Monday, November 4, 2013

Back in Germany






Autumn in Germany! What a change from the "other world"!

Here we are, having achieved a very adventurous trip we already wanted to do a few years ago when we bought the aircraft here in Europe. Now we have done it, with the help and assistance of Pilot und Flugzeug and all the experienced professionals and very pleasant group of pilots who joined us. Thank you to all of you!!!

Pics  of us having the best wine ever!!

There are some reports still coming, facts and nice-to-knows! In time, once we have unpacked the aircraft...

Saturday, November 2, 2013

Poland - It worked even better-The End



Approach to Krakow

Parked at Krakow airport which undergoes major building alterations

We did not have a more quick, correct and efficient turn-around anywhere and we were entertained by a our handling agent - a very young and funny lady called Ella, Elizabeth, until we left.

Clouds are low, it is misty and the weather forecast is not great for Germany. We half expect not to be able to land in Hildesheim, Germany as that airfield is not equipped for instrument approaches. In 2.5 hours we will know more. Our controllers are excellent, Dietmar is full of praises. In 20 minutes we manage to get to flight level 180, in warm regions we battled to get to FL 140 in 30 Minutes...

And now our very last leg. We are above clouds most of the way, a very uneventful flight until we get closer to Hildesheim. As we could not land in Hildesheim, the intention was to 'duck' under the very thick cloud cover using an instrument approach procedure in Braunschweig. The Braunschweig controller advised us not to fly below the clouds to Hildesheim. After discarding the Braunschweig idea and trying once more to find a hole in the clouds to descend into Hildesheim we gave up and diverted to Hannover. There we had the benefit of a proper instrument landing system, but even that approach was something else because of low clouds.

Landing in Hannover after diverting from Hildesheim

We arrived savely. A small group of family and friends welcomed us back. They had to drive from Hildesheim to Hannover when they realized we would not arrive at our home base.

We informed PuF that we had arrived safely and of course, we informed Herr Mueller we made it back without landing in jail!!! During the next few days we will be tying up different things and than we will make our way back home.


Ukraine-It worked extremely well

Saturday, 02.11.2013, local time 07:59, Outside Temperature 10 Deg C.

The aircraft performs wonderful. We are airborne have gone through clouds and unfortunately no pictures of Odessa from above possible. We will come back. It is an interesting town with beautiful architecture and people are very nice and service orientated. The handling this morning was a perfect example. Okay, they forgot to fetch us, in time, from the Hotel but organised a taxi very quickly and handled this oversight in a professional manner.

The Redaktions Flugzeug is taking off behind us, they first fly to Luebeck to drop Ingrid, then they fly to Switzerland and then to Mainz. Long way for them.

We have to refuel and immigrate in Krakow/ Poland. This morning we saw a mail which we received at midnight informing us our flightplan was rejected because they could not give us permission to land and refuel in Krakow due to building and construction projects. We could only land with "Special Permission". We phoned them before 6:00 this morning, explained and asked what they need from us and how long it would take to grant or reject this permission. It would take about 30 Min or so. Very well, when we got to the airport and logged into our mail, the permission was received and we are now on our way.

We have clouds below us until 01h23 before our destination.



On our Moving Terrain we had a blank screen since Iceland until today, Poland comes in!!!


Friday, November 1, 2013

Officially The Last Day

Friday, 01.November 2013, 05:30

Dietmar's lap top has not charged during the night, we plug it into different sources, nothing, we suspect the power supply is faulty. We also received an email informing us regarding a fuel leak on our aircraft, yesterday we were talking about it, and how well we managed the situation with our aircraft jack.

09h14, as we get to the aircraft we see a bucket underneath the left wing to catch the fuel running out. 
Since nearly 2 hours we wait to be cleared, they don't know what they are doing, they took our passports and now we are waiting, no one in sight. The one person speaking a bit of english has disappeared, before he left he was talking about a lost flightplan; we get the aircraft ready. Dietmar contacts the tower and they tell him they have our flightplan on record and are waiting for us to activate that flightplan.

The guy arrives with our passports, he dissappears again, we assume to organise the invoice. If we get permission to start, we swear, we will leave without paying, we are so fed up. We get permission to start, however, tower can still ask us to shut down. We get permission to taxi and then we are cleared for take-off. We kiss the handling agent Good Bye.




The flight to Odessa will take 3.5 to 4.0 hours, outside temp minus 10 deg C and favourable winds might reduce the flight time. Today is officially the last flying day, and the Around the World Trip ends in Odessa, Ukraine with our farewell celebration tonight. Tomorrow, our first leg takes us to Krakow in Poland to refuel and then on to Hildesheim or Hannover, Germany depending on weather.
And then our "once in a life time" trip ends.

We are above the east/northern part of Turkey, below us villages, mountains and forests and roads connecting them, very nice. 


Soon we will be above 'The Black Sea', leaving Turkey. Mountains go right up to the coastline and now we overfly 'Inebolu', a village right between the mountains and the Black Sea. There is a harbour and wide roads leading into the village.



We have been over water for a long time now and we have 0h45 to go to destination. We also found out that our radio No2 is faulty, it sends but does not receive. Just as well this did not occur before.
When we arrived our handling agent was there, we refuelled, we got thru immigration and in no time we got to our hotel. Once settled I took a walk while Dietmar finished paperwork and scanning.

Herewith some pictures of the Hotel and Odessa.

Architecture in Odessa

Typical street in the city centre

Inside the Hotel Bristol

Hotel Bristol from the outside

At night we had a "Last Night Dinner" and a short speech and a selection of Pictures were shown.

Final Dinner in Odessa

Badges were given to the different crews and a warm "Good Bye" was said to all, we all shared a Once In A Lifetime Experience which we will never forget.