Three years ago I visited Karlsbad and Budweis for the first time. Already then the city of Budweis fascinated me, being a well maintained medieval city, restored where necessary.

With the high pressure system “Leila” firmly anchored above Eastern Europe, it was obvious that the first weekend of April would have perfect flying conditions. These conditions had to be used for the long ago planned flight to Karlsbad and Budweis. At 10 AM we departed Mönchengladbach in a four-ship formation. I had filed a single flight plan and also made all radio calls for the formation. This reduced the work load for the other pilots, they only had to follow me and listen to the radio. Also it enabled us to reduce take-off distances and timings.
After take-off from runway 13 we left the Control Zone and switched to a “chat frequency”. We overflew the river Rhine around 2.000 feet and crossed Langenfeld towards the “Bergische Land”. Our first routing point was the VOR Arpe, southwest of Bad Berlesburg. We crossed the “Bergische Land” and its many lakes, crossed the “Sauerland”, the A45 close to Olpe, we left the Biggensee and Attendon behind, ahead now was the VOR Arpe, and to our right the Sackpfeife (highest mountain of the southern Sauerland) could be seen.

After passing VOR Arpe we took a direct course towards Karlsbad. Miguel proved to be very proficient in flying headings; he didn’t deviate one millimetre from the pre-determined course at all. We climbed to 5.500 feet, as we flew in a very calm air mass without any turbulence. To our right we could see the city of Marburg, and the township of Amöneburg which is build on a rock. To our left was Bad Hersfeld, and then we passed the Thüringer Wald with still some snow on the high ridges. In front of us was Suhl, the airfield Karl-Heinz already landed, while I myself have never been there before (on the other hand, I have been in Dinslaken!) On our left the dams of Hohenwarte and the Bleilochsperre glistened in the morning sun. We headed north, passed Hof and Plauen and came close to the Czech border.

I called Langen information and they passed me on to the frequency of Karlovy Vary. We had to descend and were given a heading for a direct approach to runway 11. The route took us via the southern edge of town, which lies west of the airfield in a valley about 220 meters below. We were able to see the whole city, its churches, its hotels and the pedestrian zone along the Eger. We made an elegant landing on the more than 2000 meters long runway of Karlsbad.

We refuelled straight away to save time for the next part towards Hosin. Landing fees in Karlsbad were pretty high (860 Czech Krones or €28,66). Paying for landings and the gas was time consuming, everything had to be put into a PC which regularly crashed! A lot of valuable sight seeing time of Karlsbad was lost.

We called for two taxis to bring us to the pedestrian area and agreed with the drivers to pick us up at 16.00. We spend some time strolling along the Eger and enjoyed the very well restored and flower decorated city, giving us the feeling of spring. We had lunch alongside the Eger with excellent food at only half the price of German restaurants. We also passed the famous Hotel Pupp, already in former times very uptight and well organised as said by Rolf Bienert.

We tried to contact Hosin several times but didn’t get any answer. We entered the traffic pattern and called again. Finally we had contact and were directed to runway 06. Despite the strong crosswind we all landed safely. After enjoying a very nice welcome beer, two taxis brought us into the heart of Budweis to the market square. The female taxi drivers selected a fine and well restored Hotel at only €51,00 for a double room including breakfast. Worth mentioning is the attitude of the hotel personnel, very nice and polite, we felt at home.

Budweis is a very interesting city, it was founded 1263 by order of king Otakar II where the Moldau and Maltsch rivers meet. It has always been a city for kings and trade. After the citizens of Budweis were given the right to brew their own beer, the city prospered. Today, the Budweis beer is known as one of the best beers in the whole world. The 100 by 100 meter (= one hectare) market square is the centre of town with a large old spring. It is surrounded by arcades with many shops and restaurants. In summer time lots of tables and seats are outside and a nice atmosphere exists. The square has always one sunny side, in the morning the Westside and in the evenings the Eastside with the hotel Zwan (Swan).

We enjoyed a good evening meal and very fine beer in our hotel. The only one visibly suffering was Henk, because he couldn’t get any French fries with chocolate sprinkles. But, he is a tough guy and could survive shortly without his favourites. We had a lot of fun with Henk and his chocolate sprinkles.

A postcard of our hotel. When you click this link, you will be taken to the hotel website, available in German and Czech.

Next morning the taxis were ordered for 10 AM and arrived in time. I submitted a flight plan direct after arrival at the airfield, our route was planned from Hosin to Vilshofen. It was difficult to get the right telephone numbers, but after some attempts I succeeded in filing the plan for all four of us.

From Hosin we departed in our four-ship formation and headed west for a township called Strazny. We had to pass this because it is mandatory to file and fly pass a town at the Czech border. It is important to file a Czech town, otherwise the flight plan will be denied. It was okay with us because we had to pass a restricted area anyway and had to climb to 5000 feet to be able to cross the mountains of the Bayerischen Wald. After passing these we could start our descent into Vilshofen. The airfield lies at the eastern side of the Danube, obscured by a mountain ridge. A few chimneys from power plants to the north of Vilshofen and the Danube river helped navigating.

Vilshofen was situated in blazing sunshine. I made a mistake in judging my approach and had to fly another traffic pattern around town. I didn’t mind at all, it gave me an excellent view of the town from above.

After landing in Vilshofen a quick check of our passports was done. It was very easy, the airport officials just take note of the passport numbers and enter these into a form, no customs at all. Mönchengladbach could learn from these procedures.

Vilshofen flying activities were, in contradiction to Mönchengladbach, very busy. Aircraft were taking off and landing all the time. Many visitors visited and crowded the restaurant and the terrace. It was so busy we had problems finding a place to sit down. Because the airfield is at the Danube border with constant shipping, you are never bored.

We planned the continuation of our trip via Koblenz for refuelling, Mönchengladbach has no MOGAS (super 98) available. Henk stayed with us while Joachim and Waltraud said good-bye and headed home for Lingen.

Christian Müssemeyer