On May 1st (although weather conditions were far from perfect) D-KKGG took off from Oehna-Zelledorf (Germany) for a journey to Fez-Saïss (Morocco). Both pilots are looking forward to this once in a lifetime trip. As the great Chinese thinker and philosopher Confucius already stated some 2500 years ago: "Wherever you go, go with all your heart".

During their 16 years of flying a Taifun pilots Urs Gerigk and Manfred Garben both have made several joint flights to a.o. Lofoten Islands (Norway), Corsica and the Scillies on the English south coast.
Their Taifun, built no. 1008 is one of Valentin's first Taifuns ever, constructed back in 1984. Having flown in total over 2600 hours it's still top of the bill and one of the finest motorgliders ever!

Below you can find some additional info on their flight. Starting at May 1st you may expect a daily update on the status of their journey.

The Fez crew inside the cockpit of D-KKGG as pictured by themselves on May 2nd 2008,
left: Urs Gerigk / right: Manfred Garben

Preparations for a journey (Friday April 30th)
Several phonecalls from Berlin (Germany) to Geleen (Netherlands) have been made this week. Manfred telling webmaster Leo at Communications Headquarter of the powerglidertaifun-website of their plans on the two weeks trip to Fez in Morocco. Looking for a way to communicate Leo discovered there is no possibility to Skype during the journey since the headset belonging to his home laptop has disappeared without ever being used... But hey, there are other ways to communicate like phonecalls, SMS, email, chat etc. so we will find a way to keep in touch and provide info on the website on this journey that will hopefully bring our two pilots to Morocco.

Manfred:
" Fez, the most beautiful of the ancient Cities of Kings in Morocco and Gibraltar with its famous rock full of monkeys, these are our goals on this years journey. If possible we also want to make a stop at Castellon airfield (LECN) to visit Spanish Taifun pilot Jose.
Total distance in a straight flight would be 3000 kms. Our Taifun will need about 20 hrs. of flight for the journey from Berlin to Fez. Detours included - depending on the weather - along the French and/or Spanish coastlines the Taifun D-KKGG will carry us through the air in a safe and sure way from Berlin to Morocco and back again for about 6600 kms.
All in all we have planned 14 days for the flight to and back from Morocco. This will leave plenty of time for us to make some tourist and bad weather stops on our way. We plan to depart from Oehna on May 1st. and we have to be back in Berlin before or on May 15th."

Friday evening while at Henk's place we get a phonecall from Manfred.
D-KKGG will depart at Oehna airfield tomorrow morning around 8.30 local time. The plan to fly to Aachen-Merzbrück and stay for one night with Henk has been dropped due to weather circumstances. Mnfred and Urs will try to fly through a corridor between two low pressure areas via Frankfurt and Trier, across France to end up as far as possible south of Paris to hopefully land somewhere in the Loire Valley. When taking a look at the weather for the next few days it even won't be sure if they can reach Spain, but time will tell...

25hrs OWS weatherchart May 1st 00.00 ZT
The southeast-northwest corridor with a probable route to the Loire valley (red arrows)

Day 1 / Stage 1 (Saturday May 1st)
20.45 the phone is ringing.
It's Manfred with today's update! D-KKGG took off this morning from Oehna-Zellendorf at 10.40 local time. As already announced yesterday, the plan to fly to Aachen and meet Henk had been cancelled due to deteriorating weather conditions. After two hours of flying the Taifun duo reached Kassel where they made a short stop to refuel and to have a look at the weather again. After a little more then half an hour they took off again and made a second leg to reach Trier, still in Germany, but close to both the Luxemburg and the French borders. Here they filed a flight plan to cross the border and after that they were lucky to fly in between of two low pressure fronts as can be seen on yesterday's weatherchart above.
At about 18.00 D-KKGG landed at Romilly-Sur-Seine (LFQR), some 60 Nautical Miles Southeast of Paris. Here they were lucky to find a hangar to park their motorglider, so when tomorrow the bad weather predictions turn out to become true they will be able to leave their plane on a safe place and go to Paris by train themselves. If weather turns out to be better than expected at the moment, they will try to fly as far south as possible (maybe even reaching Barcelona) because predictions for the next few days are so bad they even could get stuck in the middle of France for a while.
After parking and towing the Taifun they went to search for a hotel, but unfortunately the hotel next to the airport had been closed. After calling a taxi finally a nice hotel was fond, situated at the northern edge of town called L'Auberge de Nicey.
Enough info for the moment, Manfred and Urs are going to look for a restaurant and have a well deserved dinner after a day of intense flying (almost 500 NM in total!).

May 1st. Picture of the day: flying in between of two lows

 

Day 2 / Stage 2 (Sunday May 2nd)
A little after eight, your webmaster is with his parents-in-law when his mobile phone is buzzing. Manfred on the phone:
"Hi Leo, I've got to tell you we have stranded...
Our plan was after leaving Romilly-Sur-Seine (LFQR) to fly to the Montpellier-Carcasson region in southern France, but unfortunately we didn't make it that far. Clear views when leaving Romilly-sur-Seine, some heavy rainshowers, but we managed to avoid them by flying around and after a little more than one and a half hour of flying along the valley of the Loire river we landed at Roanne-Renaisson airfield (LFLO). After refuelling and another check of the weathercharts we took off at about 16.00 local time to fly south, but not much later we had to turn back and were forced to land at St. Etienne airport.

Visual satellite image screendump, by coincidence made by your webmaster at 16.00 local time (14.00 UTC),
the same time D-KKGG took off at Roanne to strand some twenty NM more south at St. Etienne airport (red dot).

Visibility had been reduced very rapidly, clouddecks had closed up and since it would have been irresponsible to cross the mountains of the Massif Central we decided to leave it for today and land at St. Etienne-Boutheon (LFMH). Tomorrow we will have a look if it's possible to get to the Spanish border or even a little further. At the moment we're staying at this very nice hotel "La Charpiniere" in a town called Saint-Galmier, about 3 kms north of St. Etienne airport. We will try to send you a picture later this evening and will call again tomorrow. Bye bye for now."

May 2nd. D-KKGG at St. Etienne airport 17.49 local time, tail facing south where thick and grey clouds forced them to return.

Day 3 / Stage 3 (Monday May 3rd)
At 19.50 local time Manfred is on the phone again. Your webmaster is being asked to have a guess where D-KKGG is right now. Well, my wild guess, looking at the weathercharts I downloaded this afternoon is that they must be somewhere near Perpignan. But I'm wrong, they made it to Montpellier-Méditerannée (LFMT), some 210 km south of Perpignan near the Mediterrenean coast in southern France.

Manfred on why they didn't get as far south as your webmaster expected:
"This morning at 10.00 we left our hotel for a 15 km taxi ride towards the airfield where our Taifun had spent the night. On our way to the airfield I noticed my GPS was not inside of my travelbag so we decided to turn around and go back to our hotelroom to search for the missing GPS. We couldn't find anything over there so we thought perhaps we had left it in our Taifun yesterday. We turned our motorglider inside-out but in all our efforts we did not find a GPS. Several friendly people of the aeroclub at the airfield of St. Etienne offered to help us out and gave a second ride back to the hotel. There again nothing was found until I shook up the blankets and something fell on the ground: My GPS!!!! Can't tell you how happy we were. Already I had been having nightmares of finding our way to Morocco without a GPS. I even had started enquiries of where to buy a new GPS in the neighbourhood.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, at about 12.30 local time we started preparations to take off and a little later we were airborne for a beautiful flight through the valley of the river Rhone. We made a short stop at Valence airfield (LFLU) to take a look at the weathercharts to see if we could reach Spain today. Unfortunately this was not the case since bad weather would stop us from crossing the French-Spanish border close to the Pyrenees so we decided to fly down the Rhone valley where we crossed the beautiful Gorges de L'Ardèche. With tailwinds reaching up to 80 kms an hour (caused by the famous Mistral) on our way we landed at Montpellier-Mediterranée (LFMT) at half past four in the afternoon after a flight in two legs, in total making about 160 NM today.

At Montpellier airport we switched our Taifun motorglider for a four wheeled Smart car since this one can fly a lot lower when encountering rainclouds and is much more easier to park ;-)
With our rental Smart we drove to a city called Aigues-Mortes, 20 kilometers east of Montpellier airport where we found a small but nice hotel (Les Arcades) offering 21st century comfort in a mediaeval town.
Now we are going to look for a restaurant to have a decent meal and tomorrow we will be having an off day, go visiting Aigues-Mortes and enjoy a sightseeing tour through the Camarque by Smartcar. The weather will be too bad for a flight, so we will have to wait until at least Wednesday, even more likely Thursday, to be able to fly to Spain. Greetz for now and also say hello to Henk who is probably making preparations for his Israel-flight. Bye bye! "

 

Day 4/ no flight (Tuesday May 4th)

Red dot: Montpellier, almost in the centre of the low pressure area
Situation on May 4th, 12.00 local time. No flying today...

Mail from Manfred at 14.00:
"Last night and this morning it has been raining all the time. Grey clouds everywhere and a chilling cold , almost making us feel like we're near the North Sea instead of the Mediterrenean. At the moment we're right in the "eye of the Taifun", suffering rain and strong winds up to 100 km/h. Therefore we returned to the airport this morning and had our Taifun checked to see if it already had taken off without us. Faithful as ever it was still standing on its spot and was only pulling the ropes. After we tightened everything we were wet to the bone, but a bit more assured our motorglider would resist the winds quite fine."

May 4th, picture fo the day: Urs returning after morning inspection of D-KKGG at Montpellier airport

The rest of today's afternoon was being used by Manfred and Urs to have a look at Aigues-Mortes town and have a small drive through the surrounding area. Rain stopped and they even spotted some flamingos in the Camargue.
Tomorrow they will try to get into the air - leaving bad weather behind - and fly to Spanish eastcoast some 80 kms north of Valencia and hopefully meet Spanish Taifun pilot José.

Weathermap for tomorrow May 5th 12.00 Watch the low right above Montpellier
In red (arrow) the route our Taifunpilots are hoping to fly.

 

Day 5 / Stage 4 (Wednesday May 5th)
Although weather conditions were not fine this morning, Urs and Manfred did their best to find some spare oil since the engine of their Taifun had used more oil than expected. Already having added three quarter of a liter earlier this weer, only one quarter of a liter remained as spare quantity, which could be sufficient in case of need, but it's always better to play safe. Their quest for oil was not easy, but when they found some, they first checked with Rainer Korff from Korff company to be sure they got the right one. After being assured by sir Korff they did, they bought another liter and returned to the airport where D-KKGG was still standing safe and sound on wet ground...
After checking their Taifun they filed a flightplan to cross the French-Spanish border to Barcelona. A look at predictions told them today's weather would be far from perfect. Wind gusts in the Pyrenees up to 100 km/h, bad visibility on the Spanish side of the border, rain and possible fog made them decide that if they judged the weather to be too bad they could always return to Montpellier.
But, once airborne circumstances turned out to be far better than expected, strong but fair winds, almost no rain and after they had crossed the border the wind diminished fairly. Good visibility, no fog and after a flight of about 180 NM along the Mediterranean coast they were able to land at Barcelona-Sabadell airport (LELL).
There some problems of a different kind showed up; the Taifun motorglider with its 17 meter wings was too wide to find a spot to park, so aftersome talk (and some talk and some talk, we're in Spain you know) Manfred and Urs made a tour with someone of the handling office to find sufficient parking space. After a phonecall to Spanish Taifun pilot José, they decided to ignore his advice not to fly any further because of strong turbulence in the Ebro delta region. Flying strong turbulences could cause engine problems. After checking with weather-info it appeared that winds would be acceptable (strong but not too strong), visibility would be clear and thus they decided to have a go for Castellon de la Plana. With not much time left because of some thunderclouds coming near they took off from Barcelona-Sabadell right in time and immediately ascended to 7000 feet of altitude. They had already asked for permission to fly above 5000 feet which was granted, so they would be above turbulence level when crossing the Ebro Delta. Flying in a relaxed pace and by making use of local Lee waves our two pilots were able to enjoy a quiet and wonderful 140 NM flight to Castellon de la Plana (LECN) and late afternoon D-KKGG landed on the local runway parallel to the mediterranean coast, making a total of 320 NM for today's stage.

May 5th, picture of the day: crossing the Ebro Delta

After settling down in a hotel only 200 meters from the airport they started a search for food and found so in some kind of local Burger King and after that they went to a local bar with wireless LAN to send the picture of the day (and that of yesterday) to your webmaster.
According to Manfred and Urs, who made a phonecall from the wireless LAN bar at about 21.00 local time, hotel rooms in Spain cannot match those of France, but according to your webmasters mailbox, wireless LAN possibilities are much better in Spain ;-)
And right now they are awaiting José, who is joining them in from Valencia (about 35 NM more south) within half an hour to have some (Taifun?) talk amongst friends.

Tomorrow the plan is to fly to Jerez, almost the most southern point of Spanish mainland. For now the Taifun crew is happy to say they made it through and left bad weather behind.
They reached the sunny side of Europe and Morocco is still within reach!!!


Day 6/ Stage 5 (Thursday May 6th)
21.10 Thursday evening. While paying a visit to Henk to talk things through on his flight to Haifa suddenly my mobile phone starts ringing. It's Manfred:
"Guess what, I'm looking at the sun going down in the Mediterranean Sea while sitting on the balcony of hotel Puertobahía right next to the Valdelagrana beach in El Puerto de Santa Maria.
Some 2 hours ago we have landed at the airport of Jerez de la Frontera (LEJR) after a straining but beautiful flight from Castellon along the Spanish Coast. At first we assumed to find a hotel in Jerez city, but there is a huge feast going on from May 2nd until May 9th. It's called Feria de Caballo which can be translated as Horse Fest and has been declared an international interest celebration by the Spanish bureau of Tourism. You can imagine there's absolutely no free room to find anywhere in any hotel in the whole of Jerez town this week, so we had to call a taxi that took us to El Puerto de Santa Maria, some 12 NM southwest of Jerez airport, where we found the nice Puertobahía hotel I already mentioned.

Jerez de la Frontera, Horse parade during the Feria del Caballo
Image source: wikipedia

Today we made a long journey. After leaving Castellon this morning at 11.00 local tme, amongst others we crossed the cities of Valencia, Cartagena, Malaga and tourist town Benidorm during two legs of in total 5 hours of flight, making 550 NM. It's interesting to notice how quickly the appearance of coasttowns has changed during the years, due to the large number of tourists visiting the Costa del Sol.
We made a fuel stop around 14.00 local time at Almería airport (LEAM) where we also changed seats. The first part of today's stage Manfred has been the pilot in command, while during the second part Urs has guided our Taifun into the right direction. We have been doing these switches every day this week. By taking turns we can both enjoy the splendid views and relax a bit once in a while.
At Almería airport we experienced our first moments of bureacracy during our trip. Right after arrival a car stopped next to us, two friendly policemen stepped out and they asked for almost every paper we ever heard of (and even papers we didn't know they existed). Then a truck with Avgas stopped nearby and before the guy driving it was willing to pump only a drop of fuel again we were asked to show paperwork, paperwork and more paperwork. With every piece of paper we handed over he had to check with his database to see if they were genuine or not. He even checked the insurance numbers and our tax number, so all in all it took over half an hour before we were permitted to refuel.
Despite the fact Almería was quite a large airport and apparently all kinds of "paperworkpeople" earn a living from their business, we only had to pay €5,65 landing and handling fees. It took us 2.5 hours though to make this stop. Having gained experience we managed to handle the same procedures after landing at Jerez within less than 50% of the time needed at Almería...
After this assessment in bureaucracy we flawlessly passed we're a bit more self confident that if these kind of things happen in Morocco we will also be able to survive ;-)

May 6th, Costa Blanca, the spectacular calcareous rock formation on Penyal d'Ifac,
rising 332 meters above sea level as seen from the cockpit of D-KKGG
If you want to know more about this Penon d'Ifac, then you can download this PDF brochure.

Yesterday evening we met our Spanish friend José who saved us from the local Burger King and took us for a lovely Spanish dish with all sorts of fish; we had a very nice evening. Crossing borders thanks to mutual Taifun-roots. Thanks José !
The weather is fine, our Taifun is running very smoothly, hopefully this evening we will have a nice dinner too, when Urs has quit taking a shower. We're in a good mood. If nothing strange happens, tomorrow we will see Morocco. "

 

Day 7/ Stage 6 (Friday May 7th)
19.30 Local time the long expected phonecall from our two Taifun pilots.
"Were in Fez!!! Don't ask me the name of the hotel, don't ask me in what part of town, Fez is a combination of criss cross houses and very narrow alleys and we're still exploring were we are right now. It's very basic around here. A nice but simple hotel with a small quiet inner court.
Today we have made a very impressive flight across the Strait of Gibraltar. We left Jerez this morning at 11.00 local time, filed a flight plan to Tanger, had very good views up there (up to 40 km while visibility should have been limited to only 8 km according to weather info predictions) and after a short flight we landed at Tanger to take care of customs. Very friendly people and officers at Tanger customs by the way. From Tanger we filed a flightplan to Fez, first flying 200 km along the Moroccon coastline, then inland towards Fez situated at the foot of the Atlas mountain region. We landed at Fez-Saïss airport around 16.00, tightened up our Taifun and went to look for a hotel. Tomorrow we will stay in Fez. Sunday we wll either fly to Gibraltar or to Casablanca, depending on weather and the possibilities to get a permission to fly into Gibraltar airspace. That's all for now I'm afraid, since we're not able to send a picture of the day. Send our best wishes to Henk and Haifa-crew. Greetings Manfred & Urs."

May 7th, D-KKGG on Final for Runway 28 at Tanger airport Morocco
(picture was sent at May 8th, when internet was available again)

Day 8/ no flight (Saturday May 8th)

Above: Fez leatherdyeing pits. Hold your breath for the smell around ! For more info about leather dyeing techniques in Fez, take a look at this clearifying webpage Right: Fountain with thousands of small mosiac pieces at Place Nejarine image source: wikipedia

16.15 Local time again a phonecall from our two Taifun pilots. They changed hotel this morning and are now staying in the beautiful Riad Fez Yamanda Hotel. It's like a dream, sleeping in the nicest room on the upper floor, with views across the medina (old part) of Fez town. As your webmaster is speaking to Manfred, on the background there's the sound of the city, mixed with oriental music, creating a 1001 nights atmosphere. Our two pilots have enjoyed a couscous lunch this morning and afterwards they made a second visit to the narrow streets and alleys of the medina. Their guide Abdul, only 16, has taken them for a journey through the labyrinth. Without him they surely would have been lost in the thick tangle of houses, stalls, people and alleys. It's a kind of mediaeval structure, but very attractive and most interesting to watch. Because it's so wonderful in Fez medina they are not going to fly tomorrow, but will stay for another day. Monday their Taifun will maybe fly to Gibraltar, depending on the local winds. If the wind is blowing the wrong way, there will be too much turbulence and they will have to pick a different destination to go to.
Anyway, for now they are enjoying 1001 Nights with all their senses...

May 8th, view upon Fez medina from the hotel's roofgarden while enjoying dinner

Fez (also written as Fès) is -after Casablanca and Rabat- the third largest city of Morocco with a total of almost 1 million inhabtitants of which over 300000 live in the city itself. The city was founded by Caliph Idris I in the year 789. Watch the beauty and splendour of this mediaeval twon by watching this youtube travelreport. By the way. the hotel in which Manfred and Urs are staying right now is also featured in this travel report at about 6 minutes.

 

Day 9/ No flight (Sunday May 9th)
Another day to look around in Fez. Who knows our two pilots might have seen something like the youtube movie your webmaster found, showing a tradtitional marriage in the Medina of Fez.
hopefully a picture of the day will follow soon ;-)

traditional marriage in Fez

Day 10 / Stage 7 (Monday May 10th)
This morning a mail at 09.00 local comes flying into your webmaster's mailbox.
Manfred: "Within half an hour from now we are going to take a taxi that will take us to Fez-Saïss airport. We will first check our plane and will have to do some paperwork for our flight back to Tanger. There we will refuel, clear customs and have a look at the weather to decide where to fly. There are several options: Portugal, the Spanish northcoast or back to the Spanish south coast again.
Let us surprise you where we will land."

Visual satellite image, May 10th 12.00 local

May 10th, prognose for this evening

Well then, let your webmaster make an educated guess for today's landing site.
1. Spanish northwest Coast is no go due to the weather
2. Spanish southeast Coast is possible, but they have been there last week, so why go again?
3. Porto (Portugal) might be an interesting alternative, but how about tomorrow's weather?
4. Spanish northeast coast? There is a corridor in between of the clouded areas!

My prediction: To hell with tomorrows weather, the corridor will hold and they want to see Portugal.
So from Tanger first fly north for Spanish mainland, then northwest along first Spanish, then Portuguese coast and land for instance at Faro or Lisbon. Then tomorrow northeast across Spanish Mainland to land somewhere near the Spanish-French border.

We will see. For the moment my wife is commanding me to do some work at home in our garden...

At about 21.00 a phonecall from the D-KKGG crew, wishing your webmaster a happy birthday. In the background I hear the sound of what seems to be a Kindergarten, but it's only streetnoise in a Moroccon city. Are they still in Fez? Then moroccon music and the sound of horns from a car passing by. Some chitchat and jokes about real age and felt age follow and then it's back to their flight of today, a day full of surprises. My prediction of where they would land was wrong. Totally wrong.
Manfred: "This morning we woke up very early and at 08.00 we already where driving to Fez-Saïss airport. There we dealt with bureaucracy like we have never known otherwise (one of the three ways of gaining wisdom the Haifa crew has also learned is by experience! We took a look at the weather briefings and decided first to fly to Tanger. Visibility seemed to be good at the start in Fez and on the first part of this leg, but during the last third of our 2 hours flight of almost 200 NM the weather kept deteriorating dramatically. Visibility was going down by the minute and at a certain point during the last 45 NM we found ourselves flying as low as 100-150 meters above the sand of the moroccan beaches. There the visibility was quite fine, but the dark clouds above our heads were getting thicker and thicker. Then some rainshowers until some 10 NM before reaching Tanger airport the weather got a little better again. After refuelling at Tanger and yet again a look at different weather prognoses we took a long time to decide what to do next.

First part of todays leg, Moroccon landscape as seen from D-KKGG flying from Tanger to Fez

 

Morrocon beach seen from nearby as the weather deteriorated during the last 60 NM to Tanger




Refuelling at Tanger, hopefully without extra water ;-)

Finally we decided to play sure, also due to several thunderstorms to be expected on unexpected parts of the region. We did not go for the crossing of the Strait of Gibraltar and stayed in Tanger instead. Tomorrow morning we will have a look at the weather and look at the different possibilities for flying befiore we make our choice. For our decision of today: one day longer in Morocco is no wrong either. Tanger also is an interesting and beautiful city and it's no punishment to stay an extra day and smell some extras of Moroccan culture. We ourselves are doing well, our Taifun is even doing better and this evening we're going to take a look around downtown, in the harbour and see a bit of Tanger nightlife.
That was all for now, have a nice evening and we will be in contact.
Greetz from Urs too, bye bye."

Want to experience what it's like to be inside Manfred's or Urs his head walking in Tanger during the night (go for a Hamburger at McDonalds or have a drink at the green club), then take a look at the 360 panoramic zoomable view below (Macromedia Flash plugin required)

 

Morocco, Tanger Complexe Dawliz McDonald's in Morocco 

 

Day 11 / No flight (Tuesday May 11th)

Trouble in paradise... While making a bycicle trip in Belgium around noon local time your webmaster receives a phonecall from Manfred and Urs. This morning the Fez-crew packed their things at the hotel in Tanger and took a taxi to go to Tanger airport. There a televesion crew happened to be interviewing the airport-manager about something special going on. This "something special" appeared to be the closing of the airport until further notification. In Northern Morocco severalairports (Casablanca, Tanger, have been shut down completely due to the volcanic ashes the Icelandic vulcano Eyjafjallajoekull has been erupting since almost 7 weeks now. Two and a half weeks ago European airspace has been shut down completely for almost a week, now it has reopened but the ashes are coming back due to the jet stream coming from the southwest as you can see on the chart on the right. Though the D-KKGG is not flying at that high altitudes, they couldn't leave Tanger since all of the airport has been closed, leaving no possibilities for any aircraft to leave the airport. The ministry of aviation has stated Moroccon authorities will allow no flights until further notification and all NOTAMs state this situation will last until at least 12.00 UTC...

 

Then another phonecall at 22.00 UTC.
Airports have still been shut down. At 11.45 UT the D-KKGG crew was still hoping to leave because of the fact that there was no new NOTAM for after 12, but when they wanted to file a flightplan for 12.30 the airport authorities told them the ministry had announced that there would be no flights for the rest of the day. At the moment I'm writing this, the number of airports closed in Morocco has even become larger and they will stay shut down until at least tomorrow morning 06.00 UTC.
Therefore Manfred and Urs decided to return back to Tanger town to their hotel of last night, which unfortunately had no spare room left for this evening. They searched and found a new hotel, "Continental" right next to the harbour and unpacked their backs again for another day and another night in Tanger. Continental is not quite modern to Western European standards, but it has an historic atmosphere like in French colonial days. It reminds one of ancient times and one could expect Hemmingway to step through the door any minute if it weren't for the trucks that keep passing all the time.

 

Today Manfred and Urs split up to explore a part of Tanger City each for themselves. Manfred ended up at the harbour, looking at the fisherboats coming in and watching the newly caught fish being transported into town. At a fish stand he decided to treat himself a delicious fish meal.
While eating the fish and watching the beautiful sky no ashclouds could be seen...

Fisher activities in Tanger harbour this afternoon

Manfred's starter dish of this afternoon, shrimps straight from the sea. After this very delicious starter the maindish was being served with a mixture of fish varieties caught this very day in the bay of Tanger

At the same time your webmaster in Europe had no harbour at hand and cooked his own dinner: Morrocan Tajine; cooked rice with fried cashew , beefstew in a mixture of honey, prunes, apples, apricots and various spices. Confucius liked it ;-)

 

What will tomorrow bring? Will they be able to leave Tanger? Who knows?
As the Arabs say: Inshallah !

 

Day 12 / Stage 8 (Wednesday May 12th)
Luck was back on the side of our Fez crew this morning. The vulcanic ash clouds have unexpectedly been blow away in a different direction and Tanger airport was re-opened again. At about 08.00 it was a bit chaotic at the airport; the weather was not that good and at first they wanted to fly to Alicante but Alicante ATC refused to accept their flight plan for landing over there because the airport was too busy after the closing down of yesterday. Therefore D-KKGG filed a flightplan to go to Almeria airport (LEAM) in Spain.
Thus later this morning D-KKGG was able to take off and could return to Europe for their flight homeward. First they made a big turn to have a last look at the city of Tanger from above, recognising several spots they had visited yesterday and the day before like the harbour and the boulevard . Then they set course for Ceuta, a Spanish enclave on Moroccon mainland and from Ceuta they crossed the Strait of Gibraltar back to Spanish mainland. ATC at Gibraltar ordered them to fly east due to heavy traffic and at a certain point they were that far east of Gibraktar they decided to set course for Almeria which was less far than Gibraltar after the detour. After one hour of flight above water Almeria was within reach. Manfred: "If Henk can fly above water for 4 hours we surely must be able to do so only for 1 hour". Unfortunately due to weather circumstances and lack of time most of the return flight across Europe will take Manfred and Urs following the same route as last week, but this time in opposite direction.
The weather is not that good right now. Especially the fuel stop at Almeria airport today with headwinds up to 60-80 km/h has been quite exciting.
Urs: "Almeria was a story in its own. Though safety was guaranteed all the time it made me have some cold sweat in the palm of my hands. It's a starnge feeling when the ground beneath your glider is shifting at such slow speeds as today. The true strength of the wind we only experienced when rolling on the asphalt. We had to give full throttle to advance and taxi to the apron of Almeria. When we got out of the cockpit we almost got blown away!
The same eerie feeling when taking off again. Quite an extraordinary experience to get airborne at very slow speeds at an extremely short distance. Manfred: "Winds were that strong we didn't dare to leave the plane on itself at Almeria airport so Urs stayed with D-KKGG while I checked in with customs and handling. By the way handling: we learned we had to have had a handling agency to fly into Spain, because it is obliged when one arrives into the Schengen-countries from a non-Schengen-country like Morocco. We didn't know, but pilots should be aware that one has to manage a handling agency best 3 hours before leaving the airport of departure. The guy at Almeria showed quite some coulance since he charged us only half the price of that Air Berlin is usually being charged, including a free ride from and to the plane."

Urs: "Anyway, we're at Castellon right now, at 500 NM from Tanger, back in the same hotel as last week, going to enjoy a well earned good night's rest and tomorrow morning Manfred will send you some pictures of today".

And of course, faithful as ever, Manfred mailed some pictures to your webmaster, early morning on May 13th. Here they are:

 

Returnflight from Tanger to Spain mainland, in the back the Rock of Gibraltar clearly can be seen

 

 

Evening atmosphere shortly before arriving at Castellon, today's final destination
The city in the background is Valencia.

 

 

Approaching runway 08 at Almeria airport, experiencing very strong headwinds

 

Day 13 / Stage 9 (Thursday May 13th)
09.00 local time, a phonecall from Manfred:
"We're at the well known Hamburger place here near Castellon airport, have just eaten a cheeseburger as breakfast, to fill our stomachs for the stage to come for today.
Today the plan is to fly a first leg until near the French-Spanish border. There we will land, refuel, have a check at the weather and then decide what to do next. Our initial thoughts were to fly North along the Atlantic westcoast of France, but Toulouse is reporting showers and might even expect thunderstorms, so we're not sure about that option. An alternative could be to stay near the border, but if possible we will attempt to make a second leg across or along the Massiv Central to get north a little bit more. We will let you know where we have flown later today.
Bye bye and best wishes."

Well Manfred & Urs, best wishes and good weather for you too today.
greetz Leo.

 

20.30 local time, another phonecall from Manfred with lots of noise in the background:
"Hi Leo, as you may probably hear by the sounds on the background we're in a crowded place. In fact, we are in a Tapasbar owned by AMT in Barcelona, Spain.
This mornng at 10.30 local time we left from Castellon de la Plana for a flight that we planned would take us somewhere across the French border. However, while during our take off at Castellon the weather and visibilities were very good, while we were coming near to Barcelona visibility deteriorated quickly and in the distance several dark clouds with rain and possibly thunder could be seen. We passed by Sabadell (LELL) near Barcelona and thought we should have a try to cross or make a curve around the dark clouds, but after two tries we decided to give up and return to Sabadell where we landed after barely two hours of flying. While parking our Taifun we noticed another motorglider standing there. It was a Stemme S10, we parked next to the Stemme. We were wondering what this motorglider was doing at Sabadell but found out a little later when we encountered two gentlemen in the midst of a phonecall to Stemme Berlin. It appeared they had planned to fly to Helsinki Finland, but also had to return after 60 kms due to the weather and they called for a transport for their motorglider. We had some problems with handling since on this airport it took great efforts to find anybody able to speak English in stead of only Spanish...
Despite all this unexpected weather surprise, tomorrow's forecasts aren't any good either, we are in a good mood. We will probably need more time to return to Berlin than expected, but on the other side, this gives us a good opportunity to have a look at Barcelona if we can't fly tomorrow.
We will decide what to do tomorrow morning and in case of no flight we will use the day to look around in the city.
If the weather is on our side, it will be possible to get to Berlin in 2 days, so we have some spare time.
We will let you know what and how later tomorrow. We will send you two pictures of today.
Greetz, Manfred & Urs."

 

The thunderclouds that forced D-KKGG to return to Sabadell / Barcelona






Partners in crime, the D-KKGG crew in the Tapasbar, minutes after this evening's phonecall.
Due to the word crime our department of censorship has had some discussions whether to publish
this picture or not. As a compromise we opted to publish it and have a black bar in front of
their faces, but since we know them as sincere, decent and honest pilots we decided to
publish it without the bars, so the world can see how great fun it is to fly a Taifun motorglider
wherever you want to go.
We're still busy studying how to interpret Manfred's V-sign.
We think it has something to do with the V in Valencia, but of course we could be totally wrong and
the V is just the sign for the barman to bring another two little bowls of fresh olives...

By the way, thanks to the unknown person who took this photograph!

 

Day 14 / No flight (Friday May 14th)
Just like our two pilots suspected yesterday, the weather this morning (and the rest of the day too) was too bad to make a flight so they decided to take a look around in Barcelona. While your webmaster was exploring WWII bunkers underground in Northern France, Manfred and Urs were exploring the centre of this attractive city in Northern Spain. It has been raining a lot until about noon when Manfred and Urs took a walk through the inner city and during the afternoon when skies turned a bit less greyish they made a trip throug town with a local sightseeing company. With temperatures as low as 5° C our Fez crew almost thought they were staying in cold Norway in stead of mediterranean Barcelona. During the evening another Tapas Bar filled the non flying program of today. Hopefully the gods will be on their side tomorrow so the journey north can be continued.

"During today's sightseeing tour in Barcelona: Antoni Gaudi's famous architecture"

 

 

Day 15 / Stage 10 (Saturday May 15th)
At 21.53 your webmaster who is a bit tired after 600 km cardriving and a 24h bunker exploration in Northern France gets an sms on his cellphone sent by Manfred & Urs asking if it's alright if they make a phonecall this evening. Of course that's alright with me, I also want to know where they might have flown, hoping the weather has improved in Barcelona.
After returning an sms several minutes later Manfred is on the phone, again with -just like two days ago- lots of background noises of people laughing and shouting:
"Hi Leo, it's us again", whereupon your webmaster says: "Hi Manfred, judging to the noise you're still in some kind of Tapas Bar in Barcelona ;-)"
But your webmaster is wrong again.
Manfred: "No, we're not in a Tapas Bar in Spain, we're in a hotel restaurant in France. We got up this morning very early, around 6.30, opened up the curtains from our hotel room and noticed the sun was shining brightly und a bleu sky with good visibility. This might be the day to leave Barcelona and continue our flight. So we had breakfast, took a taxi to the airport and arrived before 8 o'clock when the airport was still closed. We had checked the weather allready throught the internet and started to study some maps to see how far we could fly today. At about 09.00 UTC we were ready to depart from Sabadell airport for a flight to France. During the first part across the Pyrenees we encountered strong winds so we gained altitude to fly above turbulence areas as much as possible. Over more than two thirds of the flight we kept facing strong head winds though, as much as 20-30 knots. After crossing the Pyrenees and the Spanish-French border we decided to land at Castres-Mamazet airfield (LFCK).

 

" D-KKGG passing the Spanish/ French border with strong winds from NW and wave clouds (lentis) over the Pyrenees"

 

We had been flying almost 2 hours so we wanted to make a short stop and add some fuel to the tanks, but apart from a radio playing in the airfield's central building no living soul was to be found, so within half an hour we were airborne again, having found no food nor fuel at all. We made a flight of another 90 NM and landed at Brive-la-Roche airfield (LFBV) almost one hour later. Again a small airfield, but with a very decent weather service and Avgaz possibility. We refuelled and checked the weather over there to know what to expect for our next leg through France. In the Massif Central region all was cloudy and grey, so we decided to keep flying northwest and took off for a one hour flight to the international airport of Limoges-Bellegarde (LFBL). From there we continued for another 100 NM flight northeast to make a short stop at Aubigny-sur-Nère (LFEH) to refuel. Then another 100 NM leg northeast and finally we landed arounf 19.45 local time at Troyes-Barberey (LFQB), about 5 km northeast of the city centre of Troyes in the Champagne-region (140 km southeast of Paris).

 

Today's visual weather image made at 14.00 local time, showing how
D-KKGG with a curved trajectory avoided the low above the Massif Central.

 

 

After landing and parking the airport for a change we didn't call a taxi to bring us to the city centre. We expected difficulties in finding a hotel late this evening and since there turned out to be a Novotel right next to the end of runway 36 we packed our stuff and made a short walk of less than half a kilometer. Right now we're busy filling our hungry stomachs in the hotel restaurant. After that we will search our beds and lay down for a good rest cause tomorrow also will be a long day. Bye bye for now. we will contact you late Sunday evening."

Day 16 / Stage 11 (Sunday May 16th)
After yesterdays giant leap of well over 550 NM, today the Fez-crew flying D-KKGG will probably be able to reach Berlin in another long flight.
Amongst others the flight will bring them crossing the Maginot Line near the French-German border, where two days ago your webmaster has been looking around underground. Manfred and Urs will try to make a picture of one of the bunkers from a bit higher above ;-)

 

At 20.40 local time your webmaster receives a phonecall. It's Manfred on the phone:
"Hi Leo, my wife told me to phone my webmaster ;-)
So here I am with the last update on our trip.
This morning we left Troyes very early and with a fairly large leap we first crossed the French-German border and then landed at Koblenz-Winningen airfield (EDRK), the one where this year's Taifun meeting will take place.
Barely landed at EDRK this pilots advances to me and asks: "Are you the guys that flew to Morocco?
It appeared to be Christian Muessemeyer, friend of Henk Dumont who is now in Israel.

We had a nice flight, where yesterday we experienced severe headwinds, today Aeolus was on our side since we got tailwinds enabling larger speed. In total it took us 4.5 hours to make the 800+ km jump from Troyes to Berlin. It was a real pleasure flying the Taifun homeward during the last part from Koblenz-Winningen to Oehna at full speed and we have landed at Oehna at 16.00 local time, leaving plenty of time to buy some Spargel (asparagus) for dinner at home this evening.

 

"Oehna Info - D-KKGG - VFR Flight from Fez to Oehna - turning right base 26 - for landing"

 

We are very enthusiastic about the performance of our Taifun during this long journey to and from Morocco. It's a real pleasure to travel! "

Then a female voice yelling in the background about this evening's dinner:

"Manfred, Spargel is ready"

Well folks, that's all.
It's been a pleasure to me to follow you guys on your journey to Morocco and to be able to bring a daily update all along the last two weeks.
Confucius has done his job on watching over Manfred, Urs and D-KKGG very well as they have returned home safely with a lot of experiences and stories to tell.
And according to that same Confucius, experience is one of the ways to reach wisdom !

See you next time, greetz Leo.

Moroccan VFR Charts
(click on the thumbs to enlarge)

 ©2006-2010 powerglidertaifun.de