This Friday we got an urgent call from our Bonnie. She complained getting rusty and asked us to do a flight with her. As business is still very calm at the moment and as weather was fine in our area, we decided to go for a local flight. As the outside temperature was around -11 degrees Celsius we hoped for enough sun to warm us, as the Bonnies heater isn‘t the best.
Short after 9 UTC we departed at EDDS and the views of the snow covered world was really worth to go flying.
Even highway entries and exits are looking nice surrounded by snow.
The Hockenheim race circuit south of Mannheim, some drivers where active.
Short before Mannheim/Ludwigshafen following the river Rhine. But then, due of the cold weather, Jane suddenly needed a toilet stopp, so we made a spontaneous landing at Mainz-Finthen (EDFZ).
After this 15 minutes stop, we intended to go home, but the Bonnie immediately after departure that we should continue a bit more direction north and she turned left. Due of the noise avoidance rules at the field we had to correct here direction, to the south, but then she decided to make a 180 turn and we continued with our „local“ flight.
Castle Montabaur, in better days I often ran courses there.
Suddenly we realized, that we have reached the „Ruhrpott“, and passed the region between Düsseldorf and Dortmund. And as you could see, we could find the source of the clouds in the middle of Germany. Then suddenly, the voice of the controller asked us about our destination. And immediately the Bonnie claimed not to turn back, she wanted to continue northbound. I think she was missing flying over the sea. So I told the controller, that we would continue on this heading, and she handed us over to Dutch Mil, because we would cross the border in few minutes. Our Bonnie was shaking happy with her wings when she heard my radio call.
When passing the wind mill we were sure, that we made it to the Netherlands. And we continued passing Elder and finally saw the first oft the East Frisian islands, Borkum. And it was beautiful, I have never seen the islands covered by snow.
After passing all of the islands, we needed to fuel stopp the Bonnie, although she would have continued for hours. So we turned back and headed direction Ganderkesee (EDWQ) a small airfield near Bremen.
After landing we refueled and took our lunch. Then we made a little walk with our dog and enjoyed winter world form the ground.
A famous barrow near the airfield.
Then back in the air again, going home using the evening sun to overcome the -8 degrees Celsius in the plane. This time the Bonnie agreed our plan.
Castle Ludwigsburg, north of Stuttgart.
Stuttgart
Approaching EDDS 07.
Finally back home after 701 nm. A beautiful day with beautiful views and our Bonnie was really satisfied after this „local flight“. I hope you enjoy this trip, although it might be one of the longest regarding a one day lasting local flight.
Seems like a Bonnie is a great sightseer, thanks for the pictures and taking us along.
eddsPeter wrote:
as the Bonnies heater isn‘t the best.
Great pictures! On our old plane I once did try the 2500rpm 75% power setting and it made the plane not go so much faster but made a big difference for the heating…
Very nice Peter, thanks for posting. Flying over snow definitively is a bonus which we don’t get over here in the South. I miss it!
@aart wrote:
Flying over snow definitively is a bonus which we don’t get over here in the South.
Even for us it is unusual to fly over snow covered islands. So the winter offered us a bonus this year and we took advantage of it and did this trip. All in all we took around 300 photos on this single flight. This was our personal record. 
How many picrures & frequencies one can have in a local flight ?
@eddsPeter great flight and great aircraft, did you manage some kind of pre heat?
That’s a proper local flight !
@RobertL18C wrote:
did you manage some kind of pre heat?
No, the Bonnie was parked in the hangar and so it was okay to do a regular startup. And with the stop at EDWQ the engine had no time to cool down.
@lbra wrote:
How many pictures & frequencies one can have in a local flight ?
This is pure math: 700 nm / 300 pics = 2,3 nm per pic so every 0,92 minutes you have to take a picture assuming 150 knots groundspeed. As we where on an relaxed cruise this was not to far from our real speed. 
My wife has had still time to take some pictures with her iPhone and send them via WhatsApp to her friends in between.
Great trip. Thanks for sharing.
