25 October 2007
CPL exam planned..
CPL course is walking on its final legs.. :) Today I did my qualification test, in miserable weather conditions, but it went just fine. I must say there were some -important- things I forgot or did wrong, but according to the rule of fist that is mandatory for each exam.. The exam is planned for the end of next week.
This week I flew abroad twice. First I had my 300NM CPl Solo which took me to Bremerhaven and Porta Westfalica. Bremerhaven is an airport with a nice layout somewhere in the harbour area of the city. It is easy to navigate to and a friendly tower that gives you nice wind information, since at sea (or more like a kind of bay) winds can be a bit harder than over land. The airport was almost abandoned, but no problem, since the fuel station at Lelystad had troubles this morning, I allready was running later than intended. Take off.. to Porta Westfalica. Weather is deteriorating.. but visibility more than 10km. At 2,200ft I am allowed to cross the Bremen CTR and all the other talking is with Bremen Info, which turns out to be a good information source for traffic. Approaching Porta, one first faces a rather high chain of hills and right there after the aerodrome. Nice..! The weather by then was too bad to make pictures :( Small runway, but long enough for the Piper Warrior PH-UGS. A kind towerman and after filing a flight plan I set course to Enschede, overhead their CTR and back to Lelystad. 4h10 in total, the weather was a pitty but the trip had been nice.
My Fujitsu-Siemens GPS Loox is a good friend on trips like this. Small but working very good, excellent back-up!
A subsident inversion layer is the cause of not seeing much below 3000ft, this is fine with good ground contact. Look carefuly (enlarge) and see the obstacle rising through this inversion layer.. wow.. these look quite high..!!
One of the few -good- pictures I could make on this trip. Baseleg for rwy 16 at Bremerhaven. This is easy navigating, landlines like this..
On the way back from Porta Westfalica it looks like overcast but the view to the groun is still fine and one can look +10km forward.
Then a few days back to Oostende, Belgium. I like this airport, although it is old and looks a bit like a ghost airport, apart from the activity. Old DC-8s are left alone on the apron for years, what a waste. On both routes we cross Rotterdam CTR and we have a nice viwe of Zeeland and the harbour from Zeebrugge. The weather is even more poor than in Germany and we are busy looking out for other traffic.
As for now I will have to get back to my books for the CPL exam since there is quite some navigating required as well as theory knowledge.
This week I flew abroad twice. First I had my 300NM CPl Solo which took me to Bremerhaven and Porta Westfalica. Bremerhaven is an airport with a nice layout somewhere in the harbour area of the city. It is easy to navigate to and a friendly tower that gives you nice wind information, since at sea (or more like a kind of bay) winds can be a bit harder than over land. The airport was almost abandoned, but no problem, since the fuel station at Lelystad had troubles this morning, I allready was running later than intended. Take off.. to Porta Westfalica. Weather is deteriorating.. but visibility more than 10km. At 2,200ft I am allowed to cross the Bremen CTR and all the other talking is with Bremen Info, which turns out to be a good information source for traffic. Approaching Porta, one first faces a rather high chain of hills and right there after the aerodrome. Nice..! The weather by then was too bad to make pictures :( Small runway, but long enough for the Piper Warrior PH-UGS. A kind towerman and after filing a flight plan I set course to Enschede, overhead their CTR and back to Lelystad. 4h10 in total, the weather was a pitty but the trip had been nice.
My Fujitsu-Siemens GPS Loox is a good friend on trips like this. Small but working very good, excellent back-up!
A subsident inversion layer is the cause of not seeing much below 3000ft, this is fine with good ground contact. Look carefuly (enlarge) and see the obstacle rising through this inversion layer.. wow.. these look quite high..!!
One of the few -good- pictures I could make on this trip. Baseleg for rwy 16 at Bremerhaven. This is easy navigating, landlines like this..
On the way back from Porta Westfalica it looks like overcast but the view to the groun is still fine and one can look +10km forward.
Then a few days back to Oostende, Belgium. I like this airport, although it is old and looks a bit like a ghost airport, apart from the activity. Old DC-8s are left alone on the apron for years, what a waste. On both routes we cross Rotterdam CTR and we have a nice viwe of Zeeland and the harbour from Zeebrugge. The weather is even more poor than in Germany and we are busy looking out for other traffic.
As for now I will have to get back to my books for the CPL exam since there is quite some navigating required as well as theory knowledge.
