Category: Trip Log

At the begining of August, after a couple of local flights I took G-EJBI to Felthorpe to meet up with Mike Powell and discuss the annual check. Felthorpe is a lovely small airfield, a little under 500m and within the Norwich circuit. Local Aero Medical Examiner, Peter Bruggemann, has just built a Fokker Triplane there and I have just discovered his pretty cool website www.dreidecker.co.uk

The last leg of our German trip was uneventful. Texel is a bit pricey for fuel so we filled to half tanks and then enjoyed a very pleasant one hour thirty minute direct flight to Tibenham. This last trip was towards the end of June and it was the begining of August before G-EJBI was flown again. I’m not too sure why July was flightless, it was pretty hot and the ventilation is poor, the two cabin air controls are pretty ineffective.

Having run into problems refueling in Hamburg we set off for Texel. We were quite familiar with the field so arriving with around 30 minutes of fuel remaining seemed reasonable. The weather at Hamburg was good and the weather at Texel was good but inbetween we were rarely above 1000 ft and often quite a bit below due to low cloud and rain showers. If you need to fly low, the north of Holland is the place to do it, with much of the land below sea level and few obstructions.

Andrew was not happy and I had to agree as the rain and low cloud increased enroute Bremen so a 180 degree turn was made and a decision to divert to Hamburg. If ATC were unhappy with our choice they hid it reasonably well and we were soon over the threshold at 120 kts ahead of some large jet traffic. A €9.30 landing fee sounds good, however you must add a start fee, emisions fee, parking fee, terminal fee, transport to terminal x2 fee and add some tax. Total, a not wholly unreasonable €61. Your navigation and meteorology fee of around €10 will arrive by e-mail a little later. No fuel available without a BP card or cash, this was a total pain as no cashpoint at GA terminal. I left in a bit of a bad mood having to find another immigration airfield and fuel stop.

Strausberg a few miles north east of Berlin is an excellent choice if visiting the city. €11 landing fee and €7.50 for overnight parking with a train just outside the airfield, it is around 45 minutes to the city centre. After a couple of nights sleeping in a tent it was time for a luxury hotel. We arrived on the day of Germanys first world cup match which was on a large screen, well five screens to be precise, at Brandenburg Gate, much beer was available and consumed. The following day we filled up (fuel at €2.53 per litre) and set off for Bremen to clear immigration. Now Germany has a lot of wind turbines so as the cloud base started to fall and the rain intensified it was time for some fresh ideas.

My German is not good and on this occasion at the museum cafe I resorted to ordering the first item on the menu. The food and drink provided by Hubert and friends at the airfield was excellent. Fifty aircraft attended including nine BO208, twelve BO209 and eleven BO207/KL107. Many thanks to Bölkow and Friends for their wonderful hospitality. As we left Müritz Airpark preparations were being made for the following weeks Fusion Festival. To quote Wikipedia – The festival gears to create a ‘Temporary Autonomous Zone’ and a ‘Transformational Environment’. It is a ‘Clothing Optional’ event. – Next stop Berlin.

On the second day of the fly-in we rented some bikes to explore the local area, there is lovely cycling in the nearby Mueritz National Park. We were a bit spoiled for aviation museums. Rechlin Lärz airfield (picture from busier times) where we were staying has a small collection of aircraft and Rechlin Nord a few kilometers away has the quite extensive Aviation Technical Museum describing the airfields role as a test and development centre for the Luftwaffe. The museum is well worth a visit.

Flying a straight line from Leer Papenburg to Mueritz, we talk to Bremen Information, it is quiet and with nearly all communication in perfect english we enjoy a very pleasant 1 hour 45 minute flight. Müritz Airpark has a large number of hardened aircraft shelters, a legacy from previous times, which provide a pretty cool place for a Bölkow get together. My son Andrew has done a few festivals, he does a good job erecting our matching blue tent which will be home for the next couple of days. Hubert Eckl the event organiser knows his crowd and we are soon drinking beer in one of the aformentioned shelters.

I find the price of fuel a little high in the Netherlands so from Texel we popped in to Leer Papenburg just over the border in Germany to refuel and take advantage of their reasonable rates. The steady stream of Dutch and German registered aircraft doing likewise suggests others feel the same. Dutch air trafic control are the best in the world (probably), they certainly make flying around their country a delight. Our lack of a mode S transponder has yet to be an issue.

It is June and we are off to the Bölkow and friends gathering in Germany. A direct flight over the water from Tibenham in 1 hour 20 mins and we are soon having lunch. Very warm welcome from the airport manager, apparently in years gone by they used to do pleasure flights at the airfield with a Bölkow 207. Here is a pic of G-EJBI flown by her previous owner, landing in 2012.