Day 13 To the edge of Denmark

The Hotel

It was rather nice staying in a 5 star hotel. It meant I had to have the full breakfast and of course take advantage of the Sauna. All in all this meant I didn’t make the earliest of starts. Also I noticed that I am using a small but regular amount of oil. No problem in itself, but I wanted to top it up. This meant I had to get some Shell VSX-4, f rom a shell Garage. Not the easiest job in Stockholm. The first two I tried were no more. One was redeveloped into a dockside restaurant area and the second had disappeared under a new development. I was amazed at how much Stockholm had changed in the 3 years since I was there. The third attempt took me to just alongside the old Electrolux offices. I gave them a friendly wave as I passed. Then I called up an old work colleague just to say “Hi Jesper, fancy a coffee.” That would have shocked him but disappointingly he was not around, so I just left it as a message. With the oil in hand I took the underground to Akalla to save the huge taxi fare and then tried to get a taxi to the airfield. This too took longer than I expected but in the end I was there. No one questioned my presence, so I loaded up, checked the aircraft and departed.

Bromma was busy so I couldn't get a transit over the city, this is as close as I got.

The flight then took me to Norrkoping.

The runway here is best described as Dry, Dry, Very Wet!

A very helpful shell man helped me to refuel at a not outlandish price. Once I had checked the met I continued South West. The showers were quite dramatic and frequent, but I dodged round them and with very helpful ATC giving me transits of all the zones I arrived at Halmstad. I am in sight of Denmark, and also the big thunderstorm over it (wasn’t there something about that in Hamlet?)
So, today’s totals are 303 miles covered making 3541 in total.

Day 12 Finland and Sweden. The turn to the South

True to his word I was collected by the airport manager from the hotel at 8:30. On arrival at the airport we had to stand outside for a while as the Tallin scheduled flight was still loading. They are rebuilding the terminal with the last of the EU grants so they had no space for people to go except in the door through the x ray machines and so on. Eventually we were through and I was taken upstairs to the control tower for a run through of all their equipment including the precision approach radar.. I was offered detailed met (about 12 pages) Notams and eventually managed to get the flight plan submitted. Off I went. This time a really long sea crossing of 78 miles although some of it was no more than 3 miles off shore. I was passed over to Tallin who immediately asked me to be aware that I was going to be near some danger areas. Near wasn’t quite the word as what she meant was through. These were actually in Finland not Estonia and why they hadn’t appeared in the notams remains a mystery. Anyway I adjusted and hit the Finish coast and continued to Helsinki Malmo. The approach is right alongside the city, very reminiscent of Templehof but closer. Max height 1000ft. As I approached final for 36 it looked as though I was on a long final at the main airport Vanta as they are so close. The approach was bumpy as anything and the wind gusting up to 20 knots. Still I was down and then had to negotiate the hurdle of getting to pay for fuel and landing fees. Signs were non existent but eventually I found the office on the second floor of the old terminal building. With those duly paid and yet another cluster of paper provided, this showing heavy rain and possibly hail showers in Stockholm. On that basis I decided to file a plan for Marieham first so I could make the decision then as to whether I would continue. The flight to Marieham is one of the prettiest in Scandinavia. It would have been even better if spring had arrived, but it hasn’t. The trees are in bud, not yet in leaf. The arrival in Mariaham was marked by a horrible crosswind of about 17 knots. I was glad to be on the ground. The temperature was bitterly cold and I regretted just wearing a T shirt. Refuelled and refreshed (if you can call a 3 hr old coffee refreshing). The flight plan was filed for Stockholm. First choice was Ska Edeby, with Barkaby second and Bromma third. The view ahead did not look encouraging.

Eventually as I approached the narrow gap between Arlanda and Bromma, my way was blocked by a very heavy shower. I turned left at Masten and made the call for Barkaby. The landing was not the easiest as it has to be a very tight turn onto final and the 15knot crosswind didn’t help.
No sooner was I on the ground trying to phone to close my flight plan when the heavens opened. It would have been quite amusing if someone had a photo of me hiding under the wing trying to keep the book dry as I called Bromma. Job done I headed for the clubhouse. The welcome was a little flat and in the end I used the computer to find me a hotel room and someone did help me call a taxi. A night in a posh Stockholm hotel. Tough.

Total today another 400 miles making 3237 in total

Day 11 Latvia and Estonia

It didn’t look as though much was going to be possible today as there was thick fog when I woke up at 6. A quick check on the weather showed it was unlikely to clear before midday, so back to bed for a lie in. Sure enough it gradually lifted and suddenly the sun broke through. Back at Klaipeda aerodrome all was deserted. I filed a flight plan for Palanger (all of 10 miles away and I was already inside their control zone) and off I went. The big problem with flight plans is the delay they introduce. You have to submit them an hour before the flight and you rarely get the chance to submit them ‘til everything else is done. So even though I tried to get through as quickly as possible it was still two hours before I was on my way to Riga, fully refuelled but with a credit card nearly £100 lighter for the landing charge, the handling charge, the fuel delivery charges, the air traffic control charge, the air transport tax (yes that did apply to private flights there). As I crossed into Latvia aiming for Riga I was asked to descend to 1000 feet and then call Riga approach. I did and no response. I couldn’t hear them at all until I climbed a bit just for an experiment. Still they couldn’t here me so I called Riga Information. They told me I had to talk to Riga Approach and I explained the difficulty. They offered no solution other than to keep trying. At this point I felt uncomfortable going into a major international airport with lots of aircraft already talking to them (BA, Easyjet, Lufthansa, SAS are those I remember, so I asked for a diversion to my alternate. This was quickly granted and I found my way to Ventspills. I got a great welcome there, but they apologised that they had no fuel. All scheduled services were stopped last year, and it appears that they keep on 2 people simply to maintain the paperwork so the airport can be operational during the summer. I so had my plan filed, a landing fee of 19 euro seemed quite reasonable. Was then off, with my first long sea crossing of about 60 miles. Once I reached the other side, the scenery had dramatically changed. These Estonian islands are more like northern Sweden than anywhere else. The trees are still in bud and spring is only just beginning to arrive. The sun was shining and it looked quite idyllic. I continued to Kadla and was almost immediately cleared to land. On landing I was met by the Airport manager (also the refueller and Air Traffic control). He helped me park up, refuel and secure the aircraft and then offered me a lift to the hotel. The hotel is quite pretty, all made of wood and charges the princely sum of €40 euros dinner and breakfast included. Sounds like a bargain to me. The airport manager is coming to collect me tomorrow morning and he assured me that this would not incur a fee.
Kardla itself is a small town set on the northern edge of the island. Apparently it comes alive in the summer when the population rises from 10,000 to 70,000 and hence the airport.
As I arrived I could see the line of thunderstorms marking the Finland coast. clearly not something to mess with today. I just hope tomorrow brings a calmer outlook.

So progress today 260 miles making 2841 overall. Fuel consumption is working out at around 15 litres per hour, so better than I thought.

Day 10 Lithuania

Click on the photo to get it full size, then answer the question would you take on fuel here?

It was my own stupid fault. I got to the airfield with flight plans filed for the short hop to Lapaija for refuelling before on to Kurresare and Helsinki. I uncovered the plane and went to lower the flaps only to see that the ignition switch was not off. Yes, a flat battery. It was all to easy to see what happened on Saturday. A storm was forecast and as I was securing the plane I thought I ought to raise the flaps. I did so and obviously in reaching across to turn off the ignition I failed. Removing the battery is not trivial as it means both upper and lower cowls off. The airfield was deserted so I thought priorities. 1 cancel the flight plan with the last 30 seconds or so of my phone. 2 . get a taxi, somehow and buy a charger to charge the battery up. At that moment I saw someone open up the parachute school clubhouse so I wondered over. He spoke not a word of English or German so with sign language I managed to get the problem across to him. He went and found an avionics engineer who had just arrived and the nice man put my battery on charge. He warned me that it would be 3-4 hours before the battery was ready enough to use, so I waited. My attempts to change the flight plan were not good. Neither Vilnius nor Palanga would answer the phone. Eventually it turned out that the number I had was 2 years out of date (Thanks Jeppesen)but even with the correct number There was no one answering. By this time the parachute instructor had arrived. He spoke a little English and helped. Eventually I logged into the AFPEX system to delay or cancel the plan. Both options require you to use the same addresses as when the plan was created. These are added automatically for departure,destination and alternates, and as I had no record of these I had to phone the UK help desk. The guy there amended the plan directly giving a 3 hour delay, and later cancelled it when I gave up for the day.

The weather began to deteriorate and was forecast to be raining by 4pm local. So in the end I cancelled the plan and waited for the battery to be fully charged. Meanwhile it was interesting watching the training being given, and then the flight of the AN2.

A squadron of AN2s all airworthy. You can tell where they park on the Apron as there is such a big oil slick underneath them that the tarmac has dissolved and they have started to sink in.

and a trio of AN-2's not quite ready for flight. There are two more examples under maintenance in the hangers.

They are huge biplanes and are the largest aircraft my licence allows me to fly. They carry 2 crew and 12 passengers. Even with this load on board it was off the ground in a little over 80 meters. Talking to the pilot he sad that empty he could be off the ground in 40 meters and land again at about 40km/hour in almost the same distance. It was truly impressive. He described as the nearest thing to a helicopter there is in the fixed wing world.

At 4 o'clock I refitted the battery just as the rain started to fall. After that one of the parachutists very kindly offered to drive me back to the hotel. There are a lot of nice people around. I wonder what tomorrow will bring.

Day 9 The storms arrive

I woke up this morning to find the predicted fronts from yesterday had arrived. The wind was howling, the rain falling and the cloud at around 700ft. A quick check on the Tafs for the Baltic showed there was unlikely to be any improvement until 5:00pm at the best, so I am counting today as a washout and will use it instead to see what delights Kleipeda has to offer.

Day 8 started with a good breakfast at the hotel (above) before the airport driver arrived promptly at 8:15. Back at the airport I had to pay the fees. It soon became clear why I was the only flight in yesterday, I had to pay for the whole airport. The landing fee was more than the cost of 35 litres of fuel, and that wasn't cheap. My first choice of Suwalki in Eastern Poland depended on fuel being available. They had tried calling many times but said the line was down. Gdansk it had to be.The flightplan was filed and I was on my way. One thing I remembered from yesterday was that the airport has a 2.5Km runway with aprons at both ends. When I approached yesterday, I asked whether I should land short or long. "Short" he said, so I did and having stopped almost by the end of the numbers I was then given the instruction "taxi to the end of the runway and turn right". I expected the reverse today, but no he was almost helpful. Something I am getting used to is being given a detailed clearance at an inopportune time like taxiing. The clearance will read something like "G-TREX taxi to holding point bravo1 via Alpha Line up and cleared take off. Once airborne turn right to November maintaining 1000ft. At the edge of the zone route for Kilo Mike India and maintain 3000 ft on the Qnh 1018 and expect a frequency change to Poznan Information on 123.45. Your squark for the trip is 7443" just how much of that are you supposed to read back?
The trip to Gdansk International was fine except of course they do not ppear to understand VFR flight in Poland. When entering a flight plan they will not accept VFR and expect you to give a height. Then they criticise you if you vary from that height by more than a 100 ft, and then ignore it anyway by asking you to descend to 1500ft even though the base of controlled airspace is 6500 and the ground is at 1200. The approach then into Gdansk was bumpy to say the least. I landed and followed the car. I asked for fuel and I think he told me to wait and drove off. I waited in the sun.

Eventually the huge tanker arrived and delivered 22 litres.l asked the driver if I paid in the office where the C was (like everywhere else) and he said Yes. I walked off to the office and reported at the desk to pay landing fees and other services. A furious armed security guard then approached me and spoke in Polish. I didn't understand a word. He tried again, it still didn't help. Eventually someone told me I should go with him. I followed and got in his army jeep. We thundered off in the direction of the plane and he asked me a question. I shrugged and said I didn't understand. He turned round drove back jumped out, shouted at someone then got back in. "Shut up" he said in Polish. At least I assume that is what he said as we rushed again at breakneck speed to the plane in silence. The tanker driver was still there. It turned out I was suppossed to pay him. Transaction completed Mr. Sullen and Moody (but with a gun so you have to be noice to him) drove me back. Inside the terminal everyone was much more helpful. Despite it being a large airport with 3 x 737s two MD110s and an ATR, the fee was quite modest at 20 Euros. I was given a nice cup of real coffee and the girls helped me prepare the flight plan. I asked about permission to transit the Kaliningrad FIR, they laughed and said it would take months to get permission. I submitted my plan to them and they looked quite puzzled. What is this they said "DCT KNA270020" I tried to explain and they went off to ask for advice. They are so used to all flights being carried out VOR to VOR that the idea that you might want to go somewhere else eluded them. They consulted and were told it was OK. So I was off. Another complex routing followed and I was told to line up after the MD110 had taxied past. I did and waved at the passengers!

This was my first view of Russia. Its where tha land gets very narrow.

This time the flight was quite bumpy at any height. As I tried hard to maintain the clearred height of 3500ft I had my first glimpse of Russia. I am not making a political statement, but all the black clouds appeared to be sitting over their side. I continued as the scenery became more and more desolate. Radio contact was intermittent, but at last I reached the border with Lithuania and turned north. Kunas information had no radar ( was going to make a comment that perhaps they can't afford it, but then thought London Information hasn't either) so they kept asking me my position. Gradually I became aware that they were very concerned to make sure I did not encroach on Russian airspace. Russia is the other side of the river

I found out why later. I approached Klaipeda and changed to their frequency and got no response. After three calls I went back to Palanga approach and explained I could not make contact on the radio and therefore I would like to divert into their airfield (it was my first alternate) They told me to head direct and report runway in site and gave me their wind. thought everything was fine. "G-TREX I asked you to head direct for Klaipeda" "I said I had asked for premission to approach Palanger as an alternative and he had agreed. He said no, my flight plan said Klaipeda so I must go there. The circuit is clear" so I turned back and landed. As I taxied in to an apron full of Antonov AN-2s in various stages of repair from Wreck to airworthy I thought the entire place was deserted. I walked around and found a guy pre flighting a brand new CT and said hello. He spoke no English and directed me to his friend who had a new Sting. They could do nothing with fuel, but Dinas offered to drive me to a hotel in town which he did. On the way he told me of their common practice of flying directly at the border and turning away just before reaching it. He said on most occasions you could see the Mig that had been sent to intercept them.
Tommorrow looks as though the weather is going to be bad with storms tonight at least. So perhaps it will be two days in Klaipeda. Meanwhile a good day with 522 miles covered making 2581 in all. Just about half way.

Day 7 Slovakia, Czech and Poland

What a difference a day makes. I woke at 6 to find the sun just peeking over the trees, the clouds were thin and high as was the wind. Well you can’t have everything. True to his word the airport car arrived to collect me from the hotel and drove me back to the airport. The flight plan was processed and all I had to do was await the arrival of the daily Audi flight. Only a 15 seater today. A local television crew turned up to film activity at the airport and captured GTREX taxing and taking off. I have to say that everywhere I have been, people have been incredibly helpful.
The first flight was to Pierstany in Slovakia. A local hop compare to some, but once again helpful staff on the radio suggested that I ignore my planned route and just fly a straight line. Helpful this time but more later.


There were many areas with fascinating patterns on the ground such as this.

Within 45 minutes I arrived at the airport. It was of course deserted. A magnificent terminal building paid for by the EU, but as yet no flights using it, but as it was only finished at the end of 2008, perhaps that is not a surprise. Alongside the terminal I saw on the approach line after line of Mig 21 and Mig27 fighters. As I got closer I saw they had all seen better days and had simply been abandoned by the Soviets. They are opening an air museum there this summer. Unfortunately I did not have the time to spend as my next flight plan had already been submitted. The woman in the office offered to arrange for the caretaker to come along and open it up for me to have a look round. I was tempted, but realised I would want to spend far more time there than I could afford. Once again, I was the only aircraft operating below FL100 in the whole of the country. I asked why they didn’t have Avgas and she explained that it only lasts three months and the last lot they had almost none of it was used. Because it contains lead, it is even hazardous to destroy. The net result is that there is only 1 airfield in the whole country with fuel! Worth knowing about in advance. The next flight was into the Czech republic. Due to Operation Flying Rhino (which sounds more like something Top Gear would do) most of the airspace was closed off. My original plan to go to the Sportcruiser factory was made pointless by this so I gave it a miss and went instead to the delightful Ostrava airport. The flight was quite bumpy as the mountains are still 4000ft high, and the turbulence was not always pleasant The villages around looked fascinating and the area was generally very pretty, helped of course by the sunshine. As everywhere I was martialled into a parking area and this time the refuelling tanker came to me.




Then along came a bus to take me to the terminal building. Impressive service I thought until I got the bill. A hurried change into GBP showed a total of 84 pounds 54 for fuel the vat on the fuel, the tax on the fuel the vat on the tax on the fuel and of course a handling charge as the fuel was brought to me. The remainder was made up of the landing fee (£10) which I thought was reasonable when I enquired in advance. On top of that there was VAT, The charge for the bus, the charge for the marsheller and a charge for 24 hour (or part thereof) parking. Never mind at least they had a proper café as this was an airport that had about 15 scheduled flights a day. I had to enter my own flight plan and was presented with a Czech keyboard. The Z key actually had both Z and Y on it. I didn’t notice at first and so in went LYMT as my departure point. I realised when I tried to enter my alternate. I tried all key combinations but could not get the Z. The solution was to choose another airport! Quite pleased with myself I submitted the plan. After about 5 minutes the message came up on the screen “Call Bratislava Control” I did nd a very nice lady changed my Y to a Z. She had obviously done it before.
The next flight was into Poland. The change at the border was dramatic suddenly the mountains were gone and it was just a flat plain (nearly). A very nice controller told me that he would save me some time If I descended to 2000 and steered a course 355. I complied, knowing that put me under the Katowice ontrol zone. What became a bit more obvious was that there was a single hill ahead over 2700 ft high.

The hill the controller wanted me to fly through!


What was he trying to do. I routed round it but being quite close to the ground got loads of rotor from the hill. He then told me again to go direct (he had obviously noted my deviation) I complied only later to see the edge of Lubin control zone appear ahead. I asked him whether I should climb or go around it. Both he suggested so I did. This time there was another aircraft flying so I was given traffic information keep a good look out you have traffic at your ten o’clock at a range of 20 miles. 20 miles he must assume my eyesight is spectacular. The flat fields of Poland are covered with vast fields of Oil seed rape. This makes it rather like Britain as does the chaotic field structure. Finally I arrived at Zelena Gora., a new airport advertising itself as the gateway to Western Europe. What that means is that it isn’t close to anywhere and I suspect it will continue to search for customers. It reminds me of Knock airport built in the middle of a bog in Ireland. They appeared to build their success on a miracle, I suggest that Zelena Gora ought to make some special approaches to the Vatican.The staff of course were wonderful as always. I was met by two, as soon as the plane had stopped then a third came with the refuelling truck and in minutes I was whisked away to the only hotel in driving distance. It only has about 10 rooms, but one of them was free. So here I am writing up today’s events.
Today then a total of three countries visited and 385 miles covered making 2058 in total