Flying in Europe

Flying over Golden Gate in San Francisco

2011-10-02T18:04:00.003+02:00

Flying Over Golden Gate at OOW2011

This year I am again presenting at Oracle Open World 2011 which is taking place as usual in San Francisco, California.
I decided to rent an airplane. Because my pilot license is not valid in USA without some paper work I also hired an instructor to fly with me what was probably the easiest and also the safest thing to do.
I was trying to get a Mooney but unfortunately it was already booked so I rented Cessna 172. I had my basic training on C172 so it was not a big deal to fly it although the last time I was flying it was more then 3 years ago.
My instructor was Greg West from West Valley Flying club based at Palo Alto airport. After preflight inspection and some becoming familiar with very complicated airspace in the bay area we took off and headed towards Half Moon Bay airport at the Pacific coast. The weather was excellent although with some clouds at 4000 feet so we had to do a little bit of diversion to stay outside class "B" airspace and later on we were bale to overfly the clouds and do a touch and go at Half Moon Bay airport. Then we headed to the north towards Golden Gate bridge. We were flying at 1400 feet and overflew the bridge and passed Alcatraz and then we flew to the south near the San Francisco downtown and further on to the south. We asked for permission to pass through San Francisco International airport control zone and we got the permission. I am quite sure that something like this is not possible in EU. Then we passed San Carlos airfield and landed at Palo Alto. The whole trip was 1h20, Greg was doing the communication, I was flying.

2011-03-23T03:19:00.011+01:00

Few years ago I had done some work in Macedonia (FYROM) and one of my customers urgently called me and wanted me on-site for some diagnosis and troubleshooting with their Oracle RAC system.
In recent months my schedule is very tight so the only viable solution was to add Saturday to the schedule. During winter months it was not a lot of opportunities for flying with exception of local flights and one skiing trip to Zell am See (LOWZ). So this request came just in right time as the weather was excellent. Due to some obligations in late afternoon on Thursday I decided to depart from Ljubljana (LJLJ) on Friday morning at 6:00, March 11th 2011. A day before I had flown the aircraft from my home airport Divača (LJDI) to Ljubljana airport.
Due to freezing temperatures there was some tiny ice on the wings so we had to clean the wings before we were ready for departure. The weather was clear but we had the same problem with the ice as any outside parked car with the ice on the windshield.
The route to Macedonia was quite simple due to VFR flying rules:
LJLJ - S3 (CTR exit point) - NEMEK (border point with Croatia) - NIVES (Bosnian border point) - IDASI - GAC - PERAN (Montenegro border point) - NIK - POD - RETRA (Albanian border point) - MAVAR (Macedonian border point) - SKJ - LWSK
The flight took 3:09 what is an excellent time for such distance. The average cruising speed at FL110 was 143 KT.
This was the first long distance flight with the new JPI EDM-700 instrument installed. I bought the version with fuel flow. Monitoring engine parameters like CHT (Cylinder Head Temperature) and EGT (Exhaust Gases Temperature) for all 4 cylinders is a very nice feature. On my previous airplane I have installed just fuel scan JPI FS-450 and found that for long distance flying such an instrument is really a "must". With EDM-700 with fuel flow one can really precisely lean the mixture. My Mooney has GAMI injectors installed so I can fly lean-of-peak (LOP) and thus reduce the fuel consumption even more what gives me a greater autonomy.
The flight was without any problems as the sky was clear without any clouds throughout the whole Balkans. After clearing Ljubljana CTR and until flying below Terminal Ljubljana we were flying 1000 FT AGL. Only after leaving terminal we climbed to 7000 FT inbound to border point NEMEK. Before we were handled to Zagreb Approach and later on to Zagreb Radar we started climbing to 10,000 FT. Before reaching Bosnia were instructed to climb to FL110 in order to stay in the controlled airspace over Bosnia. Before Montenegro border we were passed to Podgorica Approach and got immediately direct RETRA. Before this point we were passed to Tirana Radar and then to Skopje Radar before we reached MAVAR point. When we were closer to Skopje we were passed to Skopje Approach and got direct SKJ VOR which is only few hundred meters away from RWY 34 threshold at LWSK.
Immediately after arrival to Skopje airport I was instructed to call Macedonian CAA. They told me that since February 16th there is a new procedure in place in their AIP which requests that one should make a prior announcement of the flight to Macedonian CAA. Until this amendment only a flight plan was enough. Obviously the reason for this amendment is 20,00 EUR fee which has to be paid in advance to CAA what looks like a new source of money for them since they are now on their own and have to earn money. At the same time Macedonians say that they are approaching EU Community, however with such behavior for VFR flighst they are practically the only exemption in EU. Currently I know only that Bulgaria and Romania request a prior announcement, but they do not charge one for that.
Fortunately my friends, Macedonian pilots, helped me with solving the problem and Nikola Davidov paid the fee for me on next working day.
After clearing this problem we left for Skopje's sport airfield Stenkovec where my friends were already waiting for me to arrive for the first time with Mooney. Stenkovec is only about 10 minutes flight away from LWSK. They have a grass runway of a very good quality and therefore landing there with retractable gear was no problem.
Immediately my Mooney got new nick name in the style of Macedonian language - Munjot.
I had to work until late evening and only after 21:00 we were able to gather together again in one restaurant. It was a great time to chat with my Macedonian colleagues and drink excellent Macedonian wine "T'GA ZA JUG".
Next morning I had to work until approximately 12 hours and then I returned to hotel where my friend Jernej Bizjak, also a pilot, was already waiting for me. We went to Stenkovec and after having a real black (Turkish) coffee we departed to LWSK for border control and refueling. The landing fee at LWSK was quite expensive - 45 EUR. Before TAV took the LWSK airport it was only about 25 EUR. The price of the AVGAS was 1,95 EUR/liter.
The flight plan for returning home was slightly different. Instead of flying over Bosnia we stayed at the cost of Adriatic Sea and crossed Dubrovnik, Split and Zadar and the turned inbound to DOL. The last 7 minutes of flight were in night conditions and this was my first night landing with Mooney at Ljubljana airport (LJLJ). The flight back took 3:28. A strong "jugo" - a south west wind was expected to blow along Adriatic coast but unfortunately the forecast was wrong and we had a head wind.

Flying Mooney M20E from Sturgate(EGCS) to Divača(LJDI)

2010-07-22T17:32:00.003+02:00

The agreed pickup time was 22.5.2010. Day before I arrived from Tallin in Estonia to London Stansted and next morning I took train to the nearest station to Sturgate (EGCS) where I met with the previous owner. I had a training flight to become familiar with the airplane. The plan was to arrive home the same day. After full refueling I started the engine and after initial checks found that my GPS496 has problems due to interference with one of stations in the aircraft. At that moment I didn't want to make extensive checks so I decided to use just GNS430 and VOR receivers. After my first solo takeoff I headed towards Oostende (EBOS) in Belgium. I had to enter the Schengen area again and at the same time I wanted to refuel. The planned time was 1:30 so just enough to figure out if the fuel consumption is within the expected range.
The flight plan was quite easy: EGCS VEGUS AMVEL SUMUM DD EBOS and when preparing it I wanted to avoid all ATZs. After crossing coastline I had to descend due to A class airspace. The weather was all the time clear sky and therefore the only challenge I had was the aircraft. It took me some time to figure out how I must trim it.
Landing in EBOS with quite a strong crosswind was the first challenge. Before the landing I repeated in my mind: 120 MPH gear down, 100 MPH lower flaps, approach speed 80 MPH. Stable approach and keeping the right speed is the key to success. The runway in Oostende is long enough for some extra knots but this is a bad habit. The landing was far from perfect but still without any problems.
It took more than one hour for refueling and my slot for the flight to Locarno (LSZL) was well over and the tower didn't let me depart. So I had to park again, wait for marshaler to give me the ride to ARO. At ARO I had to phone to the ATC and they agreed I can depart immediately and the promised to fix the plan and send it to EBOS tower. After I was already in the airplane again the tower still didn't have my flight plan so I had to repeat the whole procedure. Finally I got the clearance for taxing to the holding point. Then tower called me that Switzerland notified them that Locarno airport will be closed when I will arrive there so the asked me for further instructions. I gave alternate airport St. Gallen - Altenrhein which was still opened. While waiting for response the controller declared that no VFR flights are permitted due to IFR conditions. I was waiting in prefect sunshine and really on the other side of the terminal area there were some low clouds. They asked me if I accept IFR clearance which of course I rejected as I am not IR certified.
The onl ypossibility was to go back to parking position. After parking I visited meteo office and they told me there is no possibility for weather improvement that day. So I asked ARO to help me find a hotel. Unfortunately all hotels were 100% booked and the airport inspector gratefully helped me with the offer to stay in the room for persons who are rejected due to invalid documents. After a small late lunch in a fast food restaurant I was checking the weather. Despite the official forecast the weather was again CAVOK at 21:00 local time, but this didn't help me a lot. I filed the flight plan for 5:00 AM local time. During the night the weather stayed CAVOK all the time so I was able to depart 5:25AM local time inbound to Locarno.
The filed flight plan was: EBOS LEQ REM CAV RLP FRI LSZL. After departure I was cleared to LEQ and after leaving Lille TMA they instructed me to contact Paris Info. At the same time they told me that due to early Sunday morning probably nobody is working and I will get no response from Paris Info. Of course they were right. I was flying at 9500 feet inbound to REM followed by CAV and RLP and avoided some restricted zones as I had no information if they are active or not and no contact with ATC. Finally I got contact with Reims Info. When close to Swiss border I asked to climb to FL120 and later on to FL140 to clear the Swiss Alps. I was impressed by the performance of my new toy: 500 feet/minute in average from FL120 to FL140. after clearing the summits I stared my descend towards Locarno where I landed after 3 hours and 25 minutes.
Quick refueling, fixing departure time in the flight plan and I was back in the air on the last leg to home airport Divača (LJDI). The route was my favorite one from Locarno following the south edge of Alps to Vicenza VOR and then to Ronchi VOR, crossing Slovenian border at RIFEN point and finally my home airport. Nothing special occurred during this flight and I safely landed for the first time in Divača. My wife was already waiting for me there and we immediately departed to Island of Lošinj (LDLO) to join other pilots who had a fly-in there that Sunday.
Allover time required to fly from EGCS to LJDI was 6:18, not bad!

Upgrade to a faster airplane - Mooney M20E

2010-07-22T10:32:00.007+02:00

My old Piper PA-28-140B Cherokee was a great airplane, an excellent starting solution for getting flying experience. She was equipped for long tours, the only problem was that the cruise speed was between 105-110 knots and with a 20 knots of a head wind the cruise speed dropped down to 90 knots. At the time when I was buying my Piper I was also checking a possibility to buy one Mooney. It was back in 2007 when the aircraft prices were not so low as now days due to financial crisis. Unfortunately the lowest prices for Mooneys at that time were between 60.000 and 70.000 EUR and I couldn't afford it. Especially I was looking for one aircraft in Germany M20F with turbo-normalizer with the price of 66.000 EUR. Then I bought my Cherokee D-EHFK. After about 2 years I started to think about the possibility to start training for instrument rating (IR) and immediately it was clear that IR rating means nothing if I will not practice it in my flying. Unfortunately Cherokee was just VFR certified and upgrade to IFR would cost me quite a lot of money.
The cheapest solution would be to find an IFR certified airplane which would be also faster. So I started again with regular checking of PlaneCheck website. I was checking Cessnas, Pipers and Mooneys. The German Mooney was still unsold after two years and now the price was only 45.000 EUR. I started a discussion with the owner and got the documents from the latest annual check. Then in January 2010 I found a very nice Mooney M20F in Austria at Wiener Neustadt. The airplane was in great condition, IFR certified, German register, but not capable for commercial usage as the engine was over 12 years. The price was 58.000 EUR and if the owner would reduce it to 50.000 EUR I would probably buy it.
I decided to inspect Mooney in Germany with the turbo-normalizer. Due to some projects at that time it was hard to find the right time for inspection as it was still winter weather. So finally I drove to the north of Germany. There was a fresh snow on the runway and the owner didn't want to make a test flight what was a big disappointment for me. During the inspection I found corrosion on several places and it was obvious that the airplane was somehow neglected during last years and was maintained only as much it was necessary to keep it airworthy. They were trying to sell the airplane already for 3 years but with no luck. When I came they reduced the price to 35.000 EUR for quick sale. The airplane was registered just for VFR and would need immediate investment of about 12.000 EUR to make it ready for IFR certification. They told me that there is also another potential buyer interested for the airplane. Immediately after return to home I had to go to Macedonia for one week and then I got the email from the owner that the second buyer paid the deposit and they sold the aircraft to him. I felt somehow deceived but at the same time I was happy as the required investment was not so small.
Then one day I found Mooney M20E, production year 1966, located in United Kingdom, call sign G-ATOU (see the album). The price was 31.900 EUR, engine overhauled in 2001 with 1200 hours to go, propeller overhauled before 3 years, so still 3 years to go. Avionics was IFR - Garmin GNS430, Garmin GTX330 S-mode transponder, Narco DME890, Narco 810 TSO as second COM, Narco 825 TSO as second NAV, Narco MBT-12 marker receiver and Honywell ADF-T-12C ADF receiver. Finally full IFR avionics! I have immediately contacted the seller and after some negotiation he guaranteed me number one buyer position and we agreed that I come next weekend for inspection.

So I used my Miles&More award miles for a free ticket to Manchester and also reserved a rental car with GPS as I had to go to Sturgate airfield (EGCS) where Mooney was located. Driving on the left side of the road for the first time in my life was a night mare.
I was very happy with the results of the inspection and we signed the agreement and I had to pay a deposit within 3 working days. After return to my home I performed some more checks with the mechanics and then decided to pay the deposit, and after some days the whole price.

Krakow, Riga, Warsaw, Svidnik and Dubrovnik

2010-01-03T14:25:00.000+01:00

The Oracle Univesity organized a two day seminar in Riga, Latvija at the end of August 2009. This was a nice opportunity to make a stop in Krakow in Poland. As we had quite short vacations in July we used also this opportunity to spent additional five days on Island of Mljet near Dubrovnik in Croatia.

Interactive GPS track - click here to enlarge the map

The plan was to make a refueling stop in Vyškov near Brno in Czech Republic and then proceed to Krakow. Later on I found that on Pobiednik Wielki airfield there is a gas station just outside the airfield fence only about 30 meters away from the main apron.
The planned and actually flown route was:
LJDI - TREBNJE (VFR reporting point) - RADLY - STO - MIKOV - LKVY

We started on August 24th in the morning and the flight to Vyškov was a routine VFR flight in excellent weather conditions. I have visited Vyškov already once this year when we were flying back from Finland. I phoned them a day before and and we were immediately warmly welcomed for refueling.

The next leg was from Vyškov (LKVY) to Pobiednik Wielki (EPKP) near Krakow in Poland. The planned and actually flown route was:
LKVY - HLV - TUSIN - SKAVI - EPKP.

The weather was still excellent but we got broken clouds near Krakow so we had to postpone the descend a little bit in order to find a suitable hole in the clouds.

After securing the aircraft at EPKP we called taxi and drove to the center of Krakow where we had a reservation in a just refurbished hotel which was re-opened just two days before.
After a quick lunch with original Polish dishes we headed to the main square in Krakow and had short sightseeing of surrounding churches. Next morning we took a guided 4 hours visit of Krakow castle and Krakow Ghetto.

Photo album of visiting Krakow City

In the afternoon we took taxi to Pobiednik Wielki and headed towards Adaži near Riga in Latvia.
The planned route was: EPKP - JED - LIN - SIE - BOKSU - GUNTA - VISTA - EVAD.
I checked the Polish Airspace Use Plan (AUP) for the current day before filing the flight plan by phone. The weather was excellent all way to the north and we landed at Adaži (EVAD) short before the sunset. EVAD is a former agriculture airfield now privately owned and mostly used for training for ULA and GA airplanes. It is located about 40 minutes drive north east of Riga. They provided me MOGAS which they buy at the nearby gas station.

Riga is for sue one of the most beautiful towns we ever visited and we enjoyed our stay there really very much.

Visiting Riga Town

On Friday, August 28th in the afternoon, immediately after I have finished my class, we took a taxi back to Adaži and headed to Warsaw - Babice (EPBC) where I planned a night landing. The planned route was:
EVAD - VISTA - GUNTA - BOKSU - SUW - ULPAR - JULLIET (VFR point for Babice) - LIMA (VFR point for Babice) - EPBC.
As I was never before at Babice it was a little bit of challenge to make first landing there at night. Babice is located in the middle of Warsaw city and it was hard to spot the airfield as we were vlying very low due to the airspace above us.
Next morning we planned to continue our trip to Svidnik in Slovak Republic. The Babice airfield opens at 6:00 AM local time and we came there at about that time. Shortly after arrival we were already airborn and were heading towards LZSK.
The planned route was:
EPBC - WAR - BRAVO - ALPHA - TANGO - ARDAG - PODAN - LZSK.

A cold front was coming from the west and we had to be on time in Svidnik for refueling and continuation to Dubrovnik in order to escape before the bad weather.
On Saturday, August 29th they had annual gathering at Svidnik(LZSK) airfield and it was quite a lot of people already there. It was nice to meet Tomáš and Emil Sluk again. This time we also met Koka, a good friend of late Robert Tupta, for the first time and we became good friends. After refueling and a short chat with these nice people we had to leave. Again this time we really enjoyed a short stay at Svidnik.

See photo album of visiting Svidnik

The cold front was rapidly traveling to the east and therefore headed to Košice (LZKZ) where we landed just to exit the Schengen area. The route was LZSK - RUSKOV (VFR entyr pint to Košice CTR)- LZKZ. The border control was very efficient and they came to the GA office to check our documents, so we could continue our journey to Dubrovnik (LDDU) pretty soon. The route was:
LZKZ - KEKED - SAG - BAREB - SIVLA - KEB - MADOS - LDDU.

While we were flying across Hungary we could see the on our right side the cold front. As we were on time we actually had no problems with the weather and were flying in clear sky. After entering Bosnia and Herzegovina at SIVLA point we found some tower cumulus buildups so we climbed to FL120 and remained at this level almost all the way across Bosnia and Herzegovina. We crossed the Croatian border at FL100 at MADOS point which is almost at the Dubrovnik airport. Although VFR we were vectored for ILS approach for RWY 12 which of course I have accepted with great pleasure.

We stayed for few days at Restaurant Ogigija and enjoyed their hospitality again.

Birthday Trip To Split (LDSP)

2009-12-29T07:53:00.011+01:00

On December 28th 2009 I was celebrating my 55th birthday and for this occasion I invited my wife Lili for a one day trip to Split in Croatia where I have never been before.
As Croatia is not part of Schengen area we had to fly first to Portorož (LJPZ) to exit Schengen area and then to Split airport (LDSP) - Kaštela, located about 35 minutes drive away from Split town. The airport is located in a wonderful surrounding. I used this opportunity to do some training and I asked for a simulated ILS approach to RWY 05 which was immediately approved. The planned route from Portorož to Split was: LJPZ - PS1 - CRE - LOS- SAL - DVN - LDSP. Unfortunately I had to divert due to parachute activity over Lošinj airport (LDLO) and the actually flown route was over Zadar airport (LDZD) direct to DVN NDB which is entry point (final approach fix - FAF) for ILS approach. The weather was excellent although there were some cloudy areas in Kvarner golf with base at 3000 feet. So I asked for 5500 feet which was our cruising altitude all the way to DVN where I had to descend to 2800 feet in order to be at the right altitude for simulated ILS approach.

After landing we had refueled with AVGAS 100L. As usually the price of gasoline was low - 1,20 EUR per liter. Although I'm using MOGAS most of the time I have to purchase some AVGAS from time to time according to the instructions in STC for mogas. The landing fee was 26 EUR.

We took a regular local bus from airport to Split town and we enjoyed very much the scenery with many lemon, orange and mandarin trees full of mature fruits.
In Split we passed the old historical part of the town and had some coffee and cakes at the fabulous seashore, called "Riva" where we very surprised to see so many people. Obviously they came to Split for the new year holidays.

The route back was LDSP - ZDA - CRE - PS1 - LJPZ. The weather changed a lot and we were flying at 3000 feet below the cloud layer with the base at approximately 5000 feet which was occasionally going down to 3500 feet. As in the morning when we had a good tail wind also on the return we had a good tail wind and the average cruising speed was between 115 and 120 KT.

Here is the photo album of the journey.

GPS Track Of The Trip To Split

New aviation weather portal for Slovenia

2009-12-27T09:45:00.010+01:00

Recently Environmental Agency Of The Republic Of Slovenia published a new portal for aviation which is part of the weather portal for Slovenia. The aviation weather information, which includes also SIGMET and AIRMET, is available at http://meteo.arso.gov.si/met/sl/aviation/. The portal now includes also a detailed wind forecast for Slovenia for FL025, FL050, FL100 and FL140 for time +6h +12h +18h and +24h. This kind of information will be very useful for all who plan flying across Slovenia. Unfortunately the portal is currently available only in Slovenian language but one can figure out what kind of information he will get when clicking on the menu as most of the menu items are well known English words.

One can also get the output of Slovenian ALADIN model weather forecast which includes also neighbor countries from part of France on the west to part of Bulgaria on the east, part of Germany on the north and part of Greece on the south. According to my experience in past two years the ALADIN model forecast is pretty reliable and extremely useful for planning. I am always using it when flying to Italy, Switzerland, France, Austria, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Albania, Macedonia, Serbia, Poland, Bulgaria or Romania.

Preparing for Flight in Foreign Countries

2009-12-24T14:54:00.003+01:00

On December 20th, 2009, I had a presentation for my fellow pilots and students of my former flying school "Janez let", where my Piper is still hangared. I had this presentation at the occasion of the new year gathering of all former and current students of this flying school which is some kind of a tradition in this school. This year there was another presentation about flying to Scotland what I really appreciated. Sharing this kind of experience is very valuable and important, especially for those young ones who are still in struggling to get PPL.

Here is the link to my presentation in English language and the other one in Slovenian language.

Robert Tupta - In Memoriam

2009-12-05T07:42:00.016+01:00

Robert Tupta, a pilot and instructor, died on 16 of July 2009, a day after the air crash with Viper SD4 airplane at Raznany airport.

Robert was "great pilot and fantastic smily person. We loved him! We can not stop crying." wrote Koka, his friend, in mail to me, when she informed me about this sad event.

Unfortunately I had never the opportunity to meet Robert in person, I just knew him by exchanging mails with him and few phone conversations. He helped me organizing my refueling stop in Svidnik in Slovakia and at the time of my visit he was in Sanct Petersburg in Russia. I contacted him again when I was preparing my trip to Riga and then I got a reply from Koka with sad news.

I was deeply impressed how friendly he was and willing to help. He asked his friends to help me at that time. After my trip he was interested to know the details of my flying from Slovenia to Bulgaria, Finland and back home.

When I visited Svidnik for the first time I saw his AN-2 airplane parked there. Here is a photo of his airplane taken at Svidnik airfield with his friends.

As I am a religious person I prayed for his soul and I truly believe he is awarded in heaven for his kindness and help because Jesus says: “Whenever you did it for any of my people, no matter how unimportant they seemed, you did it for me.” (Mt 25, 40)

Robert's grave is at Humenné, little town on east part of Slovakia. His friends have built a marble slab for memories at Svidnik airfield to light candles for him and remember him in regular monthly gatherings. They are now preparing a book about his life as well.

Trip to Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina

2009-07-03T21:24:00.007+02:00

I decided to use GooglePicasa to store all photos there and you can see the complete album here.

This time I planned another routing to fly to Ohrid (LWOH) and Skopje (LWSK). Due to international flight outside Schengen area I have chosen Ljubljana airport (LJLJ) as my departure airport. The planned route was a very straight one as one can see from the route picture: LJLJ – S3 – NEMEK – NIVES – IDASI – GAC – PERAN – NIK – POD – RETRA – DOBAR – LWOH.

The patches of the morning fog on the day of the departure, which was 8.6.2009, delayed the planned departure for 1 hour and 40 minutes. Finally I got the departure clearance and was able to take off. After exiting Ljubljana’s CTR at S3 point I climbed to 5000 feet inbound NEMEK point at the border with Croatia. Soon after crossing NEMEK point I got a request from ATC to climb to FL100 to be reached at NIVES point as this is the minimum altitude to fly in Bosnia in controlled airspace. I was quite happy with this request as I was able to fly higher where the fuel consumption is lower. The request came just in time and I reached FL100 just at NIVES point. The control over the airspace of the west part of Bosnia is delegated to Zagreb control. After passing IDASI intersection point I switched to Sarajevo radar. After reaching GAC NDB we entered in Montenegro airspace and got immediate clearance direct to RETRA point at Albanian border. RETRA is located in the area of Skadar lake and one can enjoy beautiful sight of this lake which is a birds heaven. Before RETRA point I was passed to Tirana radar and got immediate clearance direct to DOBAR point at Macedonian border which is quite close to Ohrid (LWOH) airport. Officially there is no ATS route published between RETRA and DOBAR point, however the Albanian ATC gave me the direct to DOBAR point located close to Debar town. Also this time I got an aleternate frequency in case of loosing connection and this time this was frequency for Ohrid approach. Of course it happened again that I lost contact with Tirana after entering the mountainous terrain close to Macedonian border. Close to DOBAR point I called Ohrid approach and the quality was very poor so I delayed my descent from FL100 to 6000 feet overhead LWOH airfield until I crossed all the mountains towards Ohrid Lake. It was really a joy to fly at FL100 all the way from Croatian-Bosnian border to Macedonian border without any disturbance and with minimal communication with ATC. Again this time I found that a good flight plan which is routed according to the published low level ATS routes works perfectly and controllers give you shortcuts if there is no traffic.

I asked Ohrid approach to perform simulated ILS approach which starts at OHR VOR at 6000 feet and goes to the south over lake where you perform a procedural turn and intercept the localizer. It was again a great joy to fly over the beautiful Ohrid Lake and sharpen the skill of flying ILS approaches although I am not IFR rated. I do this solely for a hypothetical case that I would have to perform an ILS approach in case of emergency.

Nikola, a friend of my neighbor Stane Omejc, who was traveling with me, was waiting for us at Ohrid airport and took us to his hotel at the coast of beautiful Ohrid lake just outside Ohrid town. In the evening we visited on of the famous Ohrid restaurants and had a great time there.

From Ohrid to Skopje
Next morning we started early in direction to Skopje sport airfield Stenkovec where my friends from Aeoro club Skopje were waiting for us. Unfortunately we had to divert a little bit from the planned route due to incoming IFR traffic to Ohrid so we had to fly to Prilep NDB (PEP) and then were cleared to proceed to BUREK intersection and from thereto Stenkovec. I arranged my business meeting for the following morning so we were able to proceed with rented car to Strumica, a small city in the southeast part of Macedonia. Stane was spent almost year and half in army there 25 years ago and had strong wish to see the barracks again. On the way there I took some photos near Štip and Veles. We had late lunch in one small restaurant with excellent grill and for a small amount of money we got so much food that we could not eat it. As we were already close to border with Greece I wanted to see the Dojran lake which partly belongs to Macedonia, partly to Greece. There we watched some local people catching frogs the same way as people usually to fishing.

From Skopje (LWSK) to Sarajevo (LQSA) in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Next morning we had wake up early as I had an early meeting with my customer. After that meeting we left in a hurry to Stenkovec and immediately proceeded to LWSK to clear border formalities and leave Macedonia. Unfortunately we arrived so late that we had to wait almost additional 60 minutes that the military air-show has passed and we were cleared for takeoff.

The route back was : LWSK – MAVAR – RETRA – POD – NIK – PERAN – GAC – KUTAK – LQSA. The flight was completely un-eventful with cloudless weather and only few to scattered clouds in Bosnia. We climbed to FL100 inbound MAVAR point and maintained this level until we started final descend to Sarajevo. Also on way back we got a direct shortcut from RETRA point to KUTAK where we handed to Sarajevo approach. We made pretty steep descend and straight in approach to runway 30 at LQSA.

Here again I had a meeting with one of my customers and after eating excellent traditional Bosnian food “čevapčiči” with “kajmak” at the old bazaar in Sarajevo, called “Baščaršija” we returned to the airport and started with last part of the route back to Ljubljana.

From Sarajevo (LQSA) to Ljubljana (LJLJ)
After minor waiting at the holding point of runway 30 we got the takeoff clearance and started climb to FL100. Immediately after departure we were handed to Sarajevo radar and later on to Zagreb control. The planned route was: LQSA – NIVES – LETLI – S1 – S3 – LJLJ. When we were still over Bosnian territory we got a direct clearance to DOL, a VOR near Ljubljana airport. Later on, when I was already in contact with Ljubljana approach, they informed me to expect vectors for ILS approach to Ljubljana airport. Obviously ATC decided to treat us as IFR traffic and of course I didn’t protest. It was a nice opportunity to intercept localizer at 9000 feet and minutes later also the glide slope and perform simulated ILS approach in excellent VFR conditions.

Annual Check 2009 - LJDI - LOIH - EDLE - LKPL - LJDI

2009-05-28T09:32:00.002+02:00

Only a few days after return from Helsinki I was scheduled by H.B. Sportflugzeug-Service GmbH for the annual inspection of my aircraft which is registered in Germany.

The weather forecast for Thusrday morning, May 7th 2009 was good for the western part of Austrian Alps and therefore I decided to fly a different route this year. Via Homebriefing I have filed the following route: LJDI - TRIESTE- GRADO- PORTOGRUARO - ROKIB - OZE - NATAG -LOIH. I was planning to cross Italian Dolomiti first. I took off at 5:36 local time before the sun rise. After crossing Italian border I climbed to 5000 feet and soon after crossing GRADO point I was cleared direct to OZE (Bolzano VOR) and to start climbing to FL120. The sun was rising and the view was marvelous.

I crossed Austrian border at NATAG point and soon after that I started my descend to Hohenems-Dornbirn airfield (LOIH). I was slowed down my descend as the airport opened at 8:00 local time. I landed at 8:03 local time at this wonderful airport with a very cheap MOGAS (only 1,14 EUR/liter).

After refueling I took off immediately and headed towards Essen-Mülheim (EDLE) . The route was: LOIH-SENDER(VRP)-NUNRI-FHA-USETI-SUL-GAGSI-KRH-DONAB-COL-WYP-EDLE. The flight was uneventful and I landed at EDLE at 11:13 local time. Mr. Jörn Claassen, who is the manager, inspector and also mechanic with some young mechanics immediately started to work on my Piper. They had to perform 50 hour check + annual check and also replace oil hoses. My flight back to Slovenia was scheduled to be next day around 10:00 local time due to predicted bad weather. Everything was running very smoothly and according to the plan and again I have experienced their professionalism. The results of exhaust valve inspection were extremely good and therefore I got a good forecast for extending engine hours beyond 2000 hours.
After end of the working day Andreas Kremer took me with him to my hotel which was only a block away from his home. This time I was sleeping in Haus Kastanienhof in Mülheim. I found this hotel very nice with extremely helpful staff and free wireless Internet connection.

Mülheim is pretty unknown town although it has 160.000 inhabitants. I had enough time to make a short walk to the downtown and, of course, make a stop for a good dinner with excellent German beer.

Early in the morning a thunderstorm woke me up, but in a short time the weather became much better although with a lot of clouds and relatively low clouds.
An inspection flight was performed in the morning and everything was found o.k. After some final paper work I was able to depart towards Letkov (LKPL) near Plzen in Czech Republic where I planned to make a refueling stop. The weather was still quite unstable and changing very quickly so I was expecting hard conditions. Because of such conditions I was planning to make a refueling stop in case that I would have to fly long diversions due to bad weather.
Without head wind I can make a direct flight from EDLE to Divača (LJDI).

The route was: EDLE-GMH-FUL-VEMUT-LKPL.
The actual radar images showed still a lot of raining areas on my route but fortunately they were dissolving and therefore I was expecting a better weather more to the east. After departure I had to fly at 1500 feet maximum due to controlled airspace above. Later on I was able to climb to 2500 feet but due to low clouds I had to descend back to 1500 feet. Later on I was able to climb higher and fly between two cloud layers. The weather was improving and the second half of my route was already flown in clear sky.

I passed Czech border at VEMUT point and then descended to Letkov(LKPL). This was the second time I visited this airfield. I landed on runway 26 after 2 hours and 17 minutes. I taxied directly to the gas station where we refueled with MOGAS.
I checked the weather situation and the satellite image of Alps showed practically cloudless situation. I decided to fly directly across Alps and immediately filed a flight plan by calling Prague briefing.

I departed from Letkov at 14:57 local time and immediately requested to climb to 9000 feet inbound ETIMA point at German border. The filed route was: LKPL-ETIMA-SUBEN-ARNOS-KANIN-LJDI.
When I have crossed Austrian border I was cleared to climb to FL125. There were some clouds over Alps but none directly in front of me so I was able to fly along the planned route. The flight was uneventful and only close to Slovenian border when I already started to descend I had to avoid some clouds. I safely landed at my home airport Divača (LJDI) after 2 hours and 31 minutes.

Return back to Slovenia – From Helsinki-Malmi(EFHF) to Divača(LJDI) In One Day

2009-05-27T09:40:00.006+02:00

From Helsinki-Malmi(EFHF) to Olsztyn-Dajtki(EPOD)

On May 1st 2009 we arrived at Malmi airport at 6:30 and the security guy opened us the door to the apron at 7:00 hours. The airport officially opens at 9:00 local time but one can depart after 7:00 hours what is a very good solution. I have already paid all fees two days before and therefore we were able to depart after cleaning white frost from the wings. It was -3 degrees at 6:00 local time but the sun was shining and it was not hard to remove all frost.
I have filed the flight plan already two days ago. Essentially it was the inverted route tahe we have flown from Kaunas to Malmi. This time I decided to make a refueling stop in Olstzyn(EPOD) where they have a very nice 800 meter long asphalt runway. I contacted them by phone several days before and they offered me a ride to the petrol station which is just at the opposite side of the airfield.
Just before departure they have informed me that ATC had slightly changed the route which was: EFHF-NOKKA-DOBAN-LUTAL-BERIL-BOKSU-EPOD. After departure I had to activate flight plan via call to Helsinki Radar. After passing NOKKA point which is the exit point from Malmi CTR we were cleared direct to LUTAL point at the border between Estonia and Latvia. We climbed to FL100 and maintained this level until passing BOKSU point at Polish border. We had a good tail wind between 15 and 20 knots all the way to Poland. The whole flight was 3 hours and 47 minutes in clear sky. While we were crossing Baltic Sea I made some photos of Tallinn which I publish here.
Landing at Olsztyn-Dajtki(EPOD) on runway 10 was easy although we had about 20 knots of gusting wind almost in runway direction. Pawel, a very friendly young pilot, helped me with the refueling after he gave me a ride to the petrol station on the opposite side of the runway. The Aeroklub Warmińsko-Mazurski has very nice premises at the airport which were recently rebuilt by the City of Olsztyn due to rebuilding the motorway at the edge of the airport. My wife took pictures of several AN-2 parked on the grass apron.
I have filed the flight plan for flight from EPOD to Vyškov(LKVY) in Czech Republic already in Helsinki via Homebriefing while we were still in the hotel so we were ready for immediate departure.

Olsztyn(EPOD) to Vyškov(LKVY) in Czech Republic
The route from EPOD to Vyškov was quite simple: EPOD-AMUTO-DESEN-LKVY. While still in Helsinki I have checked the Airspace Use Program and as I expected there were almost no activity in temporary segregated areas (TSA) due to the holiday of May 1st so I was able to fly directly from EPOD to AMUTO point and then to DESEN point which is the border point with Czech Republic. The planned route avoided all TMAs. The weather was great and until reaching Czech border we had no clouds. We climbed to FL090 and maintained this altitude until we were close to Brno TMA where we had to descend do 4000 feet and finally we landed at Vyškov(LKVY) after 2 hours 31 minutes. During this flight we had again a pretty strong tail wind. While we were landing at LKVY we had quite strong head wind from 20 to 25 knots with a small cross wind component.
Mr. Antonin Chroust, head of operations, and his daughter Ana, who is also a pilot, expected us at the apron and kindly helped us to refuel with MOGAS and to file the flight plan at Prague Briefing for the last part of our journey from LKVY to home airport Divača(LJDI) in Slovenia. Vyškov has a pretty long grass runway of good quality. At the northern part of airfield area there is a aviation museum with a lot of MIGs and MI helicopters. Unfortunately we hadn’t enough time to visit the museum and this will remain for next visit in Czech Republic.

From Vyškov(LKVY) to Divača(LJDI)
We took off in a strong wind and headed towards Slovenia. The route was: LKVY-REKLU-TOVKA-ABETI-DIMLO-ME4-MS3-TREBNJE-LJDI. Due to strong wind it was pretty bumpy at low altitudes so I asked for FL080 and got approval. Unfortunately we had to descend back to 2500 feet what was request from Vienna ATC and we were flying at this altitude until we reached ABETI point where we crossed Hungarian border. We climbed to 4000 feet in Hungary and after reaching DIMLO point at Slovenian border we were cleared to climb to 7000 feet. Near TREBNJE point we encountered some thunderstorms and we headed more to the south to avoid them. After 2 hours and 27 minutes of flying we safely landed at home airfield Divača(LJDI).

Lessons learned
The whole trip was 5958 km long mainly with good weather. The average speed was 103,8 knots what is not bad for a Piper Cherokee 140. The cumulative flight time was 33 hours and 27 minutes. More than 95% of time the autopilot was switched on and I manually flew only the approaches and takeoffs.

The new JPI’s FuelScan-450 turned out to be of great value on such long trips where one has to fly legs longer then 4 hours. Unfortunately I had no time to test it before this trip (it was installed several days before) so I was still using my previous method of fuel consumption estimation. I found FS-450 very precise and now I am convinced that I can rely on it, not as the primary instrument, but as a very good additional indicator.
Although the weather was excellent 80% of the time we had to start this journey in rainy weather. We had to fly at the edge of the cold front in Bulgaria and on way back home we had to avoid some thunderstorms. Still all this weather changes didn’t prevent us to fly VFR and stay in VMC and therefore such trips can be made. If the weather would be below VFR minimums we would have to make an unplanned stop, but this time we were lucky and we had no delays due to the weather.

The weather was pretty windy either en-route or for landings and departures. One has to have good skills to cope with a windy weather and be capable to land or takeoff in a strong crosswind conditions.

A careful planning is essential for such trips and every hour spent in preparations was the best possible investment. The only flaw in my preparations was not checking the prices and availability of AVGAS and landing fees at different airports in Lithuania. I just checked Kaunas as an alternate destination and unfortunately it turned out that that was not the optimal choice.

The aircraft performed extremely well and I even didn’t have to add a single drop of oil. The engine was running smoothly and climbing to FL125 at MTOW is not a problem.

The communication was standard in all countries and I always stress to my friends that there is really no difference where you are flying. The controllers were very helpful everywhere and I got shortcuts even when I haven’t asked for them.

I found that simple and straightforward plans work best and ATC doesn’t bother you with a lot of questions. Especially this is true when you are flying in more “exotic” countries like Serbia and Bulgaria where strict usage of published ATS routes is essential. For these countries there are no Jeppesen maps and therefore one can only use a topographic or road map. For flight plan preparation I was using Jeppesen FliteStar and Navbox. I found that Navbox intersection point database was not up-to-date although I have downloaded the latest possible version. The most accurate database was the latest update on my Garmin GPSMap 496 which I used as the last check while I was entering the route to GPS. I also used the GPS time estimates to report EET to border points in section 18 of ICAO flight plan what was usually required by ARO offices in countries that were in former Eastern Block. Bringing GPSMap496 with me while filing the flight plan in ARO office was found as a good practice because many times I had to re-plan the route on the fly and new estimates for border points were required immediately.

Another very important procedure was consistently used when departing from aerodromes. Before start taxing or latest at the runway holding point I activated the entered route in GPSMap496. If the documentation for VFR departure required flying over some special reporting points either due to noise abatement procedures or other reasons I entered these special points in advance. Of course there were situations when the departure clearance was given in last moment while I was already lining up on the runway and it was different from my expectation so there was no time to enter these special points and therefore I had to amend the entered route while I was already airborn. But this was an exceptional situation and therefore in majority of cases it was easy to follow the entered route.

The GPS Track of Trip to Bulgaria and Finland

From Svidnik(LZSK) across Poland to Kaunas(EYKA) in Lithuania

2009-05-27T09:39:00.015+02:00

One of the hardest tasks in my preparations was to understand Polish airspace. Already at home I prepared the route which was close to the eastern Polish border outside almost all controlled airspaces. I filed the flight plan via Homebriefing early in the morning after checking the airspace use for that day. The filed route was: LZSK- PODAN-VAREN-BALBA-ETUBO-BESOT-EPSU. I planned to land in Suwalki (EPSU) but the wind there was too strong for safe landing and taking off on 400m long runway at maximum take off weight. The other possibility was to use the longer runway but with a crosswind component of at least 25 knots. I didn’t know the quality of the runway and both runways were not marked as they should be. Therefore I decided to continue to Lithuania and make a refueling stop at Kaunas( EYKA) . I asked Olstzyn Info to change the flight plan to proceed to Kaunas(EYKA). The flight was uneventful but very bumpy due to strong south wind and we landed at a crosswind component of about 15 knots.We had a pretty strong tail wind all the way to the north and therefore we crossed Poland from south to north in a little bit more than 3 hours. The whole flight from Svidnik to Kaunas took only 3 hours 41 minutes.
After landing we taxied to fuel station where we refueled with the most expensive avgas I have ever paid until then. The price of the avgas was about 2,60 EUR. We had to pay also the landing fee and air-service charges what was a big surprise for me. In the local ARO office they complicated with the flight plan because we came there without flight plan (actually the plan should be changed by Olsztyn Info). They also canceled my original flight plan from Suwalki (EPSU) to Helsinki and replaced with a new one from EYKA to EFHF – Helsinki-Malmi. Additional complication was that the expected arrival time to Helsinki was after the airport’s working hours. It is possible to land at EFHF airport before 22:00 local time but one has to inform ATC about successful landing for closing the flight plan. It took us almost a 45 minutes in the ARO office to resolve all issues. Finally everything was o.k. and we walked to the apron and departed for Helsinki at 16:33 local time.

Despite Kaunas is a nice airport it was the most expensive one regarding the services and fuel price, but not only this, the ARO was the most time demanding office I have ever visited.

The GPS Track of Trip to Bolgaria and Finland

From Kaunas(EYKA) to Helsinki-Malmi(EFHF) in Finland

2009-05-27T09:39:00.014+02:00

Finally we were flying our last part towards Helsinki. The filed route was:

EYKA-GUNTA-RIA-SOKVA-MOHNI-NOKKA-EFHF

The requested and approved altitude was FL090. It was an easy flight with a good tail wind and it took only 2 hours 59 minutes to cross Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Baltic Sea on the way to Finland. In Estonia we got direct from SOKVA to NOKKA point which is the entry point into Malmi CTR. The only reporting points were practically the border points. While approaching to Helsinki-Malmi we encountered a pretty strong wind blowing from south-south-west. The EFHF airport was already closed and I was reporting my intentions on the frequency of Malmi tower. The runway in use was 18 and we safely landed in a pretty strong gusty wind of about 20 knots which was blowing almost in the runway direction with a small crosswind component. Immediately after landing I phoned to ATC and closed the flight plan. We secured the airplane on one free parking place and called our friend Tuomas Pystynen who came with car to the airport within 30 minutes. In the mean time we found how we can exit the apron. Tuomas proposed that we refuel the aircraft immediately and therefore we drove to the nearest gas station which was just at the airport entrance. Unfortunately my debit card was not accepted and therefore we had to go to another station. After refueling we wend to the Helsinki downtown to have a decent dinner with original Finnish fish dishes. We stayed at Tuomas’ apartment for two nights.

The following morning I called Malmi airport and informed them about my arrival. They were quite happy whit the place where I have parked.

The GPS Track of Trip to Bolgaria and Finland

Local Flight from Helsinki-Malmi(EFHF) to Selänpää (EFSE)

2009-05-27T09:39:00.007+02:00

After a day-off which we used for discovery of Helsinki downtown we decided to make a short trip more to the north-east to visit the “land of lakes”. I had no particular preferences where to fly but Tuomas suggested me that Selänpää airfield could be a good destination. And it really was! We took from EFHF and due to the vicinity of Helsinki Vantaa airport we were maintaining altitude of 1000 feet until we exited the Malmi CTR at DAGER point. Later on we climbed a little bit but stayed pretty low to have better view and not to enter the controlled airspace above us. The flight was quite bumpy due to relatively strong wind from south-south-west. We approached Selänpää (EFSE) and nobody was answering on their frequency. We saw two guys who were hardening the terrain around the runways for the forthcoming season. We landed in quite strong crosswind of about 15 knots on only 12 meter wide asphalt runway 30. After parking on the apron we met Mr. Juha Ritari, a very pleasant man, who proposed us a sightseeing tour with his car to the nearby lake which was beyond the normal walking distance. Juha Ritari was really the greatest surprise for us. His hospitality was so great that after having a cup of coffee in a small restaurant he drove us around more then an hour for a sightseeing tour around the Selänpää airfield. Finally we were able to admire the “land of lakes” and see the original Finish farm houses. We also visited the old paper mill in Verla which was restored under UNESO guidance (http://www.verla.fi/).

After our return to EFSE airfield, which was built during Second World War and was used by Germans, we visited the club premises and filed the flight plan for flight back to Malmi. Juha wanted to seat in the cockpit of my Piper and I caught him right at that moment. We made some photos and took off from runway 30 back to Helsinki. Juha later on sent me some beautiful pictures of the lakes in the Selänpää’s surrounding area. With his kind permission I am publishing them here.
I am quite convinced that there is no need to comment the beauty of the nature of this wonderful place. Another great airfield where one should make a mandatory stop and, if possible, join them in their gliding activities and enjoy their hospitality.

From Debrecen(LHDC) to Svidnik(LZSK) in Slovak Republic

2009-05-27T09:38:00.003+02:00

The filed route was extremely simple: LHDC-KENIN-LZSK.

KENIN is border point between Hungary and Slovakia. The cruise altitude was 5000 feet. After crossing Slovak border we switched to Bratislava info. We were cleared direct to Svidnik and there was no traffic in the air although it was Saturday evening with a cloudless weather. I was afraid that we have lost the contact but obviously we were the only airplane on Bratislava info frequency.
Svidnik(LZSK) is a small airport with almost 1200m long asphalt runway near the border with Poland. I first intended to land at military base Prešov (LZPW). However, Robert Tupta, whose telephone number I got from Prešov tower, suggested me to land in Svidnik where they have mogas and they could also arrange sleeping in nearby Svidnik town. Unfortunately Robert was in Sanct Petersburg in Russia during our visit and therefore he asked his friends to wait us at the airport and give us a ride to Svidnik town.
Emil Sluk and his son Tomaš and some other people waited us at the airfield and we were extremely warmly welcomed. We topped the airplane with mogas and then we drove to the nearby town where we got a room in the hotel. There were two weddings going on in the hotel that Saturday’s evening and therefore we had to find a nearby restaurant for dinner. We found a small pizzeria/restaurant with excellent food and even better Slovak beer.

It was time to relax after a long journey. I sent a text message to Milena Gerova in Bulgaria that we have safely arrived to Slovakia and then I got a reply from her that it is snowing in Pamporovo. Obviously we have chosen the right time for departure from Bulgaria.

The following day was Sunday and we celebrated the holy service in the Catholic church just across the street. After having a late breakfast in the hotel we were ready for departure. Emil and Tomaš came to the hotel to give us a ride back to the airfield. Quite a strong wind was blowing in the morning from the south almost in the runway direction with a small crosswind component. After making some final preparations we took off at 10:19 local time and headed towards Polish border which was only few miles away to the north.

The Svidnik airfield is only about 2 km away from Svidnik town and I almost envied those people to have such a wonderful airfield so close to their homes.

Making a stop in Svidnik was really a good decision where we were blessed with the hospitality of people. I am really thankful them for such a nice stay.

The GPS Track of Trip to Bolgaria and Finland

From Plovdiv(LBPD) to Debrecen(LHDC) in Hungary via Belgrade (LYBE)

2009-05-27T09:37:00.003+02:00

The filed route was: LBPD-RUMEN-GOL-ETIDA-PELOV-PARAK-VERIG-LHDC. While we were still occupied in Plovdiv with the formalities the cold front moved even more to the south. We initially climbed to FL080 and afterwards even to FL110 what was still not enough to clear the clouds. While inbound to GOL we got a direct to ETIDA which was just in time as the cold front was right in front of us. The temporary restricted are around Sofia was still in place. With this shortcut we were flying at the edge of cloud layer which was extending from FL080 to approximately FL120 or even higher. The freezing level was at FL080 so I had to be very careful not to accidently enter a cloud due to icing conditions. I was experimenting with different flight levels and finally we finished at FL065 where we had overcast above us and broken cloud layer beneath us. The Serbian ATC requested that we cross Serbian border at UTEKA point which was more to the north and more inside the cold front. Fortunately we were able to fly at FL065 without significantly changing our heading to avoid some clouds.

When we were already flying in clear sky I decided to make an unplanned stop in Belgrade (LYBE) just to add some more gasoline. We had pretty strong headwind of about 20 to 25 knots and the fuel scan was showing that we will have at least one hour reserve in Debrecen(LHDC). But I was not happy with that and therefore we asked ATC to change the route towards LYBE. We were cleared direct to OBR NDB and afterwards direct to YENKEE point which is the entry point for VFR in Belgrade CTR. I was offered to be number one for landing if I expedite enough and perform a shortest possible approach for runway 12. While I was in downwind ATC urged to speed-up and shorten the final as much as possible so there was no time to extend flaps as I was flying at maximum possible speed. I turned into base immediately after passing runway threshold and made a short final and landed pretty far down the runway to be able to vacate it as soon as possible. After we exited the runway and we were already taxing to apron an airliner landed. It was really necessary to speed up in order to vacate the runway on-time.

We refueled with 70 liters of AVGAS and the price was identical as at LYNI. We filed the flight plan via fax from VIP lounge where they offered us coffee and cold water.

I planned to fly from LYBE to the north directly to PARAK point at the Hungarian border. However, the ATC gave me quite different routing which was first going to south: LYBE-OBR-W1-PARAK-VERIG-LHDC with initial climb to FL100 what was the request from military base in Batajnica.

After departure we actually flew the proposed route with a shortcut given by Hungarian ATC which was from PARAK point directly to LHDC.

The flight was uneventful with good weather and few clouds at about 8000 feet. We were cleared for straight in approach for runway 05R at LHDC.

Debrecen is second biggest city in Hungary with a lot of interesting architectural and cultural monuments and rich history. Unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to make a trip to the city. The airport is former Russian military base and one can still spot many hangars covered with earth for military aircrafts.

Péter Bakó was in charge for refueling and payment of landing fee. We refueled with the avgas and officially entered Schengen area. Peter was one of the most cooperative guys I have ever met on airports. If you are flying in Hungary then you should stop in Debrecen.

I faxed the flight plan from operations office and it was immediately accepted.

After taking some final photos at the apron we departed towards Slovakia.

From Ljubljana(LJLJ) to Plovdiv(LBPD) via Niš(LYNI)

2009-05-27T09:36:00.003+02:00

The evening before the journey started I had to move my airplane from my home airport Divača (LJDI) to Ljubljana (LJLJ) due to flying into non-Schengen countries and therefore a customs procedure was required.

I was planning the departure for April 23rd 2009 at 6:00 local time, the first possible time for general aviation aircraft to depart from LJLJ without paying additional charges for off-hours departure.

The planned route was: LJLJ – S3 – S2 – S1 – LETLI – NOVLO – DER – SOMUN - VAL – SOSEK – CICEV – RUTEV – TANGO - LYNI

The weather forecast for this morning was predicting a cold front crossing the Alps from the north and raining was expected between 7:00 and 8:00 local time. My wife was flying with me, so we departed from home at 05:00 local time and arrived at Ljubljana airport about 20 minutes before the expected departure time. The weather at that time was still fine but the cold front has already crossed the mountains. While unloading the luggage I realized that my pilot bag with GPS receiver, all airplane documents and aeronautical maps is missing and obviously I have forgotten it behind the garage door while hurrying to depart from home. My wife immediately drove back to home but the rush hour already began and I expected that it will take her about 1 hour 30 minutes to return with the bag. In the mean time I loaded all other luggage and warmed-up the engine. The weather was getting worse pretty fast and it also started to rain. Finally my wife returned and we hurried to the airplane and taxied to the middle of runway where we had to wait for some airplanes to take of before us. The visibility was still good enough that we could fly VFR.

After departure we exited the Ljubljana CTR at S3 point and contacted Ljubljana Information and got direct to LETLI point at the FIR border with Croatia. Just before the departure I checked the rainfall radar and the rain already spread about 30 km to the south-east of the airport. So I expected to fly in rain approximately 15 to 20 minutes. The weather further to the south-east in direction to Serbia was expected to be much better, practically clear sky. This fact and latest satellite images helped me to make a decision to takeoff in relatively bad weather which was expected to improve along the planned route.

When we were about 10 miles to LETLI point the weather improved and we entered perfect flying conditions. After crossing state border we were in contact with Zagreb information and we got a new entry point for Bosnia and Herzegovina. Instead of NOVLO point we got TEBLI point what was just a tiny change in routing. After entering Bosnia and Herzegovina airspace we were cleared direct to BLK (Banja luka NDB) and from there direct to DER VOR. We were flying in clear sky while the north part of Bosnia was hiding under low clouds and the visibility at Banja luka airport (LQBK) was only about 100 to 200 meters but was improving. Some airliners were in flying in holding pattern over BLK waiting that the visibility will improve and they could land. Indeed the visibility improved after we were close to DER.

After passing DER we entered Serbia at SOMUN point and continued to VAL and further to SOSEK point where we started prescribed VFR approach to Niš airport (LYNI). I was informed by ATC to expect standard instrumental arrival what surprised me very much. Therefore I have informed them that we are flying VFR and we planned the prescribed VFR arrival for LYNI airport what was later on accepted by ATC. The points CICEV, RUTEV and TANGO are local reporting points defined in VFR approach chart for LYNI. TANGO is the entry point into LYNI CTR and after that point we were cleared direct to NIS VOR which is located close to the threshold of runway 11.

Immediately after landing we requested refueling and the bowser came soon. We refueled with 113 liters of avgas 100LL what was not bad for 4 hours and 1 minute flight from Ljubljana to Niš(LYNI). I was checking the price of fuel about 14 days before and got the information that the price is about 1,04 EUR per liter. Unfortunately this is the price for domestic customers while the price for international customers is almost 250% higher, approx 2,50 EUR . This was really a big surprise for me, but nothing could be done. If I would knew this in advance I would fly directly to Skopje (LWSK) in Macedonia where the price of avgas is about 1,7 EUR.

Next surprise was a call from local ARO office that my flight plan from LYNI to Plovdiv(LBPD) was rejected by Bulgarian ATC. The last evening before departure I checked NOTAMs and I found a restriction for VFR flying around Sofia in radius of 40 kilometers due to some European Community event taking place in Sofia. In last minute before I filed the flight plan via Homebriefing I changed the route to LYNI-NISVA-MOREK-USALI-WAK-RUMEN-LBPD. As this route was not a standard ATS route it was rejected by Bulgarian ATC. They proposed another route which started at Bulgarian border at DOLAP point to GOL VOR and then to RUMEN point and finally LBPD. Then Serbians started to complicate and I had to fly from LYNI back to RAVAK point and then proceed to DOLAP like I would be flying IFR. Of course all this negotiation took some time and several visits at ARO office. Finally the plan was accepted and we were already sitting in the cockpit when they notified us that we can’t take off because the Bulgarian ATC stopped receiving all flights from Serbia and it is not known how long the restriction will be in place. Then only after two minutes we were notified that we can start the engine and take off if we are ready to depart immediately. Wow, what a relief! We taxied to holding point for runway 29 and got the departure clearance and were also cleared for immediate takeoff. Initially we climbed to 5000 feet inbound RAVAK point and then turned towards Bulgaria. Later on we climbed to 7000 and 8000 feet and crossed the Bulgarian border at DOLAP point. There was a cloud layer over mountains later on in Bulgaria and therefore we climbed to FL100 and maintained this altitude until final descend to Plovdiv. After were out of 40 km radius temporary prohibited zone around Sofia we got a direct route to RUMEN point which significantly shortened the flight. We got a straight in approach for runway 12 and safely landed.

Plovdiv airport(LBPD) is opened 24 hours what was a surprise for me because they don’t have a lot of traffic. We parked besides a small business jet which was the only airplane on the apron. There were two Cessnas parked on a special parking place – obviously two local GA airplanes.

A very pleasant and helpful hostess came to accompany us to the airport building where we had passport control. I asked them if it would be possible to bring some regular car gasoline to apron as they have only JET fuel. They already promised me this possibility in advance but I just wanted to have a clear situation. They confirmed me this possibility as it was promised in advance. Taxi arrived pretty soon and we drove to the old center of Plovdiv where a hotel was reserved for us by Bulgarian Oracle Users Group (BGOUG) in a very nice small hotel “Boris Palas« with very good food and nice room. After having a good luch and early dinner at the same time we walked to Plovdiv downtown to see this very old town. Unfortunately we have forgotten the camera in the hotel so we didn’t take any photos.

Next morning two attendees of BGOUG gave us a ride from Plovdiv to Pamporovo where the conference took place. I had my presentation in the very first slot after the opening speech of BGOUG president Milena Gerova. The dinner was followed by a fabulous party with very good music, so we couldn’t resist dancing whole evening. The only moments we were not dancing were when almost all attendees were dancing Bulgarian national dances. The atmosphere was getting better and better and for years I haven’t attended such an awesome party on any Oracle related event. It was really a great party. Unfortunately we had to go sleeping around 01:00 as the planned departure in the morning was scheduled for 6:30. I woke up at 5:00 and checked the weather. I noticed that the cold front which was coming from north from Romania across Carpathian Mountains was much faster as it was expected. A kind guy from BGOUG took us to Plovdiv airport which was on his way back to Sofia.

First I went to the aircraft and took out the canisters and we drove to the nearby petrol station. While I was carrying the canisters to the apron the customs offices checked them with a great smile. I was surprised how cooperative they were. Then I went to ARO office to file the flight plan and after that to the operations where I paid all the fees. Landing here was pretty expensive (approx 73 EUR) but the personnel was extremely cooperative and helpful. At 10:07 local time we took off for Debrecen (LHDC) in Hungary.

The GPS Track of Trip to Bolgaria and Finland

Preparations for trip to Bulgaria and Finland

2009-05-27T09:34:00.002+02:00

As I have already said the preparation started about two months before the actual flight. The most time consuming task was to study the aeronautical information publications (AIP) for the countries where I have never been before. I used Eurocontrol EAD (European AIS Database) Basic application which is available at (http://www.ead.eurocontrol.int/eadcms/eadsite/index.php.html ) and gives you access to AIPs of all European countries. I was interested especially in the following chapters: GEN 1.2- ENTRY, TRANSIT AND DEPARTURE OF AIRCRAFT and ENR 1.2-VISUAL FLIGHT RULES. For studying airspace I was using other parts of AIP together with Jeppesen maps and Jeppesen’s VFR FliteStar. For Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania I was using Jeppesen Low Altitude Enroute Charts which are used for IFR flying. In these countries one can fly only along published ATS routes and for any flying outside these routes one should obtain a special permission.

In the AIP of Bulgaria and Romania I found that I have to obtain a special permission to overfly or land in their territory. In order to get this permission I had to specify the planned arrival and departure and send them all relevant aircraft’s documents in scanned form. Surprisingly the Romanian CAA responded in few hours while I got the permit for Bulgaria only after several days. I would suggest to everyone who wants to get these permissions to first carefully study the prerequisites published in AIPs of these countries.

Another big challenge was Poland with its TSAs (Temporary Segregated Areas). It took me one whole evening and half night to prepare a route to cross Poland from south to north and from north-east to south-west on way back which was independent of current airspace usage in TSAs. Poland’s AIP defines a lot of TSAs which usage changes on daily basis and only at the day of actual flight one can be sure that he will be able to fly along planned route. The actual status can be obtained at Polish Air Navigation Services Agency (see http://www.amc.pata.pl/index.php?lang=_eng&left_menu=menu_amc&top_menu=top_amc&opis=amc_info ). On this page one can get the planned airspace usage for the following day besides the current airspace usage (see links Current AUP and AUP for Tomorrow). There is also an interactive map of airspace usage accessible under Elements of airspace/AUP. The AUP (Airspace Use Plan) for next day is available late afternoon day before but can still change and therefore one should check the status just before filling the flight plan.

Another big concern was the weather and I used several sources to first get long term forecast. I will discuss the weather issue while describing parts of the route later on. This time I was using www.meteoblue.com for the first time.

The GPS Track of Trip to Bolgaria and Finland

Trip to Bulgaria and Finland

2009-05-27T09:29:00.003+02:00

In the following posts I will describe my longest flying journey so far from Slovenia to Bulgaria and then from Bulgaria to Finland and back to Slovenia. Back in December 2008 when I was attending UKOUG conference in Birmingham, UK, I was invited by Milena Gerova, The president of Bulgarian Oracle Users Group (BGOUG) to present at their spring conference which takes place at the end of April at famous Bulgarian ski resort Pamporovo. At the same time I was also invited by my friend Tuomas Pystynen from Miracle Finland, who is also a member of OakTable network, to present at “May Day” event which is organized just before Finish national holiday May 1st in Helsinki.
So the challenge to fly whole trip by myself was there. As it was a few days between those two events I would have enough time to fly from Bulgaria to Finland even in case that the weather wouldn’t be ideal and I would have to make several stops. It was obvious that this trip will be the most challenging not just because of still pretty unstable weather at the end of April but also due to crossing so many countries. Some of them are quite "exotic" (for aviation) and not very favorable for general aviation like Bulgaria and Romania.

My preparations started more than two months before the actual flight took place with general planning of the route and determining the requirements for flying in certain countries. The plan was to fly from one Slovenian international airport to Plovdiv(LPPD) in Bulgaria which was only about hour and half driving away from the BGOUG conference venue Pamporovo. This part included flying over Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia.
The second part of the trip would be from Plovdiv to Helsinki-Malmi (EFHF) in Finland crossing Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia with refueling stops in Slovakia and northern Poland.
The last part of trip was return from Finland to Slovenia. Part of the way back home was the same as the route to Finland – from Helsinki through Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to Poland with a refueling stop there and then through Czech Republic through Austria and Hungary back to Slovenia.

The GPS Track of Trip to Bolgaria and Finland

Flowering Camellias and Magnolias in Locarno

2009-04-05T22:48:00.000+02:00

My wife Lili likes very much flowers and years ago I have promised to her a visit to Holland in the time of tulips flowering. Unfortunately also this year it was not possible to fulfill the promise because in last week there was NATO summit in Strasbourg and the airspace around was closed. I hope I'll be able to visit Holland next year.
Last year we visited my colleague from OakTable Christian Antognini who lives in Ticino in Switzerland and they invited us to make a visit during the spring time when camellias and magnolias will be flowering. We were waiting for good weather and finally we decided to fly to Locarno (LSZL) on Saturday, April 4th.
As Switzerland is part of Schengen area also for aviation since end of March 2009 it was possible to make a direct flight from Divača (LJDI) to Locarno. The route was the same as last year. Unfortunately the bad weather and low clouds at 8000 feet prevented us to follow the planned route so we had to divert and the actual route was: LJDI-TRIESTE-GRADO-PORTOGRUARO-VIC (VOR) - ORI (VOR) - PORLEZZA - LSZL.
It was amazing that the weather in Switzerland was almost clear sky with only few clouds pretty higher than FL100. We passed Swiss border and descended to 4000 feet over Bellinzona and then preformed a straight in approach to Locarno.
The weather was sunny and warm and people were wearing just T-shirts what is not so common for my home place for the beginning of April.
First we visited Locarno Camellias Park which is located on the shore of Lago Magiore. I was expecting to see some beautiful flowers but I was wrong, it was much more. We came just in the right time to see all camellias in full flowering and it was awesome. My wife Lili was so surprised that she was hardly able to breathe. I posted some of the pictures I took in the park.
After visiting camellias we drove to "Parco Botanico del Bargarogno" about 15 minutes drive from Locarno airport. This garden has more magnolias than camellias and is located in a quite steep terrain between some nice small creeks. It was “once in life” adventure to see all those magnolias and also camellias in full flowering.
For the return flight I planned the same route as we actually did when flying to Locarno and I was right. The weather between Bergamo and Vicenca was pretty bad and the clouds were just high enough to safely clear the hills. From time to time it was raining and the temperature was just few degrees above zero. The last part of the route was most complicated as there was a shower between Grado and Trieste and we had to divert close to LIPQ and cross the border there.
It was a very nice trip although the weather was not perfect. I must here express my thankfulness to Michelle and Chris for preparing us this marvelous day.

Visiting Denmark and Miracle Open World at Lalandia

2008-10-25T23:16:00.001+02:00

Miracle A/S is a small company in Denmark, which every year among other events organizes a three day conference about Oracle database and is traditionally held in October. This event is now called "Miracle Open World" and is traditionally organized at Lalandia, near Rødby on Lolland island, Denmark. This year it was the second time I was attending this great event and decided, of course, to fly there. The event started at Wednesday, October 22nd 2008 and ended on Friday, October 24th in the evening. Because the weather at the end of October can be already pretty unstable I decided to depart to Denmark between the Saturday 18th and Tuesday 21st - on a day that the weather would be good enough to fly there without being forced to make some stops due to bad weather.
About 14 days before my departure I started to monitor the long term forecasts. They we changing a lot during fist 8 to 10 days, but after that it became clear that the best day for traveling would be Sunday, October 19th. I had to look for good weather to cross the Slovenian and Austrian Alps and also to be able to land in Denmark where the weather is like in England. All fronts which pass Great Britain are continuing to the east and then hit Denmark and other Scandinavian countries. Therefore I had to find a gap between these fronts. For this journey the most critical was for sure the weather.
The route planning showed that I will have to make a re-fueling stop and according to the prices of gasoline I decided to make a stop in Czech Republic where the price is about 1.20 EUR/liter. The best location would be in the area near Plzen so I decided to make a stop at Letkov airfield (LKPL) just few kilometers north-east of Plzen. Unfortunately the last evening I found that there will be most likely a fog next morning and therefore I found another airport more to the north - Žatec (LKZD). I called them by phone and asked them if I can do a refueling stop and if they usually have a fog in the morning. The answer was very encouraging, so I decided to change my route and land there.

From Divača(LJDI) to Žatec (LKZD) in Czech Republic
Next morning we (my wife and me) were in Divača before the sunrise and topped the airplane with the fule and we departed at 7:57 local time. The weather in Slovenia was excellent and also the weather forecast for Apls was good. Just before the departure I checked all web cams along the route and the weather appeared excellent.
The route to Žatec was: LJDI (the new ICAO code for Divača) - LJAJ (Ajdovščina) - ISTRI (border point with Austria) - LOLU (Gmunden near Salzburg) - DOMAL (border point with Czech Republic) - LKZD (Žatec). After departure we climbed to 9500 feet before we crossed the Austrian border and after that to FL115 to cross the Austrian Alps and then back to 9500 feet. The weather in Czech Republic was excellent, no fog and also landing at Žatec airfield after 2 hours and 59 minutes of flying was without any problems. Žatec has a grass runway 1120 meters long which is also used for training flights with jet aircraft and is in perfect condition. The guy at the airport office offered us some excellent cakes and coffee. After that we topped the airplane with Natural 95. They are buying this gasoline on a nearby gas station just 2 minutes away. The fuel consumption to Žatec was 82 liters what is very good for a 3 hour flight across Alps.

From Žatec in Czech Republoic to Peenemünde(EDCP)
The next route towards Denmark was: LKZD(Žatec) - DRN (Dreseden VOR) - EDCP (Peenemünde). I wanted to visit the Peenemünde museum about the development of V-1 and V-2 rockets during the Second World War.
Žatec is quite close to German border and after crossing it we were heading towards north to Peenemünde. The biggest airports in former East Germany are those in Berlin and they have pretty large TMA zones surrounding them. Therefore I asked for permission to overfly them at FL100 and got it. Already south of Berlin we encountered almost an overcast and also on the north side of Berlin the weather was the same. We were flying at 9500 feet and looking for a hole in the clouds to be able to go down and continue under clouds. Finally we found one big enough to go down safely. So I made a descending turn and entered that hole. Suddenly I found that my gyro-compass is turning around uncontrolled and also the artificial horizon is showing strange banking angle. A quick look the the vacuum pump gauge gave the answer - we lost the vacuum pump. There was another cloud layer down there so we had to find another hole to go down and continue flying towards Peenemünde. When we were below the clouds the visibility was quite poor and the clouds bases were at 1300-1500 feet so I had to make a decision what to do. We lost the vacuum pump and the weather was not very good and flying without attitude indicator and gyro-compass in such conditions wouldn't be very smart. So the best decision is to make a stop at the nearest airport. I pushed the "nearest" button on my GPS receiver and found that the closest airport EDBD (Dedelow Emmel Airfield) is only about few kilometers away. Therefore I contacted the ATC and notify them that we are landing due to bad weather and they gave me the frequency for EDBD airport. I called EDBD and immediately got the permission to land.
Dedelow Emmel Airfield (EDBD) is private airfield owned by Frank and Petra Emmel. Frank is a former airliner pilot flying now smaller airplanes. He was captain on Boeing 737 . Petra was secretary and now they are both running this nice airfield. Frank is also certified to make minor repairs on private airplanes and he helped me to diagnose whether we really lost the vacuum pump. Because it was Sunday afternoon there was no possibility to call some maintenance shop and therefore we decided to stay at Dedelow during the night. Their hospitality was so great that they offered us to sleep in their house and Petra prepared excellent spaghetti for us. Unfortunately Frank had to leave for Frankfurt later on so in the evening we had a great chat only with Petra. She told us about their dream to run their own airport and showed us also the album about their trip to Spain, Portugal and Marocco more than 20 years ago when Frank had only 22 hours of flying after getting his private pilot license. They are now running this airport for 3 years.
Next morning the weather was excellent and we called "Aircraft Maintenance" in Neubrandenburg which is only 15 minutes flying away and it turned out they had a spare vacuum pump. Petra prepared us and excellent breakfast and then we left this nice airfield. I must say that we were so surprised because they welcomed us in so nice and warm manner and were so kind and helpful in moments when we really needed the help. Therefore I must express my thankfulness once again also here that every reader will know how nice couple they are.

Repair in Neubrandenburg
The flight to Neubrandenburg( ETNU) turned into a short panorama flight because there were so many small lakes below us. Petra gave me a copy of the aerodrome map with the details for the VFR approach, so we had no problems to land there. We parked the airplane in front of the maintenance hangar and in few minutes Werner Ritter started to work on vacuum pump replacement. After 1.5 hours a new pump was installed and I made a short taxing on the apron to test the replaced pump and it was working perfect. Werner then gave us a lift to the nearest bankomat (ATM) to withdraw some money to pay the invoice. Also here in Neubrandeburg we found a very kind man, prepared to help immediately. While he was working he told me stories from his life in former Eastern Germany when he was maintaining Russian airplanes and helicopters.

From Neubrandebunrg (ETNU) to Roskilde (EKRK) in Denmark
Finally we started the last leg of our journey to Denmark. The route was ETNU - EDCX - Gedesby (Denmark) - Køge (EKRK VFR reporting point) - EKRK (Copenhagen Roskilde). After takeoff I switched to Bremen info and afterwards to Copenhagen info after crossing the Danish border. The flight took us only 1 hour 20 minutes, the weather was sunny almost without clouds, however, a strong wind from south west was blowing so the runway in use at Roskilde airport was 21. While we were landing there we had about 20 knots of head wind. We parked the plane on the apron and secured it.
Mogens Nørgaard, the technical manager of Miracle A/S came to the airport and gave us a ride to his home where we stayed for next two nights. During our stay at Mogens' house we visited Copengahen took the canal tour with a special kind of a boat. The only time I was in Copengahen was back in 1989 and at that time I found Copenhagen as one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

From Roskilde to Lolland Falster/Maribo (EKMB)
On Wednesday morning, October 22nd 2008, we had to move to Lalandia on Lolland island. We took some gasoline at Copenhagen-Roskilde airport and payed the landing and parking fees. The landing fee was 10,78 EUR and parking fee per night was 7,82 EUR, the price of the avgas was 2,38 EUR per liter. Because I was expecting to fill the tanks with mogas at Maribo airport I took only 21 liters of avgas.
The flight to EKMB was uneventful and we were flying at 3000 feet after clearing the Copenhagen TMA zones. We had only about 10 knots of cross wind when landing at EKMB. After landing I immediately payed the landing fees as I was expecting to fly home on Saturday when there is nobody at the aerodrome and it runs on a self-service basis what means, that you are landing or taking of on your discretion. The landing fee was 13,60 EUR and parking on the apron was free of charge.
After securing the plane we left for Lalandia, which is only about 8 km away on the Baltic coast. In the afternoon I came back together with Torben who helped me to top the airplane with mogas. We had to go three times to the nearest gas station which was about 2,5 km away. The price of the unleaded 95 was only 1,19 EUR per liter what was as exactly 50% of the avgas price.

Miracle Open World event
As this blog is dedicated to flying I will not write much about this event here. What is really important to say is that this was again a unique event with excellent program and great speakers. Most of them are colleagues from the OakTable.net. I am really admiring Mogens and his wife Anette for excellent preparation of the event with the best social program. Mogens always jokes that the Lalandia events have 80/80 ratio - 80 percents of the time is conference program and 80 percents of the time is the social program - and this is possible only because we sleep so little.
As my small contribution to the social part of the event I brought 15 liters of new wine "Teran" and warned everybody that he shouldn't spill it because he will not be able to remove the spot from the cloths.
I had my presentation in the first slot on Thursday and after that I was able to attend other sessions. Thursday evening we had gala dinner and after the dinner at 22:00 we moved to the swimming pool until 01:30 where the rest of the social program was taking place.
The last day we started at 9:15 and ended at 16:00 with the wrap-up session.

From Lolland to Letkov (LKPL) in Czech Republic
On Saturday morning we left Lolland Falster/Maribo airport at 9:21 local time and headed towards Czech republic. The weather was excellent and we climbed to 8000 feet. In Northern Germany the weather was pretty nice, however, towards the south there was cloud layer with tops at 4000 feet. It was not a complete overcast so it would be possible to descend in case of emergency. The sky was clear of clouds near Czech border and also in Czech Republic. I planned to land at Letkov aerodrome near Plzen where they have mogas. It took us 3 hours and 16 minutes to LKPL and all the time we were flying at 8000 feet except the last 15 minutes when we descended to 4000 feet and later on to 3000 feet. After entering Czech Republic we switched to Karlovy Vary radar (LKKV) and later on to Praha info and finally to local frequency of Letkov.

The route was: EKMB - MIC VOR - PAH NDB - LEG VOR- EDCJ - KONAR (Czech border) - LKPL.

Letkov is a nice airfield used mostly by gliders but there are also many other airplanes. We topped the aircraft with mogas and checked the weather in Austrian Alps and Slovenia. I also phoned to Divača and found that a strong wind ("burja") is blowing at my home airport gusting to 35 knots.

From Letkov (LKPL) to Portorož (LJPZ) in Slovenia
The route to Slovenia was: LKPL - DOMAL(Czech border) - RENKA(Austrian border) - VIW VOR - ISTRI (Slovenian border) - LJDI - LJPZ.
After departure we headed towards south. At DOMAL point we crossed the border with Germany and soon after that we crossed Austrian border at RENKA. The weather was nice, however all the northern part of Austria was covered with an overcast of clouds. We climbed to FL115 and were flying directly to the VIW VOR which is close to Klagenfurt. The Austrian Alps were almost without any clouds and surprisingly almost all valleys were without cloud layer. The view was gorgeous and we took some pictures which you can see here. Also Slovenia was covered with a cloud layer except the highest mountains. Only the "Primorska" region close to the border with Italy was clear of clouds as there was blowing a strong wind "burja". In Slovenia we descended to 9500 feet and then to 7500 feet and when we were close to Divača (LJDI) we contacted Divača info and found that the cross wind is blowing at 25 knots gusting to 35 knots. I decided to proceed to Portorož (LJPZ) where there was almost no wind and
also clear sky. After landing there we took a small late lunch and then contacted Divača by phone. In the mean time "burja" slowed down to about 15 KT what are for me "normal" conditions there. So we filed a flight plan and departed back to Divača, where we landed after 15 minutes. The wind was almost calm at the ground level, but we encountered pretty strong rotors in base and final.

Lessons learned
The most important thing I learned from this trip is that you loose your instruments in the most inappropriate moment. I could paraphrase the Murphy law as: "Murphy is standing out there and waiting for you!". Maybe even more important thing we found was that there are still many kind and helpful, hospitable people who are willing to help you in troubles. Thanks God for them!

Romantic Wedding In The Airplane

2008-10-25T23:14:00.000+02:00

On October 4th 2008 my flying instructor Matej Cerar married with Ana Skok. The reason why I am blogging about this event is the romance behind. They were dating before for many years. Ana is also employed in the "Janez let Flying School". My first conversation with her at the time when I was deciding, which flying school to choose, was crucial. At that time back in May 2007 she convinced me that "Janez Let Flying School" is the right school for me. And she was absolutely right. She is also a student pilot. I met Matej few days later and he was my instructor through the whole training for PPL.
This year they finally decided to marry and they asked me to sing "Ave Maria" in the church during the wedding ceremonial. I was really deeply honored by their invitation and also happy for them because they wanted to confirm their relationship also before God in the holy sacrament of marriage. For those, who don't know the marriage procedure in Slovenia, I must explain that we have so called "civilian marriage" which is the official one for the civil authorities and we have also so called "church marriage" what is a synonym for the holy sacrament of marriage in the Catholic Church.
They decided that the civil marriage ceremony will take place in the airplane.

On October 4th we gathered at Divača airport (LJDI) and first we had a very nice welcome reception in the hangar. Unfortunately this day a very strong cross wind "burja" was blowing gusting to over 25 knots and therefore Matej's father Marjan, who was the pilot in command, made a good decision not to really take off in a strong cross wind but just do the slow taxing on the runway. I took these two pictures of this nice couple when they were already husband and wife.

The church marriage ceremonial took place in Tunjce near Ljubljana airport. The weather was nice and we could see airplanes landing at the airport. I asked my wife Lili to sing with me the famous Psalm 23 "The Lord Is My Shepherd" what we have already done before for several occasions. Besides "Ave Maria" I performed also "Panis Angelicus".

The wedding party took place near Medvode. All pilots who were invited to the party were siting at one big round table, so there was plenty of opportunity to have interesting chat about flying besides all other entertainment going on whole time. It was a really a very nice wedding.

One again I must express my thankfulness to Ana and Matej for the invitation. We all wish them a long and happy marriage life.

Night Rating

2008-09-30T14:11:00.000+02:00

Yesterday evening (September 29th 2008) I had the practical exam for the night rating. I started with the training last Saturday evening. According to the syllabus one needs at least 5 hour of flight training in night conditions for night rating. Months ago I attenede the theoretical part of the training.
Since I got my PPL(A) there were several occasions when it would be much easier if I would have night rating at that time. All these occasions were one big struggle with the time in order to land before the official night starts (sunset + 30 minutes). Now fall is coming in and the days are getting shorter and I have still some journeys to fly. Therefore the night rating was something what would make my life much easier. I really don't plan to fly much during the night as it is not a very good feeling flying in a single engine aircraft and experience an engine failure. But it is a good extension for your flight when you can prolongate your daily VFR flight into night VFR and land at the destination airport some short time after the official daylight conditions end.
I started my first night training on a brand new Cessna 172SP with the glass cockpit, which has only about 200 hours. Although I have over 62 hours on C172 , the new glass cockpit environment was a very unpleasant time for me. Also flying in the night conditions was something new for me. But the biggest change was the glass cockpit. I attended a several hours training before my first flight but obviously this was not enough for me. I felt so uncomfortable that my overall performance was significantly reduced.
My instructor was Matej Cerar from "Janez let" flying school, a great young man, who tries to transfer all his knowledge to his students. He was my instructor for my PPL(A) as well. We departed from Divača just before the sunset and continued to Ljubljana airport (LJLJ) where I had performed my first night landings. The first one was not a very smooth one, however, all others were good enough and those without flaps were the best ones.
Next morning, it was Sunday morning, we departed early and performed a touch-and-go and then proceeded to Divača where we landed already in daily VFR conditions.
For my next training I chose the old Cesna 172 which I was using during my training for PPL. What a relief! Known environment and behavior! Yesterday evening we departed from Divača before the official night started and again flew to Ljubljana airport. Then I was performing traffic patterns more than one hour to gather enough practice. After landing, I had a briefing with the examiner Aleš Štimec and then we departed on the night exam flight across half of Slovenia. It was a gorgeous night without moon and there were no clouds. After departure from LJLJ I had to make a short diversion to Ljubljana city where I was climbing to 8500 feet while waiting that the IFR traffic will land at LJLJ. After that the route was to DOL VOR, Polzela, Trebnje, Velike Lašče, S3 and LJLJ. At the end I had to perform two landings, one was with landing light and flaps, the other one was flapless and without any light in the cabin. I was tempted to use the battery, however, I decided to land without being able to see the instruments. Of course, the examiner had a GPS receiver in front of him, so he was able to monitor the airspeed. And surprisingly, the landing was very smooth.
Finally, after 1 hour and 38 minutes, the exam flight was over. I passed. After the de-briefing we finally left airport after midnight.

SIOUG2008 Conference in Portorož

2008-09-25T20:30:00.000+02:00

From September 21st to 24th the Slovenian Oracle Users Group - SIOUG - annual conference was taking place in Portorož (LJPZ), Slovenia. As many already know I am working with Oracle products now for 20 years, so this event is really important for my business.
This year I was able to fly to Portorož from Divača what is only a 20 minutes flight. It was nice to have my Piper parked so close to the conference venue.
On Saturday, September 20th, a colleague from OakTable Riyaj Shamsudeen with his beautiful wife Nisha and 6 year old son Imran arrived to Ljubljana airport and they were staying in my house. On Sunday the young Imran flew with me to Portorož.
On Monday afternoon I invited some of my customer for a panorama flight over Slovenian Adriatic coast. On Tuesday , I had to fly to Ljubljana airport (LJLJ) to pick up another colleague from OakTable Carl-Jan Engel from Netherlands. During the flight back to Portorož he took a short video while we were landing. I used this video instead of the introduction in my keynote speech on Wednesday morning.
I have removed the original sound and replaced with a record from one of my solos when I was singing in octet "Oktet Hoja" years ago. I hope you will enjoy not just the picture but also the sound.

FlightMap Slovenia

2008-09-16T05:12:00.000+02:00

In the spring 2008 I was preparing for flying in Switzerland and at that time I found on the web a very nice page called Flightmap Switzerland, which was prepared by Pascal Dreer. I contacted him in August and asked him for permission to use his JavaScript code as a base for a similar application for Slovenia. He generously granted me the permission and I started to develop the
application in the middle of August. Unfortunately I have some public appearances in September and October, so my time was limited and therefore I decided to currently prepare just a beta version of FlightMap Slovenia. Currently it is located on my home web page, but eventually it will be relocated to its own domain. In future more data will be added to this page.

The idea was to prepare a web page where all the official aeronautical data for Slovenia is visualized and can be easily accessed. The second goal is to put all available meteorological data to the same map - like radar and satellite images and also weather forecasts in the form of predicted winds and clouds/precipitation layers.
One very useful information I frequently use are the web cams. If you can see a part of the sky you get the most recent information about the actual weather there and this can be quite helpful especially in those cases where you are still not sure if you should depart or not. So the web cams are also one of the layers in my application.
I also obtained some other data from Sloveniacontrol d.o.o., the Slovenian ATC, and Slovenian CAA at Ministry for Transport where I got the detailed coordinates of all air-stripes in Slovenia, which are also published on the Jeppesen VFR map for Slovenia.
The layout of the original Pascal's page was retained, however I had to change things behind and develop all the interfaces for obtaining weather information from XML sources at Aviation Data Center and official Slovenian Meteorological Agency. Completely new is the mechanism for displaying raster data - like animated images from radar and satellite. A lot of time was spent in preparation of digital borders of Slovenian airspace and obtaining data about airports.

As with any database, also this has certain errors or inconsistencies. Therefore I am fully thankful to everybody who will report any data faults and with this help to improve the data quality. And using the data (the application) is the only way how one can find out some data inconsistencies.

Therefore any comments, ideas and bug reports are most welcome!

Gift for my mom - Trip to Salzkammergut and Zell Am See (LOWZ), Austria

2008-08-28T07:16:00.000+02:00

On August 4th 2008 my mother Jožica (Josephine) celebrated 83rd birthday. She is is a big fan of nature and especially mountains. She likes to hike despite her age. Last year, after I got my pilot license, I took her on a sightseeing flight to Triglav (2884m), the highest Slovenian mountain. She was so happy that time that I decided to give her a special kind of a birthday gift this year - a flight across the Slovenian and Austrian Alps to Salzkammergut in Austria, Salzburg, with a short stop at Zell Am See (LOWZ).

The weather forecast for August 7th was excellent and we departed early in the morning. The route was: Divača - LJAJ - KANIN - ARNOS - LOSM - Gmunden - Mondsee - Hallein - Koenigsee - LOWZ. Over alps there were some clouds between FL90 and FL100 so I decided to climb to FL110 and later descen to FL100. The weather in Salzkammergut was even better - the visibility was more than 100km. Two years ago I visited Salzkammergut with car, however, the view from the airplane was much more fascinating. I was astonished by the color of the lakes which seemed so surrealistic - a color that you usually don't see many times. My mother was silently enjoying this beautiful sight.
At Gmunden we turned to the west towards Mondsee lake. The church in Mondsee village was used for the wedding ceremony in the famous movie "The Sound of Music" which won the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1965 and is one of the most popular musicals ever produced.
Further on we were flying abeam Salzburg city towards Koenigsee in Germany. We overflew Eagle’s Nest, the famous Adolf Hitler’s residence near Berchtesgaden and continued to Zell am See (LOWZ) airport, which is located near a lake between high mountains. Just few kilometers away is Kaprun, very well know skiing center and also know because of the tragic accident which happened years ago.
We took a short walk towards the Zell am See village and had a lunch in the airport's restaurant. In the afternoon some cumulus clouds start to gather over the mountains so I decided to depart as soon as possible. LOWZ has an interesting traffic pattern which avoids populated areas. When departing you must first climb to 4000 feet in traffic pattern and only then you can leave it in the desired direction.
On the way back the clouds already obscured the highest mountains so we had to fly more to the east to gather more altitude and also there were less clouds. The route back to Slovenia was almost the same as that one in the morning with a small exception - we first landed at Bovec (LJBO) airfield in Slovenia for a short stop.
After landing in Divača I called my father, age 86, to notify him, that his beloved wife is still "alive" and in "one piece".

A trip to Brač island (LDSB), Croatia

2008-08-27T10:50:00.002+02:00

In the middle of August I decided to fly to Brač (LDSB) in Croatia for a few day stay there. I visited Brač once before, but just as a safety pilot, so this was really my first landing at LDSB. My wife was with me and we had a wonderful sightseeing flight over hundreds of islands in Adriatic sea.
I asked my wife to make a video of final approach and landing at LDSB. Unfortunately, the camera setup was wrong, so the movie resolution is not very good.
After three days we were flying back to Portorož (LJPZ) and Divača. The weather was quite windy and at the seacoast Tramontana was blowing with more than 25 knots. Brač airport is located on the top of the island at altitude of 1776 feet (541 meters) . The wind was not so heavy here but there was a lot of wind shear all over the runway. This time the camera setup was ok. After passing the end of the runway the terrain quickly goes steeply down to the see and there we experienced, as I was expecting in advance, a bumpy situation when we entered in heavy crosswind of Tramontana. In the background one can see Hvar island.

Locarno (LSZL) in Switzerland

2008-08-27T10:50:00.001+02:00

Last year I had the privilege to be a technical reviewer of one of the best books about resolving performance problems in Oracle database - "Troubleshooting Oracle Performance" written by my colleague from OakTable.net, Swiss Italian Christian Antognini. He is living in Bellinzona, Ticino Switzerland, only about 10 minutes drive away from one of the most beautiful airports in the world, Locarno (LSZL). He was also a speaker at Slovenian Oracle Users Group (SIOUG) conference in 2007. I had the privilege to host him and his wife in our house. When I was in Zurich this year he invited me and my wife to visit him in Bellinzona.
We departed from Divača to Portorož (LJPZ) where we cleared the customs formalities and then we proceeded to Locarno. The route was: LJPZ - VICKY - GRADO - PORTOGRUARO - VIC VOR - BELLAGIO - LSZL. Before VIC VOR we were cleared to climb to 9500 feet what was enough to fly over some clouds and also over the mountains in the northern part of Italy. The last communication in Italy was with Milano information and then I switched to Lugano approach and finally after crossing the Swiss border to Locarno tower. I had to perform descending turns over Bellinzona in order to descend from 9500 feet to about 4000 feet what was low enough for final approach to Locarno, which is only 650 feet high.
Locarno airport is mixture of civil and military airport. After securing the airplane we were welcomed by Cris and his wife Michell. After a light lunch at the airport restaurant we continued to Locarno, a very beautiful small town in the middle of up to 2000 m high mountains. I was so surprised because of mild climate. We saw many palms and oleanders.
Next morning I took Chris for a short flight over Bellinzona. I gave him also the commands and he made the approach to Locarno airport. Of course, I was helping with the throttle and instructions. Meanwhile, his wife Michell was waiting at the airport together with my wife Lili and she was very nervous until we happily landed.
The flight back to Portoroz was not so nice because the weather was not very nice and the forecast for the afternoon was even worse. Fortunately, the forecast was good enough for Slovenia.
After crossing Swiss border we had to fly more to the south and only after clearing bad weather (raining) we could return to the planned route. Nearer to Slovenia the weather was becoming better so the rest of the flight was uneventful.
We landed at Portorož (LJPZ) and after clearing the formalities we proceeded to Divača.

To Dubrovnik (LDDU) and Macedonia - Ohrid (LWOH) and Skopje (LWSK)

2008-08-23T08:06:00.000+02:00

Before I started with lessons for my PPL (Private Pilot License) I was extensively using Flight Simulator and two Macedonian airports - Ohrid (LWOH) and Skopje (LWSK) were among my most popular airports. In past years I visited Macedonia several times for business. Last year in July during my stay in Skopje I was working together with a boy who was a paraglider and knew some people who knew guys from Aeroklub Skopje. One day after the working hours this boy gave me a ride to the airport and I hired a flight instructor for about 40 minutes. The airplane was Utva produced years ago in former Yugoslavia. After the flight I joined fellows from Aeroklub Skopje and we had a long discussion in one of nice Skopje’s bars, drinking excellent Macedonian beer “Skopsko”. So that was the time I found many new friends and then I was a regular visitor of the airfield Stenkovec near Skopje.

This year I had several business opportunities in Macedonia, however, none of these turned to be a real one. Therefore I decided to make a business visit to Macedonia and join this with my vacancies trip to Island of Mljet in Croatia.

Me and my wife departed from Divača on July 4^th 2008. Traveling to Croatia requires official crossing of Schengen border. As the closest international airport in Portoroz (LJPZ) was already closed I decided to fly to Trieste airport (LIPQ) which is about 20 minutes flying away from my home airport Divača. After clearing the customs we had a very nice flight to Dubrovnik (LDSB) where we landed about 15 minutes after sunset. Next morning we had a boat connection to Mljet island.

Mljet island is a beautiful island with only one hotel and thus not with many tourists. On the north-west part of the island there is a national park, which prevents further development of the island. We were staying in village Polače which is known by the nautical tourism. The whole stay there we had very nice weather and extraordinary warm sea water – about 26-28 degrees of Celsius, so staying in water for more then two hours was no problem.

From Dubrovnik (LDDU) to Ohrid (LWOH)

On Sunday, July 13^th we departed from Dubrovnik airport to Ohrid (LWOH) in Macedonia. The route was: LDDU – TIBRI – TAZ NDB – POD VOR – RETRA – MAVAR – LWOH. After departure from Dubrovnik I contacted Tivat approach. I had to circle before TIBRI point for about 10 minutes because there was an airplane departing from Tivat (LYTV). This was pretty unusual for me as I was already about 5000 feet high. Usually you get a vector for avoiding the traffic but this was not the case here. The same occurred again near Podgorica (LYPG) where I was already at 9000 feet. Before I reached POD VOR I was cleared direct to RETRA point which is border point between Montenegro and Albania. I had to switch to Tirana radar. Soon after the initial contact Tirana gave me alternate frequency in case of loosing contact. Obviously this is a standard practice due to very mountainous terrain in the eastern part of Albania. Later on, when I was approaching MAVAR point, which is the border point with Macedonia, I wasn’t able to communicate with Tirana any more so I had to switch to the alternate frequency which was the frequency of Skopje radar. They cleared me first to IZD (Ohrid NDB) and soon after that directly to Ohrid airport (LWOH). Ohrid tower gave me the chance to choose the approach over the Ohrid lake, which I used for my personal training of an ILS approach.

After we parked and secured the airplane we took a taxi to the motel I have reserved via internet. First of all, the taxi driver charged us 10 EUR for a short ride of about 5 km. Because I know the prices in Macedonia from my previous visits I complained about that, however I finally paid. The second “surprise” was the motel – the room was under the roof and was far away from what they were advertising on the web. So we decided to call another taxi, this time from an official taxi company, and we asked the driver to help us to find a decent hotel. He suggested us to go to a new hotel owned by Macedonian oil company – Makpetrol. The hotel was excellent, very clean with a nice swimming pool and with a access to the private beach on Ohrid lake. The price was reasonable – 30 EUR per person per night with included breakfast.

Ohrid lake in the evening

In the afternoon we were swimming in the pool and also in Ohrid Lake where the water was about 23-24 degrees Celsius what was excellent because the outer temperature was exceeding 30 degrees. In the evening we took a short walk along the coast of the lake. Next day we had to depart before 16:00 hours local time because the airport is working from 8.00 to 16:00 hours. We were the only airplane which departed that day from Ohrid airport. Despite this fact they were not willing to give us another departure slot unless I would pay extra fee. When we arrived at the airport there was nobody there so we had to stick around to finally get somebody who told us how we can clear the formalities. The police checked our passports and luggage and then I had to pay the landing and one overnight parking. Because they don’t have a lot of traffic they would like to squeeze every airplane. Our destination this day was airfield Stenkovec near Skopje where Aeroklub Skopje has its base. In order to get more money they tried to charge me for the international flight, but they didn’t succeed because the software didn’t allow them. I had to pay about 38 EUR for landing and one night parking.

From Ohrid(LWSK) to Stenkovec near Skopje

When I was checking the Macedonian AIP about the requirements for VFR flying in Macedonia I didn’t find any special requirements. However, my colleagues from Aerokolub Skopje told me, that I need a special permission to fly inside Macedonia. This permission is issued by Macedonian CAA to Aeroklub which officially hosts you. To obtain this permission I had to send them the scanned airplane’s documents and my license together with the medical certificate. My good friends from Aeroklub Skopje arranged everything for me and I got the permission few days before I entered Macedonia.

The route was: LWOH – Bitola – Prilep – Burek (intersection point) – Stenkovec. After departure from Ohrid airport we were flying along the coast of Ohrid Lake to the south until I almost reached the border with Albania and then turned back and crossed the mountains east of Ohrid Lake. We bypassed Prespansko Lake inbound to Bitola. On the south there was mountain Pelister, one of the highest mountains in Macedonia. The flight was pretty bumpy due to severe turbulence although we were flying at 9,500 feet where the outside temperature was about 15 degrees. We enjoyed the rough terrain north of Prilep. After Burek point we started our descent towards Stenkovec airfield where I was already flying in 2007. When we landed there the outside temperature at the airfield was 40 degrees Celsius. We were welcomed by the president and the executive manager of Aeroklub Skopje. They suggested that we put the airplane in the hangar as soon as possible and then we hurry to an air-conditioned restaurant in Skopje.

While we had a very nice time in the restaurant several guys from Štip Aeroklub joined us and also a guy from ATC. It was really a very nice companionship and we had to exchange a lot of information. These guys are really great guys and they did their best to make my visit in Macedonia as pleasant as possible. Once again I had the privilege to be their guest and experience their ultimate hospitality. I sincerely hope that I will be able to welcome them one day in Slovenia.

Next morning I had an appointment with my business partners in Skopje and after that Nikola, the executive manager of Aeroklub Skopje, transferred us to Stenkovec airfield. Landing and parking at Stenkovec was free of charge as they try to develop the general aviation in Macedonia.

Nikola made a short movie about my departure which he published on YouTube.

From Stenkovec to “Alexander The Great” (LWSK)

LWSK, former name Petrovec, is only 13 minutes of flying away from Stenkovec airfield. When we were landing there it was pretty windy with strong gusts so I had to use all my knowledge of landing in crosswind to safely land there. We cleared the customs and passport control and paid the landing fee which was bout 24 EUR, much less than at LWOH. It took only 40 minutes for all the formalities and refueling. The price of 1 liter of Avgas was about 1.7 EUR for foreign aircrafts what is a very reasonable price.

From Skopje to Dubrovnik (LDDU)

The route to Dubrovnik was simple: LWSK – MAVAR – RETRA – POD VOR – TZA NDB – TIBRI – LDDU. It was a windy day with a heavy turbulence also at FL300 to FL400. We climbed to 9500 feet inbound MAVAR and crossed the border with Albania. The clouds there were pretty low so I had to descend shortly after we entered Albania. I tried to contact Tirana but was unable to do so. Therefore I asked Macedonia radar to notify them that we are flying inbound RETRA point. After some time one airliner contacted me and he was relaying my message to Tirana. Due to the clouds we had to descend to 6000 feet. When we cleared the mountainous terrain there was no problem to establish a radio contact with Tirana.

Few minutes before RETRA point I was instructed to contact Podgorica approach in Montenegro. However, they apparently didn’t receive my flight plan so I had to contact Tirana once again and ask them to resend the flight plan. This time they received it and we were cleared directly to TIBRI point after flying only a few minutes towards POD VOR. Due to the windy weather at Dubrovnik airport all the airplanes were using runway 30. After refueling any paying the landing fee we departed for Portorož in Slovenia (LJPZ).

Vöslau (LOAV) - Essen/Mülheim(EDLE) - Siegerland(EDGS)

2008-08-13T12:40:00.001+02:00

On June 18th and 19th 2008 I had two one-day workshops about Oracle in Vienna, Austria. I planned to fly to Vöslau(LOAV) a day before in the afternoon. Unfortunately, the weather forecast for the afternoon were heavy thunderstorms so I had to start early in the morning when the weather was pretty good.
From Divača the route followed the recommended VFR route inbound Maribor airport (LJMB) and bypassing CTR on the south. I crossed the border at TISKO point and then I was flying over Fürstenfeld (LOGF) and abeam Pinkafeld (LOGP) to Vöslau (LOAV) near Vienna. The weather in Austria was better than in Slovenia. I climbed to 7500 feet to clear the clouds over tha last part of the Alps chain.
After landing and refueling I left the airplane parked on the grass. On Thursday afternoon after finishing my lessons around 16:00 I hurried with the taxi to the airport and at 17:16 I was already airborn and flying towards Germany. I filed the flight plan via Homebriefing.

Vöslau (LOAV) - Essen/Mülheim(EDLE)

The route to Essen/Mülheim(EDLE) was: LOAV - ANS NDB - GED VOR - EDLE, a very simple route which was avoiding big German airports. The former owner of my airplane who is captain on Jumbo 747 and also a flight instructor for small airplanes once said: "When flying in Germany one should avoid München, Nürnberg and Berlin airports; all other are not problematic, but on those big ones small airplanes are not very welcome. Beside that, it is also very expensive to land there." Whenever I'm flying in Germany I'm trying to follow his advice. When flying VFR and avoiding big airports one can fly up to 9,500 feet across all Germany.
The sky was clear, but it was very windy, blowing about 20KT from west, so it was quite a heavy headwind. When I passed GED VOR I entered into the pretty cloudy area, so I had to frequently change the altitude and also slightly the direction in order to avoid the clouds. In the last 2 hours of the flight I was flying at 100% of possible power to overcome a very strong headwind. The consumption was about 45-50 liters per hour. I also asked Langen Information to notify my destination airport that I'm arriving but due to strong headwind I'll land just before closing the airport. Finally I switched to EDLE frequency and made the final approach. I landed at 21:59 local time, only one minute before the airport officially closed. Of course the personnel was very helpful and they would even wait some minutes over the time if necessary.
Next morning I had the annual check at H.B. Sportflugzeug-Service. They were maintaining my Piper for last 14 years and still now I am their client for the annual inspections. While they performed the annual inspection, mr. Stephan Wahl from Airmarin did the annual check for avionics and also installed a new S-mode transponder. Everybody was highly motivated to finish his work in shortest possible time and I was really impressed how everything was running so smooth. Therefore I was able to depart back to Slovenia at 15:25 local time.

Essen/Mülheim(EDLE) - Siegerland(EDGS) and back to Slovenia

I made a short stop in Siegerland(EDGS) for refueling with mogas. Again I used Homebriefing to file the flight plan via Internet. The original plan was to fly to Schärding-Suben (LOLS) where I would do another refueling before crossing the Alps. However, when I passed the Munich airport (EDDM) I had still enough fuel for direct flight to Slovenia, so I started to climb first to 9,500 feet and later on to FL128. The top of the clouds over Alps were about FL 110 to FL115. GAFOR for Austria anticipated some thunderstorms on south part of the Alps in the late afternoon so my backup plan was to land at Zell am See (LOWZ) and stay during the night there. However, the weather was quite good and I could pass the Alps with no problem. When I was already close to Slovenian border I had to descend to 9,500 feet and during the descend I had to avoid some clouds. In Slovenia I was surprised by a clear sky. Later on I realized that there were some late afternoon thunderstorms. Only the top of Triglav was still in clouds.
After landing in Divača I had still about 75 liters of gasoline. This time the winds were blowing from the right direction so the flight was exactly 4 hours.

A Visit To Lošinj (LDLO)

2008-08-13T10:50:00.000+02:00

On the Slovenian national holiday June 25th 2008 I used the opportunity of the free day and invited my wife to a one day swimming at Lošinj Island in Croatia.
We started early in the morning when Portorož (LJPZ) airport was still closed so I decided to fly to Trieste airport (LIPQ) to clear the customs. There is only a 17 minutes flight from Divača to LIPQ. From Trieste to Lošinj airport (LDLO) it took 57 minutes. The flight was very smooth as the weather was fine.
The runway on Lošinj is due the terrain curved like a banana so one must be very careful when landing on runway 02 . You can spot this easily on the photo which was taken during the final approach to LDLO.
LDLO is a small international airport which could be a great destination. Unfortunately, this year the management decided to unreasonably increase the landing fee so I had to pay about 50 EUR for a few hours stay at Lošinj airport. This price is much higher then on any other Croatian airport on the Adriatic cost like Dubrovnik (LDDU) or Brač (LDSB).
This year the touristic season in Croatia is not as good as it was in past and if they will proceed with such kind of "robbery" they can expect to loose many visitors in near future. My personal decision is no to fly to Lošinj any more unless I have a really strong reason to go there. And this makes me sad because Lošinj is a beautiful island with a lot of potential.
After unloading our bicycles and securing the airplane we bicycled to the nearest bay Artratore where we stayed for whole day.
On the last picture you can see my Piper covered with a white cover made from Tyvek. This cover is really a great solution not just for rain but also for hot sun. The cockpit stays cold and therefore the last thing I do before entering the cockpit is removing the cover.
Few minutes before airport closing in the afternoon we left for Portorož (LJPZ) . The flight was only 43 minutes. After clearing the customs we proceeded back to Divača.

From Slovenia to Austria, Germany, Switzerland, France, Italy and back to Slovenia

2008-08-04T03:03:00.000+02:00

On April 24th 2008 I had to travel to Zürich in Switzerland for a presentation about Oracle at Trivadis Technical days. First I planned to start a day earlier from Ljubljana airport (LJLJ), but a heavy fog on April 23rd prevented me to depart. The fog prevailed until noon. So I decided to move the airplane back to my home airport in Divača and start early next morning.
The plan was to cross the Alps in the northern direction to Salzburg in Austria and do a refueling stop in Schärding (LOLS) in Austria, located a few kilometers from the border with Germany and then continue to Essen/Mülheim (EDLE) close to Essen in northern Germany. There I should exchange the transponder with a new S-mode one and continue to Birrfeld (LSZF) near Zürich where I had the presentation on Friday, April 25th. My colleague from OakTable.net Eric Grancher is working in CERN and he organized a guided visit of this interesting European Organization for Nuclear Research on next day, Saturday April 26th.

From Divača to Schärding

The beginning of the journey on Thursday morning, April 24th, was a little bit disappointing because of the clouds covering the Alps in the planned direction. So I had to slightly change the plan and fly first to Graz and try to cross the Alps more to the east where they are a little bit lower. When I was avoiding the Graz CTR I god a PIREP (pilot report) from somebody who had just crossed the Alps and he reported that the tops of cumulus clouds are at about 9,000 to 10,000 feet. As I was unsure how high I can go because until then the maximum altitude was 9,500 feet, I decided to fly further in direction to Vienna and cross the Alps at lower altitude. I was afraid that the clouds would start to raise and I wouldn't be able to climb higher.

When I passed Graz I started climbing and at 10,000 feet I was about 1000 feet above the tops of the clouds and at that time I decided to turn directly to Linz and further on to Schärding. There were a lot of holes in clouds, about 5/8 to 6/8 of the sky was covered with nice cumulus clouds. In METAR report this would be depicted as BKN (broken). In a case of engine failure it would be possible to descend below the clouds and find some suitable terrain for emergency landing.
On the northern side of the Alps, in Lower and Upper Austria, there were almost no clouds. I maintained the same altitude until I passed Linz CTR and start the descend to Schärding.

Schärding - Suben is a very nice small airport in Upper Austria with an asphalt runway 800 x 21 m. I have chosen this place for refueling because they have also mogas which is substantially cheaper than avgas. My Piper is a registered German aircraft and has a STC (Supplemental Type Certificate) for mogas and it would be crazy not to use cheaper gasoline whenever it is available. Since November 2007 I was using mostly mogas.

Schärding-Suben airfield requires a prior permission (PPR) for landing so I had to send them an email in advance. The other possibility is calling them by phone before the departure. The tower crew is very nice and helpful and after landing you can taxi directly to the fuel station and start refueling.
The refueling took about 10 minutes and after some time looking around the nice airfield the flight continued towards Essen / Mülheim (EDLE).

From LOLS to EDLE

After departure from LOLS and crossing the river Danube I was climbing back to 9,500 feet in the direction to Ansbach NDB (ANS) which is located at the Ansbach airfield (ETEB) south-west of Nürnberg. Unfortunately it was already noon time and the tops of the clouds were now rising rapidly and also a line of thunderstorms formed extending from the north of Germany to Bavaria. So I had to descend lower and lower and when I was flying only about 2,500 feet AGL I requested a weather information from Munich Information. The weather was worsening rapidly and the suggestion I got from ATC was to land at nearest airport in Ingolstadt Manching (ETSI), a military airport with two runways and also a small civil terminal. After 30 seconds of considering what to do I turned towards ETSI and landed there. It was a hard decision, but for sure the best and the most safe one. Because of this unplanned landing there was no chance to exchange the transponder at EDLE airport.
The ETSI personnel was very nice and helpful and they gave me free wireless access to the Internet to check the radar images. After 2 hours of staying in the nice terminal building the thunderstorm line moved to the east and the weather improved enough to continue the journey. I decided to continue directly to Switzerland. Unfortunately ETSI has no customs service so I had to make another stop in Augsburg (EDMA) to clear the customs. Switzerland is not yet among the Schengen countries.

From Ingolstadt to Augsburg

The personnel in Ingolstadt armed me with the map of Augsburg airport. I haven't filed a flight plan as usually in Germany pilots don't file a flight plan for inland flights. The flight took only 28 minutes and with the exception of the shower over the Augsburg airport it was uneventful. When I was already in the CTR a pretty heavy shower passed the airfield and it was still raining when I was landing there.

It took about 30 minutes to clear the customs and continue towards Switzerland. Augsburg was for sure the cheapest airfield with only 8 EUR of landing fee.

From Augsburg to Birrfeld in Switzerland

The flight from Augsburg to Birrefeld was nice and without any problems. The weather was fine although there was a lot of clouds with the base at about 5,000 feet. Before crossing the Swiss border I switched to Zürich information until few minutes before landing at Birrfeld (LSZF) near Zürich. First I planned to land at Zürich International airport but due to higher fees and only avgas availability I decided to land at Birrfeld. This is a very nice small airport with a lot of traffic. There is nobody in the tower so every pilot has to strictly follow the prescribed procedures and report his positions. Unfortunately the instructions on the web are available only in German language.
They have also a special approach chart which must be strictly followed to reduce the noise over sensitive areas.

From Birrfeld to Annemasse (LFLI)

Next morning it was raining in Zürich and the weather was marginal for the VFR flying. I was so happy because I arrived a day before in nice weather and therefore I had a lot of time to prepare for my technical presentation.
After I have finished the presentation I rushed to the Birrfeld airfield where I did the refueling with the mogas and continued towards Geneva.
When I was still at home I studied the Geneva airport information in details and found a requirement for a ground handling agent. I have contacted one of the agents and they required about 260 CHF (about 160 EUR) for landing there. This was much to high so I decided to land in France at Annemasse (LFLI) where the the landing and overnight parking was ten times less.
The regime at LFLI regarding the ATC is the same as it was in Birrfeld - there is nobody in the tower and everybody has to report his position and be careful about other aircrafts flying in the traffic pattern. For all airfields in France one can get the required official detailed information at SIA, for instance for LFLI the information is available here. A very interesting site for acquiring the detailed information for all small airfields in France is QFU which offers a direct link to SIA on the airport detailed page.

From Annemasse to Divača

Next morning I visited CERN and was impressed by the technology used there, especially the new accelerator which went into production in June 2008. This was one of the last possible slots to visit the accelerator before the experiments started.
In the afternoon I decided to make a direct flight to the home airport at Divača. The route was LFLI - SIO - Simplon pass - Bellagio - Verona - VIC VOR - VEN NDB - Jessolo Lido - Caorle - Grado - Trieste - LJAJ and Divača.
The first part of the flight was following the coast of Geneva lake towards the start of the valley which leads to Sion (LSGS) and further on to Simplon pass. After clearing the Geneva CTR I started climbing to 10,000 feet to overfly Simplon pass. This was my most spectacular flight - on the left and the right there we mountains with peaks between 3000 and 4000 meters and the weather was incredible. Near Brig I crossed the Simplon pass and continued to northern Italy. At the same time I switched to Milano Information. The airspace north of Milano is A-class airspace from 1500 feet AGL to FL195 so VFR flights are prohibited. However, on the northern part of this airspace it is possible to fly VFR up to FL125. The exact border line can be found in Jeppesen VFR chart for Italy (LI-1). There were some clouds in Northern Italy so I decided to climb to FL120 to clear them and also to check if my Cherokee is able to reach this flight level.

The other part of the flight was with no special events. I had to descend to FL70 until I crossed the Italy/Slovenia border at 4000 feet. The whole flight took 3 hours and 42 minutes.

Lessons learned

This was my first solo flight across Austrian and Swiss Alps. The weather was excellent, especially when crossing Swiss Alps. Unfortunately, I had also some bad weather on this trip and due to bad weather I had to make an important decision to land on the nearest airport. Also I had to change the plan and omit the visit to EDLE. When I am analyzing this decision I am still convinced that it was the only possible decision. Continuing the flight into bad weather could lead to unpredictable consequences. All the decisions I had to made during the trip were focused towards maximum safety and I have even sacrificed some mission goals to obtain maximum possible safety. This was really a very important lesson I have learned.

I signed up at www.homebriefing.com which is a great web site for route planning and provides a detailed weather forecast for Austria and Switzerland. Especially GAFOR charts are extremely useful for VFR flying over Alps.
I spent ten times more time for planning than for actual flying and all this time was really worth to spend in order to prepare myself for such a long trip.
GoogleEarth was another useful resource for studying the airports details and also some parts of the trip, especially the part over Austrian and Swiss Alps.

Every start is a hard start

2008-08-04T02:49:00.001+02:00

It took quite a long time before I have finally decided to start blogging about my flying. During last year I found a lot of useful information in some blogs where authors describe their journeys to different countries. This was the main reason for the decision to try to add my 2 cents.
In 2008 I was flying in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, France, Italy, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia and, of course, in my homeland, Slovenia. I'll try to describe these flights in subsequent weeks in the order as they occurred.

In 2007 I found in Germany an old Piper PA-28- 140B Cherokee, manufactured in 1969, which perfectly fits my requirements. The price was reasonable and affordable. During this year she got new windows, S-mode transponder, had a 1000 hour check, and I added numerous small, but very useful things. The aircraft has 2 COMs, 2 NAVs (one is ILS), built-in old GPS receiver coupled to autopilot. I am using also Garmin GPSMap 496 which is mounted on the yoke.

The aircraft is registered for VFR flying and has a STC for MOGAS.