Two daytrips to reach Mengen / EDTM from Rotterdam

This is a combined post on yesterday’s and last Saturday’s trips from Rotterdam / EHRD to Mengen / EDTM. Due to the lingering clouds over the southeastern part of Germany last week, the first trip only went as far as Speyer / EDRY, but yesterday’s weather was fine and I could reach Mengen for quick lunch with family.

Both trips followed a similar routing, and each was flown with one of our club’s Robin DR401. The club’s Robins have the Thielert/Continental 135hp Diesel engines and 120l standard tanks, and are certified for N-VFR. The routing was planned with Skydemon on the PC at home, with my (old) Nexus 7 and mobile phone for displaying it in the plane, and of course with the waypoints duplicated as a flight plan in the plane’s GNS430. The planned routing to Speyer was EHRD – TORNU (entry into the Maastricht TMA) – GEBSO (close to Wershoven in the Eifel) – OLIVI (close to Bad Sobernheim to avoid Frankfurt airspace) – EDRY at FL75 with Mannheim / EDFM and Koblenz / EDRK as planned alternates.

Leaving Rotterdam on the southbound (Romeo) departure, central station with its glass roof in the foreground:

The Rurstausee southwest of Nörvenich:

The Pfälzerwald near Bad Dürkheim, only a few minutes to go to Speyer:

Flight time 2:10h. As the weather in Speyer was marginal with a thin, patchy, low cloud layer around 1200ft, and no prospect that it would dissipate soon, I merely refuelled in Speyer, had a coffee in the little bistro near the exit to the Technikmuseum, and departed again towards the north where the sunshine was still in full swing, here north of Frankfurt airspace approaching the Rhein:

The Rhein overhead Boppard with view towards Lahnstein and Koblenz:

At this time I decided to stop for lunch and coffee in Koblenz, informed FIS Langen that I would divert to Koblenz as I was still on my flight plan from Speyer back to Rotterdam, and dropped down from FL75 to the circuit altitude of Koblenz. The field lies on the plateau overhead the river, and was on the sunny day quite busy with both the northern and southern circuit in parallel use, and at least one plane was asked to break off on base due to head-on traffic on the opposite base leg … Landing was uneventful, and after finding a parking space on the grass, I headed over to the tower, paid the fees, and went for lunch to the restaurant (very nice, can recommend for a lunch stop!). If you can spot it, my Robin is parked in front of the wind sock:

Unfortunately, the early end of the UDP in the winter forced me to not linger too long, and so I left Koblenz, climbed back to FL85 and headed towards the Dutch border, crossing the Maastricht TMA at FL60, and further crossing the Eindhoven TMA. Back in the Netherlands with the sun slowly setting (1500Z):

Total flight time from EDRK to EHRD: 1:45h; very enjoyable day.

Jump forward a week, and with yesterday’s forecasted clouds, I decided Friday afternoon to attempt to reach Mengen again. There is always the risk of non-dissipating fog in the Danube valley in the winter, so I planned to return to Speyer if there would be ground fog after Stuttgart. In the end, everything worked out beautifully, I followed almost the same route as in the week before, i.e. EHRD – IPTAS – TORNU – GEBSO – OLGAD – BADSO – LEBSO – EDTM with Eindhoven TMA crossing IPTAS-TORNU, and a planned Stuttgart TMA crossing BADSO-LEBSO.

Due to the headwind and overcast around 4500ft, the ride until reaching the Aachen area around was very bumpy and uncomfortable as I was sandwiched between the (ascending) overcast and the terrain and could not climb out to smoother air; nonetheless, after the Dutch-German border, the overcast layer disappeared and I could climb to FL75, here with a very nice view of Büchel / ETSB:

Onwards to Stuttgart, I asked Langen Information about 20 minutes before the edge of the Stuttgart TMA if they could coordinate a TMA crossing preferably at my current altitude, which worked out well as I was transferred to Langen Radar, assigned a squawk, and crossed through the final of EDDS 07 with some jets below. Arrival some time later in Mengen was uneventful, the fog was gone on that day, and I met with family for a quick lunch in the airfield’s Italian restaurant. Good pizzas, can recommend it. Total flight time EHRD-EDTM 3:15h due to the head wind, GS hovered around 95kn.

After lunch back again to Rotterdam, reversing the route flown in the morning. Langen Information was again very quick coordinating the Stuttart TMA crossing at FL65, transferring me to Langen Radar. After leaving the Stuttgart TMA, I climbed up to FL85, and the remaining flight was uneventful, enjoying Germany’s fall landscape, and being twice transferred to the onward frequencies of Langen Information.

Descend to FL65 overhead Geilenkirchen / ETNG in order to avoid having to descend quickly in the short time inside the Maastricht TMA (Dutch MIL Info which runs the class B from FL65 on in that area never permitted me to climb into it until now); after reaching no-one on Eindhoven Arrival, Dutch MIL Info confirmed that I was cleared throught the Eindhoven TMA at FL65. Leaving the TMA, one of my club’s planes was at a similar altitude in front of me on an IFR training flight, and I had some fun overtaking them with a powered descent from FL65 to the arrival altitude of 1500ft. Following the Romeo arrival to the field, I landed after 2:15h flight time – the tailwind provided very nice ground speeds compared with the asthmatic flight in the morning.

All in all a great day, probably the most expensive lunch trip I ever did even if the fuel consumption was comparable with driving (66 litres Diesel for 3:15h at 75% power); I’m looking forward to reaching the necessary hours to finally fly with my RV-7!