A trip northbound

To complete my northern-European roundtrip, I visited Copenhagen. Although I have lived in Scandinavia for 20 years and all my friends at school were speaking enthusiastically about the Copenhagen Tivoli (until the Gothenburg amusement parc became the next hot thing), I had never visited this Scandinavian capital and I was absolutely thrilled by it.

Glyptotekparken with a statue by Rodin

Christiansborg and the riding grounds in the foreground

My absolutely favourite place in Copenhagen so far, Nyhavn.

Of course, the “Little Mermaid” which everybody makes such a fuss about and is apparently a “must see”

When walking around I acidentally came across this neighbourhood with townhouses in nice colours, Nyboder.

I wish I had time to see even more of Copenhagen, but due to some concerns about how the weather would develop last Saturday, I chose to cut my visit of Copenhagen short and leave around mid-day Friday, which meant that I took the train from across Hotel Österport to Roskilde, and then a taxi to the airport right after breakfast.

As I was preparing to leave the hotel, there was thunder and lightning east of Copenhagen, but the radar image did not show anything in my flight path to EDDK Köln/Bonn which I had chosen for my fuel stop. Whether choosing EDDK for the fuel stop was a good decision can be debated. Initially I was not sure whether I would make it all the way to Pontoise on Friday, and the idea was that Köln could be a nice layover should I decide not to continue.

The bridge over Storströmmen

From my vantage point I could see that the front to the west was indeed active.

Arriving at EDDK I was cleared to descend to a level that would put me in the midst of freezing conditions, so I declined and later got a descent to an altitude where freezing should not be a concern. Underneath, this is what the weather looked like looking towards the airport.

I also saw these characteristic mountains that I have not been able to identify.

During the 90 minutes I was on the ground at EDDK, I refueled, was taken to the GA terminal where I filed my flight plan to LFPT, I walked to the main terminal (7 minutes brisk walk) to have a sandwich, walked back to the GA terminal, paid for fuel and landing fees, was driven back to the airplane, and prepared for take-off.

In continental Europe, I am not a fan of an exagerated use of directs because I have experienced vast detours when having filed directs in the past. Therefore most of the time I file airway routes. In such cases it is of course nice to be able to get some shortcuts, like in this case. Initially I had to deviate from my planned route due to high cloud tops that I wanted to avoid due to the potential for icing. The only way I could avoid them was in the horisontal plane since I could not go any higher without oxygen.That explains why I initially took a more southerly route before resuming westbound towards Chièvres (CIV). Then I was cleared direct DEVIM which is on the MATIX7T arrival to LFPT.

This is what the conditions were on top.

At some point I had to get down. According to the STAR one has to be below FL90 at DEVIM and at FL80 at LORNI. After having started the descent and entered IMC on the A/P I eventually got cleared to FL070. The VSI started showing some wild excursions to -2000 fpm and +2000 fpm, the speed dropped from the bottom of the yellow arc to 110 KIAS, probably due to the A/P adjusting the rate of descent, the attitude was only slightly nose down, and according to the altitude indicator, I did not seem to be descending. Just at that moment De Gaulle called and asked to continue the descent. After having decided that I could rely on the altitude indicator, I disconnected the autopilot, I lowered the nose to the appropriate attitude for the descent, and adjusted the MP to 18" and monitored the speed and altitude indicator. As I reached FL070 I was still in IMC in negative temperatures, so I notified De Gaulle I needed lower, but without stating the reason. At that very moment I got VMC and a few minutes later was cleared to 5000 feet where the temperatures were positive.

I still have not understood what caused these fluctuations in VSI, but attitude and power are your friends under all circumstances.

And this was what it looked like on the MATIX7T arrival to LFPT, here about right north of LFPG

Almost home. The Persan-Beaumont airfield LFPA

Overhead LFPT.

Les Mureaux airfield (LFXU), a very nice grass runway approximately on the extended runway centerline of 05/23of LFPT

This concluded my trip to a great part of Europe for flying. For me now mostly used to flying around the dull “plains” of (northern) France, flying VFR in Norway was a great joy. Although the weather was shifting, I could conduct the flights that would be the most scenic VFR. I should ideally have planned my return flight somewhat better, and be more familiar with the airports available for fueling in Germany.

Take-home from this trip:

• I should definitely get a portable oxygen system. On many previous occasions I have been frustrated from not being able to fly higher although I could see the sun through the cloud tops above me.
• During this trip I used exclusively the EuroGA router (autorouter) for flight planning and filing. I love the briefing pack, the availability of AIP AD charts in a single PDF, and the flight tracking.
• This was the first time I used the ADL120 which proved unvaluable on some of the legs I flew. The ability to send/receive SMS is a very nice feature as well. I just need to update the firmware in order to get the IR imagery.

Parking fees for aircraft with MTOW 1200 kg are 250 NOK per 24 hrs plus 25% sales tax.

It is actually 250 NOK for the first 24 hrs, then 500 hrs for each additional period of 24 hrs. Hence, if you are subject to parking fees, the 7 day season ticket may be a good deal. This concerns only the airports operated by Avinor, which does not include for example Torp ENTO.

Today I flew VFR the 20 minutes from Molde (ENML) to Ålesund (ENAL). There was 17 kts wind down runway 07 so I tied down the airplane in order to retrieve it in one piece for the trip to Roskilde (EKRK) in the afternoon.

There were no buses from Vigra (the airport) into town because I just happened to arrive at a time where there were no scheduled flights. Therefore the only alternative was a taxi into town which must have been something like 500 NOK.

If you ever visit this region and need to choose between Molde and Ålesund, go for Ålesund.

Downtown Ålesund

On the way back I managed to grab an airport shuttle at the Ålesund bus terminal although I was looking for a taxi. Sometimes you are just lucky.

There was still 17 kts down the runway for my departure to Roskilde. The flight was meant to last 4:10. I had just enough fuel for the flight, with ESMS as alternate and 45 minutes reserves. In case I would determine I could not make it, I had two nice en-route alternates in Aalborg and Århus.

Initially everything went as planned, but approaching Bergen the headwinds started to be significantly stronger than anticipated, the ground speed suffered and the FMS started reporting worrysome fuel levels at arrival. The OAT also dropped although I did not pick up any ice, at least initially. Aalborg started to look like the destination of that flight although I was still hoping for more favourable winds ahead. And then I started to pick up ice and needed to descend to warmer air. Slowly the wind turned clockwise, my ground speed picked up and I reduced the power setting to conserve fuel and be able to reach EKRK with the planned alternate fuel. And slowly the estimated fuel at arrival started to creep up so by the time I was in the vicinity of Aalborg I was good to continue.

There was a lot more of this stuff around

After landing I taxied to the pump and that is when the real problems started. BP only accepts the BP card. The Shell machine initially did not recognize my Visa card. Help was sent, but now the Shell terminal rejected my Visa card. In the end the airport staff used their own card so I could pay at the terminal building. By the time I had filled the tanks, taxied to the apron, secured the airplane, it was dark and I was in desperate need of a bathroom break.

EKRK before it got dark

Apparently, when it gets dark, the buses go to sleep, so I had to get a taxi to Copenhagen. And on top of that, because of the uncertainty of where I would actually end up, I had not made hotel arrangements. That turned out to be the biggest mistake, because there seemed not to be a single, sensibly priced hotel room in all of Copenhagen tonight.

View from an expensive hotel room.

Thanks @LeSving for your post about parking fees at Norwegian (Avinor) airports.

As I prepared to depart from Molde (ENML) this morning, an Avinor employee drove up to me and started talking. He then asked whether I had paid the parking fee. I replied that I would usually do that using the online payment facility which I had been referred to at other airports. He then asked whether I was a member of NLF (the norwegian aeronautical associatio) to which I replied I no longer was, but I was member of several foreign aeronautical associations. I also referred to the excerpt of the AIC provided by LeSving.

He concluded that he would give me the benefit of the doubt and investigate.

Ålesund Vigra ENAL today. A healthy 17 kts down the runway.

Baccalao: check.

A word about fees at norwegian airports.

Most Norwegian airports are run by Avinor. They collect parking fees and departure fees as opposed to landing fees.

Parking fees for aircraft with MTOW 1200 kg are 250 NOK per 24 hrs plus 25% sales tax. With the current exchange rate that is about 27 € or 33,50 € with tax.

The departure fee for an aircraft with MTOW between 1001 and 1500 kg is 218 NOK plus sales tax, i.e. 23 € or 30 € incl. tax.

If you plan making more than 3 departures within a 7 day period, buying a 7-day pass for 753 NOK plus tax may be a better option. The problem is that this pass comes with 2.250 NOK worth of parking which makes it 321 NOK per day. So this requires some more investigating…