My March report ended with my Do328jet flight into Caracas, Venezuela. Now, I had most of the month left to tour the Caribbean Coasts: Venezueala, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatamala, Benin and finally into Mexico. I had flown in an EMB-120, EMB-170, Jetstream-31, GA-8 Airvan, Twotter-on-Floats, PC-12 and even a DC-3. While sitting under a palm tree on Cozumel Island I received notice that our next feature would be in Europe somewhere - that was enough for me to pack my bags and head East.
I took the next flight I could catch to Houston, Texas (which was in a US Air Express Jetstream-41 (pict1)) and from there I took a DC-8 Cargo plane into the Canary Islands. (pict2) I landed just after dawn but the funny thing was, from the cockpit it looked a little foggy or hazy - I didn't even notice the WIND until watching the video replay! From there I was more than happy to fly ATRs or Dash-8s around what may agruably be my favorite sim area. Evenings were spent listening to http://www.plr.org/ or http://www.allclassical.org/ and sipping cool drinks while watching the sun slip down over the Atlantic Horizon.
Finally the concierge informed me that Hans' information package had arrived. With the cool morning breezes blowing through my open windows, I eagerly tore into the brown paper wrappings, spilling the contents on my freshly-made bed. "European Lake Country": Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Luxemburg... I was excited! I made a call to have my personal GA plane ready at Friedrichshafen in Germany, then I finished my last scheduled round trip in the Flight Club's Dash-8 before researving tickets on an Air Catalonia Gulfstream-V.
It is about a 3.75-hour flight in to southern Germany from the Canary Islands (pict3). Considering I left at 14:00, I was a bit scared about arriving after dark but ATC came through and I was able to make a straight-in to runway 5 (pict4).
Before heading off to my room for the night I stopped by the FBO to be sure that "RON-B" would be ready to depart in the morning. The FBO manager, one Juergen Fleisch, assured me that all was ready and prepped for the morning. We started talking about the adventures that Hans had for us and he began telling me about some of the history and local attractions around Friedrichshafen. This Bodensee region was the area where, a few years ago, a Hungarian Airliner collided with a DHL cargo plane....I was not aware that the Friedrichshafen airport had been under French Control until just 1990 when it was opened to the public and commercial flights. Juergen said, "The best thing to do in town is to stroll the lake-fronting Seepromenade, with its sweeping view that extends on clear days all the way to the Swiss Alps. Cycling along the broad Seestrasse is also a delight. A kiosk within the Stadtbahnhof rents bikes for 8€ to 10€ a day." The next morning dawned a bit cool and foggy - I didn't have very warm cycling clothes so I set about to get airborne.
"The town's architectural highlight is the 17th-century Schlosskirche, Schlossstrasse 33 (tel. 07541/21422). The palatial ecclesiastical buildings that were once part of the church's monastery were converted in the 1800s into a palace for the kings of Württemberg. Today, they're privately owned. The church is well worth a visit, but it's open only Easter to October, daily 8am to 6pm. Also, Zeppelin-Museum (tel. 07541/38010; www.zeppelin-museum.de), in the Hafenbahnhof, Seestrasse 22, is a tribute to Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin. Around 1900, this native of Konstanz invented and tested the aircraft that bore his name. The museum has a re-creation of the giant and historic zeppelin Hindenburg, including a full-scale replica of its passenger cabins. The famous blimp exploded in a catastrophic fire in New Jersey in 1937, possibly because of sabotage. The museum also has memorabilia associated with zeppelins and their inventor. May to October, it's open Tuesday to Sunday 10am to 7pm; November to April, Tuesday to Sunday 10am to 5pm. Admission is 6.50€ for adults and 3€ for children 16 and under." He also suggested that while I was in the area I go ahead and visit Konstanz as well as Lindau in the Bavarian region. As I went to bed that night I couldn't help but feeling that there was a lot more to see around the area than Hans is leading on to.
Early the next morning I got a "check-in call" from the wife-unit. When she learned where I'd be flying she INSISTED that I stop off in Lichtenschtein to do a little shopping. "Okay, okay, I'll do that too" I finally responded - it was looking like a full week...actually, this was looking like a good area to spend the month! The weather the previous evening had been mostly clear but there were certainly some bumps coming over the Alps and on short finals I flew into some ground-level clouds which restricted my view of the runway lights until short finals. Monday dawned clear overhead but with low-lying fog along the lakeshore.
While Juergen assured me it would "burn off quickly" it was still there by 10 AM. I figured Ambri was not that far away, I could always come back to catch that lakeshore bike ride after completing my flight assignments. I departed from runway 5 shortly after 10 AM in my Aerostar-700, a comfy, fast, big-windowed twin (pict5). I cruised about 200 feet above the waters up to Uberlingen, then turned left over the peninsula, crossing Konstanz before heading east towards Lindau (pict6). After a low pass over Lindau I turned back toward Altenrhein, crossing the airport before heading UP into the Alps (pict7). 
In the paperwork I re-read during the Gulfstream flight, it seemed that Hans is making a pretty big deal about this flight into Ambri. I don't get it, I've flown into there several times before and while you have to watch your charts pretty closely, I don't find it really any harder than Aspen, CO and at least here (in Ambri) you can go missed without having to turn around 190 degrees! Anyway, my first landing was scheduled at another infamously tough FS airport, Samedan (LSZS). I thought a little spring skiing at Mont Blanc might be fun - I mean, as long as I'm in the Alps anyway.... (pict8) (pict9) (pict10) (pict11)
Mid-Morning, Tuesday April 3rd: Okay, note to self, "you are too old to ski the Alps." (pict12) Moving on, my next stop was to be Verona in Italy. I departed Samedan towards the famous mountain (pict13)and climbed to my safe altitudes of 13,000 - 14,000 feet (pict14)and continued southeast into Italy. (pict15) (pict16) (pict17) Landing at Verona was easy compared to the airports buried in the Alps - I was just glad Hans didn't try to take us into Bolzano! (pict18)I spent the rest of Tuesday right here in Northern Italy - did you know how great the food is here?
Wednesday dawned overcast and wet (just like home) but the next leg into Lugano (LSZA) looked pretty easy. Brimming with confidence I set out, climbed to 10,000 feet and followed the GPS, (pict19)dropping down over the hills and setting up for an approach to runway 26 - from out of the valley. While it was a little tight getting over that last building and tree I managed to get stopped while still on the pavement. I back-taxied to the terminal and headed off to find some breakfast.
Later on that Wednesday morning I took off from Lugano and headed on to Locarno. This was truely a non-GPS scud-run along the lake, (pict20)'round the bend and into a very smooth landing at LSZL. (pict21)(Which you can see on the video at: http://www.putfile.com/pretendpilot Wednesday afternoon and evening remained wet and cold, not much for being outside but I had a nice room with a great view and the cafe just down the street/alley had some GREAT stuff!!! I ate, and ate and ate.
I really wasn't giving much thought to Thursday's flight into Ambri, I figured I'd just buzz up the valley(s), VFR of course, land on the northbound runway and spend the day there. Then Friday I'd head back to Friedrichshafen for the weekend and then......? I did scan my approach plate but then packed it back away before heading out to find some nightlife, staying up too late I was confident in my past experience.
The next morning didn't look too bad in Locarno - (pict22)granted, I couldn't see the mountains but here it was fine. "Besides," I told myself, "Not like I'm flying a CRJ-700 full of people or something...it's just me, my new friend Giovanna Matrielli, and the powerful twin Aerostar." (pict23)We set off before noon and I headed up the first canyon. (pict24) When the valley divided I took the right turn-off, then opened up the GPS to show Giovanna just how smart and talented I was. (pict25) The terrain got higher...the clouds got lower (pict26)...soon it was raining... (pict27)then it was snowing...then we could only see the ground in front of us... (pict28)Giovanna was crying and I knew that in these narrow canyons there would be no turning around.
"Don't worry" I reassured, "the weather is always like this here, this is like 'normal operations'." I hoped that she couldn't see the sweat covering my body and dripping off my brow! (pict29) (I know this is reading a lot like one of Bill's books but this was for real, I had gotten myself in WAY over my head, I was climbing at 1,000 fpm into solid cloud with little ground reference, no flightplan and no clue as to any VORs or approach procedures. I kept telling myself that if all else failed I could climb to 15,000 feet, call ATC and ask for vectors back to Locarno...but if I did that I knew I'd never hear from Giovanna again.)
"If I NEVER see you again it will be far too soon!" (pict30) It was Giovanna screaming at me through her tears. The altimeter was still climbing ... if I leaned far over to my window I could see trees flashing past but nothing else in this whiteout! (pict31)Then, my greatest fear .... THE STALL HORN!!!!! I looked out the window again and could see nothing below ... nothing, so I gently pushed the yoke forward. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!?" Giovanna shouted, pulling her own yoke back. (pict32) Frantically I pointed to the GPS, "There! It's right there! Look for yourself, Ambri is right below us, we have to go down!" Giovanna slumped back into her seat, exhausted and scared beyond words. (When an Italian woman is scared beyond words you know that you are in some big-time trouble!)
I lowered full flaps and dove for the road that I could now see far below, snaking down the valley. From my vast experience I knew that I could follow that road to Ambri, the airport, (pict33) now south of us, would be off on the right. The clouds broke briefly...I hugged the left-side cliffs, lowered the gear and flew into more thick, snowy clouds. Giovanna let out a little scream moments before a tree THUNKED into the undercarriage!
(pict34) "Whoah~ sorry" I said. She glared! Frantically I searched for the airport that I knew was here ... somewhere. My first thought was, "Where IS that airport?" While my second thought was, "Gee, how did I hit that tree without registering a crash?" Finally Giovanna spoke, "Hey mister pilot, is that your airport over there?" (pict35) I stood up as much as the five-point harness let me and peared over the nose ... "Yep. But it's better to come in from the south so I'm just going to go up here and turn around." In reality I was too far up the hillside and would have been too high to try and land. (Thank goodness she spotted that or Lord knows where we would have ended up!) I exited the clouds, flew up the valley a couple of miles before turning back to Ambri. (pict36) I was amused that with a long runway, the two thresholds are so huge that the "usable" runway is only a couple thousand feet. As I buzzed low over the trees I could hear Giovanna sobbing quietly. (pict37) I hoped that the landing gear were still attached and not hanging in some tree back there!! I flared and ever so gently set the plane down. Giovanna burst into tears and began undoing her seatbelt (and laying into me with cursing and swearing like I've never heard before, words I would prefer to never hear again!). (pict38)We taxied over to the little buildings and shut down. As Giovanna stormed away from the plane I called after her, "Any landing you can walk away from is a good one!" She held up one of her fingers, then turned and gave me some sort of an angry Italian salute of somekind, whatever it was it involved spitting and I figured it wasn't a good thing. At this point Bill Smith would have asked if she at least had any friends but I'm smarter than that - I went to look for a quiet little room where I could wait out this blizzard.
Hans, this was spectacular, THANK YOU for a great FOTM - except for that last leg!
While sitting in Ambri sitting tea and enjoying some pastry I was reading back over some old PIREPS and saw that more than one or two of our pilots had some difficulty landing the Flight Club CRJ at LGFC last January. "What is their problem?" I wondered. Once the weather broke on Friday April 6th I flew back to Friedrichshafen for the weekend. Then, Monday afternoon I took the "TooMuchExpress" CRJ to Ron's Digs, being sure to approach from the tougher, east side. Now, many of our pilots tried to fly over the hills and drop down onto runway 27 but one can surely see that this was designed much like nearby Samos (See the December 2003 FOTM also by Hans) (pict39) and you should approach from the north, over the water, making a close-in, tight turn onto 1 mile finals. (pict40)This, more "standard" approach was what I used (pict41) to SUCCESSFULLY land without breaking anything and without skidding off the runway. The video will show how I flared about 2 feet off the runway and then floated too many hundreds of feet down the runway. (pict42) This simply meant that I had to pop up the spoilers before the wheels touched and at the end I had to use some breaking - had I landed on the numbers it would have been easy (and smooth). (pict43) Seems to me that we'll have to have another "Ron's Digs FOTM" so that folks can practice this some more!
Hans, really, this was scenic and fun and I'll be heading back there as soon as I get done typing. Just remember, "always keep your charts within reach!"
pretendpilot@yahoo.com
I took the next flight I could catch to Houston, Texas (which was in a US Air Express Jetstream-41 (pict1)) and from there I took a DC-8 Cargo plane into the Canary Islands. (pict2) I landed just after dawn but the funny thing was, from the cockpit it looked a little foggy or hazy - I didn't even notice the WIND until watching the video replay! From there I was more than happy to fly ATRs or Dash-8s around what may agruably be my favorite sim area. Evenings were spent listening to http://www.plr.org/ or http://www.allclassical.org/ and sipping cool drinks while watching the sun slip down over the Atlantic Horizon.
Finally the concierge informed me that Hans' information package had arrived. With the cool morning breezes blowing through my open windows, I eagerly tore into the brown paper wrappings, spilling the contents on my freshly-made bed. "European Lake Country": Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Luxemburg... I was excited! I made a call to have my personal GA plane ready at Friedrichshafen in Germany, then I finished my last scheduled round trip in the Flight Club's Dash-8 before researving tickets on an Air Catalonia Gulfstream-V.
It is about a 3.75-hour flight in to southern Germany from the Canary Islands (pict3). Considering I left at 14:00, I was a bit scared about arriving after dark but ATC came through and I was able to make a straight-in to runway 5 (pict4).Before heading off to my room for the night I stopped by the FBO to be sure that "RON-B" would be ready to depart in the morning. The FBO manager, one Juergen Fleisch, assured me that all was ready and prepped for the morning. We started talking about the adventures that Hans had for us and he began telling me about some of the history and local attractions around Friedrichshafen. This Bodensee region was the area where, a few years ago, a Hungarian Airliner collided with a DHL cargo plane....I was not aware that the Friedrichshafen airport had been under French Control until just 1990 when it was opened to the public and commercial flights. Juergen said, "The best thing to do in town is to stroll the lake-fronting Seepromenade, with its sweeping view that extends on clear days all the way to the Swiss Alps. Cycling along the broad Seestrasse is also a delight. A kiosk within the Stadtbahnhof rents bikes for 8€ to 10€ a day." The next morning dawned a bit cool and foggy - I didn't have very warm cycling clothes so I set about to get airborne.
"The town's architectural highlight is the 17th-century Schlosskirche, Schlossstrasse 33 (tel. 07541/21422). The palatial ecclesiastical buildings that were once part of the church's monastery were converted in the 1800s into a palace for the kings of Württemberg. Today, they're privately owned. The church is well worth a visit, but it's open only Easter to October, daily 8am to 6pm. Also, Zeppelin-Museum (tel. 07541/38010; www.zeppelin-museum.de), in the Hafenbahnhof, Seestrasse 22, is a tribute to Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin. Around 1900, this native of Konstanz invented and tested the aircraft that bore his name. The museum has a re-creation of the giant and historic zeppelin Hindenburg, including a full-scale replica of its passenger cabins. The famous blimp exploded in a catastrophic fire in New Jersey in 1937, possibly because of sabotage. The museum also has memorabilia associated with zeppelins and their inventor. May to October, it's open Tuesday to Sunday 10am to 7pm; November to April, Tuesday to Sunday 10am to 5pm. Admission is 6.50€ for adults and 3€ for children 16 and under." He also suggested that while I was in the area I go ahead and visit Konstanz as well as Lindau in the Bavarian region. As I went to bed that night I couldn't help but feeling that there was a lot more to see around the area than Hans is leading on to.
Early the next morning I got a "check-in call" from the wife-unit. When she learned where I'd be flying she INSISTED that I stop off in Lichtenschtein to do a little shopping. "Okay, okay, I'll do that too" I finally responded - it was looking like a full week...actually, this was looking like a good area to spend the month! The weather the previous evening had been mostly clear but there were certainly some bumps coming over the Alps and on short finals I flew into some ground-level clouds which restricted my view of the runway lights until short finals. Monday dawned clear overhead but with low-lying fog along the lakeshore.
While Juergen assured me it would "burn off quickly" it was still there by 10 AM. I figured Ambri was not that far away, I could always come back to catch that lakeshore bike ride after completing my flight assignments. I departed from runway 5 shortly after 10 AM in my Aerostar-700, a comfy, fast, big-windowed twin (pict5). I cruised about 200 feet above the waters up to Uberlingen, then turned left over the peninsula, crossing Konstanz before heading east towards Lindau (pict6). After a low pass over Lindau I turned back toward Altenrhein, crossing the airport before heading UP into the Alps (pict7). 
In the paperwork I re-read during the Gulfstream flight, it seemed that Hans is making a pretty big deal about this flight into Ambri. I don't get it, I've flown into there several times before and while you have to watch your charts pretty closely, I don't find it really any harder than Aspen, CO and at least here (in Ambri) you can go missed without having to turn around 190 degrees! Anyway, my first landing was scheduled at another infamously tough FS airport, Samedan (LSZS). I thought a little spring skiing at Mont Blanc might be fun - I mean, as long as I'm in the Alps anyway.... (pict8) (pict9) (pict10) (pict11)
Mid-Morning, Tuesday April 3rd: Okay, note to self, "you are too old to ski the Alps." (pict12) Moving on, my next stop was to be Verona in Italy. I departed Samedan towards the famous mountain (pict13)and climbed to my safe altitudes of 13,000 - 14,000 feet (pict14)and continued southeast into Italy. (pict15) (pict16) (pict17) Landing at Verona was easy compared to the airports buried in the Alps - I was just glad Hans didn't try to take us into Bolzano! (pict18)I spent the rest of Tuesday right here in Northern Italy - did you know how great the food is here?
Wednesday dawned overcast and wet (just like home) but the next leg into Lugano (LSZA) looked pretty easy. Brimming with confidence I set out, climbed to 10,000 feet and followed the GPS, (pict19)dropping down over the hills and setting up for an approach to runway 26 - from out of the valley. While it was a little tight getting over that last building and tree I managed to get stopped while still on the pavement. I back-taxied to the terminal and headed off to find some breakfast.
Later on that Wednesday morning I took off from Lugano and headed on to Locarno. This was truely a non-GPS scud-run along the lake, (pict20)'round the bend and into a very smooth landing at LSZL. (pict21)(Which you can see on the video at: http://www.putfile.com/pretendpilot Wednesday afternoon and evening remained wet and cold, not much for being outside but I had a nice room with a great view and the cafe just down the street/alley had some GREAT stuff!!! I ate, and ate and ate.
I really wasn't giving much thought to Thursday's flight into Ambri, I figured I'd just buzz up the valley(s), VFR of course, land on the northbound runway and spend the day there. Then Friday I'd head back to Friedrichshafen for the weekend and then......? I did scan my approach plate but then packed it back away before heading out to find some nightlife, staying up too late I was confident in my past experience.
The next morning didn't look too bad in Locarno - (pict22)granted, I couldn't see the mountains but here it was fine. "Besides," I told myself, "Not like I'm flying a CRJ-700 full of people or something...it's just me, my new friend Giovanna Matrielli, and the powerful twin Aerostar." (pict23)We set off before noon and I headed up the first canyon. (pict24) When the valley divided I took the right turn-off, then opened up the GPS to show Giovanna just how smart and talented I was. (pict25) The terrain got higher...the clouds got lower (pict26)...soon it was raining... (pict27)then it was snowing...then we could only see the ground in front of us... (pict28)Giovanna was crying and I knew that in these narrow canyons there would be no turning around.
"Don't worry" I reassured, "the weather is always like this here, this is like 'normal operations'." I hoped that she couldn't see the sweat covering my body and dripping off my brow! (pict29) (I know this is reading a lot like one of Bill's books but this was for real, I had gotten myself in WAY over my head, I was climbing at 1,000 fpm into solid cloud with little ground reference, no flightplan and no clue as to any VORs or approach procedures. I kept telling myself that if all else failed I could climb to 15,000 feet, call ATC and ask for vectors back to Locarno...but if I did that I knew I'd never hear from Giovanna again.)"If I NEVER see you again it will be far too soon!" (pict30) It was Giovanna screaming at me through her tears. The altimeter was still climbing ... if I leaned far over to my window I could see trees flashing past but nothing else in this whiteout! (pict31)Then, my greatest fear .... THE STALL HORN!!!!! I looked out the window again and could see nothing below ... nothing, so I gently pushed the yoke forward. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!?" Giovanna shouted, pulling her own yoke back. (pict32) Frantically I pointed to the GPS, "There! It's right there! Look for yourself, Ambri is right below us, we have to go down!" Giovanna slumped back into her seat, exhausted and scared beyond words. (When an Italian woman is scared beyond words you know that you are in some big-time trouble!)
I lowered full flaps and dove for the road that I could now see far below, snaking down the valley. From my vast experience I knew that I could follow that road to Ambri, the airport, (pict33) now south of us, would be off on the right. The clouds broke briefly...I hugged the left-side cliffs, lowered the gear and flew into more thick, snowy clouds. Giovanna let out a little scream moments before a tree THUNKED into the undercarriage!
(pict34) "Whoah~ sorry" I said. She glared! Frantically I searched for the airport that I knew was here ... somewhere. My first thought was, "Where IS that airport?" While my second thought was, "Gee, how did I hit that tree without registering a crash?" Finally Giovanna spoke, "Hey mister pilot, is that your airport over there?" (pict35) I stood up as much as the five-point harness let me and peared over the nose ... "Yep. But it's better to come in from the south so I'm just going to go up here and turn around." In reality I was too far up the hillside and would have been too high to try and land. (Thank goodness she spotted that or Lord knows where we would have ended up!) I exited the clouds, flew up the valley a couple of miles before turning back to Ambri. (pict36) I was amused that with a long runway, the two thresholds are so huge that the "usable" runway is only a couple thousand feet. As I buzzed low over the trees I could hear Giovanna sobbing quietly. (pict37) I hoped that the landing gear were still attached and not hanging in some tree back there!! I flared and ever so gently set the plane down. Giovanna burst into tears and began undoing her seatbelt (and laying into me with cursing and swearing like I've never heard before, words I would prefer to never hear again!). (pict38)We taxied over to the little buildings and shut down. As Giovanna stormed away from the plane I called after her, "Any landing you can walk away from is a good one!" She held up one of her fingers, then turned and gave me some sort of an angry Italian salute of somekind, whatever it was it involved spitting and I figured it wasn't a good thing. At this point Bill Smith would have asked if she at least had any friends but I'm smarter than that - I went to look for a quiet little room where I could wait out this blizzard.Hans, this was spectacular, THANK YOU for a great FOTM - except for that last leg!
While sitting in Ambri sitting tea and enjoying some pastry I was reading back over some old PIREPS and saw that more than one or two of our pilots had some difficulty landing the Flight Club CRJ at LGFC last January. "What is their problem?" I wondered. Once the weather broke on Friday April 6th I flew back to Friedrichshafen for the weekend. Then, Monday afternoon I took the "TooMuchExpress" CRJ to Ron's Digs, being sure to approach from the tougher, east side. Now, many of our pilots tried to fly over the hills and drop down onto runway 27 but one can surely see that this was designed much like nearby Samos (See the December 2003 FOTM also by Hans) (pict39) and you should approach from the north, over the water, making a close-in, tight turn onto 1 mile finals. (pict40)This, more "standard" approach was what I used (pict41) to SUCCESSFULLY land without breaking anything and without skidding off the runway. The video will show how I flared about 2 feet off the runway and then floated too many hundreds of feet down the runway. (pict42) This simply meant that I had to pop up the spoilers before the wheels touched and at the end I had to use some breaking - had I landed on the numbers it would have been easy (and smooth). (pict43) Seems to me that we'll have to have another "Ron's Digs FOTM" so that folks can practice this some more!
Hans, really, this was scenic and fun and I'll be heading back there as soon as I get done typing. Just remember, "always keep your charts within reach!"
pretendpilot@yahoo.com
