A nice day in spring for a microlighter: EBZH-EBBN and back again

Saturday, 17th of May 2014*:

I left home very early, as there was a lot to be done. Arrived at the field 09:30 (local) which is before official opening at 10. Got the plane out of the hangar, checked the newly installed battery and it looked ok – otherwise I’d have had to attach the charger for a couple of hours. Checked everything, and noticed some of my new cabling wasn’t tied in place yet, and some would even have to be untied and rerouted. Also I must remove an inch or so from the bench’s lower side, to accommodate the new “auxiliary electrical power panel”, need to bring the Dremel tool for that next time. Discussed which runway was to be active with the volunteer in charge – a fellow microlighter – and took off for my usual check flight around the city at 10:30. Everything seemed very much ok, so the planned flight would really be performed. Filled up fuel, talked to a couple of fellow-microlighters including the maharadja master guru who unexpectedly turned up to check someone’s license renewal. Fellows A and A’ prepared their plane for a weekend trip to LFAM Berck, fellow B (whose engine I helped carry in for a major overhaul recently) was off with fellow C but nobody knew where.

Installed the avionics (a handheld Icom, my netbook running my homebrew gps software, and a homebrew box that feeds the right kind of DC to these; homebrew intercom to be added one day really soon), fed the flight plan into the gps. This needs a bit of care as the flight would pass between the CTR’s of EHBK and EBLG, with the TMA’s above, and all these must be avoided – in this part of the world, microlights are denied access to controlled airspace.

I had brought two jerrycans of 20 litres each of car petrol, they weren’t really full though as they contained the extra I had had to drain off after the previous occasion when the bird had been filled to the brim but the weather was not good enough for the extensive flight that had been planned. More or less 30 litres were added, first by syphoning; when the jerrycans were half or so, the rest went through a funnel. Standing on a ladder, and careful to not puncture the delicate wing covering. Had to remember the lady pilot who once mentioned how embarrassed she was when doing the same thing then realising she was wearing a skirt.

All this was done at leisure, with plenty of spare time for a little chat with other pilots and an occasional drink of first coffe then water plus the unavoidable sanitary counterpart.
Took off at 12:30 local and took up navigation. I didn’t bother to call Brussels information as I know they’d receive me too weakly, besides there would be very little traffic in this lost corner. I did call Beek Tower though, just for their info; having been told that they like to know who is skirting their airspace. The Beek controller sounded a bit surprised to get my communication, but thanked me for having called; his only concern seemed to be that I must remain clear of his airspace. That requires some care as the limits are tight, both laterally and vertically, but I managed to reassure him, I think.

In the gap between the CTR’s I wanted to remain below the lowest level, which is 1500 AMSL for EHBK TMA (EBLG TMA only starts at 2500’) but after crossing the river Meuse the terrain goes up steeply so I had to add a fair deal of power. Then I saw what I never saw: the oil temperature dial reaching the upper end of its green band, while the oil pressure was stable at a reading of 3 (kg/m2?). Up till now, I had only seen oil temp barely in the beginning of the green band, which gave me concerns about the unavoidable condensation water not boiling off as it should; while the oil pressure had been oscillating at its max. green value of 5 (kg/m2?). For which reason the oil cooler had been taped off for perhaps two thirds of its surface. Must see about that, it wasn’t that hot today.

As soon as I reduced engine power from 4900 rpm to 4600 rpm the oil figures came to the middle of their green bands, now I just had to watch my altitude. The navigation technique is called IFR** among microlighters here: after crossing the river Meuse near Vise, I turned slightly right while staunchly climbing, and the E40 motorway from Liege to Aachen would soon come in sight. With a little bit of luck*** I reached it where I wanted to leave it, at its junction with the E42 motorway. From this unmistakeable waypoint I took a shortcut from my planned GPS route – which passed over EBTX Verviers Theux airfield – still watching the oil temp and pressure, I climbed over the “Hautes Fagnes” / “Hohes Venn”, a moor area with shooting ranges of our military, and even a runway for UAV’s***.

Tuned the radio into the destination frequency, and some unintelligeable clatter soon turned up. But progress on the GPS was suspisciously slow, I flew and flew and was still shown the vicinity of EBSP Spa – where one doesn’t want to be because of PJE activity. When the EBLB runway came in sight I knew something was wrong with the GPS – unplugged the Hicom 204 gps receiver, counted five, and re-plugged it, and lo and behold! suddenly I was reported due north of my destination field. So turned right towards it and strained my eyes to find the field, the “Stausee” slowly shifting from my one o’clock to my three so I must be very near but no sight of the field. Damn this is bad – according to GPS I must be overhead yet I’ve never seen the field. Turned left rather sharpish, and looking back over my left shoulder there was the field! I had been trying to get them on the radio but with no success, and the same applied to a D-Mxxx****** who seemed a bit worried about it. Myself just circled again, checked the signal square, and announced I’d be joining downwind for the 12. Landing was a non-event, though the plane tried her old trick of revving up just after touchdown. Well used to that now, I limited damage to a bit of zigzagging while using two hands on three controls (throttle, stick, brake) and could vacate before the mid-runway taxiway.

Had a good time then, talking to the many German fellow microlighters – the meeting had been agreed on a forum of theirs. Had some trouble understanding some of them, given my limited German Proficiency and the slow decline of my hearing, in noisy environments. But they were a fine bunch sure enough, one of them had promised to buy cake and coffee***** for all for some celebration of his and was mightily put out that no Kuchen were available – hard to understand for a German, apparently.

I took off again at 15:00 local, as I still had a rendez-vous in the evening. The flight home was uneventful, except for the oil temperatures which tended to rise even more in the afternoon heat – but luckily I was now generally descending rather than climbing. The gps again gave up and couldn’t be brought to life this time. Spending far too much of my attention there, I missed the motorway junction and merrily continued westbound from somewhere north of Verviers. When suddenly a big river or canal came in sight with an impressive bridge carrying the motorway across, I knew something was wrong. Turned right immediately to keep that river Meuse to my left – I must have missed the motorway junction. After that everything was routine, Vise soon came in sight and I crossed the river just north of it, again keeping below 1500’. From there, visual cues were sufficiently known, and clearly visible, to get me home for a 16:00 landing. Even the gps had miraculously come back to life, all by its own.

During the flight back home, I listened into Brussels Information FIS and was amused by one PPL pilot who asked “do you have radar contact with me, there just was another plane in sight and you never warned me of it!” to which the FIS operator coolly replied that the airspace was too busy to warn all and sundry and they are only an information service after all; and when the chap later left the frequency, he was kindly invited to come and visit the FIS premises to see what life is really like there. Well done, lady, you have all my sympathy!

Lessons learned:
-) have to look into that GPS code, it was always very reliable but less and less now – worrying
-) especially when the gps is shaky, look at the magnetic compass from time to time
-) add to my own list of visual cues along this route to sooner detect similar problems
-) have to take off some of the oil cooler’s tape, pending the installation of a proper oil thermostat next winter
-) generally, this was one of my better flying days: nothing broken, no serious navigation issues, visited a very nice aerodrome, met a good deal of nice people, and learned a bit. What more could one wish?

= – = – = – = – = – = – = – = – =

*why does English want to mention dates with the finest detail, i.e. the day of month, in the middle? Sensible date formats are either DD/MM/YYYY or YYYYY/MM/DD, this last appears to be used in Sweden. But MM/DD/YYYY is ridiculous. Unless of course one is used to it.

• * “I Follow Roads”

• * * cfr. My Fair Lady

• * * * EBLB Elsenborn, rarely active but one never knows

• * * * * “Kaffee und Kuchen” seem to be quintessential at every birthday, patron saint’s feast, &c &c in Germany. They know how to enjoy life, there!

• * * * * * German registrations classify the plane with the first letter – D-Hxxx is a heli, D-Exxx is for Cessna’s and PA-28 and such, D-Mxxx is a microlight. Gliders have D- and four numbers.