From Germany to Bilbao

in a motorglider

Text and images: Luis Avila

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In March 2005 Luis Avila and his friend Ignacio made a trip from Speyer (Germany) to Bilbao (Spain) with a Taifun 17E II. It was the Taifun motorglider (D-KMKA) Luis had bought 2 months before and now he wanted to fly his gem to his beloved Spain.
A report from Luis Avila:

D-KMKA, with Ignacio and Erich, the former owner

After a couple of months of dealings, phone calls, faxes, headaches and various transfers, I managed to have up to date all the documents of my recently bought aircraft, Valentin Taifun 17 EII, that I got on January 14th 2005.
Only good meteo and an accurate forecast for 4 or 5 days were my needs, so that I could buy the plane tickets to fly to Speyer to pick it up.
At last! March 14th forecasts for the next 19 to 21 days were good enough along the planned route of over 615 nautical miles that we would overfly.

I agreed to fly together with Ignacio, the instructor of my club, who I asked to come with me as a safety pilot (I didn’t want this to be my first and last adventure flight, flying over 150 NM and abroad for the first time in my life - I didn’t want to do it all alone). He was available for this weekend and booked the flight from Santander (100 km from Bilbao) to Frankfurt–Hahn, and also rented a car and booked a hotel for one night. The schedule was to take one day of vacation, Friday 19th of March, get to Speyer at around 14 hrs, make a training flight with some touch and goes that very same afternoon and the following morning take off to Bilbao. Everything seemed to be perfect. At our arrival at Hahn the meteo was perfect and we became more nervous in anticipation of the imminent adventure. We picked up the car and got to Speyer as scheduled. There Erich, with his usual efficiency, was waiting for us with the plane ready for the flights, first with Ignacio, and then with me. Despite the crosswind that swept the runway in between the hangars, everything was developing in a normal way.

Ignacio, just after landing at Frankfurt-Hahn airport (EDFH) with some DC10 in the background.

 

Two impressions of the aerodrome, the aircrafts of BASF (left) and the hangars with rotatory platform (right).

Before going on, I would like to mention the extraordinary airfield that is available at Speyer (EDRY). Totally privately managed, it has incredible facilities, with many hangars, some of them with rotatory platforms for aircraft parking. Some maintenance companies, schools, shops, and a bar and restaurant beside the threshold, with free access from the street, where it is possible to have a snack while big light aircraft traffic takes place at your fingertips. Here, the chemical company BASF, operates two jets from this field, a Cessna Citation II and a Falcon 2000 (if I am right). These kind of facilities are what we miss in Spain, but….

Once the plane was directed in the hangar, ready for the flight of the following morning, we said good by to Erich with great affection, as he wouldn’t be able to come next morning (Udo, co-owner of the aircraft would), and went to the hotel to check all maps, general preparation of the flight, and take a rest.
There, the receptionist, who was known as “Smiley” for she always showed “very good manners” to us, was waiting for us. Once everything was checked, we went off for dinner to the old town of Speyer, and oops, fate sent us a signal that not everything was going to be a “bed of roses” , for it started raining very steadily, indicating that the forecast was not that accurate, but we thought: "tomorrow’s another day and it will be surely sunny….."
It wasn’t, though. When we woke up the situation was not better, but much worse, with a ceiling threatening to keep us on the ground. It was very low and some raindrops were falling like tears for our wasted plan. I thought we would have to fly back to Santander with Ryanair and maybe give it another try during easter holidays. Our only option was to wait and see if the ceiling would rise and we could take off, knowing that more to the south the conditions were CAVOK.

This is at the airfield at 9 am, Udo and me

For more complications the aerodrome starts operations at 9 o’clock in the morning, and, by the time we filled in and presented the flight plan, got the METARs and TAFs and went back to the hangar (at the opposite side of the runways from the tower) it was 10:15. Taking into account that we calculated nearly 7 hours of flight time, plus a refuelling stop at Limoges, and the fact that sunset in Bilbao was at 19:30, there was a narrow margin to make up our minds. In the meanwhile the ceiling had risen and a pilot coming from the south reported 2.500 feet, this left us sufficient margin to take off and fly underneath the cloud layer with enough separation with the terrain.

Ignacio at 2.200 feet height.

For about half an hour we flew just below the cloud layer, with the terrain in sight and knowing there was nothing too high in the area. We flew with two GPS systems and a third one as a backup, the Garmin 95, that was part of the purchase (old but reliable). We preferred to use our brand new gadgets, my iPaq with Navman Bluetooth GPS and Pocket FMS system, and Ignacio’s Garmin 96C, still in the box. Just before crossing the German-French border the ceiling started to rise quickly and it also lost solidity.

Despite of having a full load we obtained an acceptable ascent rate with a speed of 160 Km/h.

Near Strasbourg we had optimum conditions, and asked and obtained clearance to climb to flight level 085, where peace and total absence of turbulence increased the pleasure of flying with the sun above us and the ground at our feet, just blue and green (and some white, there was snow in the fields, yet). We set flaps at –8. Maintaining the course was easy just with the rudder, holding the stick with the knees with the hands free to read the maps, drink some water or send an SMS to calm the family down.

Approaching Strasbourg, flying near Saverne, just having crossed the German-French border.

From Strasbourg to Limoges nothing interesting to be told happened. Most of the time we were playing with our brand new toys, our GPS systems of course, and watching the landscape, with incredible views that I will hardly expect to see again. Only some “biological need” disturbed our relaxation, and provided us a funny anecdote that (with respect to my friend's dignity) I am not going to relate with greater detail by now, but made us laugh a lot. It looked like one of these Mr. Bean sketches. I will only recommend to those planning a long flight to take on board some recipient usable as urinal.

Don’t think about it so much, Ignacio, there are certain natural laws that are upon our criteria, like body needs, for example.

Everything was going on normally till, just at three hours of flight, and by reasons even today I don’t understand (although I suspect a failure in the Compact Flash card energy source) my Pocket FMS software lost all data, not only the flight in course, but everything at all, maps, data base, etc. making it unusable till I could reload everything again in my home, once in Bilbao. We were half an hour away from Limoges, and until this moment we felt we had been in absolute control. It turned into some kind of anguish, thinking of what could have happened if we would not have had a backup GPS. Navigating VOR to VOR could have meant a big delay, and maybe the need to reconsider the whole flight from Limoges to Bilbao, due to the limited time until sunset. We could have used watch and map, but then forgot about it and started to enjoy the scenery again (and besides, I am not very bright with these “ancient” methods).

A view upon Limoges city.

In the end, we made the last leg following the indications of the 96C, that, thank God, did not lose any data, but has, in my humble opinion, a lower quality user interface than PocketFMS. Anyhow, we arrived at Limoges without additional problems, and made an acceptably good landing, despite the fact that the two of us together only had made 3 landings with the Taifun prior to this one. Unfortunately the French controller was not very friendly, we asked him to repeat a pair of instructions and he didn’t seem to like it at all, because his answers were just single-syllable. Even when we asked for refuelling he didn’t tell us that we had to ring a button placed beside the fuel pump, and it had to be a local pilot that came to our rescue. The local air club pilots were a different story, (greetings for Guiomar and the others – sorry I don’t remember their names), they helped us all the time we were waiting for the fuel truck (more than half an hour), and invited us to some cold drinks, that we really needed. Ignacio even bought some shirts as a souvenir. At the end the “gasman” was very kind, and refuelled the plane with 64 litres of 100 LL AVGAS at the “reasonable price” of 1.55 Euros/ltr. Taking into account that when we left Speyer we had 10 litres left to fill the tanks that give 54 litres for 3.5 hours flight, full load and 100 knots average speed. It’s not bad for a "harvester", as a friend of mine with much sense of humour has baptized my machine.

Just before depart from Limoges, another shot of Ignacio. The building in behind is the new terminal, of fantastic architecture, under construction.

From here, the flight entered a more uncomfortable phase. Again, some problems with the language, the complicated – at least on the papers- air space in the south west side of France, and the fact that we had only two and a half hours to get to Bilbao just before sunset made me very anxious. I was checking my watch and the speed in the GPS more than any other flight instrument. Not even seeing the coast line and the sea could bring me some peace of mind. Later on I would pay the price of this state with the so called “post traumatic stress”.
It is not the first time I felt it, but, we’ll get back to this later. Near Bordeaux, the information service of the area cleared us to navigate at our discretion, and following a south-southwest course we reached the coast just a bit north from Port D'Albert.

Port D'Albert, due to the late hour at which the photo was taken and the fog, it is quite blurry.

A bit more to the south, near Hossegor, we decided (Ignacio decided to be honest, because I didn’t have it very clear) that we could shortcut the Gulf of Biscay, straight to Zumaia in the Basque country. Taking into account that the plane is meant to glide 30/1 at 120 km/h. and that we were flying at FL065, we had absolute certainty to reach the coast in case the engine would fail, so, why not? This way we could save maybe 20 minutes or so.

Hossegor as seen from 6.500 ft., I spent my second wedding aniversary here, …or was it the third one? .

Finally, at 18:50, we were cleared to enter circuit and, as it was the first landing of the plane in her new home, we asked for a low approach that was cleared, and we made at 210 km/h. After that, we landed at runway 28, and vacated by D3 to the aeroclub apron where a very well prepared welcome committee was waiting for us. 3 Minutes after stopping the engine my whole family, my wife of infinite patience, my four kids, and my beloved mother that has silently suffered my aeronautical hobbies for 40 years (and this begins to sound to the Oscar ceremony) came to give me the warmest hug I can remember.

Runway 28 low approach at 210 km/h.

As soon as I put my feet on land and the tension relaxed, the consequent adrenalin fall, really let me fully down, to the extent that I could hardly eat dinner and all I could think about was my bed. Very soon I was in “Morpheus arms”, tired, a bit worried about my new toy, but very satisfied for having being capable of achieving what I had planned for such a long time. Now, I have only the commitment of flying my Taifun as it deserves, for it promises great flights and happy landings for many years.

So, many thanks to all that have reached so far. Please excuse any mistake or grammatical error included in this text but you know, even being from Bilbao you are still able to make mistakes. If you want to make any comment or correction you can do it in the guest book. I expect to add more trip stories in the future.

Luis Avila, March 2005

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