Visit to Ærø (EKAE)

It was time for another trip, so I decided to go to Ærø (EKAE), an island I wanted to visit with the Mooney but was a bit reluctant due to the grass runway. With the club C172 this was not a real issue. My daughter Julie is always up for a trip so it was the two of us again. Had to work on friday morning and booked the C172 for friday afternoon and saturday the whole day, it wasn’t booked for sunday morning, and that proved to be very handy!
I filed a Z flightplan to Ærø (EKAE), booked a nice B&B near the airfield and called for a rental car. Wheels up around 16:00 local time and with a little tailwind the groundspeed was around 130 kts and even before crossing the Dutch border, Dutch Mil cleared us for a ‘direct destination’. This was nice! Time to break out the snacks and start the inflight movie for my daughter, recline the seats and monitor our progress. The C172’s diesel did not miss a beat and other then switching a tank ever so often did not require any further attention. We were passed on to Bremen and then to Copenhagen for the last 10 minutes of our descent and after passing thru a thin layer of stratus clouds there lay our weekend destination in view. Surrounded by crystal clear waters and around twice the size of Texel (EHTX): Ærø (EKAE), it looked beautiful in the soft evening light.

We cancelled IFR and closed our flightplan in the air with Copenhagen and continued VFR and self positioned for a baseleg approach for runway 15. The runway was relatively smooth but did had some mild bumps. Not sure if the Mooney would have felt quite as happy as the Cessna did. Backtracking on the runway to the parking position that ‘Charles Lindbergh’ feeling hits: we made it! A new destination to explore. As we switched off and caught the first glimps of the surrounding area the AFISO presented us with the carrental contract and he saw us off. Off we went to our B&B! An old large farmhouse with light rooms, high ceilings and beautifull (sea) views. The friendly host provided us with drinks and a chat and we explored the property. Plums, berries and apples where ripe and there to be picked, so we did and had a pre dinner snack. Then we went off to visit Aeroskobing for dinner and an icecream, but first we checked out the beach. The beaches are not as wide as on the Dutch Isles, but they are lined with colorful beach houses that give the coastline a pleasant vibe.

The next day we went to Marstal to have a look around the village and harbour. All very pleasant and colourful. For the afternoon I had scheduled horseriding for Julie and boy was she in for a treat. The stables are operated by a club, they are all volunteers with a passion for horses and Julie was totally at home. She groomed and braided ‘her’ horse, got to play horsefootbal, different other games on horseback and a nice ride through the surrounding fields. The rest of the afternoon was spent on the beach. Sometimes, water sand and the imagination of a child is all that is needed. On the way back we got some pizza to go, and sitting in the farm thunderstoms erupted and rain poured down. I was planning for a flight back this evening, but elected to go the next morning for this very reason. We were happy we did!

After a good night’s sleep we had an early breakfast and reported back to the airfield for a preflight and an early departure. I got a PPR for 09:00 LT, instead of 10:00, being the official openingtime of the airport. We paid our dues and flew back. Normally I would do this again with a Z flightplan, but due to the strong headwinds at altitude we elected to fly low and thus VFR. The flight back took us 2 hours and 20 minutes, about half an hour longer then the inbound flight. Half way the thermals started to cause some turbulence, but Julie managed fine. A LOT of VFR traffic passed us from South to North heading for the Frisian Isles and Langen Information went crazy even interupting all communications and saying ‘please first listen, then think and then speak’. They did provide excellent traffic service BTW. We hade a great weekend. Ærø is highly reccomended!