better refuel on arrival.
I did that (as I almost always do) although it took some time because I had to park first for immigration check, expecting to refuel there. Then they explained me there was a hookup fee below 500 liters for truck fueling, so I taxied to the pump refueled and taxied back to the apron.
Emir wrote:
I did that (as I almost always do) although it took some time because I had to park first for immigration check
You came direct from Croatia ? If you departed from within Schengen your normally allowed to taxi directly to the fuel station/hangar area.
You came direct from Croatia ?
Yes, it’s only 3.5 hours. However, it seems that after January 1st I won’t need immigration check anymore. Final decision on Croatia joining Schengen is scheduled for December 9th.
The pump takes credit cards BTW
This last weekend I decided I wanted to test the touring capabilities of my new aircraft, the weather to the north was good so I decided to fly to Roskilde. As my plane doesn’t have a noise certificate, I decided to stop at Rotenburg / Wümme on the way north, to get a feel of the place as the noise testing is supposed to take place there towards the end of the month – at the same time I thought I’d refuel there as they have Super Plus as well as Jet A1 and Avgas.
The flight there was as expected, unfortunately they had closed their taxiway for a motorcycle event which meant that I was taxying over grass – rather long grass – hence my propeller acted as a lawn mower, leaving the cowling / wheel pants / propeller edge covered in grass. Oh well. I went up to pay my landing fee and asked to refuel but this was refused – officially the reason was that Super Plus is only for the flight school based there – even though there is a sign showing the price for visiting aircraft (€2,10 / litre); I later found out the real reason – the person working didn’t know how to operate the cash machine to collect payments – Super Plus is supplied by a different company.
Either way, I had sufficient fuel to fly to Copenhagen and back, if necessary – if my fuel totaliser is correct, because the fuel gauges are less reliable than a 1978 Austin Allegro…. built during a particularly long period of strikes….. so we departed, climbing to flight level 55 and skirted past Hamburg towards the island of Fehmarn and onwards.
We filed a flight plan which would take us out to the Oresund Bridge – I’ve travelled over it repeatedly when heading to (eg) Hoganas; what is so interesting is that it leaves Copenhagen as a tunnel under the Oresund, then surfaces on the Peberholm Island and becomes a beautiful bridge over the rest of the Oresund. Upon changing to Danish FIR, I asked whether I would be able to follow my planned flight plan and this was approved, as long as I remained below 1500feet when in the TMA – which I did.
We then turned for Roskilde and landed uneventfully, even though there were three or four in the pattern – well, they did say they were busy…. Whilst taxying, I was reminded by the tower that self service fuel was significantly cheaper and would I like to use this? I still had, according to my totaliser, 71 litres hence my plan was to return and stop at Damme (EDWC) to fill the tanks so I declined. Upon getting out, I grabbed my backpack and started to look for my wallet…… I did pick up my wallet from the desk up in the tower of Wümme, didn’t I? Didn’t I?
I called the tower at Rotenburg and was greeted by a very friendly flugleiter who confirmed that yes, I had left my wallet there and that he would keep it until I flew back through. Thankfully I didn’t need to show any ID – just wonder what would have happened then? Also, my phone has Apple Pay installed with my Mastercard credit card linked to it – again, fortunately Denmark is the country which accepts credit cards for everything.
We decided to take a taxi to our hotel near the south of Copenhagen – unfortunately most hotels were fully booked out hence our choice of location – only later did I realise that Copenhagen was hosting their 2023 Marathon around the city on the Sunday morning hence lack of hotel rooms. Thinking about it – did I want to stay a little longer and participate? No, I’ll pass on that one. The hotel was in Orestad, price of the taxi from Roskilde was €117 – we decided that on the way back, we would then take the train from Copenhagen to Roskilde and then a taxi to the airport (much cheaper and not much slower – around €45 all in.)
After checking in to our hotel, we travelled to the centre and had a look around – some beautiful architecture there.
(the national theatre)
(the Magasin du Nord department store)
(the Hotel D’Ingleterre)
(Defence ministry)
(17th Century Stock exchange)
Memorial to Niels Juel, a Danish Admiral who defended Copenhagen from attacks by Sweden.
There is also a Guiness World of Records “museum” in Copenhagen which I found interesting – here you can see me standing next to a life size statue of the tallest man in the world, Robert Wadlow, who, at the time of his death aged 22 years, was 2m 72 (8 feet 11 inches in old money) tall. I’m 1m94 tall (6 foot 4") – sure gives you a sense of perspective….
Sunday we went back to the airport – this time via train and taxi – and awaited the bill. 750 MTOW and one night’s parking – €17. I’ve paid more for landing at small airports like Teuge in Holland, so to see the charge was a pleasant surprise – the staff were very friendly and it was a pleasure to see such service with such low pricing. We then departed to the south, this time routing direct back towards Lübeck to Rotenburg / Wümme to pick up my wallet….
What was noticeable was the amount of Algae you can see on the top of the water….
Soon I was passing Hamburg and descending into Rotenburg, annoyed with myself of having to descend, land and then depart again to refuel at Damme – having a Rotax engine, I don’t want to use Avgas unless I absolutely must. The motorcycle event was over and the taxiway was available to use so I was able to avoid acting as a lawnmower again; the totaliser was showing 40l remaining when we landed, I would need maybe 25l to get to Dinslaken but I’d rather not cut things so tight in case of issues with the airfield or weather so had reconciled myself to taking off, landing and refuelling at Damme, 20 minutes to the South west and went to collect my wallet.
I was handed it to me by a flugleiterin and just for the hell of it, I asked whether they had unleaded fuel there…. “Sure”, she said, handing me a chip transponder. “The yellow pump at the end”. I refuelled the plane fully – bearing in mind fuel in EDLD costs €2,44 / litre, the price here meant saving €30 on the 98 liters I pumped into the tanks. It also showed me that the totaliser is very accurate….
I asked about why I had been refused fuel the day before and she told me – a number of the older flugleiter have a problem with the separate system to charge for Super Plus hence they claim it’s broken / only for school use. A pity, really….
Either way, we departed Wümme and heading directly back to EDLD. Based on my experience, any pilot wishing to head to Copenhagen, I would wholeheartedly recommend Roskilde….
Today it has been announced that controllers are to be moved from Roskilde to Copenhagen during the summer season.
During Covid they laid off a number of staff and now they are lacking controllers.
Sadly the loosers are GA traffic. They have already announced night closure – 5 days a month VFR ban – 20 days a month restrictions on school flights.
All to be communicated via notams.
Presumably the 737 that was lining up as I became base leg at Roskilde last year was GA then?
Seriously, the news of night restrictions is dissapointing and we can only hope that it’s not the thin end of the wedge. I hope you didn’t mean 5 days a month VFR ban in daytime??
It’s a great airport for transiting GA. You do have to allow for queing for fuel. The only real downside is the price of taxis into town – 30-50 Euro – and there’s no Uber in Denmark!
Aveling wrote:
Seriously, the news of night restrictions is dissapointing and we can only hope that it’s not the thin end of the wedge
Absolutely. I’ve used EKRK quite a few times as a stepping stone and refuel/defuel station when flying northbound. Always taxied direct to the self-serve station, then in front of the terminal, pay, defueled, and off. Turnaround average 25 minutes, geographically ideally positioned (VFR transit North of CPH ok most of the time), and affordable.
Restrictions on this place would be another blow to GA, what a pity.
Yes not impressive staff planning and GA pays the price. However the restrictions on night traffic makes little difference to most small GA, as the cost for a night opening between 22-7 LT was starting around 300 EUR+… and very few would use the airport in this timeframe. But more important to most here, there is an expectation of 5 half or full days during summer month with a total VFR ban. That is during daytime. And a full 20 days school flight ban per month in June, July and August. Pay attention to NOTAM over the summer. This applies also for refueling. The sole 100LL shell pump was broken down for more than a day over the weekend.
I thought Roskilde was to have remote tower at some not too distant point in time ?
