Munich, Salzburg, Kassel, Duxford - June 21 to July 1, 2012

This was my first long cross-country trip on the continent. I had two different goals. First, I was meeting an old high-school buddy and his girlfriend, who were to be in Munich for a few days. Then, with a flying buddy from Sweden, a visit to the Duxford Flying Legends Air Show (a fly-in).

The whole trip was planned to span over about two weeks at the end of June, but I made sure to have plenty of leeway to allow for weather stops. That time of year can be unpredictable. I had some confidence it would work out, since it seems to me that the summer more often brings cold fronts with their showers and thunder storm weather. You really don't want to be flying in TCU or CBs, but you can usually find a way around them. So I figured, with a little patience I should be able to fly my routes.

ESGP - EDHL
June 21 - 2.4 hrs - 255 NGM

The route ESGP-EDHL

The whole trip started that way, as cold-front weather made its reliable entrance for Swedish Midsummer. My first goal was to get down to Augsburg (EDMA), just to the West of Munich. To avoid getting socked in in Stockholm, I flew to Göteborg (ESGP) to position myself for the flight down to Lubeck (EDHL - my first re-fuel). This worked and the next day, I made the relatively short flight (2.4 hrs) down. I was forced by the fronts to stay in Lubeck for a couple of days, but this is a mild punishment, Lubeck being a very pleasant place to be. I toured the town, took some photos, saw some of the beautiful older buildings (from the Hansa period).

The route down to Lubeck from Göteborg goes along Sweden's West Coast, a really beautiful flight if you have any kind of clear weather (which of course we always do, flying VFR). I chose to leave the coast and enter Danish airspace at the SVD VOR, flying then right over the top of Roskilde at or below 1500 ft. This keeps you out of all of Kastrup's charlie airspace. I have actually been cleared through Kastrups CTL once, just north of the AD.  But I tend not to press my luck. I realize the controllers have a lot of big commercial traffic they need to attend to, and having flies buzzing around in the space just adds to the workload. So I usually plan to go either north or south and stay low.

The route then continues over Lolland, the southern-most island of Denmark and also beautiful to see from the air. Flying directly from Roskilde to the Mickelsdorf VOR keeps you east of the huge R-area, Langeland. After you pass into Bremen Information's airspace you almost immediately leave them for Lubeck tower. I flew late in the day (after waiting in Göteborg for the weather to clear) and arrived at Lubeck at 2035 LT. It was still before civil twilight, however, it being the longest day of the year!

EDHL - EDMA
June 23 - 3.2 hrs - 325 NGM

Central Germany, FL95

Early on the 23rd, I took off from Lubeck for Augsburg. The route couldn't be simpler. Three VORs, HLZ, ERF and ERL, line up almost straight south to guide you right there. The skies were clear that day, so I took the easy way out and got cleared by Bremen Information up to FL95 almost directly, and stayed there until I began my descent after clearing Nurnberg at ERL. Bremen passed me to Munich Information over Magdeburg. In Germany (in Europe, actually), although you file a flight plan, the Information controllers apparently don't get the plan. So they always want to know your departure, destination and type when you contact them. Also, you get a new squawk from each one, so they tell you to squawk VFR when you leave their space and expect you to be on 7000 when you call the first time.

This route took me east of Hannover, over Erfurt (west of Leipzig), and right over Nurnberg, but their charlie space ends at FL70, so I don't bother them. Augsburg lies under Munich's charlie space, but there it's up at FL85, and I descended way below that by the time I got there, so you get handed off directly from Munich Info to Augsburg TWR. They have an ATIS service, which we dutifully listen to and report on reaching their Oscar 1 reporting point. I had programmed all their reporting points into the G1000 on the way down, so whatever instruction they'd give me would be easy to comply with. The list of reporting points with coordinates is in the AD VFR chart (which Rocket Route conveniently makes available for your flight when you file). Having the reporting points in the system puts them on the moving map (MFD), so flying the approach is easy and leaves you right on base for the chosen runway (in this case, 25).

Augsburg is a very convenient AD with JetA and plenty of parking on the apron. You can stay as many days as you want, no prior notice necessary and no handling required. I was there more or less in high season, but there was no problem. You fuel at the pumps (no fuel truck) at the west end of the apron and then park as directed. Once I was west of the tower, once east of the tower. It's all good. And the fees are reasonable. For three separate landings and five days of parking, the total bill was €88.

I caught a taxi into Munich, where I had booked a B&B on the west side of the city, to be closer to the airport. That worked great, as the Stadtbahn is typically very easy to use and takes you anywhere in town you want to go.

EDMA - LOWS - EDMA
June 24 - 1.2 hrs each way - 100 NGM

The route EDMA-LOWS

I had a day to spare before my friends arrived from the U.S., so being a pilot, I had to find somewhere to fly to. I considered points West, like Basle-Mulhouse, but that seemed like a bit too long for a day trip. I settled instead on Salzburg. I've been there before and love the city, and flying in just had to be done, so it was decided.

I had planned a route over the most convenient VORS, MAH and MUN, to go south of Munich's CTL. The safe altitudes on the Jeppesen charts in that area rangt from 3400 to 3800, so I was going to fly at least at 4000 ft. That meant the MAH VOR was inside Munich's charlie airspace, and the controller did not want me there. So I jogged to the south right over Oberpfaffenhofen to the MUN VOR and then flew direct the Tachinger See reporting point for Salzburg's TMA. Munich Information passed me right to Salzburg, so I never talked to Wien Info.

The Alps, south of Munich

Flying into Salzburg from the North was one of the most spectacular experiences I've had. What you notice as you plan the flight is that you are dealing with real altitudes. Coming from Sweden, we fly around most the time over landscape that is at or near MSL.

The Salzburg AD itself is "only" at 1411ft, but the mountains just south of it rise up to 6, 7, 8 and 9000 feet. As you fly south toward the airport, not yet being able to discern the runway, you are descending from your 4500ft cruising altitude down to 2500 or so for your approach. As you are descending, you get closer and closer to the mountains that all seem to be getting higher and higher. It is spectacular, and was also a little disconcerting the first time. I was lucky enough to be number two behind a Citation, so I could follow his approach path toward the runway.

Taxiing out at Salzburg LOWS

The Salzburg AD is a larger, regional airport. They are used to bizjets (as one might expect), and a sort of handling-lite is required. Basically, you get a follow-me truck to your parking spot and then a bus from your plane into the GA terminal (where they have glossy magazines, leather chairs and bottled water). They'll arrange a taxi for you and handle all your paperwork (coming from Germany, there was none needed). The bill for all this was €62, which considering everything was OK. It's not cheap, but it is Salzburg, after all. After a day in town, I was back out at the airport in the afternoon for the flight back. (Unfortunately, I was unaware of the Red Bull hangars at the Salzburg airport, so I didn't get the chance to go by for a tour. Arrggh! Next time, for sure.)

By the way, I'll again tip you that having all the reporting points programmed into your GPS is very helpful. At Salzburg, they really want you to fly directly over Whiskey, and will notice if you don't find it (judging from the radio traffic i heard), so be warned.

The flight home, I went north of Munich's CTL, instead, just for the change of pace. It was not as beautiful a flight, though. I wouldn't route that way again. The route south, right over the city, and in view of the low Alps rising up to the south, is by far the more enjoyable one.

EDMA - EDVK - EDMA
June 26 - 2.1 hrs out, 1.7 hrs back - 197 NGM

My high-school buddy had planned to visit an old friend of his who lives in Kassel. They could have taken the train 3 hrs each way or so, meaning they'd probably stay over night. Instead, being a pilot, I offered to fly them up there and make a day trip of it. They thanked my profusely and I was just as thankful to have a "mission".

The route was again simple. Generally, I've experience Germany being pretty straightforward to fly around. They don't have scads of restricted areas all over the place (compare with Belgium, for example, or even eastern France). Even if you can't get up to higher flight levels, you can pretty much fly to your destination with out diversions, as long as you don't fly over the big international ADs. They will not allow you in their charlie airspace, so plan to fly around or over them.

This plan was north to the Dinkelsbuhl VOR, then WUR and FUL (to keep us east of Frankfurt's TMA) and then straight over Fritzlar to Kassel-Calden. On this trip, we actually had some ceilings to deal with. They were a little tricky, as it was SKC near Munich, becoming FEW and then SCT further north. I climbed up to FL75 or so to begin with and then stayed up there as long as I dared for the clear, turbulence-free air. Eventually, I had to get back down under the cloud cover, though, and we finished the flight at 3500 feet prior to our approach.

The approach was a little interesting. It turns out they are building a new runway there, and I rather clumsily lined up my long final with the new runway instead of the current one, which I noticed as I got a little closer and saw all the machinery and debris. No real problem, as it was an OK base for the real runway, but a little disconcerting for me. That experience taught me that it is good to always check your heading (or actually, track) to see if it matches with the runway you are supposed to be on final for. Seems like a good idea.

Kassel-Calden is another convenient, smaller GA AD with TWR service and asphalt RWY. JetA and help booking a taxi were available, but no handling required and really reasonable landing fees, €18 including parking for the day. I suppose one should keep reading the AIP as the new runway is being built to see if any of this changes.

The flight back was in clear skies with a tail wind. Same route, and now I was "experienced" landing at Augsburg. The idea of "basing" the plane at an AD, staying at a B&B near there, and exploring the area with day trips was very, very nice. I will consider planning another vacation in that way. It's a great kind of pilot's vacation, but can be interesting for non-pilot family members as well. You have an enormous range of possible sites to see. From Augsburg, you have Austria, Southern Germany, Southeast France and Northern Switzerland all within reach for a day trip. Imagine doing the same thing based at Dijon in France, or somewhere in Italy or Spain, or near Prague. Many possibilities!

EDMA - LFAT
June 28 - 3.6 hrs - 394 NGM

The route EDMA-LFAT

My U.S. friends left Munich for the next part of their trip, and I met a flying buddy who came down from Stockholm. We had planned to fly out to Duxford to see their Flying Legends Airshow, the first leg of which was to Le Touquet on the French coast. Now the interesting flying would begin. The airspace on the French side of the border around Metz is pretty complicated. There are a lot of restricted areas. They also have the (in)famous low-flying military jet corridors that stretch from 800ft to, for example, 2500 ft AGL. They are in mountainous terrain, so figuring out what MSL you need to stay out of their corridors is a little tricky the first time.

Our route went west from Augsburg to the Tango VOR, then Karlsruhe (KRH), then continued northwest to Pirmasens, west to cross the FIR boundary near Saarlouis. I planned that way because at that point I had still not quite understood that they just don't want transit flights through charlie airspace, period. So in the event, we were asked to route south of Stuttgart to stay out of their TMA. We obliged, of course, and then followed the rest of the route.

If you look at the route (This is the Rocket Route display with the airspaces shown), you'll see the red military corridor that the route follows. I planned this to fly above the corridor, which as long as you have the ceilings for it, provides a great route clear of other restricted areas (for the most part). Once we crossed into the French FIR (Strasbourg Info), we did this direct Montmedy (MMD) VOR, then Cambrai (CMB) and it worked just fine. From there, it was a clear shot to Le Touquet.

We talked to Strasbourg Info on the way into the FIR (took a while to get them on the phone), then eventually switched to Paris Info, and then Lille Info. They just monitored our flight, but otherwise had no opinions on our route or progress. Lille handed us off to LFAT TWR.

SDV on the apron at Le Touquet LFAT

Le Touquet (full name of the area: Le Touquet-Paris-Plage) has a wonderful smaller airport. JetA, no handling, plenty of parking on the apron, TWR service, customs handling. It tends to be windy, being on the coast. The town itself has lots of nice hotels, and the restaurants are French, so low expectations not necessary. If you can't make London (or whatever destination you are aiming for in the UK) on one hop, this is a great place to stop. We had booked rooms at a local hotel. We ate dinner, took an
invigorating walk by the water and then slept well. The next day, we were bound for the UK.

LFAT - EGMD
June 29 - 1 hr - 40 NGM

We were actually headed for Duxford, but that is not a customs AD, so we needed to check into the UK somewhere, first. I also had the brilliant idea that we would contact a flying club in the UK and see if we couldn't get an instructor to sit with us and talk about flying in the UK airspace a little bit. I've read a little and it seemed that they use some terminology that is a little different, and flying around the London area can be a little tricky, since there are so many ADs in such a small space.

The choice was Lydd. The AD sits out on the southeast most corner of England, right next to a nuclear power plant and a military training area (firing range). We filed to enter at the SOVAT FIR reporting point and then fly direct to the AD. Lydd has specific instructions about reporting on approach, which I'd read and followed on the way in. My surprise, for some reason, was that the trip was so short. It all happened to quickly, I had hardly any chance to get up to the altitude I had planned to climb to over the channel. I was so focused on "altitude = safety", that I didn't bother to do the math and figure out there wouldn't be any time to climb up to FL65 (where the alpha airspace begins). Lydd us also on the coast, also very windy at times. I had the most "exciting" landing of the whole trip here. I don't remember what the cross wind was, but it was very gusty, so I felt good about getting all three gear on the pavement without hurting anything.

A very cool Czec-built twin on the apron at Lydd.
They were also bound for Duxford.

In any case, we did pass customs at Lydd, parked the plane, called Duxford to get a landing slot for the next day. We also had a 15 minute session with one of the instructors, which proved helpful. You never know what will be of use until you actually listen to a knowledgable person for a while. If nothing else, it helped our confidence to pick our way between ADs on the way up to Duxford the next day. The instructor helps us out for no charge (very nice, very like a flying club) and the fees at Lydd totalled €21 for landing and parking over night. Well, at least it was cheap.

We had re-fueled at Le Touquet, and my plan was to do the legs to Lydd, Duxford and then back to Calais before we fueled again. So we spent the night near Lydd (Not recommended - see my blog entry on Aerodromes), and the next day we left so as to arrive for our 1020 landing slot.

EGMD - EGSU
June 30 - 0.9 hr - 88 NGM

The flight to Duxford was indeed interesting. We flew the Detling VOR, then the Lambourne (right over Stapleford, talking to them as we passed), then BPK, southwest of Stanstead to BKY, then back northesast to our Duxford approach. There again, we followed protocol, calling at BKY and got slotted in to land.

A lot of cool planes flew in to Duxford

There was a lot of traffic for that whole flight. You are talking to Farnborough East in that part of the London area. (It's Farnborough West beginning at Southampton, and Essex starting north of Stanstead. They are very busy people. You call them with your tail number and when they have a time slot for you they repeat your number and say "pass your message". You then have about a half a second to start telling them exactly what they need to know. If you don't get that right, they just go on to the next station and you wait another cycle. What they need to know is nothing new: DEP, DEST, TYPE, squawk, altitude, position. And what kind of service you request. There are different alternatives for VFR traffic, but usually everyone just asks for "basic service". That means traffic following.

They will not do conflict avoidance, however, not as part of basic service for VFR traffic. I have to say that the TAS (traffic advisory system) in SDV came in very handy in this situation. It really kept us up-to-date on most of the traffic around us. I was very glad to have it.

Seven Spitfires and two Messerschmitts flying by.
This is Duxford.

Landing at Duxford was also a little stressful, since there were so many AC on the way in. You had to really listen to the controller all the time and be ready to follow any instruction. He instructed me to vacate the runway, for example, the second the main gear were on the pavement. Not what you would normally expect. But, we parked on the grass along with all the other fly-ins and had a great day at the air show. An amazingly well produced show. The air demonstrations followed one after the other like machine gun fire. You hardly got a break to buy a hot dog. So we were running around taking photos the whole day. Visited the museum, etc. I recommend this highly to any pilot.

Red Bulls P-38, am amazingly nimble aircraft

If you do go fly in to Duxford, here's a little inside tip: Know that all the planes park on the grass on the opposite side of the runway from the museum, apron, exhibits, etc. So they have a bus shuttle service running to take pilots and their passengers from the planes to the apron. Once you leave your plane, you cannot get back to it during the day, so you have to be able to take with you everything you need for the day. At the end of the day, you can take the bus back out, get your luggage for your overnight stay, and then get back to the apron to get transport to wherever you are staying. The next morning, you have to get the bus back out to your plane to leave. The moral of the story: leave plenty of time for the bus trips, pack light, and have a backpack you can use during the day for everything you need with you (camera, lenses, long sleeve shirt, cap, etc.)

EGMD - LFAT - ESTA
July 1 - 5.5 hrs - 632 NGM

The route LFAC-ESTA

Again we'd rented rooms nearby at a B&B. Had a great curry and I slept like a baby. The next day we were back at the AD. The show was continuing the next day, but we needed to get out of there, so we hopped the bus to get back out to our plane and waited for a slot to get onto the runway. Again, it was stressful and we basically had to do a rolling start from the grass out onto the runway and up into the air.

Our plan was to stop in Calais to refuel, but (as I had suspected) the Calais TWR service was closed when we arrived. The AD was still open, but it was now RADIO, so you had to speak French to land there. Somewhat chagrined, we turned south back to Le Touquet, landed, re-fueled and re-filed our flight plan to Angelholm, Sweden (oh so easy to do with Rocket Route on the iPad). The mission now was just to get back to Stockholm, and Angelholm was a convenient fuel stop.

The route there is one I like a lot. You basically follow the north coast of France, Belgium, Holland and then up through Germany and Denmark into Sweden. We started out direct Koksy VOR (KOK), then Costa (COA). Through here we stayed between 1500 ft and FL55 to avoid charlie and alpha airspace. then on south of Rotterdam via the RR NDB/TACAN to PAM VOR. In that area, they don't want you above 1500, to avoid the big guys on approach to Schiphol. We happened to run into showers of rain just then, and had to pick our way carefully over the smokestacks. Once past PAM, direct to the Eelde VORTAC (EEL), again watching our altitude, not to conflict.

From there it was into German airspace, Bremen Info, over Helgoland and into Denmark by the Alsie VOR. Then Trano VOR to Sveda and direct into Angelholm. It is a relatively relaxed flight, with relatively good freedom on altitudes. Bremen Info can be a little difficult to get on the phone sometimes, but otherwise, no issues.

Angelholm, it turns out, is a very expensive place to fuel. Fuel itself has the more friendly "Nordic" price, something like 2/3 to 1/2 what you pay on the continent for JetA. But they charge €50 just to land (!!)  Amazing. And as far as I know, they offer no services whatsoever. This is an AD to avoid, if at all possible. I think Roskilde can be a better alternative, but I haven't been there yet, so I don't really know.

In the event, we just refueled, stretched our legs and decided the 2 hrs back to Stockholm felt like no problem, so we were off again, and it certainly felt good to be home.