What have you done with, or on your aircraft, this week-end? (29-30 July 2023)

Pottered about, refuelled the DA40 talked a lot and wondered if we"ll ever see the Mosquito flying again.

We flew from LESU to LECI in the Pyrenees today:

So well done, terbang. The weather is so poor here in Central Europe, and is set to stay like that for another 10 days at least…

I just flew around locally…. my excitement was provided by watching a friend fly his Mooney to Oshkosh from Germany, starting last weekend. I can’t wait to hear his stories in person.

The initial (a few weeks ago) plan was to fly to any of the german Frisian islands.
The weather this morning wasn’t as bad as predicted so i just flew a couple of circuits.

Last week we started our first longer tour Tuesday flying to Bayreuth (EDQD) for a coffee break – unfortunately the restaurant was closed but the Flugleiter there brewed us a cuppa – landing fee was €8 – then onwards to Bad Vöslau (LOAV) to stay overnight; total cost including parking overnight there was around €55.

Wednesday lunchtime we flew onwards to Slovenske Konicje (LJSK) for the annual paperwork check at the aircraft manufacturer for the extension of my permit to fly. Interesting was to see 3 other aircraft there for the same action. That happened Thursday am, took maybe 2 hours; no landing fee payable, however you do need PPR for the airport. If you wanted to go there to go walking, there is a really nice Penzion Kracün about 1.6km from the field – nice rooms, air conditioned, with excellent restaurant – highly recommended. The area is really beautiful with lovely scenery.

After having the PtF completed, our initial plans were to fly onward to Lake Bled (Lesce Bled – LJBL) and stay there; although we could have made it there and looked around, the bad weather would have likely trapped us there until Sunday or Monday so we flew on to Heviz / Balaton (LHSM) and stayed there until Monday, enjoying the delights of Kesztely and Fönyod.

In Kesthely we were “entertained” by what appeared to be a regional heat of “Hungary’s got talent” – or as I called it – “who’s strangling the cat” – some of the singing was truly atrocious. But the woman looked good….

In Fönyod we got to saw a collection of old timer cars being showed off close to the beech; we also paid for a trip on a jet boat. 60Knots might sound slow in the air but in a speed boat doing radical s turns, that is truly a hoot…

Monday am we departed Heviz – landing fee and parking for two nights including tie down cost €63 – and flew to Gliwice (EPGL) with the intention of landing there, refuelling and parking overnight for 2 days whilst we explored Krakow. Interesting enough were the issues we had with transport from Gliwice to Krakow. Trains – 90 minutes using an Intercity; we tried to buy a ticket. “Not possible today”, we were told. I tried to explain we didn’t need a seat, we would stand. Again, we were told, the next trains were so full that it was not possible to get even a standing space on the train. I saw a ticket machine and thought: I’ll order tickets from there. Nope, none available until later in the day. I then called a number of car rental places, for the bigger companies such as Sixt I checked online – no availability.

I suddenly got the feeling I was back behind the iron curtain in the early 80s – no trains, no cars, nothing. We asked a taxi driver for a quote. 800PLN to drive from Gliwice to Krakow. We then decided to have a longer lunch break in Gliwice and ordered a ticket for later in the day – “standing room only”. I also took the opportunity to book the return ticket for the Wednesday – however my desired train was also fully booked out, had to choose an earlier train. I honestly don’t understand why Poland has 3 train operators and all their trains are “sold out” – a more business oriented train operator would not ignore the demand and put on short trains – the ICs I saw could easily have fitted another 4 carriages onto the end and still stopped in the station….

We chose EPGL because they had hangar space to keep our aircraft protected as the storms passed through – a wise decision, as it turned out. Other airports didn’t have any space. Parking in the Hangar cost PLN 100 per night, landing fees PLN 19 plus PLN 19 for departure. My desire to visit Krakow stemmed from the wish to “meet” Nigel at the Waxworks there – anyone who has watched the latest “Grand Tour” Series 5 episode 2 “Eurocrash” will know to whom I am referring – unfortunately he was never there, it was all a set up for the show – even if it made me laugh heartily when I watched it. In case you are wondering what I’m talking about, watch it – hilarious….

We also had guide show us around the Ghetto & the Jewish Quarter, we visited Oskar Schindler’s factory and also took in the Aviation Museum – we had the good fortune of going there Tuesday morning and didn’t have to pay….

Initially we were thinking about flying back Wednesday PM to Schoenhagen (EDAZ) and, depending on weather, either flying home that day because bad weather was looking to be the dominant factor for the coming days or staying overnight, looking around Berlin and then flying home the next morning. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t clear in Gliwice until around 6pm; that would have meant that we would have had to fly onwards to Leipzig (EDDP) as Schoenhagen would have been closed. However the German weather reports were showing thunderstorms enroute and all around Leipzig , radar pictures were not looking good so we decided to stay another night in Gliwice. I can also heartily recommend Gliwice – the people there are very helpful.

Early Thursday morning we flew onwards to Schoenhagen (EDAZ) but the weather was closing in rapidly from the West so we parked up there, tied the aircraft down and took the shuttle to Trebbin airport, then onwards to Berlin where we wandered around the usual tourist spots – Deutsche Technik Museum, Check Point Charlie, Brandenburger Tor, Bundestag etc.

Finally we returned home Friday lunchtime, having flown 7 legs, covered just shy of 1400NMs in slightly more than 12 hours, burning 157 litres of Super Unleaded. In car terms, we were flying at on average close to 220km/h whilst consuming 6,2l / 100km. So the aircraft is definitely meeting our expectations.

Nothing special, just ferried a Baron from KHHR to KCNO for maintenance. A really exciting 20 min flight, LOL!

We spent a nice evening at Chalon-sur-Saône LFLH and continued to Quimper LFRQ for a short stay.

We went to Læsø (EKLS) again! Rented bicycles and had a good time, as always. Only a SR20 on the field, and the BN2 flying the taxi service to Roskilde (EKRK) twice a day.

Got out before a warm occluded front came. The airport is VFR only, but there have been rumours of an RNP approach for quite some time.