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VFR Hilversum EHHV to Rendsburg EDXR and back

With Himmelfahrt/Hemelvaart Thursday free and the weather forecast being excellent, I booked a Cessna C150 from Hilversum to go and build some more hours. Due to the time constraints (could not take over the plane before 0800Z, needed to be back at the latest at 1600Z), I did not plan on spending too long a lunch break, and decided in the end to fly to Rendsburg EDXR situated alongside the Nord-Ostsee-Kanal. With the not so stellar performance of the C150s, Kiel-Holtenau EDHK would have been probably too tight, and I considered to shorten the trip to St. Michaelisdonn EDXM or Heide-Büsum EDXB.

The flight line and little tower of Hilversum in the morning; it’s a vibrant grass field with three runways, so while it’s a bit difficult to spot from the air, you at least have never really strong crosswinds on the shortish runways.

Dutch polder landscape; unfortunately, the FIS provider – Dutch MIL Info – was out of service on this busy day, and I was not the only aircraft that tried a few times to call them up before giving up …

I believe that my rental steed of the day had a bit of a rigging issue as I needed to bring in a bit of left rudder and right aileron to keep the ball centred; side effect was that my airspeed at 2400 RPM did not exceed 80 to 85 kn, with a corresponding ground speed of 77 to 80kn. A well, needed the hours anyway …

While the forecast on the evening before promised fog in the morning around the coast, at the time I arrived within view of the Waddenzee islands, the sea fog had lifted and retreated to the north, and it was kind of busy on Langen Information.

Cuxhaven:

And the entrance to the Nord-Ostsee-Kanal at Brunsbüttel; a dozen or so of sailing yachts waiting for their turn to enter the lock; if it would not take so much time to sail from Scheveningen to Brunsbüttel, I would have loved to do the trip one summer, and spend some time in the Baltic Sea. Maybe chartering a boat from Danzig/Gdansk, heard nice trip stories from fellow skippers.

Arrived at 1100Z in Rendsburg EDXR, where there was healthy traffic. Restaurant was open and quite busy, but since I was a bit hesitant regarding the whole Corona situation, I fuelled up, checked my flight plan, and then had a nice chat with an RV-8 pilot who dropped in. Gorgeous plane which he finished building not so long ago, and with 10USG/h a cruising speed of 170kt is not too shabby … Excellent comfort on the inside as well, it’s a pity I left my camera in the plane :(

Anyway, due to the embarassing ground speed, I opted to leave at 1200Z Rendsburg with an initial destination of Texel EHTX in case I had time for some circuit work there on the way back, alternate was my actual destination of the day, Hilversum EHHV. Following the Kanal for a while after takeoff:

Again Cuxhaven, this time on the port side; it was getting kind of hazy below the cloud base.

Lots of planes on the Frisian island airfields; unfortunately they were mostly NOTAMed as unusable for tourist trips. When the situation gets better, want to take a week off and do some island hopping and spending more time there!

Aaand back in the Netherlands, passing the Afsluitdijk abeam Den Oever. I kept away from the land there because there’s a busy glider site right next to Den Oever, and with the clouds and haze I wasn’t too sure to spot all the gliders in time. Routing-wise, I followed from Cuxhaven on the chain of islands, and asked overhead Terschelling Amsterdam Information if the EHR4 would be active which blocked my path to the west. As almost always when I was flying there, the area is not active, and can be passed freely.

Diverted due to the late hour abeam Texel to Hilversum, and landed at 1520Z after almost three-and-a-half hours flying time in Hilversum. Great day, lots of sun (and slightly sunburned as I forgot sunscreen in the morning), and discovered new parts of Germany I hadn’t visited ever.

Résumé: EHHV → EDXR 2:55h; EDXR → EHHV 3:25h. I like the cockpit/control ergonomics of the small Cessna, compared to the hour I spent in a PA28 where the fuel selector is badly reachable, the flap lever cannot be operated when strapped in, and it feels even more cramped than in the C150. Still, even the better rigged and flying C150 Aerobat I rented last time from Hilversum lacks the airspeed to do some distance touring, and I’m really looking forward to familiarisation with the RV-7.

EHRD / Rotterdam

Nice report, thanks! I would love to have a good look around an RV8 (dream aircraft! I’m aiming for the more achievable RV4 one day, though!). The skies certainly were busy yesterday, A look on flightradar24 in the afternoon showed more GA activity than I’ve seen in a long time. Mostly gliders.

EDLN/EDLF, Germany

Thanks for the report and the flat land pictures under the sun

Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom

Thanks for the report. Been to Hilversum some 10+ years ago. Nice little airfield close to Amsterdam too. You can look forward to the RV7 too… the RV speeds makes trips like this easier achievable without breaking the budget.

THY
EKRK, Denmark

NinerEchoPapa wrote:

The skies certainly were busy yesterday, A look on flightradar24 in the afternoon showed more GA activity than I’ve seen in a long time. Mostly gliders.

Not surprising with the holiday and good weather coinciding. The Langen Information controller running the nortwestern sector was also having fun it seemed, keeping us little guys out of each other’s way :) With my little experience, I enjoy most the German FIS (but as it’s my mother tongue, I’m biased of course) as they seem to have a very, very proactive “can do” attitude. Amsterdam Information is good as well, as were the French controllers on my trips along the Channel coastline.

Maybe the experienced pilots here can weigh in: I noticed during the last half hour that I had to gradually pull the throttle back to maintain 2400 RPM in level flight about 1200-1300 ft AGL, and I would have thought that it’s due to the heavy thermals in the later half of the day which gave me more and more “free” lift so that the engine had to work less and less hard … Does that make sense?

EHRD / Rotterdam

That looks more like flying along a thermal cloud street (strong thermals & flying into strong wind) otherwise you will be flying in +600fpm lift & -600fpm patches randomly, no? Also, effect of depends if you maintain height or speed when flying, if you hit termals while maintaining height you get a speed increase as well as rpm increase

For all this you have to fly really slow to notice this, if you fly at 70kts and hit +1000fpm thermal at best you get +10kts speed, if you fly at 100kts you will see +2kts…

Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom

Nice! Juist looks rather busy. Wonder what’s up, the NOTAM leaves little room for interpretation…

EHTE, Netherlands

Nice to read reports of “simple” flights like these. Thank you..
Spending 6 hours in one day sitting in a C150 looks brave to me Do you have a specific need to build hours ?

I flew some cross-countries like these in a 152 but far shorter. It does about 95 kts and is baddly rigged like yours. Frankly, I let him have the ball uncentered, instead of forcing him by yawing and banking. It made straight flight look weird

As for the throttle, I had the same impression a couple times. Usually I turned the throttle “brake” (the ring around it) and it was fine.

LFOU, France

Great report and photos – many thanks for posting it

I remember Hilversum in a different way: back in Czechoslovakia, my parents had a big valve radio, and it was one of the stations on it, along with Beograd, etc. It was quite illegal to listen to some stations…

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Jujupilote wrote:

Spending 6 hours in one day sitting in a C150 looks brave to me Do you have a specific need to build hours ?

Actually, I am kind of used to long vehicle rides, and with snacks, water, a toilet solution in case of need, and nice weather, I could fly for much longer as long as the plane is comfortable. Since I flew alone, the cosy cabin of the C150 was not a concern.

Regarding the hour building, I bought last year a share in an RV-7 hangared at my home airport, and we have a clause in our society and usage contract that each pilot needs to have at least 150h TT or 100h PIC time, and since I received my PPL in September last year, I was busy getting to that number. So flying slowly was actually quite OK as I did not venture too far from home despite the flight time.

EHRD / Rotterdam
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