Trip Reports Archives - Golf Hotel Whiskey

Pilot plans 90 border crossing to celebrate a 90th birthday

Yesterday, pilot John Lawton was scheduled (weather permitting) to celebrate his 9oth birthday by using his Cessna 172 to make 90 flying passages across the US-Canadian border. According to the flight plans, Lawton would spend an estimated one to two hours at an altitude of around 3,500 feet and perform a series of tight or almost aerobatic figure-eight patterns in his aircraft. Lawton’s non-pilot daughter was also scheduled to be aboard while his pilot son was going to stay on the ground so that no one could question who was at the controls.

Lawton has been a pilot for 56 years and has more than 6,000 hours of flying in more than 40 models of aircraft. He is also a recipient of the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award for 50 years of safe flights.

However, the AP has noted a rather long list of other achievements over Lawton’s long life – which included involvement in developing Lacrosse guided missile systems, collecting snowflakes in flight during lake-effect snowstorms in Buffalo and initiating avalanches by dropping explosives in the Italian Alps. In fact, Lawton led a 1968 research team that created the Skadi – an electronic rescue beacon to locate avalanche victims.

The FAA’s Buffalo approach control in New York had signed off on the flight plan, but as of today, there is no word whether the weather cooperated and allowed Lawton to do the flight on Monday.

AP Photo/Tony Dejak

Flying in Iceland

The Eric Gideon blog has a two part post (see part 1 and part 2) about flying in Iceland – something that might interest UK or Europe based pilots. Eric noted in his first post that he could not find a “ton of information” about flying in Iceland on an FAA certificate, but the good news is that there was no need for a lengthy and costly process of validation for him while the Icelandic Civil Aviation Authority is very responsive along with the Flugskóli Íslands and Iceland Airclub – the two flight schools in the Reykjavik area with English language websites where pilots can rent aircraft.

In part 2 of his post, Eric gave some tips or noted these quirks about flying in Iceland:

Airspace, airways and other Icelandic chart data can be found online at SkyVector while airport information can be found at Aeronautical Information Publication (AIP) and weather information is available via the Icelandic Met Office.
All flights in Iceland must be on a flight plan and when operating at Reykjavik, you must file with the control tower of the airport where you are based.
Most airports in Iceland lack any sort of facilities or amenities for pilots and aircraft.
Flying in Iceland costs more than flying in the US, but much less than flying in Europe as Eric noted he rented a Cessna 172S for around $188 an hour while an instructor rate was around $45.

Eric also mentioned a few places worth flying to in Iceland.

With that in mind, we would love to hear from any readers who have visited and flown to or around Iceland. Feel free to post a few tips in the comments section.

Unforgettable: What were your best flights?

John Zimmerman has recently written an article for Air Facts that recounted some of his best flights and also mentioned a recent book written by Flying magazine editor Lane Wallace entitled: “Unforgettable: My 10 Best Flights.” Lane has flown plenty of interesting flights from the Swiss Alps to Key West and she has flown these flights in just about everything from a Piper Cub to a U-2 spy plane.

With that book in mind, John was looking through his logbook one day for his insurance renewal and what should have taken twenty minutes took three hours. Hence, he’s actually glad that the FAA makes him write everything down.

John’s rather lengthy list of best flights included the following:

Flying to the Bahamas
Taking a ride in a Waco at dawn (and at Oshkosh!)
First turboprop PIC flight
Flying a seaplane in Florida

Apparently that’s just the start of John’s list but then again, he is a Vice President at Sporty’s Pilot Shop or he’s just plain lucky to have plenty of time to fly!

With John’s list in mind, we want to ask you our readers, especially those based in the UK or on the continent: What were your best flights? Feel free to tell us in the comments section below.

Flying above Mt. Everest

After a brief setback flying in Australia, Slovene pilot/photographer/author/biologist Matevz Lenarcic who is flying around the world in his modified Pipistrel Virus SW 914 Turbo is back in the air and recently flew above the Himalayas for a bird’s eye view of Mt. Everest. According to AVweb, Lenarcic flew 29,344 feet or 8,944 meters above the Himalayas and roughly 300 feet above but not directly over Mt. Everest.

Apparently, flying directly above or near Mt. Everest is difficult due to the need to obtain Nepali government permits to do so. Lenarcic got the permits but they were cancelled right before his flight. Nevertheless, he did the flight anyway but the news was only released when he was safely in India to avoid any trouble with Nepali bureaucrats.

Lenarcic’s flight “above” Mt. Everest took him east of the peak on the Nepali side . However and as you can imagine, flying anywhere in the Mt. Everest region is a challenge. Just a few days before the flight, he reported that "visibility was again very poor, mountains were hiding in the clouds, heavy traffic in the air and bad communication was present." Moreover, he wrote:

Flight into Everest region is still a bit uncertain due to restrictions and still high winds or bad weather. If it is clear they are high winds and severe turbulence which can easily destroy aircraft, in more calm days the clouds with snow could come over the Himalaya.

Nevertheless, the flight ultimately went smoothly with beautiful weather and only minus 27 degrees Celsius temperatures with north westerly winds of 40 knots along with occasional turbulence.

To follow Matevz Lenarcic’s around the world flight, check out his GreenLight World Flight website for the latest updates and plenty of great pictures.

What to do after you get a pilot’s license?

If you are thinking about getting a pilot’s license but you are still not convinced that it’s the best use of both your time or your money, perhaps you need a few ideas about what to do AFTER you get your pilot’s license. Hence, North America based pilots might want to take a look at a recent post by John Zimmerman for Air Facts Journal where he came up with the following top 10 list of things to do once you have a pilot’s license:

$100 hamburger flight.
Night flight over a city.
Fly a taildragger out of a grass strip.
Take a kid for his or her first flight.
Go on a flying family vacation.
Low and slow cross country in the Fall.
Fly an actual instrument flight.
Fly something different.
Go to the Bahamas or Mexico.
Oshkosh!

Obviously some of the above items like eating “$100 hamburgers” or going to to the Bahamas or Mexico are better suited for pilots across the pond. However and if you are a UK pilot, why not a trip over to France to savor some fine France cuisine or better yet, a long holiday weekend in sunny Spain? And while Oshkosh is no doubt the event to attend if you are a general aviation pilot, why not instead make a special trip over to the Paris Air Show – the world’s oldest and largest air show?

Hence, we want to ask you our readers for any good ideas that would-be UK based pilots or pilots based over on the continent might want to consider doing once they get a pilot’s license. In other words, is there anything unique that you have done once you became a pilot that you would never have otherwise done?

Croatia flying trip

This is a guest post from my friend Hani Dabbagh. He says: “I am a private VFR pilot based in Geneva, I started flying about the time I became a father, some 19 years ago. I always try to combine my passion of flying with my family, going on trips together. I enjoy seeing the world from above and discovering new places, the journey itself being as important as the destination.”

We were not used to such luxury. There was someone waiting for us in a “Follow Me” car; another brought the fuel truck right to our plane while his colleague was tying it down, all of which was capped by the courtesy bus to the terminal.

We had just landed in Pula, Croatia, after about 3 hours of flying over a stunning and varied landscape of mountain passes, lakes and the sea – not to mention the unique view of Venice. It’s been a long time that that my 19 year-old son Nabil and I had been intending to fly to Croatia. As the flight required particularly good weather to cross the Alps, however, we were constantly postponing it. Finally the weather gods smiled on us and the forecast for our date of departure as well as the next few days was nothing short of gorgeous. There was a question about some instability a few days later, but nothing was certain that far ahead as far as weather was concerned. It was thus time to give Croatia a try. We had heard much about its crystal clear waters, beautiful coastal flying, and the VFR-friendly airspace – as well as its beautiful historic towns. It would be a good change from our more “conventional” destinations.

Our friends and fellow pilots at the Aeroclub de Genève gave us some good hints and tips about where to go and we planned a flight that would take us from our home base of Geneva, over the Simplon Pass, to Lugano, then north of the various controlled zones of the two Milanos, Bergamo and Brescia towards Venice. This covers a beautiful landscape in a juxtaposition of mountains and lakes. Our Piper Dakota took us over the lakes of Maggiore, Como (with a seaplane aerodrome) and Garda. We wanted to avoid entering and exiting the numerous controlled zones in order have a little more freedom of movement. This consequently required some careful zigzagging, specially around Milano, where airspace restricted us to 1000ft, as well as some deft conversations with all the controllers. Luckily Nabil took over this task, which helped me concentrate on flying and navigating. Nabil has become very confident in his radio skills and it was a pleasure to hear him speak with such assertiveness and authority.

Once over Verona and Padova, the radio chatter calmed down a little and we were able to relax some more and simply admire the gorgeous view surrounding us, specially the one approaching Venice. We flew at 5000 ft and had a clear view right across the horizon, showing Venice jutting out of the sea. We could clearly see the runway at Venice Marco Polo airport – in fact we were flying just above its approach path. The Italian controllers were very friendly and cooperative all the way up to the point Rotar, upon which they handed us over to the Croatian controllers. We adjusted to a new accent, but the friendliness and cooperation did not alter. This was typical of all our flying in Croatia. Controllers were always helpful and efficient, very often expecting us upon handovers, and identifying us on radar before even getting the chance to contact them. Pula Tower cleared us to land on Runway 09, minutes before a Boeing 757 from Russia.

The Follow-Me car directed us to our parking slot and the marshal tied down our plane, as the fuel truck arrived. We were given a VIP treatment at the airport terminal, where we cut through the long queue of Russian tourists at passport control – the same people we had just overtaken on landing!

We took the taxi to town and asked to be driven to the Tourist Information Centre. The taxi driver deposited us nowhere near there, and was our first encounter with a less-than-warm Croatian welcome. We experienced this at a couple of other places later during our stay, most notably with an obnoxious lineman at Mali Losinj airport who was downright impolite. But these encounters were more than compensated by the positive experiences we had elsewhere and overall we came out with a positive perspective. It was clear to us that Croatia is doing its best to attract tourism, manifested by a good infrastructure and service.

Pula, and indeed Split which we visited the next day, reminded us very much of small Italian towns. Narrow streets with a teeming evening life, coffee shops with outside tables, all accentuated this feeling. That wasn’t the case with food however. Italians won that score easily. Perhaps it was the touristic restaurants we frequented, or simply bad luck, but we can’t say that we were overwhelmed by the cuisine – with a notable exception at Mali.

The flight down the coast to Split was memorable. It followed a VFR route called AD1 that took us over a coastline of crystalline waters of varying shades of blue, sprinkled with boats that seemed to hang in mid-air, their shadows visible on the sea floor, and islands galore. We were flying at 1500ft with visibility as good as the eyes can see, and a sky a slightly different shade of the sea, the engine humming along with all instruments in the green and the radio happily quiet. We were in flyer’s heaven. This was a poster-image of flying and we nearly had to pinch ourselves to make sure it was real.

The arrival at Split followed the same service as Pula, but where Pula was extremely helpful in filing our flight plan for departure, Split was very heavy and frustrating in administration and we lost considerable time there. Our next stop made up for this, however. Mali Losinj is a beautiful island resort with a small aerodrome for light aircraft. Just the way we like it. It was a welcome, refreshing, change from the large airports of Split and Pula. Although small, it had all the required amenities including fuel and Customs. The latter was very useful as it allowed us to leave the island straight to another country, without needing to divert first to a larger airport.

At Mali we swapped flying for a program of deck-chairs at the beach. We broke our rhythm with a little bit of ping pong, and ended the day with an evening stroll at the leisure port, where we had a very good dinner. It’s a tough Life!

The pending storm finally arrived the next night. It was pouring down heavily and contrasted so much with the previous few days of sunshine. Luckily the forecast called for the storm to pass through by early afternoon, leaving the way for the return of sunshine. This comforted us and we whiled away the hours by watching a movie on Nabil’s PC. True to form, the clouds started to break up as predicted and a quick view of the metars and tafs of the airports on our return path comforted us in our decision to commence our flight back home.

We took the same route back, thought this time we decided to take the short cut and flew straight into the controlled airspaces of the major airports along the way. This was no problem with the friendly controllers. A little stop at Lugano for customs, fuel and coke (I mean the coca-cola variety) gave us a welcome respite before crossing the Alps. Another gorgeous evening awaited us for another memorable – though very different – flight over imposing and beautiful mountains, coming up very close to Mont Blanc. The air was stable; there was no wind, and visibility was again unhindered. From 1500ft at the Croatian coast to 9500ft weaving in between Europe’s highest mountains, we were reminded of how incredibly privileged we were.

Four days and 9 hours of flying later, we heard the familiar voices of the Geneva air traffic controllers again, and we felt at home before even landing. It was 4 days of adventure, 4 days of discovery and 4 days of invaluable complicity with my son. What a blast!

I am looking forward already for next year with my daughter!