A four-day, four-people trip to the Alps with hitchhiking, an island on a lake, a Slovakian aquapark, an empty (?) Czech hotel…
Day one
Thunderstorms and decisions
Day two
From Slovakia to Slovenia
Days three&four
And finally – mountains!
Month: July 2019
And finally – mountains!
For previous episode – click here. To read from the beginning – here.
8th and 9th June 2019, days three and four
We’re flying to the Alps!
But before we set off, we have to get the regulatory rest first. To be fully rested I shall not fly for more than 3 or 4 consecutive days which must be followed by 1 or 2 days off respectively. In our particular case, the roster pattern was 2-1-3 (2 days on, 1 off, 3 on).
Saturday turned out to be the day off. We moved out of our place in the morning to leave the baggage in another one, which was close to the city center. We spent the rest of our day visiting coffee shops and some less popular places and discussing political and religious topics (in a polite manner 🙂 )
Sunday, on the other hand, was a very active day. We took a bus to the airport in the morning where we made an efficient flight preparation. The flight time to Lesce was 10 minutes, same as the taxi time together with waiting for the takeoff clearance.
Soon after reaching 2500 ft we started approach briefing and immediately after completing it, I changed the frequency to Lesce where we received information about the local traffic and runway in use. Yet another time clapping was heard after touchdown.
We shut down the engine, secured the aircraft and went towards the car park. We wanted to get to Lake Bled, 6 kilometers away, though we didn’t know how to do it. Also, we had to get back to the aircraft in the next 4 hours as we had to land at our last destination of the day before the sunset.
There was a woman walking across the car park whom Michael asked for a ride. She was here with her little nephew who was doing his trial flight at that time. It didn’t look like she would be able to help us but we obviously sparked her curiosity.
– How did you get here? Who brought you here? – she asked.
As a captain, I stepped forward and proudly stated:
– I did. I flew them here on a plane.
She just couldn’t believe us. She was still denying it when dropping us off by Bled to which she gave us a lift, presumably only to find out more who we are and how we got there. ‘Cause it’s impossible to fly that far in such a small plane!
We had enough time to rent a boat with oars for two hours, reach the island in the middle of the lake, get off to have some ice cream and turn back. After returning our 4-seater vessel we went back on land and headed to the nearest petrol station to hitchhike. The first attempt was unsuccessful, our second try was an Austrian-registered brand new Mercedes. The 60-year old driver was distinctly shaking his head so I wasn’t hoping for much. A few seconds later though, Michael called me to show that he had arranged two seats! Paul and I got in the car; we had to be back first to prepare the aircraft for departure.
It turned out that our driver was an active glider pilot based in Tirol, occasionally visiting Niederoblarn as well. Lesce airfield was not really along their route but they decided to detour to drop us off directly at the aeroclub’s car park.
We took our time getting to the aircraft being confident that the other two will arrive at least half an hour later… it came as a surprise to me to see them walking towards us just 10 minutes after our arrival.
The aircraft is ready for the flight, we are departing 15 minutes ahead of schedule. My requested altitude is FL100 (10,000 feet) and the routing to Seitenstetten is via Zell am See and Niederoblarn. I also have a plan B – in case we are unable to climb that high, we will not be able to clear the terrain. Therefore flying at 6-7 thousand feet should also be just fine, provided that we will deviate some 30 degrees to the right, flying more or less towards Niederoblarn, avoiding the region of extremely high terrain near Zell am See. We quickly found out that Plan B is more reasonable and we ended doing a step-climb to 8 thousand feet and flying an alternate route.
The views were just so stunning. We overflew several areas of flat ground totally covered in snow, despite the fact that the temperature at the sea level was exceeding 35 degrees Celsius!
It seemed that encountering traffic at 8000 feet, in the Alps, far from any airfield is improbable but we did get traffic flying in an opposite direction at the same altitude. We hadn’t been warned about it by the controller. It taught us a lesson that we must stay vigilant even at times when it would be reasonable to just sit back and relax.
We obviously kept our eyes open while approaching Grimming which was besieged by a number of gliders, towplanes and paragliders.
Closer towards the end of the flight, the terrain was getting lower though the views were still awesome. After about two hours of flying, we landed at Seitenstetten (LOLT) for refuelling. AVGAS was fairly expensive but we had to buy some to get back all the way to Poland.
Before the last departure of the day, I sit down to do my performance calculations… and just can’t believe what I see. It’s all red! How is that possible? I am recalculating the performance but it seems I have put in the right figures. I’m checking Google Maps for obstacle limitations – there’s just a group of trees just right of the runway centreline and other than that, it’s fine. I extended TODA up to 150% of runway length and this time it showed me a green light.
All done, I’m getting my crew aboard and off we go. Lift off went as planned, then I made a slight left turn at 50 ft AGL to get away from the trees (we could have overflown them anyway).
The last flight was uneventful. After landing we parked up next to some tents and a military car registered to Austria – I double checked that we actually landed in the Czech Republic.
Next to the airfield there was a house of a local retired parachutist. He invited us for a coffee and home-made orangeade. Meanwhile, we phoned up a hotel to rent a room.
Turned out we got the whole place for ourselves! The building seemed to be abandoned quite a few decades ago and was only rented to cover the cost of maintenance and taxes. I played a bit with the lighting in the restaurant and turned on some radio (which only played some Czech disco music). We also got a pizza from the town.
Around 11PM it turned out that we’re actually not alone. Had to turn off the radio.
From Slovakia to Slovenia
Click here if you haven’t seen the beginning of the trip!
7th June 2019, day two
Good morning from Ruzomberok! The streets here are all wet as it was quite rainy last night. We went to a local shop to buy some food and dined back in the hotel. We’d have loved to stay there a bit longer if it wasn’t for the Alps we were heading to.
It was not safe at that time to depart due to the local thunderstorm activity, so we set off for the thermal aquapark in Besenova. A local aircraft mechanic offered us a ride for a tenner in his good old Skoda. We caught the soft shoulder a couple of times but it was fun.
The aquapark was a bit overpriced. We paid the full price of 20 eur/person but could only use 1/3 of all the attractions as the rest of them remained closed until 1pm.
Our return journey was halfway on foot (including a quick break for lunch) and halfway by train. The train station had an extremely narrow platform but the locals didn’t seem to have any safety-related issues with it. Moreover, they were happy to queue literally inches away from the oncoming train.
The scheduled departure was in the late afternoon again but I estimated our landing time in Lesce to be approximately 15 minutes before the sunset. I updated the performance calculations by increased temperature and a slight headwind: both Take-Off Distance Required and Climb Gradient were all “green”, although eyeballing method suggested something completely opposite.
We reached 70% of rotation speed halfway down the strip. Continue… aaand rotate! After lift-off, I realised it’s actually not that challenging and a slight correction of the heading to the left solves the problem of avoiding obstacles.
Just a full left circuit over the airfield was all we needed to climb up to the safe altitude to fly over the city and join the route.
The wind from the south was building up its speed and we were warned by the controller about moderate turbulence between 8 and 10 thousand feet while approaching the Alps. Despite the fact that our cruise altitude was only 6000 feet, the turbulence was still affecting us. Without being sure If I can overfly the mountains safely and without burning more fuel than I have, I decided to leave the high ground somewhere abeam Maribor. Unfortunately, circling around the mountains to get to Lesce was not possible due to lack of fuel and time, thus I had to report a change of plans to the ATC:
– Radar, G-SBKR, requesting diversion to Slovenj Gradec.
– G-SBKR, roger, standby.
– G-SBKR, Slovenj Gradec is closed, they have some works in progress on the runway. I can offer you Sostanj, LJSO.
– Unable, my aircraft is not able to operate to Sostanj… can we try Maribor? Is it still open?
– Negative, Maribor closed about 20 minutes ago.
One last chance.
– Can we try Ljubljana, G-SBKR?
– G-SBKR, affirm, Ljubljana is approved, proceed via direct.
Landing at the biggest airport in the country gave us an extra few minutes but, first of all, allowed us to complete the flight in an absolutely legal and safe manner, in case we had to land after the sunset.
The approach was made by my F/O but we went a bit sideways on short final, so I took over all the way until landing as otherwise we would have to go around.
Having disembarked and gone to the main terminal we realised that… the last bus to the city had already gone at 8pm. The taxi costs 60 euros and the shuttle bus 9eur/person so not much better than the taxi. Michael had got an idea to try hitchhiking but some of us just wanted to go home and even pay for the shuttle bus. We were just about ready to go when he shouted he’d just arranged a car for us! Unfortunately, they only had two spare seats so we let Paul and Monica go first as they were the most exhausted ones and we went towards another car to ask for a lift.
This time I spoke to the driver and, after a couple of minutes, the nice lady agreed to take us with her. We even set off before our friends who had already had the ride arranged!
We decided not to fly the day after which allowed us to celebrate Paul’s birthday by drinking some local Slovenian beer.
To read about the last part of our trip, click here.
Thunderstorms and decisions
6th June 2019, day one
80 questions. That’s how many I had to answer to pass the Aircraft General Knowledge exam which I sat in the Polish CAA. After submitting my final answers (I passed, of course) I set off to Modlin Airport.
We gathered at 3pm and went to our TB10 aircraft which was already waiting for us, having gone through an engine overhaul.
My passengers – Monica and Michael – were exploring a wide range of aircraft parked up in the hangar. Meanwhile, I took my co-pilot to complete the pre-flight inspection. The plan for today is to reach Znojmo (LKZN) and make one technical stop on the way in Czestochowa (EPRU). The PFI caused a slight delay as I had to drain about 0.5 litre of water from the fuel tanks.
We were all boiling in the 30 degrees Celsius which was not beneficial for the aircraft performance either, so I taxied all the way to the runway end to use the full length for takeoff. The first flight was uneventful and we even had some time to have a meal in the local restaurant and to chat with other people.
We were coming back to the aircraft when I noticed a group of people surrounding it. One of them was sitting on the leading edge. I yelled at them to get off my aircraft not knowing who they were or what they were doing there. It turned out that all of them were pilots of another German-registered TB10 and they just wanted to see what our plane is equipped with.
Our next takeoff was in the late afternoon. The blueness of the sky gave way to frequent thunderstorms and lined up over Silesia creating an east-west border. Soon we saw frequent bolts of lightning which left us with only one option – fly along the front.
I chose to go upwind (eastbound). We had to carry on deviating from our original route until reaching the west end of the Krakow CTR, where we managed to steer south safely again. It all happened within controlled airspace so my every movement had to be cleared by the ATC.
It was obvious that now we can’t make it to the Czech Republic before the sunset. I could either divert and land at one of the local airstrips on the Polish side (EPNT or EPKP) or jump across the border and hit one of the Slovakian ones.
The weather in Slovakia was looking promising, thus I decided to land at Ruzomberok (LZRU). The surroundings were somewhat challenging for the approach but the landing itself was straight-forward. Nice soft landing, a quick taxi to the grass apron and a few moments later we were on the ground enjoying the views and breathing fresh air.
Finally, we had to take care of overnight accommodation. One can never tell where we are eventually going to end up, so it’s good to leave arranging hotels ’till the end.
With the help of a local Slovakian tourist (who clearly struggled to spell the name of the nearest town), we found a place to stay just 20 minutes away from the airfield.
We went out in the late evening to get some food but only bars were open so our only catering were chips and chocolate bars for that night.
The weather forecast was showing thunderstorms through the night and ending in the early afternoon, so we didn’t rush with planning the next day…
“24 gusting 40 knots, cleared for takeoff!”
For previous episode – click here. To get back to start of the trip – here.
April 14th 2018, day three
I woke up at sunrise in Rabat, the capital city of Morocco, in the Yasmine hotel. Today was the last day of my ferry flight – that will be two flights, first stop in Tanger and then in Malaga. I washed my face in the wash basin which is contrary to the recommended practices for tourists in Morocco. Then I had a breakfast – a piece of bread with some pate of unknown origin, olives and an awkward-looking yoghurt (in a liquid state).
Having packed my stuff, I left the hotel to catch a taxi. The sound of imams singing Quran could be heard coming from everywhere around me. It was a steady, creepy sound but what a great soundtrack for me, a private pilot, walking down the streets of Rabat.
Unlike the time before when I flew to Rabat just three months earlier, now I couldn’t get a lift to the airport for a reasonable price. Eventually I paid 40 dirhams for an old Mercedes W123 but having arrived to the airport, the driver started arguing with me, as he had to pay extra money to enter the airport’s car park. I gave him an extra tenner and I walked away to the terminal.
At the airport, there was literally no member of staff who would know if and how I can get a permission to enter airside. Having filled out 5 immigration (“landing”) cards I had to show my licence and convince them that I work for an airline as a crew member. Finally, I was cleared to the apron.
Then I had to do even more paperwork after completing which I was given a lift to the tower for a compulsory weather briefing. I again received a piece of dead trees telling me stuff about the weather en-route, at my destination and alternate aerodromes. When I came back to my aircraft I carried out my own, reliable self briefing, since somehow I got a wi-fi connection from the terminal and I could check the weather on-line.
– Rabat Tower, SP-GCE at GA stand, departing to Tanger, request engine start-up.
– SP-GCE, Rabat Tower, you have to come back to the Tower, we need to talk to you about something before you go. The car has been sent to you.
What do they still want from me?! I made a few inappropriate about them to myself and got out of the aircraft.
– Flying without a GPS onboard like you did it yesterday is unacceptable and I am not going to grant you clearance for flying any further. Unless you’ll get a navigation system from somewhere and request a special permission from Casablanca.
– But based on what rules you’re telling me I shall carry a GPS and why do I need a special permission? – I fought back.
– Because it’s not safe! Unless… you will prove to me that you have tracks and distances for this flight written down.
– If that’s the only thing you want from me then yes, I do have an operational flight plan and a VFR chart in my plane.
– Haha, in your plane? You don’t have it with you here, so I don’t believe you. Here, take his piece of paper and I will tell you the tracks and miles for each and every point.
So here I was, sitting behind the desk like an 8-year-old child, writing down useless stuff. Since I could see what the controller was dictating me, I finished writing while he was halfway through the reading.
– Now I can give you departure clearance. You may go!
I took off from runway 03 and after a couple of minutes I turned right onto heading 084, towards point ANIBI. Initially I was circumnavigating a massive rainfall from my left. The massive cloud settled over Kenitra and was extending further north parallel to Sebou river. Unfortunately, my next point IBDIR was inside of the rainfall area but the VFR chart offered me yet another option – to fly to Tanger along the north-eastern route – via Tetouan.
– Rabat Tower, SP-GCE, due to IMC ahead, request rerouting via Ksar el Kbir and Tetouan, to Tanger.
– SP-GCE, negative, follow the route on your flight plan or I will divert you back to Rabat.
Fine. So what, is it then better to fly in adverse weather conditions instead of following a safer route which is as official and published as the original one? I decided to carry on to Moulay bul Selham and, if I need to, I will declare PAN-PAN and get to Tanger safely, my way.
Having entered the rainfall, the visibility was continuously decreasing and the ceiling pushed me down to 1000 feet above the ground. Yet just after a minute of flying in these marginal VMC conditions, I flew out of the precipitation into an area of excellent weather with sunny spells and scattered cumulus here and there. Their cloudbases were pretty low, so I kept clear of them by avoiding them from the side.
I arrived to my destination, after overflying Larache and Asilah. Now it was the final time to refuel with the african AvGas and to say goodbye to Morocco.
I was preparing stuff for my flight to Malaga. Costa del Sol Airport released a NOTAM which made me wait another 4 hours in Morocco, as they couldn’t handle any GA traffic during peak times in Malaga.
The weather forecast didn’t look very good…
TAF GMTT 121100Z 1212/1318 23021KT 6000 BKN016
BECMG 1213/1215 23024G34KT 4000 RA SCT008 BKN016
TEMPO 1215/1219 2000 TSRA SCT008 BKN016 FEW020CB
BECMG 1219/1221 24012KT 6000
TEMPO 1223/1303 2500 SHRA SCT010 BKN014 FEW020TCU
TEMPO 1309/1315 24020KT 3000 SHRA SCT010 BKN014 FEW020TCU=
The worst case scenario is that I will take off just an hour before the thunderstorm commences, in a strong crosswind, and then I will almost teleport in no time to a place with a still relatively good weather.
Around 12:45UTC the winds began gaining their strength. I decided to take off much earlier, just double-checked if it’s actually safe to do it at that moment and I went back to the aircraft. Staying here to survive the squall was not a good option for the aircraft and taking off on schedule was not safe for myself, whatsoever.
I taxied to the runway 28 at no more than 5-6 knots. I did not carry out the engine run-up while holding short of the runway, as it could overstress the control surfaces being exposed both to the tailwind and the air blowing from the propeller, at the same time. I lined up on the runway, off the centreline and facing a bit to the left to counteract the crosswind component. Here it was a good place and time to check the engine parameters.
– Tanger, SP-GCE, ready for departure.
– SP-GCE, wind is now 250 degrees, 24 gusting 40 knots, runway 28 cleared for takeoff.
The takeoff looked more like a winch launch in a glider. Three seconds from releasing the brakes, the aircraft lifted off. I kept it close to the ground, pointing the nose at the horizon to secure the airspeed – that is to reach 70 knots or more. At the same time I turned gently into the wind to begin a “coordinated flight”. I must have had some 30 knots Ground Speed and a rather impressive vertical speed. After a whiiile I reached the coastline where I turned northbound towards Gibraltar. Or should I say, 45 left from Gibraltar, to stay on track.
Flying over the strait of Gibraltar was spectacular. Having reached 2000 feet I was now flying with a very strong tailwind. According to my calculations, I had GS of 120 knots while the airspeed indicator was showing just 70. The air was very smooth but I kept my seatbelt securely and tightly fastened in case of any unforeseen turbulence. A few moments later I flew past Ceuta where the controller told me to change radio frequency:
– SP-GCE, Tanger, contact 131.2 Gibraltar, bye bye.
– 131.2, SP-GCE, thanks, bye.
– Gibraltar, SP-GCE, good afternoon.. – I started with a usual piece of information
– SP-GCE, you got wrong frequency, contact Gibraltar on 122.8.
Well, I wasn’t expecting that.. alright, let’s do this again.. twentyyy…twoo…point eight!
– Gibraltar, SP-GCE.. hello?
– SP-GCE, Gibraltar, good afternoon, say your position, altitude, squawk, aicraft type, intentions and your request – the controller answered with a very clear, posh British accent.
– Gibraltar, SP-GCE, abeam CEU, 2000ft, squawk 7000, requesting basic service and direct to Malaga. Aircraft type is Socata Rallye.
– SP-GCE, Gibraltar, you are cleared into controlled airspace of Gibraltar, QNH 1008, report leaving. And what is the type of aircraft you’re flying, Sir?
– Socata Rallye, it’s a small, light, one-engine aircraft, SP-GCE.
– Roger, thank you 🙂
And a few minutes later I contacted Spain. Not without trying to overcome the language barrier.
– Malaga, buenas tardes, SP-GCE after PIMOS and my ETA is 1500Z.
– SP-GCE, buenas tardes, radar identificado.. – and I didn’t get the rest in Spanish.
– Malaga, SP-GCE, I understood radar contact and I don’t speak Spanish 😐
– SP-GCE, Malaga, you don’t speak Spanish and what else?
– ETA is 1500Z and I speak three other languages, SP-GCE.
After having this strange conversation I was asked to enter holding over Fuengirola and then over Torremolinos which was an area of strong turbulence caused by the mountains in vicinity. I spent there some half an hour and got a permission to land on runway 13 (on the right side, towards the Alboran sea). I touched down without any problems.
-SP-GCE, Tower, vacate via Echo-4, hold short of Alpha. Expect Alpha to Golf-2 where you will find the marshaller at the GA apron.
I gave way to a large passenger jet, taxiing from the terminal towards the active runway and I got a clearance to get to my parking stand. I parked up my old Socata between some expensive business jets for VIPs.
And that’s how my 3-day trip across Morocco has come to an end. I flew 950 nautical miles in 14 hours 15 minutes. I crossed the ocean again, using only a VFR chart. I overflew Sahara desert. I saw from above how Moroccans live away from the big cities and witnessed from the ground how people live in the smaller towns, away from the tourists. I worked with controllers either following the stupidest procedures or not following the right ones. I also had a honour to work with people who somehow found their place in this strange world, yet they show their intelligence and professionalism.
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