LKBU-EBCI-EGTN-(annual)-EGTK-EBCI-EDKL-LKBU

I’m based near Prague but fly to England for annuals – not only because it’s formally easier for a G-reg, it’s also an annual fun trip. Turned out to be not quite so fun this year, as I managed to catch a terrible cold that took turns hurting me in the throat, ear, teeth and the whole body, but I was glad to discover I had a “Saint-Exupéry syndrome”: a half-dead, barely staggering body of mine, once loaded into the cockpit, would suddenly feel healthy and brisk, even if I weren’t to fly but merely to swing my compass.

For border crossings on the Schengen side I prefer Belgium due to cheap fuel and generally relaxed attitude. My former favourite, Liège, has recently jacked up their landing fees to a minimum of €40, so this time I switched to Charleroi EBCI, which turned out to be better anyway. It’s open 0530 to 2300 and has a self-service fuel dispenser (both avgas and Jet-A1), which accepts most credit and debit cards, not just fuel company ones. Landing fees are €7.50 per tonne with 12 hours free parking. The airport is home to half a dozen flying schools and is a hub of Ryanair (a.k.a. “Brussels South”). I landed well past sunset, and the only people around on the GA (south) side were two nice ATCOs up in the tower and security guys at the entrance. At first I was told I’d have to go to the north side to show my aircraft documents to the operations, but then they quoted them my registration over the phone, and it turned out my prior landing at Liège had made my particulars known to all airports under Belgocontrol, and that I didn’t actually need to do anything at all – they would invoice me at the registration address. One big shortcoming of EBCI is the total lack of any publicly available Wi-Fi connections on the GA side. I found a few school networks, but they were all locked. There aren’t any eateries in the GA terminal, either. The nearest place to get both things at once seems to be Quick (a fast-food place) near the western end of the runway (about 20 minutes on foot from the GA terminal, but I was graciously offered a lift by a security girl finishing her shift). Unlike Liège that’s somewhat more international, EBCI is very francophone – speaking French would get you through any issues much more efficiently than English. My night stay was to be fairly short and I was well-rested, so I decided for a night walk around town instead of checking into a hotel. Unlike the communities adjoining the airport, which are more Flemish or even British in their looks, Charleroi proper looks very French. Is it thriving? Probably not, judging by two posters found next to each other in the same ground-floor window: “City hall entrance is on the corner” and “No urinating on the facade”.

I departed EBCI before sunrise and uneventfully reached Enstone EGTN, where the Tiger was taken care of, and I was also getting my hands greasy when not busy with my work or totally collapsing from the cold. A week later, with a new ARC in hand, I embarked on the back trip. Having read mentions of a possible long wait OCAS for an IFR pickup on a Z flight plan, I made a short hop to Oxford EGTK to fill up my tanks and depart IFR. The flight to EBCI was just as uneventful. The next point was Leverkusen EDKL to pay a visit to my mum and bring her some Assam tea she can’t seem to find in Germany. This leg was fairly short but with a strong headwind, I couldn’t get more than 105 kts groundspeed, and the sunset was getting closer and closer. I didn’t remember whether EDKL is open till SS or SS+30’, and called them from 20 miles away to advise of my arrival only to hear: “Sorry, it’s sunset right now, the aerodrome is closed”. Not wishing to divert to Cologne-Bonn (for both price and distance reasons), I profoundly apologised and said I had no other closer place to divert to (which was true), so they agreed to take me in.

The last day was quite an adventure. At 0800Z I wasn’t even sure I would be able to depart, METAR for Cologne-Bonn showed FEW001 BKN003 BKN007, but two hours later the low stuff dissipated, revealing even some patches of the blue, so off I went to the airfield. To my surprise, the office was locked and there was a yellow cross on the signal square. After half an hour of nervous pacing back and forth, I finally saw two flying club members walk in. I explained them the situation, and they quickly found the FISO, who happened to have gone out to lunch earlier than usual. However, this was not the end of the trouble – I had my IFR route ready for filing on eurofpl.eu, but no one on the airfield seemed to know the password to the local Wi-Fi network! The FISO confirmed I would be able to file airborne, so I hurried to depart, as I was flying eastward, and sunsets in November are early! Langen Information, however, refused to accept a flight plan outside the country and advised me to return. The FISO at EDKL volunteered to file a flight plan by phone while I was orbiting a few miles east, but after 5 minutes had to call me back on the ground – they wouldn’t take it from him, either. Realising I would probably fly into the night and have to divert to a lighted airfield (LKVO), I came back. Fortunately, the lady at Langen ACC I spoke to on the phone worked a little miracle, taking a Z flight plan with no IFR routing except fairly arbitrarily chosen first and last points of the IFR segment and a couple of VORs in between, and scheduling my departure within 10 minutes from filing, so I was back in the air almost instantly. Climbing out, I saw the cloud tops unusually low, around 5000’, the 5000’-FL80 interval being almost isothermal around 0°C. At FL110 I had a nice tailwind and safely landed at LKBU as I wanted to – past the sunset but with enough sunlight to land.