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The science of flying and the beauty of flying combined

As I mentioned in the other thread, weather-wise, the past weekend was simply magic here in Germany. High pressure, not a cloud in the sky (not even cirrus cloud), light winds and – most noticably – very little fog.

On Sunday, I took the oppunity to:
- re-familiarize myself with the quirky (for me) KLN94 GPS installed in the Grumman Cheetah (which I hadn’t flown IFR for more than half a year)
- practice some IFR procedures, by doing approaches into three different airports
- simply enjoy the beauty of flying

This is not really a trip report, just a mix of impressions and infos. I planned an IFR flight from Egelsbach (EDFE) to Köln-Bonn (EDDK), then IFR on to Düsseldorf (EDDL), then VFR to Essen-Mühlheim (EDLE), then IFR to Dortmund (EDLW) and finally IFR back to Egelsbach. This is what the general route looks like:

Landings were planned at Essen-Mühlheim and Dortmund. No landings were planned at Köln-Bonn and Düsseldorf (both unfortunately set you back by approximately 200€ per landing in an SEP).

The nice thing about these IFR training round-robins is that they expose you to very different situations in a short time (good training!). Also, if one is doing just one IFR approach at each place, they do not require any “booking” at all, not even busy places such as Köln-Bonn and Düsseldorf. Düsseldorf is also a slot-coordinated airport, but this only applies to aircraft actually landing or taking-off there, not for those merely doing approaches.
Hence, I had to to nothing but file 4 flightplans for the day, which is made easy by the autorouter.

Northbound departures from Egelsbach always yield some good views of Frankfurt.



Just crossing the centerlines of runways 07R/25L and 07C/25C of EDDF. They were operating on runway 07 that day, in other words, they were departing towards me, but apparently not in that moment.

Another one, which shows both the city and the airport in one view.

The route towards Köln took me over the cold-soaked Siegerland region, with its regional airport, EDGS.

Checking the ATIS for Köln-Bonn, I found out that they were operating on runway 14L and requested the RNAV (GPS) approach (LNAV only with the KLN94). Instead of clearing me for the procedural (“standard” in DFS speak) approach, they actually vectored me in nice and tight to minimize my track miles. I then learned that I was being chased by PuFs Piper Cheyenne II XL (D-INFO) which, by coincidence, was also inbound to Köln-Bonn. I offered “120 knots all the way down” but no more, since I didn’t want to rush anything.

On final. To the left, this is Leverkusen. You can actually see the grass runway of EDKL a bit to the right of centre.

To the right, the city of Cologne, with the Cologne Cathedral.

The airport, just before terminating the approach at the MAP.

I flew the SID (WYP3F) and when inbound to Barmen (BAM) VOR and after checking the Düsseldorf ATIS, requested the procedural/standard ILS for runway 23L at Düsseldorf. This was approved. Consider that Düsseldorf is the 3rd busiest airport in Germany. When turning outbound from BAM, which is an IAF for this approach, I noticed that the initial approach was coded incorrectly in the database of the KLN94. This is what the approach plate looks like…

…and this is what the GPS showed:

A direct from BAM to METMA, instead of a 320° course to take me on final about 4 miles out from METMA! I noticed the error immediately and flew the outbound track as charted. Never trust those GPS databases when it comes to overlays, particularly on the initial approaches.

Here I am, just past the minimum/DH. From there, it was only about 10 miles to Essen-Mühlheim, and I flew this little leg VFR, starting with a right turn out at the midpoint of the runway.

Joining final for runway 07 at Essen-Mülheim (EDLE):

EDLE is located right in the middle of the most densely populated area of Germany, between the Düsseldorf and the Ruhr area. The landing was a very low 11€ for the Cheetah. However, the airport will likely be closed at some point within the next 20 years.


I had a light lunch at the airport bistro, then headed off for the IFR flight to Dortmund. Leaving EDLE:

By the way, Essen is the 9th biggest city of Germany. It has noticably more inhabitants than places like Dresden, Hannover and Nürnberg. Would you have known?

At Dortmund, runway 06 was in use and I accepted vectors for the ILS approach. This is Marl-Loemühle airport (EDLM) passing by.

An almost religious place in Germany: the Westfalenstadion.

Dortmund, the 8th biggest city of Germany.

Another, closer-up view of the Westfalenstadion:

Unfortunately, I messed up this approach. Something to do with doing a proper NAV setup and sticking to it (another lesson learnt, which was the purpose of this exercise). That’s why you see me left of centreline here:

Dortmund is somewhat interesting in that the GAT is a bit hidden. It’s a long way to taxi there and it’s about one “floor” higher than the airline terminal. Once you have found it, a follow-me car will guide you into your parking position…


The landing fee was a very modest 18€ – almost nothing, for what is quite a big airport.
Just as I was closing the door for the return flight to Egelsbach, a Ryanair landed.

Like like Jason last time two weeks ago, I got a convoluted re-routing this time, for what is a trivial flight in mostly deserted airspace. As usual, in the end, the new routing wasn’t flown at all.
Flying the SID (GMH8Q) out of Dortmund, leg by leg…

…but eventually I was cleared direct to MTR (Metro) VOR, northeast of Frankfurt and climbed to FL60.

The rest of the flight was just sheer pleasure.

The Taunus mountain range. When a Frankfurt based pilot has this in sight, he knows it’s not far from home.


Video clip:


Now in the descent. A couple of minutes later, I cancelled IFR (no point remaining IFR; actually, ATC later even cleared me to cross the Frankfurt class C on my descent into Egelsbach).

And a couple more pics of the river Main and downtown “Mainhattan”, as we call it. Can’t get enough of these…

This photo was taken just before I figured out how to turn down the brightness of the KMD840.

Downwind for runway 08 at EDFE.

Final. This was 6 minutes before ECET, so technically, it was “day”.

Just as I was shutting down in front of hangar 15, the “other” Cheetah in the fleet got ready for it’s next flight. Everybody seemed to be enjoying that day.

And finally, the “real” Cheetah, back at its place.

Last Edited by boscomantico at 07 Dec 20:36
Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany

Very nice (and appropriate topic subject!)

I had the same experience last week, but sadly couldn’t really take any photos while flying. It was beautiful CAVOK al the time though. This at 11k FT

Last Edited by Noe at 07 Dec 19:45

Beautiful trip and very nice pictures of my IR training area around Moenchengladbach and Dortmund :) Thanks for the report. Don’t you fly an SR22, normally ?

Safe landings !
EDLN, Germany

Thanks very much for sharing, bosco – beautiful pictures indeed! Looks all very familiar to me (I’m based at EDLE). A little bit overshooting the final of the 07 at EDLE
Politics of the towns Essen and Mülheim are currently planning to close the airport in 2024 unfortunately.

EDLE

boscomantico wrote:

…weather-wise, the past weekend was simply magic here in Germany.

Not everywhere. I flew back home from Berlin in the early afternoon on Sunday. They had CAT III low-visibility operations at Schönefeld with freezing fog. We were just able to brush off the frost from the plane and saved our customer 1500 Euros for de-icing. En-route we had some sun but at home everything was grey-in-grey again.

EDDS - Stuttgart

Beautiful pic, Noe. The snow doesn’t look all that bad.

EF: Yes, most of my flying is in the SR22.

Roland, I had to delay my turn to final a bit since there was some slow traffic in front of me. You can actually see it on the photo, he is just touching down.

WN: well, of course there wasn’t sunshine in all of Germany in early December, but most most of the central and western parts of Germany were very lucky.

Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany

Nice. Welcome to my home turf.

We would have run into each other at the Bistro at EDLE possibly, as I was planning a short flight to Hamm-Lippewiesen to walk from their airfield to the Christmas market. Family issues came inbetween, so I’m a bit jealous, to be honest.

boscomantico wrote:

No landings were planned at Köln-Bonn and Düsseldorf (both unfortunately set you back by approximately 200€ per landing in an SEP).

The latter is not accurate. Düsseldorf sets you back by 60-70 EUR for an SEP landing at the weight of a 172 or PA28.

EDDK unfortunately does charge the 200 EUR.

Hungriger Wolf (EDHF), Germany

Nice trip report and a very nice Grumman Cheetah. Very tidy panel.

Oxford (EGTK), United Kingdom

boscomantico wrote:

Beautiful pic, Noe. The snow doesn’t look all that bad.

Thanks, snow wasn’t bad at all. In fact, might have had my besk skiing day ever. I highly recommend the pre-season in this case! + you can combine with mountain flying which is perfect!

Noe wrote:

Thanks, snow wasn’t bad at all. In fact, might have had my besk skiing day ever. I highly recommend the pre-season in this case! + you can combine with mountain flying which is perfect!

Now please share the most important info: where is that ?

Safe landings !
EDLN, Germany
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