Honeymoon trip in August of 2022

For our honeymoon we wanted to do a trip with our WT9 to the very north of europe, specifically to northern Norway. As weather there is hard to predict for more than two or three days we set 10 different areas with goals on what to do all over Norway to be flexible.
So we set off from our home airport in Austria (LOLS) on the 6th of August 2022 to our first stop in Copenhagen. We choose the airport of Ringsted (EKRS) due to a good train connection to the city. Weather was marginal when departing and we had to stay very low level for the first 30 minutes before getting a chance to climb on top. The further north we went the higher we had to climb to stay above the tops. FL95 was just enough in the end and so we enjoyed a very calm and relaxing flight to Denmark. The last couple of miles we had to decent below 2500ft to stay out of airspaces, but clouds were low anyway so that this worked out nicely for us.

East of Bayreuth EDQS

Approaching Denmark

Landing at Ringsted was unimpressive, even though winds were quite strong due to the thunderstorms in the north, but the runway is quite big and has a nice approach. We parked next to a C172 and tied down the plane. In the clubhouse was a self-service computer and payment (we used cash).

Ringsted

LOLS-EKRS

Walking to the train station takes about 30 minutes and from there it is only a 45 minute train ride to the city of Copenhagen. We enjoyed our stay there as it is a beautiful though expensive city. Weather didn’t look good to continue so we stayed another night as there was still more to be explored in Copenhagen and then started doing some more detailed planning for the coming days.

Copenhagen at night

Northern Norway looked ever more difficult with great areas of rain and few options for us. So we started rethinking the whole plan and came to the realisation that Norway wasn’t in the cards for us, but Great Britain looked perfect in the next days. As we are Scotland-lovers (well, who isn’t?) we decided to depart the next day to GB and continue doing a tour around Scotland and Ireland (clockwise or counter clockwise depending on weather).
The direct routing trough the Netherlands and Belgium looked difficult regarding weather and airspace, so we decided to take the slight detour via Luxemburg and France departing to the south and climbing on top as soon as we found a break in the light cloud layer.

Departing Denmark

Going south to Siegerland

EKRS_EDGS

As a stopover for customs and fuel we decided on Siegerland (EDGS) and filed the online GAR for the UK which works beautifully and uncomplicated (even on the smartphone). They were very helpful at EDGS and even had Mogas. From there we got a great DCT crossing through the Luxemburg Delta (thanks to Langen Info to arrange it before the handover) and continued on top to Lydd (EGMD). Lydd is just a wonderful airport with so nice and helpful staff. We had a great time there and they arranged a taxi to the city of Rye for us. Taxis are quite rare in that area, so I would recommend arranging one beforehand.
Crossing the channel with perfect weather

EDGS_EGMD

Landed at Lydd

Rye is a beautiful old town with great pubs (I can absolutely recommend the Ship Inn – perfect food and ambience) where we enjoyed one night and one day. The next day it started getting hot and as we had packed for northern Norway and not for Spain we decided to head on north to Inverness right away escaping the higher temperatures. So we did the PPR with HIAL for Inverness (EGPE) the day before and chose Highland Aviation as a handling agent (only one with Mogas). This is done quite easily with an online form from the HIAL website.
The next day we had a nice breakfast and did another stroll around the town of Rye which was lovely. We then arranged a taxi to bring us back to the airport to depart first east along the coast and then turning north to circumvent the London Alpha. ATC was very helpful, especially the further north we went.

EGMD_EGPE

Departing Lydd to the east

Going north

In the Highlands the winds picked up quite strongly which resulted in heavy turbulence when going through the valleys for sightseeing.

Just before Inverness

The final for RW23 was very very long due to heavy winds on the nose, but being there on the ground was spectacular. The scenery is just magnificent. Highland Aviation was very helpful and arranged parking and refuelling with Mogas for us.

Landed at Inverness

We stayed at the local Marriot hotel just by the airport which had excellent food and was very restful after a long day.
The airport hotel

Airport at night

Parked at night

The next day we tried arranging getting approval by the Orkney Council to land on the outer Orkney islands, but it proved difficult to do it on such short notice due to the person who does it being in a meeting all morning. So we decided to fly to Kirkwall (EGPA) and have a look around the outer islands from the plane. Winds were still strong (40 knots in 500 ft) so we decided not to try flying to the outer islands due to the rather small runways.
The landscape and the cliffs are absolutely spectacular. It was one of my absolute highlights on the trip!

EGPE_EGPA

Old man of Hoy

Cliffs in the northwest of the islands

Approaching Kirkwall

Landed in Kirkwall

Kirkwall airport

The landing in Kirkwall was challenging due to strong winds, but we managed to do allright. Staff at the airport was very helpful and everything was easy and uncomplicated. We took the bus outside the airport for a 10 minute ride into the city and enjoyed a nice 2 hour boatride to the next islands.
The city itself is also quite beautiful with their old churches and impressive buildings from the middle ages.

Cathedral of Kirkwall

Earls Palace

In the late afternoon we departed back to Inverness. Weather was just cooperating as the very north got worse during the day, but it was only a short hop back anyway. For the following night we booked a hotel we stayed in three years earlier which we just loved. It is a beautiful old building just along the coast.

Departing Kirkwall

Back in Inverness for drinks before Dinner

Hotel at the sea

The next day we took a rental car and drove north to the Brora valley for some hiking along the river we saw the day before from the plane.

On the way back we had to visit the Glenmorangie distillery 😊

Glenmorangie Distillery

For the following night we changed hotels one more time to be in the city center to explore the city easier.
Inverness is actually a nice city with many old churches and nice pubs. Quite a lot of tourists though. Sadly the castle wasn’t accessible due to construction work.
As we wanted to depart in the early afternoon we had some time to kill after an extensive walk around the city in the morning so we drove south to the Kinrara distillery were we met the nicest people working there and stayed for an hour just chatting (and buying a couple of bottles of their excellent gin).

Kinrara Distillery

After getting back to Inverness we returned the rental car, filed our flightplan and left for Islay (EGPI). PPR for Islay was required again with HIAL the day before. Same easy procedure as for Inverness and Kirkwall. We decided on a scenic route via Loch Ness and the Glenfinnan Viaduct. When departing Inverness Approach vectored us for a few minutes due to an arriving Airliner, but that was no problem and then we continued on our own.

EGPE_EGPI

Loch Ness

Glenfinan Viaduct

Island of Jura

Approach to Islay was easy and straightforward and ATC was helpful enough. We didn’t require any fuel so just parking and we had a taxi arranged just before departing Inverness which I can highly recommend doing.

Approaching Islay airport

Landed at Islay

The taxi driver also rented us e-bikes and took our luggage to the B&B (Skerrols House – an absolute dream which I can’t praise high enough). With the bikes the island is wonderfully easy to explore and we decided on the spot to stay a second night (weather was also perfect).

Sun going down in Bowmore

Bowmore Distillery

The next day we spent on the bikes going to the town of Port Ellen and further on to the distilleries of Lagavulin, Laphroaig and Ardbeg. Great stuff if you love Whiskey!!

Beach at Port Ellen

Distillery tour

Laphroaig

Laphroaig

Lagavulin

Lagavulin

Ardbeg

Ardbeg

Typical Islay scenery

The next day it started raining and forecasts saw the best time to depart for 11 am LOC. So we arranged a taxi the night before the pick us up, do the irish GAR with Weston Airport (EIWT) and leave for 3 days in Ireland. Weston is perfectly situated for a visit to Dublin. We left at 11:15 LOC with a little bit of rain, but nothing to be concerned about and the satellite pictures showed slightly better weather to the southeast and in Ireland itself.

EGPI_EIWT

Just before leaving between rain showers

Departing Islay

Coasting out to the southeast

Arriving in Northern Ireland

Approaching Weston was quite easy, weather was just cooperating most of the time and with the satellite images we found quite a straightforward way south passing Belfast and approaching Dublin from the northwest. ATC was very busy, but helpful and Weston gave us an overhead join for RW07. They insisted on exactly 1500ft for noise reasons which we found out later. Staff was very helpful with customs and the bus to Dublin center is only a 15 minutes walk away. Parking is quite expensive though (50€ per night for a 600kg MTOW microlight). Still better than Dublin itself I reckon!

Landed in Weston

Dublin was extremely busy with people, but still a lot fun. They have quite a few sites and old cathedrals, castles and foremost pubs to visit 😉. Trinity College was a sight to behold as well.

Cathedral

Trinity College

At night in temple bar district

The next day we spent the morning exploring Dublin some more (without people in the early morning apparently due to a late night for most visitors) and had a great lunch at an Italian restaurant in the old part of the city (Forno 500 for anyone who is in the neighbourhood) and took a rental car in the afternoon to drive to Galway for two nights.

Molly Malone

Hairy Lemon

Arriving in Galway we checked into the hotel and took a stroll around the town. It is quite nice, but the center was packed with people so we walked more to the outer areas where we found one of the nicest churches we had ever seen.

Cathedral

After a typical pub-dinner with mandatory monday night football we went to bed to be rested for the next day. It had already been a couple of quite intense days.
After breakfast the following day we drove south to see the cliffs of Moher which are quite impressive.

Cliffs of Moher

After that we continued to do 2 hours of horseback riding which was beautiful as well. We had found a nice stable with great horses!

Horseback riding in Ireland

As last activity for the day we wanted to hike the Burren. It is a limestone formation in the middle of nowhere. We enjoyed the great weather with quite a bit of wind. Looking northeast we always saw the bad weather and heavy rain in the east and north of Ireland and were quite happy to have picked the westcoast of Ireland.

The burren

On top of the burren

The next day we departed for Dublin in the morning to visit the Book of Kells Library. It is this beautiful library/museum which you have to get tickets a day or two in advance for a specific time. Forecasts saw the best time to depart easterly in the afternoon so we spent the late morning and early afternoon in Dublin before leaving via bus to the airport after returning the rental car in the city.

Book of Kells library

It was raining for most of the morning, but cloudbases started to improve a little bit in the early afternoon. Everything so far was going according to forecasts. The plan was to fly to Lasham (EGHL) were some friends of mine were competing in the national gliding championships for 18m and 20m class. They arranged everything for us beforehand with the airport so we were allowed to land and park for a night as well as a hotel in the vicinity. The problem was that weather turned bad in England with a lot of thunderstorms. We just had to see how far we would get and would possibly have to land somewhere else if weather turned impossible. The following day would look promising to get back to Austria or at least to eastern France.

EIWT_EGHP

So we departed Weston at 1500 LOC and got a very low level clearance to the west turning south and then east crossing the military area where ATC was actually way easier to work with than Dublin or Shannon. After coasting out we got clearance up to 7500 ft, but there was a lot of military activity over the irish sea so London Info vectored us way south and we had to stay over the sea for longer than expected.

Departing Weston

Going east to the coast

Climbing over the sea

Approaching England

In England there were thunderstorms all around so we stayed on top past Bristol and then found a small hole in the clouds to go down to 1500ft for the last part to Lasham. On the satellite image we saw that it was going to be really close regarding thunderstorm activity above the field. When approaching 4 miles to Lasham we got into very heavy rain and turned around to our alternate Popham (EGHP).
There we landed and it started raining there as well.

Landed in Popham

We talked to our friends in Lasham and they told us that it was really coming down over there as well and we should wait for half an hour to see if conditions improved for the small hop from Popham to Lasham. We got offered tea and waited 30 minutes before we saw that the thunderstorm moved west and we could fly.

Approaching Lasham

We spent the evening drinking wine and eating Pizza with our friends in the mobile home and then got a lift to our hotel 10 minutes away.
The next day we got fuel, did the GAR and filed for Zweibrücken (EDRZ) in the early afternoon which looked the most promising on the continent. We phoned EDRZ in the morning for PPR and customs and they told us to use the online form to do it which worked nicely.
After saying goodbye to our friends at the competition we departed to the southeast to stay south of the London Alpha. At the Coast we got on top again and stayed there until Luxemburg. Luxemburg Approach was most helpful to get a DCT through their Delta which saved a couple of minutes.

Lasham before departing

Grid at the nationals

Coasting out to the east

Approaching France

Crossing the Luxemburg Delta

EGHL-EDRZ

We did a quick stop in Zweibrücken for customs and continued as soon as possible onwards to Schärding-Suben (LOLS) due to heavy thunderstorms in southern Germany and the alps which were moving north a little bit at a time. We had an alternate airport in the north of Nürnberg to stay with friends if it wasn’t possible to get to LOLS. Thankfully we got the route perfectly and also the thunderstorms moved quite slowly so we got home and there weather was perfect again since the rain had moved north already.

EDRZ-LOLS

Getting close to home

Back home

It was a wonderful trip and we did 25 hours in 13 days without being in the plane all day every day and getting to do and see a lot of things on the ground. It was a way to get to places rather than doing it for the flying. I think we got the best out of both anyways 😊.
Skydemon was most helpful in planning all the legs and getting important information beforehand even though we mostly decided only for the coming two or three days, always staying ahead of weather and trying to get to interesting places with enough infrastructure (rental cars, hotels, fuel, customs, etc.) to continue our trip as easy and hassle free as possible. If one is flexible on destinations one can do great trips around Europe even when strictly VFR in a microlight. Having a good autopilot and longrange tanks with a TAS of 140 kts is certainly helpful though. Skydemon and the Dynon Skyview work perfectly together and makes working with ATC even more enjoyable. Having good live weather information inflight (via smartphone) makes these trips way easier and safer.

Total direct route for the 13 days