Normandy Landing

Caen, Normandy. Thanks to an invitation from Kathleen and John we had the chance to visit Normandy. It is approx. 3 h from Kassel flying time for Lola to visit the family. The nice part was to fly "over" a front...well, not just crossing it on top, but climbing out through the front in Kassel and following the front "on top" all the way to Normandy. The pictures were taken the next day when flying sightseeing along the landing beaches.

It is a beautiful place and we will definitely be back soon for a further and closer look!

Der Eismann!

The way back to kassel. The Iceman came for a visit in flight and embraced Lola right after entering the Alps. So plenty of time to test the boots, props, windshield and pitot heat.

After a good 4h flight in IMC with some "VMC breaks" in between and plenty of circling around the CB's we landed back in Kassel. Bumpy as hell heavily headwind prevails me from beeing too positive about that trip :-)

"Dalmatian hopping"

Forty minutes is all it takes to fly from the Southern island Brac to one of the islands up North on the Dalmatian coast.

Before taking off, we ensured to practice how to pronounce the name of the island... Admit, not a stupid thing to do when the place is called Krk. "Hello Krk. How do you read, Krk?''

Flying away from Brac looks a bit like starting upside down - you take off, climb quickly, get over the mountains and then they want you to descend ... quickly again. But, he, there's nothing against a low-level flight over the Dalmatian coast :)

When arriving in Krk, one thing is clear. This island is way greener than the Southern islands. And the fish is even better here ;)

We spend some days relaxing over the bridge, at the other side of the island. What I remember of doing nothing for days? A good book, the beautiful town Vbrnik and the best fish in the world at Zwillinge, a family restaurant in Malinska.

Yep, I am convinced... Krk is not a bad stop on a Dalmation hop ;)

Luftwandering*

*Luftwandern = air-hiking.

We followed Norbert's (who also flies a beautiful restorated Twin Comanche) advice and flew after Dubrovnik to Brac Island to chill out for some days and enjoy the rest of our stay in Croatia. Flying "low and slow" among the coastline is truly an experience. The island itself is very small. Only 14,000 inhabitants in 22 villages (5 more ghost-towns) and ca. 40 km from west to east let's you explore the whole island in just one day.

Comanche Flyers

I was already impressed by the Comancheflyers before I physically met them. I always received good advice, tipps and trick and in some cases even phone support for a difficult problem on a Sunday evening. Actually meeting so many nice people in one place was fantastic. Nice talks and very interesting people from across the world - each one with his/her own story but sharing that one thing in common: The passion for flying and the Piper Comanche. Hope to see you all again soon!

Dubrovnik

Flying along the 1000 islands in beautiful sun - our magic carpet Lola brings us to Dubrovnik for a short 2 day stay. And the city truly is breathtaking. 2000 years of history and independency surrounded by a huge and intact city wall invites for walking and exploring.

Arriving in Zadar

Wednesday morning, 6:30. Time for the latest weather check, breakfast and off we go to Kassel airport. Destination Zadar, Croatia. In Kassel we have "severe" blue skies and the forecast in the Alp region was maximal "ok" ... no sceenic flying, but no ice or thunderstorms in it. So the decision was "green light" - it looked save.

The routing was via Coburg, Prag, Linz, Graz and than southbound direct Zadar. The first 1.5h was as expected wondeful until we approached Prag and the visibility dropped to zero and rain began. We popped out of the clouds at the Adrian coast line, exactly 10min before landing in Zadar and as also exactly as forecasted. The "circle to land" is the above video at the old city...

Today is the big gathering of the ICS, the International Comanche Society, stay tuned for more nice pictures to come : -)

What wind can do to you ...

Now that you can see it's even worse. A frontal headwind of 40 kts happened to us on the way to England. Lucky 2 days later on the way back the westerly wind was still there - but also a 1.5h long rain and bumpy cloud... so if you are ever in bumpy weather over water at freezing level you enjoy nothing more than the humm of two engines. Thanks Lola.

Game Boy flying

Lola needed a new HSI, that was a fact. The old one just turned 37 years and no Shop wanted to fix or overhaul it. The King KSC55a was my product of choice but 25K Euros for a mechanical gyro? Seriously now way I was gonna spent that much money. So after a long period of looking I finally decided to give the new Aspen 1000 Pro a shot. Don't get me wrong, I am working in IT whole my life but I am very "conservative" when it comes to Computers - I simply don't trust them.

Well, the guys from Aspen seem to understand a lot about flying. The product they created is a very nice and easy to use product, perfect fit in the cockpit and comes with some truly helpful features. Congrats guys in Cally!

I must say that if this piece of electronics will also last for 37years .... I'd change my mind about computers :-)