London calling......

It has been a while, but last week I had the pleasure to return to one of my favorite cities for a three day businss trip. Allthough I have been to London quite a few times over the last 20 years, this has been the first time I flew into London City Airport in the docklands. Quite convenient as the DLR (dockland Light Railway) stops directly next to the terminal - so no need for a taxi at all.

A business partner treated myself and about 200 others with a pleasant day out on the river Thames and dinner at Madame Tousaud. We had a lot of fun that day. Also it was nice to catch up with many other guys I know since years, but rarely get to see them. I definetely need to comback...

Buenos Dias Espana

Handling a charterflight with an orchestra to/from Spain led me and my girlfriend to a nice weekend in Spain, involving lots of driving though from the very south up to the foot of the Pyrenees in the far north. We had one entire day to ourselfes in a tiny little cottage (www.masianovales.com). Far away from the next village Katrin found David and Maria's location through extensive internet reserch. Their little guesthouse in the Aragon area is a restored farmhouse which is nicely restored. All rooms have their own style and due to the lack of nearby restaurants, the couple cooks for its guests in the evening. Bikes were complimentary so we rode many kilometers along old railway tracks. The top pic shows our hotel. What a nice and relaxing place.
The business part of the job went very smooth as well by the way...

My ride of the day!

What a treat - last friday I flew with our Piper Cheyenne, today it was a lot of aproaches, touch-and-goes and overshoots with our nice looking Cessna 425 "Conquest I" D-IAWG. We did about an hour of flying on a cloudless day an a lot of landings at Hannover, our homebase.

Spottertour mit Torben

Right after the wall came down during the early ninties several aviation friends of mine and myself went on countless drives through the unknown GDR, exploring airfields. Regular stops included Harbke, near the former border, where an IL-18 was put up as a restaurant, Oschersleben, where at that time an old Tupolev TU-134 was displayed in the middle of the city (also as a restaurant) and Magdeburg - a major base for agricultural aircraft.
This weekend I decided to go an a similar drive along with my new aviation buddy - Torben. Our first stop was again Harbke. The old IL-18 restaurant is closed today and the aircraft is slowly rotting away (although it is still in one piece), our next port of call was the hospital in Olvenstedt (a suburb of Magdeburg). About 18 years ago this was the base for an Mil Mi-2 rescue helicopter. Today a much more modern Eurocopter EC-135 serves these duties.
Just a few more kilometers away is the very quiet Magdeburg "Business Airport". Not much traffic here, all the agricultural aircraft gone (since many years). But at least there is a nice attraction here: the Tu-134 which was before on display in Oschersleben. I already uploaded some pics on my flickr.com site (click Mehr Fotos / mehr Pictures).

Buenos Dias Mallorca!

Finishing my old job and starting a new one resulted in some time to spare, which Katrin and I decided to spend on a short trip to Mallorca and escape the dull grey winter here in Germany. The two of us working in the aviation business enabled us to get a very cheap rate for flights and hotel.
I have been to Mallorca island twice before: Once with my parents and brother some 25 years ago and once just passing through with one overnight while supervising a flight with a Cessna Citation about 6 or 7 years ago.
We had 5 great days. We enjoyed spring like weather with blue sky and blooming almond trees. We drove hundreds of kilometers all over the island, had great food such as paella and tapas. We had coffee/cappuchino in lovely small cafes visitied various markets - and there was some aviation, too: I got a chance to visit the old former Aeromarket Douglas DC-3/C-47 EC-EJB (or better: the remains of it) at the entrance of the old Son Bonet airfield, to the north of Palma where it serves as a gateguard. When you read my blog regularly you know I just love these old birds! As always there are some more images of our trip on my flickr.com site (click the link more photos / mehr fotos) - enjoy

Namastee India!

With just two weeks booking in advance, Katrin and I decided on a rather exotic destination for our short winter vaccation: GOA, India. With a passion for indian food, indepth sight-seeing and general curiosity we could not have made a better choice for our holiday. So many impressions: we had the grestest food in greasy indian restaurants, saw the most amazing animals in nature such as wild monkeys, pics, cows, snakes, crabs, buffalos. During our 10 day stay we did not see a single cloud in the sky.
The bigger part of our GOA-experience could be named "India by foot"! We walked for miles and miles everyday and only occational took a Tuc-Tuc or a taxi. We experienced very nice and helpful people during our adventure. I will be starting uploading some pics on my flickr.com site soon.
Although this was not an "aviation adventure", I could not have survived this time without at least a few airplanes - the Naval Aviation Museum on the southside of the airport was the place to go. The pic shows the last surviving Lockheed Super-Constellation in India ....with truck tires.

The other picture shows one of the restaurants we had lunch at - nice and clean... but the most delicious food you can imagine.

Cruising

What a nice ride! On friday I spontaneuously decided to go for a ride from Hannover to Leipzig. It was a lovley winterafternoon with low sun. I got to spend the entire 35min on the copilots seat. The Piper Cheyenne is one of my most flown Turboprops and also this routing I flew already many times and I must say it never gets boring. My journey back to Hannover by car took a lot longer due to the first snow this year in Germany.

The bottom pic shows my homebase. This is where I grew up, this is where I work and almost live.... Hannover airport.