Friday, December 21, 2007

Friday, November 23, 2007

Closer look

Monday, November 5, 2007

Thank you Kenneth, Pieter & Heiko!

It's not that we know everything about her now, but since some weeks we have opened Lola's history book... Together with Kenneth - a nephew from the first owner who flew himself hundreds of hours with Lola, Pieter -from Sabena's flight club in Brussels - and Heiko - the former owner of Lola, we got together little parts of the puzzle...

It started in 1972. And while she was looking very different (with orange and gold shades), she flew around in the US and Canada, accompanied for twenty years by Uncle Walter. When being sold, she suddenly - we don't know the full story yet - ended up in ... Grimbergen. (What a coincidence - the place where I learn to fly...). She flew her owner from Belgium to Switserland, while he organised the Eurovision. We just knew she was a star... Thanks to Heiko, we discovered some cool old pictures - with the original colors. Joerg even thought they were tricked...

Thanks Kenneth, Pieter & Heiko for the photos and the small, but wonderfull anecdotes! Joerg really enjoyed the birthday present - which became an unaffordable little history book ;-) - thanks to you all!
And to the rest reading this; H-E-L-P!
There's so many things we don't know yet...
A bottle of champaign for the one who comes with old pictures or who finds the man who flew her over the Atlantic. A flight with Lola if you can find both ;-)

Thanks, Annelies

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Soulmates





It happens. You don´t know when and where .. but sometimes Soulmates do meet. Even from different countries, colours or ages... but when when it happens - both parties immediately know it. Happy that I met mine ... and Lola seemed fine for that bautiful October day as well.

Monday, October 22, 2007

Photos of Niels, Marina, Guido & Mireille and their first flight










On a warm Indian summer day...


It must have been that latest warm day of the year....
One of these days that even people who have never been flying before,
look at the sky...
and wish they could go out there...
So Captain Joerg played Captain for a full afternoon
and took Marina and her friend, Niels and his daddy
and Flemish foreigners Mireille & Guido
for a trip.

The Edersee, Kassel-city and the German country-side
looked like Italy for a moment...

And they all loved it!

Thank you, Joerg!

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag!

Happy Birthday, my friend Joerg, and all the best,
from Birgit, Michael and the rest!


...und noch´n Gedicht:)

All birds and bees and things with wings
drift in the breeze as Nature sings.

A few brave souls who must be bright
have lofty goals and claim the right
to leave safe ground and seek the sky,
thus heaven-bound, they really fly.

Persistent rumour says that a boy
with skill and humour and special toy
can be a flyer just like a bird.
Flies even higher 'til earth is blurred.

And spreads his wings peers through dark shades
a king of kings, an ace of spades.

...and keep up-to-date, stay sharp and smart!
A Pilot, mate, is no old Fart ;-))


Yeah....

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Sssssssst....

Tomorrow is Joerg's birthday.

And we have sooo many things to tell about Lola he does not know yet... Cause when you have a Twin Comanche out of 1972, it has a history... A loooong history...

So, pilot, take your seat. And fasten your seat belts.
Everything you know, will be different after tomorrow.

The Co-Pilot

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

A few good men ...


With a Twin Comanche to Argentinia.

How many people fly into vacation?
Well many. Germany´s tourism industry employs 10% of all employees of Germany. Mainly Europe, but also far east. Far and easy. With Condor, Tui or many other airlines. A video, some cookies, a book, breakfast before the landing. Easy.

Ok than. How many fly themself? ca. 50,000 in Germany. How many of them have flown into their own holidays into another country? My guestimate is 10% of all pilots flying. Makes 5,000.

How many of own pilots have been flying across the Atlantic? (Ok, you Lufhansa pilots - you don´t count here). My guestimate is 10% of the 10% of all pilots flying. Makes 500 in total or 0,0006 % of the population of my home country.

Pilot und Flugzeug organizes every year spectacular readers tours. This year to south america, than north toward the USA and via the northern Atlantic back to Europe. With a few good men, a mission and lots of adventurous spirit. Breakfast before the landing? Well, read the full story:



http://www.pilotundflugzeug.de/artikel/2007-09-26/Leserreise_2007

Saturday, October 6, 2007

Monday, October 1, 2007

RIP

On Oct. 1st a good man died. Hermann Krug was passionate about flying - we spent quite a few hours in Lola when he was teaching me about flying. He died at home in peace with his Pilot licence, active Medical, some 25,000 h of expercience and all the strenght a man can possibly have. Never complaining about his desease and up to the end with a smile in his face and a tear in his eye. Good bye Hermann. We miss you a lot.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

X-Atlantic



Well, flying in San Francisco is clearly something else. Easy but busy. A beautiful round-trip along the Bay-Area is enjoyable - but also quit an excercise for radio communications. If you think Kassel can be busy with all the Microlights in the traffic pattern and Parachuters ... welcome than to the real world in Class B airspace and an incredible amount of iron in the air.

I do miss german radio communications and also Lola´s performance. Those pictures were made from a Cessna C172.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

True colors



These pictures were made on our last trip in August. Since Lola has a break now and can rest a bit while Annelies and I are flying in the States ... but are the colors not reminding of the "stars and stripes" flag of the U.S? :-)

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Girls, Girls...

Captain Joerg is getting distracted here. Girls asking him to fly to France, Denmark...

Nonono... this weekend, Captain Joerg, we'll fly Lola to .. well, you´ll see! :-) . And if I promise now to all readers of this blog we'll get back with wonderfull pictures, then... it's clear where we start travelling to, no?

Your co-pilot-navigation-system-and-a-little-bit-pilot-student

Saturday, September 8, 2007

So, France.


In the last days we asked our readers of where they want pictures from ... 38% decides for France. Unfortunatelly we missed the trip to Greetje in Avignon, but I am sure Annelies will come up with some extraodinary travel plans :-))

So, Greetje, do you join than? :-)

Sunday, September 2, 2007

Pilot Timo




We´re taking off to our smallest crew member in Eisenach, who starts his very first school day today and invited us to a party. The weather wasn´t perfect, but flying from Kassel to Eisenach only takes us 20 minutes.

Lola´s engines really run smoothly now, and that becomes also Joerg´s "standard phrase" for the next two days ;-) - In other words, I have heard this a looooot!

But he is right, Lola flies smoothly to Eisenach, engines sounding like one, lands between helicopters dancing around in a competition and parachute jumpers hanging around in the airport sky without getting in troubles - what probably also has to do with Captain Joerg´s skills...

We´re welcomed warmly at the airport by papa and mama Lamprecht who inspect Lola -for the first time- in and out. Approved! But when they´ll fly along stays an unanswered question...

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Aaah ... so good to fly again :-))

today, sunset, full moon and 10000 smiles :-)

Ground-to-air




A word on fuel pumps: Mechanical fuel pumps seem to be a source for many problems. I had a completely wrong one installed on my RH engine ... turning in the wrong direction. And if the mechanical fuel pump still works, the fail-open valve don´t go and so your boost pump is nice for making noise but useless when it comes to a half working mechanical fuel pump...

But it was quite an "opening" for Lola. Almost everything that was associated with "fuel" got replaced. Bladders, Pumps, Hoses ... it took Jan and the other folks from Piper quite a while but they did a magnificent job. Congrats, Lola fly´s beautiful now!! In fact I never had such smooth humm of the engines before ... sounds like one but performes like two :-)

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Sister Ship



All the way from TF Green I recieved some nice pictures from Lola´s sister ship ... the N7998Y. It´s based on T.F Green airport in Providence, R.I. (PVD).

Thanks James!!

Monday, August 20, 2007

Lola is back!

I am not sure if Joerg's interaction here really worked, but Lola is back home! She got rid of her dirty fuel system and is waiting to flyyyyyyyyyyy again!





Tuesday, August 7, 2007

"I do not accept compensation"

He, honest now: When was the last time you heard these words? Especially when asking somebodys knowledge?
Your lawyer may ask for a 500 USD an hour , your tax-consultant maybe a little less. But surely just a handfull of people carry detailled knowledge and experience AND are willing to immediately share them with other people they have never seen or heard before. Unbelievable? Well, buy a Comanche and discover yourself. The ICS, the International Comanche Society, is full of those mentioned people. Good people. Old style people. They help where help is needed. They answer even when the questions is stupid. And they support even at their own costs.

"It's a group effort to keep as many of us flying as long as possible. " (Charlie Melot, 7-2007)

Drinking dirty fuel!!




After returning from our Italy-Trip we analyzed the new EDM Engine Monitor Data and found that occasionally Lola had some problems on two cylinders caused by dirt in the fuel system.

So, where do you start looking? The tanks of cause where the first thing to look after. 36 years of service is a lot for a rubber-tank and Lola has 4 of them (two more of Aluminium, but they are new and ok).

Well, the outcome was Sand, little sticky black rubber elements, even thumbbig stones ... shortly: A lot of things that doesn´t belong in a fuel system. So she get´s new fuel bladders (Thanks Ryan for your clear words!).

Further investigation also showed a little bit of Rust in the Fuelselectors (also Rust is a no-go ... especially in the fuel system.

So long Story short: Lola get´s a brand new Fuelsystem from A-Z. Hoses, Dividers, Nozzles were lately replaced, Injectors are new, Tanks and Fuelselectors now and hopefully she´ll be ready by next week for a testflight with fresh, clean AVGAS!!

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Flying back home



*** still hungry for more pics? here is the full italy collection: ***

*** picasaweb.google.com/joerg.lamprecht/Italy2007 ***

*** picasaweb.google.com/joerg.lamprecht/Italia_2007_Part II ***

And that's where it ends...Our very, very, very first round trip with Lola. We flew back home in IFR - Thanks to Michael and his flight planning for us! -, tested the oxygen again over the Alps and taxied Lola straight to Piper maintenance in Kassel where everyone enthusiasticly opened her up to check what we had been doing...

Our conclusion? A round trip in Italy is an absolute must. The country at itself is paradise, and in just some hours you easily get around to the hot spots of the dolce vita.

What we learned? Don't fly at noon in the summer, always take water along and enjoy VFR in Italy - 1000 AGL is perfect to see the Italian country!

And further? We still have a lot to learn about techniques, and we love the GSM forever - especially the numbers of Friedrich Rehkopf and Piper Maintenance in Kassel where extremely helpfull - thank you all!

But he...We did it. And we just started.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

She dances the tango...





There is no way to make a trip through Italy without stopping in Parma and get some real ham, we thought...So, before leaving home we made a stop on the PPR airport of Parma.

Taking off in Salerno Falconara was not so easy. Our girl, who just got some new spark plugs, shivered and coughed roughly after take off. We lost, almost immediatly, some cylinder values of the Engine Monotoring System and decided to return. No risks, with a flight over the Alps coming up the next day.

Aiaiaiai...Returning to Fernando, an extreme nice and technically gifted person of the Aeroclub, who thought us Lola had just some water and dirt in the fuel system, we got also spotted by...the inspectors of civil aviation.

"You have problem, sir?"
"No, we don't. We just wanted to have some values checked before flying over the Alps."
"If you don't have a problem, we will need a copy of the technical log and some signed papers you do not have a problem. If you do have a problem, we need a copy of your technical log and some signed papers that you do not have a problem anymore..."

So...Joerg needed a blond co-pilot to get out of this one ;-)

And off we took again - to Parma, and to eat some ham by our evening dinner. There was a lot of thermics in the air, so our girl danced a lot with us...The cha-cha, the tango and the merengue. We got shaked around...

Well, we just knew when we called her Lola (the show girl of Barry Manilow ;-)

Monday, July 23, 2007

A German never comes too late...




We took off at 6 from Salerno Pontecagnano (LIRI), saluted by half of the airport personnel and visitors. We had decided, only an hour before leaving, that we would not proceed our trip to the South but would leave back to the North of Italy. We have only a few days left, and with possible other techie problems we would otherwise not even make it in time back to Germany and Belgium. And you know... A german never comes too late...

Lola's take-off was smoothly, and she flew gentle as always. But once up in the sky, I got nervous...We wanted to fly VFR to Perugia (LIRZ) and stay in Assisi, but it was extremely misty. We have still not had an answer to where this mist came from...The Vesuvius, dirty hot smog or a forest in fire, but during the whole flight it stayed misty and uncomfortable to fly.

Next to that, there was no radio controller who felt like talking to us in the limited airspace of Napoli. Silence and mist...

By the time we needed to cross some mountains of 7,000 to 8,000 feet to reach Perugia, Lola's performance fell back. She climbed difficultly, and the engine monitoring system showed values which where too high and low (EGT). We discussed shortly, and decided not to cross the mountains this way and land to have the spark plugs checked (Joerg assumes it's a fouling one at high temperatures).

A safety landing was prepared and we choose for the airport in Ancona, only ten minutes away... An easy landing for Joerg with a 3000 meter paved runway. No way to miss this one, even if he would not have had his contactlenses...

And it looks like we have found that one hidden spot in Italy...The coast - Portonovo - is pretty busy, but the countryside looks like Tuscany, with amazing sun sets...We'll let you know soon how Lola is doing, and enjoy in meantime this wonderful hidden spot of Italia...