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Trip Report: Oxford EGTK to Bremen EDDW, IFR in a PA32

Hello folks!

Some of you will remember me from threads such as “Will anybody rent me an aircraft please?”, “Why doesn’t anybody enjoy getting high on oxygen?”, and the universally acclaimed, “Is Remain Outside Controlled Airspace the standard form of salute in Britain?”.

In this episode I’m reporting back on the trip that thankfully could take place, if not because I called to at least 50 different clubs/owners to ask whether they would let me take their golden Piper overseas: My first international IFR mission from Oxford EGTK to Bremen EDDW in a PA32-300 Cherokee Six.

The aircraft is generally a great tourer. Very comfortable, feels heavy, robust and stable, at least to me being used to mostly PA28s and C172s. But even compared to the DA42, this aircraft feels more like a “cruiser”. It holds 84 USG usable fuel across 4 tanks: 2 main (25 USG) and 2 tip (17 USG) tanks. The 300 HP 6 cylinder engine is thirsty but can be fed with just 12 USG/h on an economy cruise as I’ll show below. One must carefully adjust power and mixture on this aircraft: the lazy ATO mentality of “all levers full forward” doesn’t apply here!
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The Outbound Flight – EGTK to EDDW

Filed Route: EGTK N0143F110 IXURA DCT DTY L608 CLN L620 TULIP Y12 SPY N873 GRONY M105 EEL N125 AVESA DCT GIBMA GIBMA2P EDDW
Great Circle Distance: 377 NM. Distance Filed: 422 NM (+12%). Distance Flown: 417 NM (+11%).
Airborne time: 3:32h. Max GS 144 kt. Average GS 117 kt. Maximum GPS altitude 11,270 ft.
Weather:
METAR EGTK 181120Z 04007KT 360V070 CAVOK 12/M01 Q1025=
METAR EHAM 181255Z 31011KT 260V340 9999 FEW030 14/06 Q1022 NOSIG=
METAR EDDW 181420Z 05007KT 010V080 9999 SCT043 16/07 Q1020 NOSIG=


The departure from Oxford was quite busy. Predictable on a Sunday with CAVOK weather. They kept me waiting a couple minutes at the holding point before they could squeeze me in between all the touchandgoers.
Oxford Tower gave me departure instructions: after departure fly heading 360, climb to altitude 2500 feet on QNH 1025, squawk 2253.

Taking-off from runway 01 with a crosswind:

I was handed over to Oxford Radar shortly after take-off, he gave me a climb to 5000 feet initially and then 6000 ft. The ATCO was going crazy trying to vector me around an Extra doing aerobatics in the area not on his frequency. Another fun quirk of this whole UK control in Class G airspace paradigm.

At some point I was given direct to DTY and a handover to London Control who cleared me to FL110. The LC ATCO also asked me what my intended routing was, which I found interesting. He mentioned whether BPK was in my route. It seemed like he didn’t have my FPL in front of him, so I told him I planned to route DTY, CLN and REDFA. He sent me direct CLN.

The climb to FL110 took 20 minutes and 35 NM aprox, top of climb just overhead Milton Keynes.

Shortly after levelling off at FL110 and adjusting the power setting:

Fuel consumption: At FL110; with 120 kg of payload (me and baggage) and a 55% power setting of 20 MAP (full open throttle), 2100 RPM with mixture leaned ROP (rich of peak); the fuel consumption in the cruise was just about 12 USG/h which is the book value, achieving a TAS of 125 kt aprox. Fuel uplift at the destination was 163L which turned out to be just under 13 USG per engine tach hour for the entire flight. Not bad I would say.

Ryanair descending into Stansted:

Over the North Sea, moments after “coasting out”:

I saw quite a few ships anchored in groups (where they waiting for the Suez Canal traffic jam to clear?). I thought since these are not moving, they’d be a good place to go in case of engine failure. But on second thought: it’s possible these are ghost ships, not manned at all? Or is there always at least a minimal crew on board?

Reached the Dutch coast after about 1:05h over the water. The crossing wasn’t that scary at all, I was always within gliding range of “something” (wind turbines, oil platforms, ships…). The engine doesn’t know whether you are flying over water or land either!

Who can help me identify this town? Is it Castricum?

This one should be Akersloot?

Enkhuizen. Around this point I was given a direct to the BMN VOR.

The arrival into Bremen was interesting. I was told by the Approach controller that they had to keep me in “protected airspace” for the approach, which means they’d have to keep me at FL100 until I reached the Bremen CTA, and then started descending me into Bremen. Apparently they had had issues with near-misses in Class E airspace. If the guy knew where I was coming from he’d have a heart attack…

He also asked if I wanted to complain to the German DFS about this and gave me an email address. I found that hilarious. The guy giving me the service is offering me to complain about his service! This would have never ever happened in Spain.

Scattered cumulus clouds on descent into Bremen. The Bremen Approach controller vectored me around as if he was trying to avoid the clouds because I mostly missed them all. I only managed to get into one by arresting my descent rate slightly. Can confirm that German clouds are the same as British clouds from the inside.

I was vectored for the ILS Z 09 approach from a platform altitude of 3000 ft. There was nobody else on frequency other than some, I believe, local VFRs receiving the German equivalent of a “basic service”.

Short final rwy 09:

Parked at the general aviation apron:

Moments after parking, a German Polizei car appeared. I didn’t let them rush me and just completed my checks and paperwork taking my time. Once I opened the door, first thing they asked was “Was ist Ihre Staatsangehörigkeit bitte?” (What is your nationality?). They sighed in relief when I told them I was European and not British, as they would have had to go back and get some stamps or something. They asked for my ID and negative PCR test (although someone told me that on this sort of flight no Covid test was required at all, oh well…). “All good officer?” “Yes, did you expect it otherwise?” he replied jokingly. The marsheller asked for the aircraft noise certificate (he said jokingly: “Jeder will was!”, everybody wants something!). They were all very friendly. Happy to see some movement as the airport was pretty much dead.

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Some Photos of Bremen and Hamburg
Won’t describe them too much because I don’t want to pretend I know anything.
The only thing that gets me with Germany every time I go is how there’s always someone around ready to tell you off for some minor mistake, always finding something to complain about (meckern). And Germans don’t do it in a subtle way at all, they really get very visibly angry. In this case I was walking around the city centre on my own, minding my own business, when an older couple aggressively shouted at me for not wearing a bloody mask. How do they know I don’t have an exemption to wearing a mask due to health reasons? Germany is a nation of covert policemen!

Anyway, let’s enjoy the beautiful photos:













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The Return Flight – EDDW to EGTK
Filed Route: EDDW N0144F100 EEL9K EEL N872 PAM L980 LAM L179 CPT DCT KENET EGTK
Great Circle Distance: 377 NM. Distance filed: 424 NM (+12%). Distance flown: 401 NM (+6%).
Airborne time: 3:08h. Max GS 154 kt. Average GS 128 kt. Maximum GPS altitude 12,360 ft.
Weather:
METAR EDDW 221120Z 33018KT 300V360 9999 BKN035 09/00 Q1023 TEMPO 32020G30KT=
METAR EHAM 221255Z 34008KT 280V050 9999 FEW036 11/02 Q1027 NOSIG=
METAR EGTK 221420Z 10009KT 070V140 CAVOK 14/M01 Q1026=


The return flight was, in general, even easier and quicker than the outbound flight. I didn’t have a chance to take many photos because of cloud in the first segment, up to around Amsterdam or so. Nothing much to photograph over the water and, when I got to Britain, the sun was in an awkward position for me to take any good photos unfortunately.

My departure clearance was EEL9K, climb to 4000 ft, squawk 1117.

The take-off was windy, as per the METAR above, but perfectly doable. I witnessed a Citation from the Lufthansa Training Academy being rocked around before landing.
In Bremen (maybe all German airports?) they expect you to switch from Tower to Radar immediately after take-off, without prompting you. The hint here is Tower saying “cleared for take-off runway 27, wind 330 at 10, bye bye!” After switching to Radar, I was identified and given a climb to my initial cruising level FL100.

I climbed through a thin layer of status on departure, just below the base at 3800 ft you have this grim view:

But when you emerge on the other side at 4700 ft you get perfect blue skies and sunshine:

Flying on top of a cloud layer never gets old:

That star pattern must be a place called Naarden. Can any local tell us anything about why it’s shaped like that?

Clouds started to thin out around here:

The Dutch love canals:

The Amsterdam Approach frequency was quite busy. Are those holding patterns over there?

Difficult to take photos of Amsterdam from the left seat:

EHAM Amsterdam’s runway 36L has no landing markings; I assume they only use 36L for take-off and 18R for landing?:

More of The Netherlands:

Before hitting the water, I requested a climb to FL120 for the crossing. The extra 2000’ could give you an additional 2 min of crutial glide should I need it.

Over the North Sea:

I was handed to London Control about 20 minutes before the border. The controller only said “roger” to my call. This proves it’s much easier to enter the UK “airways” system laterally than from below. Isn’t this funny?¨

London Control gave me a direct to Brookman’s Park BPK. They love sending people to waypoints that are not on the FPL route, don’t they?

Reaching the UK, or as they say here “coasting in”:

Osea Island:

Northey Island, a VRP:

The highlight of the last portion of my flight was the INTENTIONAL exhaustion of one of the main fuel tanks. I departed Bremen with full fuel and intended to only use the main left and right tanks for the flight, leaving the tip tanks full. For the bit over the North Sea I had planned to use the left main tank only and not switch tanks. Once safely over land, I would run that tank down to dry just to make sure there was no more fuel left. I took this photo minutes before the exhaustion:

I have learnt the following:

  • From the moment the fuel gauge reads 0 to the moment the engine stops only 4 minutes pass.
  • The stopping of an engine due to fuel starvation is very sudden and abrupt. The engine runs perfectly fine until it doesn’t. There isn’t much of a warning there.

Here’s me jumping to switch the fuel tank and a few tense seconds until the engine starts going smoothly again:

With the engine running smoothly again, London Control told me to route BPK and then CPT. They also initiated my descent before I asked for it. They gave me the “Oxford Radar will accept you in the descent to 6000 ft, you are cleared to leave controlled airspace via descent”. I bet this phrase is confusing to anyone not familiar with UK flying as they expect Oxford to be a controlled airport with Radar and Tower. Why would you have to leave controlled airspace? (yes, I know the answer folks, but please admit this is easily confusing…).

I was handed over to Oxford Radar, and they vectored me in very nicely for an NDB 01 approach. As on the day of the departure, today was CAVOK and the skies were full. They kept a few touchandgoers orbiting to allow for my arrival. I felt kind of important.

For the return flight I had done a Covid test and submited a GAR form. None of this was checked on arrival, nobody checked anything on me which I found odd. But there you go. Even better if it’s less hassle!

And there we are! Mission accomplished, and I was very satisfied of having done such a trip! Any comments, questions, suggestions, “how dare you not wear a mask in public”s etc. are warmly welcome!

Last Edited by Alpha_Floor at 23 Apr 23:00
EDDW, Germany

Nice trip! Glad you got sorted with an aircraft in the end.

Regarding the immediate change to Radar on departure, I don’t know what plates you are/were using but normally this is annotated somewhere, ie:

United Kingdom

I’m glad you made it!

LDZA LDVA, Croatia

Extra points for the Troy McClure reference

Last Edited by airways at 24 Apr 05:30
EBST, Belgium

Looks like a great trip. The star shape at Naarden and many other Dutch towns are the old defensive walls built to keep invaders out.

EHLE / Lelystad, Netherlands, Netherlands

Yes, in particular invaders from the country that you are originally from

Your guess on Castricum and Akersloot are spot on.

Nice report!

Last Edited by aart at 24 Apr 06:11
Private field, Mallorca, Spain

That approach in Bremen is very weird. In 20 years of IFR flying in Germany, never had that happen. That is: of course ATC tends to try to keep you class C or D whereever possible, but not in such cases, where it means a course reversal and many more track miles. I would like to find out the policy behind this.

Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany

Bremen did indeed have trouble with airproxes on approach, I remember a near-miss of a sailplane with an arriving 737 some years ago, it was all over the local news (I’m from a suburb of Bremen).

Thanks for posting this. Bremen is generally a nice place to visit (outside Covid-times) and the airport is quite a lot closer to the city centre than with most cities of this size.

EDIT: Did you touch the nose of the donkey when standing in front of the statue of the Bremen Town Musicians? That’s supposed to be a good luck charm (hence the discoloured spot on the statue)

Last Edited by MedEwok at 24 Apr 07:40
Low-hours pilot
EDVM Hildesheim, Germany

Great writeup and great to see you using your IR in the manner intended

You have more balls than me to run a tank dry, even though SEP certification requirements state that the engine must restart within something like 10 seconds. Did you have the fuel pump running during this?

IIRC, another place which expects an automatic change to Approach after liftoff is Prague LKPR.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Those star-shaped defences look like Vauban’s but I never saw any with water in them.
I think the freq change to radar on take off is standard in Germany.
I am pretty sure wandering without a mask in France would get you the same remarks if not police attention. They are mandatory in all cities.

Great flight ! I never dared to exhaust one tank so glad to see how it happens.

Last Edited by Jujupilote at 24 Apr 08:03
LFOU, France
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