

Leaving one of my instructor’s gem that VORs are not allowed for navigational use for VFR (huh?) aside

Ask your instructor why VORs are in the PPL syllabus if you’re not allowed to use them…

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

Please do not take one (snide) comment and extrapolate too much from there: Where I train, there is a great mix of people involved in flying that instruct, a lot of ATPL and ex-military people that really do enjoy helping newcomers getting up to speed for a licence of their own; the aeroclub provides really a great environment! There’s older and younger instructors, and I can live with some little misconception here and there. In the last month, I flew with five or six different instructors, and I must accept that it’s my shortcoming that if I stumble over something like the VOR issue, I do not want to get bogged down in a discussion that might change little and only makes me look a smart-alec.

Regarding the navigation bit, it’s maybe a bit an issue that I am used from sailing that it’s relatively easy to figure out the wind from the instruments on board (apparent wind strength and direction measured atop the mast, reduced by a vector gained by taking heading and speed through the water), so doing dead reckoning on the water is inherently more practical as you can integrate the wind observations into a consistent wind drift, and (usually) stream drift due to tides is either of small issue (sailing in the Mediterrranean), or you have nice tide tables (North Sea coast where I sail now).

Cheers,
Sebastian

EHRD / Rotterdam
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