Trip report - Friedrichshafen in a C172 from Norway

[M609]

Well, after visiting Aero in 2010 via lo-co airline, I´ve always wanted to fly down there myself, and las fall (september) I decided: I´m going.
After enlisting a fellow club member to join me, as it would get a tad pricy otherwise, I got down to planning the thing early on.

First: Apply for time off from work
Second: Reserve the club G1000 Cessna for almost one week, req. approval from the club president.
Third: Reserve rooms in a hotel in Friedrichshafen town center. (Pricy....ouch....)

In early 2014 I got into getting maps, VFR AIP Germany for the iPad and other bits and bobs in a row.
Then in march "disaster", the co-pilot ejected from the project, could not get time off from work the poor sod.
Que email to all club members: "....anyone fancy a trip to Germany in april...". Luckily Kjell jumped at the offer in under one hour, and project back on track.

We planned for departure on the 8th or 9th depending on the Wx, our home base at Hokksund/ENHS being a wee distance of approx 900nm from Friedrichshafen, some time slack needed to be taken into account. We had VFR arrival slot at 14:40 on the 10th.

Flightplanning for the entire trip was done with Rocketroute.

Bits and bobs packed
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Wx in Norway was complete solid IMC on the 8th, but slightly better on the 9th, so we planned for å midday departure.
We set off under a solid overcast, with marginal conditions and a plan to cross the sea to Denmark due to low clouds on the Swedish coast. (Forcast spot on as it turned out)

Not nice on the on coastwise on the Nor/Swe border.....
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As soon as we got abeam Skagen on the Danish side, we hooked a right, and crossed the sea, staying at about 1200ft MSL all the way over, with the Wx lifting when we got to the coast.

Better Wx over the sea
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Down Denmark the Wx cleared up quite a bit, and strong tailwind pushed us to an before time arrival at our planned stop at Lübeck/EDHL after 03:40 block to block. Lübeck was very quiet, but friendly ATC and staff. Cessna parked and chocked for the night, and we where off to a affordable hotel in the old town center.

Kjell unpacks at Lübeck
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I did som sightseeing in Lübeck, before dinner and a few *ahem* beers....

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The next morning we arrived early at the airport, to avoid having to rush. The wx was forcasted a bit iffy in the west and better in the east of Germany, so we wanted to depart a bit earlier than needed for the slot, should we have to re-route. A good call as it turned out. Staff again very helpful, and fueling and paperwork done, we where on our way again.

BP staff hard at work in Lübeck
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Airborne we made good time, and got to know the poor visibility we had been warned about. (Mist really not much of a problem in Norway 99% of the time :) )

Nice wx over the north German plains, after that flying soon took priority over picture taking....
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When we got to abeam Braunschwig, terrain and clouds got a bit close for our comfort level, and we routed to the east to better ceiling. (We didnot fancy crossing the hills south of Braunschwig in the wx) Once clear of that hill, back on course only to have Munich Info advise that a/c ahead of us had not been able to cross the western part of Thüringer Wald, and was routing east via Hof/EDQM. .....and we followed them, so back on SE track. We eventually crossed Türinger Walds eastern slopes and flew into better and better ceilings, arriving at Friedrichshafens main runway on slot, to CAVOK and a very quiet airfield (!) Perhaps a few more had Wx issues that day. 03:50 in the logbook.

LN-DFM parked in generally more posh company on the south side
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Buchorner Hof Hotel was nice, and some beef and beer was just the ticked that evening.

The next day was pilot-nerd mode full on.

Drool....
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Enjoy the sun....
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7402/13832133623_5288c720b4_c.jpg
Drool...
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5278/13832465134_14ea34a79b_c.jpg
Some of this...
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7443/13832140723_3927386f5e_c.jpg
Some blimp spotting....
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3768/13832119795_028d7bc244_c.jpg

...and soon the day was over. Full of impressions, and some info we can put into good use at the club back home. (Ex: Start getting some of the old timers to accept that there really are radios and mode S transponders that take less space than the stuff we have in our L-18C)

[M609]

part two.....

On Saturday we got an early start, catching the train to the airport, and was through fee payment and security screening by 08:30.
Fees not cheap, but I feared worse. 82€ for landing and 2 nights parking.

Kjell does the daily inspection.
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We did a VFR no FPL departure, and went up to Mengen/EDTM to upload some fuel. 00:30 block to block.
Mengen turned out to be a very nice airfield, with nice staff. Self service pumps, just pay in the FISO tower after.

DFM parked at the pumps.
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Kjell went into "pap" mode, and made sure I did not escape.
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5557/13832126905_fe08c9425c_c.jpg

With all admin taken care of, we departed on a FPL to Laage/ETNL. Wx was nice, with some low fog and mist.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7186/13832478894_0f4870af77_c.jpg

Remember our old fried Thüringer Wald? Well, guess what same story, but this time we routed to the west, but was one slim c***hair away from turing back. The valley to the west of the "mountains" proved clear enough, even if the thick mist was still a bit foreign to us northerners.
North of the hills it was plain sailing, ad we made good time northbound. Our plan was to crack on back home, if forecasts allowed.

We arrived at Laage on time after another 03:50 in the Logbook, joining downwind behind an A319 doing patterns, fueled and got on to Aeroweather: Bad news. Solid IMC at home base, with the stuff moving south along Denmark and Sweden. We decided that we would use our backup plan to Roskilde/EKRK outside Copenhagen, which was already stored in Rocketroute for that eventuality.

LN-DFM looks a bit lost at the vast ramp at Laage. (Way at the back on the right :) )
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While waiting for the FPL lead time to pass, we got some lunch on the roof terrace in the terminal, watching a Lufthansa A319 doing touch and goes, you know the 6 TGL, then taxi in, change type rating candidate in the right seat, and off they go for another 6.

A straight shot over the sea to Denmark had us at Roskilde after 01:05, parking at the main apron, and getting a taxi into town. We checked in at the hostel down at the harbor, and when we walked back from dinner in the high street, the Wx front rolled in from the north with rain and strong winds.

Sunday morning broke with lighter weather, but METARS just across the sound in Sweden showed low ceilings, but forecasted to improve. We waited until we had at least ceiling above 1500, and departed for the airfield after filing the FPL.
Roskilde is a almost pure GA airfield, with lots of schools and executive traffic. Staff was nice and helpful, and with landing fees payed, we arranged a visit to the tower, having a nice chat with my Danish colleagues. It was a bit windy, so combined with the still low-ish ceilings, the local aircraft where not up and about much.

Roskilde TWR, a TMB and a Cessna 421 had parked on the apron with us the night before as well
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Leaving Roskilde into a strong NW wind from their RWY29, we made a easy passage up the Swedish coast, skirting under a 1600ft ceiling until passing Gothenburg, where it cleared up a lot, making it possible to climb above the choppy air. Quite bumpy with approx 35kts from NW, with a bit lazy groundspeed as well. :)

In the end we landed at Hokksund/ENHS after 03:05, and hangared the Cessna.
The flight was a great experience, as well as challenging at times, which is to be expected going VFR in April.


In the end we did more than 1800nm, which is a bit in a 172! 16 hours total time, as we made good time on the way south.
Rocket Route worked very well, and when we could stick to the route and not mill around looking for better Wx, the time estimates in the flight log where never more than 2 minutes off even for long 50+ nm nav legs. I was quite impressed by that.

We filed via IFR waypoints to make it easy to input into the G1000, using autopilot NAV mode quite a bit. The plans where loaded onto a yoke mounted G695 as well for backup, and the laminated VFR charts for Germany where used for check NAV all the way. (Nice product, several sheets laminated together to create large sheets)
VFR approach plates and airfield maps sourced on Rocketroute Aeroplates for the iPad.

Track log from the Garmin 695
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This was my first proper long trip, but it was fun. Great to have a experienced guy like Kjell along, being a CFI with thousands of hours. I might have R/T and skills with modern planning tools, but you cannot replace experience :)

[Sam Rutherford]

Great! Thanks for sharing!

Sam.

[thing]

Good stuff! Enjoyed the read and the pics.

[worldpilot]

Great trip.:ok:

You were lucky to have arrived late in the afternoon on the 10th. I had a slot between 08:40 and 09:00 UTC (same day) and the airport was closed for about 40 minutes starting at 08:05 UTC for all traffic landing on the asphalt runway (RWY24) after a pilot flying a twin aircraft landed without lowering the undercarriage (landing gear).:ugh:

http://www.swr.de/landesschau-aktuell/bw/bodensee/flughafen-friedrichshafen-bruchlandung-auf-dem-rollfeld/-/id=1542/did=13194510/nid=1542/8uz86n/

Obviously, the pilot was either distracted (there were other two individuals on board) or just forgot to perform the landing checklist. Apparently, the damage incurred amounts to ca. 70000 Euros. Well, you can get a nice ultra light aircraft for that amount.

After holding at OSCAR for about 15 minutes, I eventually landed at 08:45 UTC.

It was also fun at the aero this year too. I visit the show every year.

WP

[M609]

Ouch..... That did indeed look expensive! :( We actually heard 3 flights turn back on our way south due to wx, all stating EDNY as destination to the FIS sector. Can´t say I blame them, wx looked properly sh** about 40nm west of Erfurt.

[worldpilot]

You were also very lucky to have transited the Erfurt area with that bad weather.

A Cessna 182 with 2 pilots on board crashed on Mount Brocken on the 11th and didn't survive it.:eek:

Zwei Tote bei Absturz eines Kleinflugzeugs auf Brocken | MDR.DE (http://www.mdr.de/sachsen-anhalt/kleinflugzeug-auf-brocken-abgestuerzt100_zc-a2551f81_zs-ae30b3e4.html)

The pilots were on a VFR flight and for whatever reason got caught in IMC conditions and flew into the weather antenna on mount Brocken.

Obviously they were determined to fly VFR in such a bad weather, even though the weather minimums for VFR were clearly not sustainable at that time.

WP

[M609]

We sure appreciated Munich info giving us an early heads up, so we could stay over low ground to the east until the ceiling lifted. The clouds where clearly touching ground over Thuringer Wald. The 3 a/c we heard turn back tried flying west of the ridge. Crossing it VFR would be crazy IMHO

[ITSAB]

Great report, good to read that you had a good trip and that the weather played fair. Thanks for sharing.


The service from Munich Information is good and they always seem to be a friendly bunch.