Axel's Aviation Adventures

Visiting Torben & Seattle Propliners

2011-03-08T22:14:00.000-08:00

Going to Seattle again in febuary was something I was looking forward to since Torbens visit here in Germany over christmas. Allthough febuary is usually not the best month for rainy Seattle, I enjoyed a fun week, doing lots of stuff with my litte guy. I guess the best thing for him was our visit to Paul Allen's Experience Music Project and the sunset we watched on top of the Space Needle, but as always there was some aviation involved in my stay as well. As always there are many more pics on my flickr-page.
Aviationwise my personal highlights were the freshly restored Connie at the museum of flight, as well as the Honeywell Convair at Everett. I'll be back!

My ride of the day - Piper PA-31T SE-LUB

2010-12-13T22:50:00.001-08:00

Another new aircraft type for me this year. We maintain this 30+ year old vintage beauty here in Hannover. It was completely refurbished inside and out about two and a half years ago and did not move much since. Today we took her up to do some checks and see if everything was still working ok - and it did. A nice thirty-minute ride over snow and water covered lower saxony.

Sammler und Hobbywelten Alten-Buseck

2010-10-08T03:05:00.000-07:00

Former Interflug Z-37 DM-SVQ, being painted to its former glory.

Mil Mi-8 in "UT-air" Colours, but don't be fooled: This is a former german Interflug/BSF helicopter.

Max Holste "Broussard"

Whata strange place: In Alten-Buseck a new museum of all kinds of stuff is located in a former furniture store. Among the exhibits are cameras, old furniture, toys, cars, trains and even aircraft. On the former parking lot this museum houses a colourful collection of planes. Some of them are quite rare: A Max Holste Broussard, Westland WS-55 Helicopter etc. I personally did not like, that some of them seem to be restored in a hurry with bright and flashy colours - sometimes hiding the real identity of them. Anyway - I think its better to preserve a plane in false markings than not at all. There are some more pics as usual on my flickr page. Enjoy!

Heli-Shopping

2010-09-18T02:51:00.000-07:00

You may have heared about heli-skiing, but we had a different experience. We went heli-shopping today. From Hannover Katrin and myself flew to a little town in eastern Lower Saxony. From where the Bell 407 was conducting pleasure flights we walk to the "city-centre" to get some food and for shopping. Loaded with bags we climbed on board again and departed - what a fun jet-set-like experience. This was the first flight in a helicopter for Katrin and for me it was a new aircraft type.

Torben Time again!

2010-09-07T00:49:00.000-07:00

It was Torbens last week before my little man started school, so I decided to treat us with some beach-time on the beautiful Oregon coast. Seaside was the place to go! We spend hours digging in the sand and of course some aviation adventures: We went to the great Tillamook Air Museum, which changed a bit since my last visit about two and a half year ago. We were even able to climb aboard the Erickson Guppy, which Torben enjoyed a lot.
Back in Seattle Torben showed me "his" house-beach" in Ballard, riding his bike proudly in front of me and leading the way. I miss you, Torben!

Airbus A-380 comes to Hannover

2010-06-03T01:24:00.000-07:00

Quite a highlight at Hannover airport was the first and most likely the only visit for the next few years of an Airbus A-380. This visit attracted lots of people outside the fence (about 10.000) and also inside the apron-areal.
About 50 years ago my dad had a similar experience when Lufthansa took their - than new - Boeing 707 to Hannover for the first time.

Torben Time

2010-05-17T10:36:00.000-07:00

What a nice way to spend some time with my little man! I flew over to Seattle for Torbens birthday and some "man-time". We visited the General Aviation Fly-In at Everett and drover over the Cascades to eastern Washington to spend some days around (and in) Lake Chelan.
Beautiful landscape, Aviation and at first a lot of time with Torben - what more could I ask for?

A real litte holiday for the both of us and lots of fun. I so much enjoyed driving around, seeing stuff and playing by the lake and I believe so did Torben. Can't wait to visit him again. I love you Torben!!

Brooklands

2010-04-30T00:27:00.000-07:00

My recent business-trip to London resulted in some time to spare and visit the Brooklands Air Museum. This great Musum is on the grounds of a former car racetrack and the Vickers Aircraft factory. Almost all Vickers commercial aircraft and other british postwar airliners are displayed outdoors in great shape. This museum is also for the car enthusiast and features a great variety of historic high-class race cars and aiport related vehicles.
Three busy and appointment-packed days, lots of Guinness and a little bit of aviation - on those days I really like my job!

Wednesday night get-away!

2010-04-07T01:13:00.000-07:00

It has been some time since I last flew in a Cessna 172. About 10 years ago I flew so may times in such planes with my friend Ingo throughout Germany on weekends, mostly discovering all the airfields in the former GDR - but since then I rarely get to fly in single-engined piston planes.
Today I got my fix again though. I accompanied an IFR training flight for about 2h around Hannover and two rounds at night over the city - with no clouds at all. My pilots were our pleasure flight expert Carsten and our Austrian instructor Andreas (who challenged Carsten a lot during this flight). Great way to end a days work!
An interresting side-note: This was my first flight in our diesel-engined 172, D-EDDV. The Cessna 172 series is the longest built and most successful civil aircraft ever built and in production since the late 1950s. About 50.000 of these reliable planes have been built so far and provided trainig and joy to millions of pilots. Our Cessna 172 (D-EDDV) is a new generation one, bulit 1999).

On the photo of the airport, my office is visible - it is the old barrak buliding to the right and on the small apron three of our aircraft are visible - the Piper Cheyenne, our Citation Encore+ and XLS+.

Visit of an old friend

2010-04-02T03:14:00.000-07:00

I don`t know how many hours I spent on bord these beauties (during my time as a volunteer flight-manager at Ostend), but one ting is for sure: These Antonov AN-12s are real "man-airplanes"! Since the EU baned european airlines from flying those, such planes became a rare sight in western Europe.
This one is operated by russian enterprise "Kosmos" and came with some 16 tons of cargo from Athens to Hannover. Katrin and I decided to spend some time at the second of April at the airport, watching it arrive and beeing unloaded.

Eindhoven, Netherlands

2010-03-30T05:13:00.000-07:00

On Sunday i took the chance and flew with the newest addition to our fleet from Hannover to Eindhoven and back. D-IDAX, a Cessna 425 "Conquest I" provided a smooth ride over a solid overcast along the way. Sometimes my job isn't that bad :-)

Being a Freight-Dog again

2010-03-21T03:30:00.001-07:00

Sometimes I miss doing the dirty cargo-flights. It sounds strange, but since I am working for an airline, I rarly have any time to hop on a plane and acompany flights. This does not make it easier to reach my goal: having completed 1.000 flights by my 40th birthday. Last thursday though I sold a cargo flight to a customer, departing from our homebase Hannover exactly at the end of my work - so so need to think twice. I ordered our maintanance department to remove the passenger-seats from one of our Piper Cheyennes except for two and after a long time I joined our flight crew on their way from Dortmund to Liverpool - both airports being firsts for myself, at least to visit them by air. Everything went very smooth and we had minimum ground-time on both airports.
An interresting sight was an obviously crashed Cessna 411 at Dortmund which must have been at its last resting-place for many years. We departed Dortmund into the cloudless and star-clear night and only experienced some clouds and rain near our destination Liverpool.
What a great get-away.

Istanbul weekend-trip with a handicap

2010-03-02T01:58:00.000-08:00

A few days after we booked our four day extended weekend trip in Febuary, I broke my right foot - and that three times! Katrin and I decided to fly there anyway. We departed from Hannover to Istanbuls new low-cost airport SAW / Sabhia Gökcen very early on saturtay morning 27FEB10 on one of Sun Express' B 737-800. If anyone ever asks me how I would describe so called ethno-traffic I would strongly recomend joining exactly this flight. About 70% of our fellow passengers where Turkish people of all ages bringing most their household with them.
What a busy city - our hotel was directly in the citycenter in walking-distance to all important sights such as the bazars, mosques and the Bosphorus. Despite my handicap we did walk to all the places to see - for miles and miles. Even though the weather was not so kind to us we did the full tourist programme anyway. Visiting the Turkish Air Force Museum, going on a boat-cruise and visiting all major attractions.
Over the next days, I will upload some pics to my flickr.com page - enjoy!

Torben Week!

2010-02-07T12:31:00.000-08:00

After about two weeks after Torbens big move to Seattle, I also went ther for a week to spend time with him. We had so much fun! With Kenmore Air we flew in a Beaver to the San Juan Islands, which was Torbens first floatplane-trip. On one leg he even sat in the copilot-seat. We visited the Museum of Flight and Paul Allens superb Historic Flight Collection at Everett. We really did a lot of man-stuff and enjoyed every moment of everything. I really hope we can see each other as often as possible. On my flickr.com stite (click "mehr Fotos/more pictures" in the right corner of this page) there are more pics - enjoy!

Sad day!

2010-01-16T09:18:00.001-08:00

As much as I like airplanes, today I hated them. My beloved son Torben moved from Hannover to Seattle with my ex-wife. Alltough I knew this day was comming since a few weeks, this hit me so hard, I can rarely find words.
During the last weeks I did spend so much time with my little guy trying to use his remaining time here in Germany as good as possible - I cannot describe the feelings I had when I kissed him good-bye at the gate and saw him walking through the finger into his plane with his little trolleycase. I was trying to act normal around him, trying to keep my sadness inside myself, because Torben likes flying and he was so excited.

Cuba Libre!

2009-11-07T12:23:00.000-08:00

Our ride from Havanna to Holguin - a 30 year old Boeing 737-200 from mexican carrier Global Air, operated for Aerocaribbean.

Viva la revolucion! Such paintings are just everywhere - like in most socialist-countries.

Bull-Taxi: such vehicles are very common in Cuba, mostly due to the lack of money and fuel. On the streets you see a lot of horse and bull-coaches, many bicycles but few cars. This great pic was taken by Katrin.

A long dream came true over Kartin's and my birthday: We decided to fly to Cuba and do it our style. We did not fly to the huge tourist resorts in Varadero, on the northern tip of the island, but rather to Holguin, which is a province in the southern part and less crowded. What a great experience. In Cuba there are two political systems at the same time - Capitalism and Socialism: tourists who live in luxurious hotels and can buy anything they want with their own currency - CUC (Cuban Pesos Convertible) - and the natives who just get the basics from their own currency (CUP). Some products you just cannot buy with the local CUP currency. Very confusing.

We did several trips by plane, train, boat and bus all over the island and including a short one-day trip to Havanna. Words can hardly describe the great time we had. This is truely a paradise island. Please have a look at my flickr.com pics (Click the "more pictures" button on the top right of this page) and view my Cuba photoalbum.

To Milano in style!

2009-09-12T03:13:00.000-07:00

What a nice way to finish the week. Yesterday I was treated with a nice ride on our Cessna 560 Citation V for a nice filght from Hannover to Milano for a crew change. This flight came including nice views over across the Alps, spotting in Milano Malpensa, the international airport of Milano and on the way back with a great sunset. Such excursions remind me what a great job I have. Special thanks go out to my colleague Markus, who enabled me to do this while he was maning the office!

I want beaches, planes and great food, paraka'lo!

2009-08-21T02:43:00.000-07:00

My wish was granted - Katrin and myself hat a great time on Corfu island, Greece. It has been a long time for me since I had a real beach holiday. We went snocheling, swimming, sightseeing and spotting - and the great thing is: on Corfu you can spend time spotting and swimming at the same time. We had so much delicious food - mainly fish - and I am turning into a greek redwine addict.

In this week we drove for nearly 1000km all over the island - and even found a little village that was a set for the 1979 James Bond "for your eyes only" movie.
One thing did not work out though - we were planning to fly with AirSealines scheduled floatplane service from Corfu to Paxos; however the airline just suspendet their services. On the other hand I cannot complain about the things we did insted on Corfu.
As usually I uploaded (and still annding to it) some more pics on my flickr.com site - please click on the "mehr Fotos/more pics! button on the top of this page!

London calling......

2009-06-22T12:29:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-29T13:19:00.000-07:00

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...

Hitching a ride..

2009-05-15T13:24:00.000-07:00

... on our brand new Cessna Citation XLS+ - one of the very first ones in Europe! My girlfriend Katrin and I were lucky as we were able to spontaneously acompany a one and a half hor training session doing some touch and goes at Hannover airport. I envy our passengers to come a bit to be able to travel in style to their holiday and business destinations throughout Europe!

My ride of the day!

2009-03-31T04:18:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-22T20:00:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-02-28T06:28:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-01-20T02:46:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-24T08:55:00.000-08:00

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.

Libya!

2008-11-19T13:38:00.000-08:00

I have been to Tripoli about 6 years ago with an Antonov 12 just stopping for fuel from N'Djamena to Ostend, Belgium. That time I thought this would for sure be my first and last time to Libya.

I was wrong: Last weekend I flew from Hannover, Germany to TIP. What a dirty, yet interessting country. Our ride was a Fokker F-100. We had a marvellous flight over the Alps - which is to my eyes one of the most rewarding scenes you can see from an airplane.

Tripoli is tha capital of Libya, and it has 2 airports. One is Mitiga, which is located almost within citylimits and is used for military flights, the other one is Tripoli International, about 20km to the south of the city. For an aircraft enthusiast like me both airports are interesting: At Mitiga several Iljushins are parked on the ramp, Tripoli International has huge storage areas which contain anything Boeing built 20 to 40 years ago and several smaller aircraft.

But it was not all aviation and hard and nerve-wrecking work: We also did some sight seeing and the most amazing thing was our visit to Leptis Magna - and old roman/greek city to the east of Tripoli.

In addition to these pics, you will find more (as usual) on my flickr.com site - please check the link in the right corner of this page - enjoy!

Munich, Bavaria

2008-09-17T12:19:00.000-07:00

Do you see the Alps? I don't either. Anyway, this was a nice one: Blue Line, a french charter operator invited us for a 40min flight from Munich over the alps (which obviously were covered by clouds) to Promote their MD-83 in executive layout. Usually these planes are equipped with 167 Seats, but this one only carries 60 passengers in business-class seats with lots of legroom and excellent catering. If you got enough bucks this might bring you to your next vacation.

Nassau Bahamas

2008-08-20T12:18:00.000-07:00

One of the aviation highlights of my short visit to the Bahamas. This DC-3 is 65 years old and still going strong, hauling cargo to and from the US and the Bahamas. Looking a bit beaten up and faded while basking in the hot bahamian sun, I got to see her take of the next day on one of the more or less scheduled trips to Florida. As usual on my flickr site (www.flickr.com/photos/flyingaxel) will be some more pics.

Nassau, Bahamas

2008-08-19T12:16:00.000-07:00

Finally, with a day of delay due to hurricane Fay, which got me stuck in Miami for a day I arrived in Nassau, Bahamas.

During my three days here I did not see much except the airport (including half an hour of spotting though) and the hotel - and the road in between.

I was here a a flight manager and consultant for several charterflights from and to Europe.

This ATR-72 was my ride for the 0:50h flight from Miami to Nassau.

2008-08-14T05:37:00.000-07:00

I just uploaded some more pics from my Ontario and Manitoba Experience two month ago on my flickr.com site. Please click "More Pictures / Mehr Fotos" on the right side of this page.

Also, yesterday I learned that the right Beaver on this Pic C-FNOT crashed only a few days ago, fortunately without fatalities but substantially damaging the plane ending up upside down in a forest.

I was actually trying to fly in one of these on the beautyful day when I took this picture at Red Lake, Ontario.

Ana Bolika

2008-07-30T12:00:00.000-07:00

Nice one! This is the only AN-28 in western Europe. She belongs to MD Skydive / Mitteldeutsches Fallschirmzentrum and usually lives at the Magdeburg airfield since late 2007. Her name is ANA BOLIKA. I flew in this colourful bird from Cochstedt, about 20 km to the south of Magdeburg on a paradrop mission. Along with 20 skydivers and birdmen we departed and climed up to 4400m. I was supplied with a parachute for myself but was told not to use it "unless the pilots are running past you".
Waht a great flight on a near cloudless noon in the wild east. Slowly my list of the Antonov aircraft I have flown in is becomming more and more complete. Actually it was planned to use an Antonov 72 jet aircraft for this boogie, but unfortunately legal issues kept it at home in Moldova.
Thanks again to Olaf for several useful infos that day!

Männer-Tag!

2008-07-20T10:48:00.000-07:00

With Torben - seen here at the controls of an Antonov AN-2 (or whats left of it) - my Dad and my brother Guido we drove to Wunstorf about 40km to the west of Hannover. In the "JU-52 Halle" Museum the star is an original Junkers JU-52 which was raised from a lake in northern Norway about 20 years ago and restored to pristine contition. The plane landed on the "Hartvikvann"-lake in the early fourties and as most of the others sunk in the following summer when the ice melted.

Over the years a nice little museum developed around this centerpiece with various planes and helicopters and this cockpit section which Torben is about to inspect in detail.

Horses!

2008-07-09T18:00:00.000-07:00

What an interesting and challenging task - on wednesday we were contracted to fly 29 of these beauties from Munster-Osnabrueck Airport (FMO) in northwest Germany to a tournament in Lisbon.

Each of these horses is worth more than the 38 year old airplane we chartered for this flight. Despite a much longer loading process than expected, in the end everything worked out fine.

The handling guys in FMO did a great job and did help a lot to minimize my worries.

This airline -African International - is one of the last DC-8 operators regularly flying with in Europe.

2008-06-13T21:02:00.000-07:00

How many flights can you fit in an afternoon? I managed six: From Kenmore's Air Harbor to Lake Union in a piston Beaver and the next 5 legs with this Turbo Beaver - the direct comparison is amazing. This one climbs like an elevator. The routing took me from Lake Union to Rosario and Deer Harbor (both on Orcas Island) and on to Roche Harbor than back to Downtown Seattle's Lake Union and on to Kenmore at Lake Washington.

Thanks Craig and all the others at Kenmore for your hospitality!

2008-06-12T23:40:00.000-07:00

I wish cameras with sound were already invented! Not one, but 2 Curtiss C-46 and three DC-3 live in Gimli, Manitoba - and at least the two Curtiss are very much alive and kicking! This one I heard already from the main street turning into the airport road. Not the best weather but still quite a sight.

2008-06-10T20:41:00.000-07:00

The final destination of my road trip: Red Lake, Ontario - the Norseman capital of the world. This one belongs to Viking Outposts and in front you can see Larry Mordens russian built Ural motorcycle and his dogs. Larry is a veteran Bush pilot with lots of storys to tell. By his own account he has been flying for a hundred years and literaly every type of bushplane - Beavers, Otters, Norsemans, DC-3s - and one of those even straight into an ADF antenna.... and survived!

Thanks Enid, JB and Larry for your time. And regarding flying in the Norseman I will not give up and try again next time!!

2008-06-10T12:00:00.000-07:00

Here in Ontario you can still find an amazing amount of active bushplanes. Most of them take fishing parties to remote outposts on lakes through out north-west Ontario such as this Beech 18 which here sits at its dock in Ear Falls, waiting for another load of fishermen..... and me!

I was lucky enough to fly on the right cockpit seat from here to Carrol lake, about 35min from its homebase and only accessible by air. What a great flight. Thank you so much, Eddie for making this possible ! A Dream came true.

Tillamook, Oregon

2008-06-05T22:56:00.000-07:00

Strange bird! After the Guppy-days are over in Europe, these birds have become a rare sight. This one lives in Tillamook, Oregon at the air museum - I think the former operator is not so hard to guess. This one is actually a Mini Guppy and still has its original Piston engines.

2008-06-01T23:15:00.000-07:00

Fuer Olaf: ich war ja noch gar nicht fertig! Nur kurz im Whirlpool gewesen. Hier ist der andere - ganze 7 min Flugzeit habe ich in dieser Kiste verbracht auf dem Linienflug von Lake Union (LKE) nach Kenmore (KEH). Wie Du siehst, komme ich mit meiner Kamera ganz gut zurecht - many thanks nochmal fuer mein Type Rating auf meiner neuen EOS!!

This is the second plane from today on the short hop from Lake Union to Kenmore Air Harbour on lake Washington.

2008-06-01T21:47:00.000-07:00

As good as it gets! Bessser gehts nicht: This is one of my rides for the day: a de Havilland Canada DHC-2 "Beaver" N72355 (the other one being N50KA a DHC-3 Otter) - and not just for a short hop. I flew from Kenmore Air Harbour to Rosario and on to Lopez Island and on to Lake Union. Even though this was probably my tenth trip to the San Juan Islands it still amazes me. The scenery is just breathtaking.

Back at Lake Union I had to change planes into the Otter for the short 8 min hop to Lake Washington.

2008-05-19T13:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Torben and me visited again the Luftfahrtmuseum Hannover-Laatzen again after a few month. At this place I spent countless hours restoring aircraft engines, helping to put planes together or giving tours.

I somehow miss that - but I am happy that Torben sometimes wants to come here with me to climb into the helicopter and some of the planes.

The aircraft in the picture is a Dornier DO-28 D2 "Skyservant" and one of only three aircraft outside - the rest being well protceted in two hangars.

Sold!

2008-05-14T11:58:00.000-07:00

As of today I am not the proud owner anymore of my Lockheed F-104G Starfighter pitot-cover. I always found it cool to have but it was only sitting in the corner of my office until I met a guy on the net who is busy with a great project: the complete restauration of a Starfighter cockpit section inside and out. The project takes place in his garden and fills up a lot of it.

I think it was a good decision selling my part and now seeing it being used for its actual purpose (if you are woundering what I am talking about: it is the long red and white tube on its nose)

As I read about it a few month ago, o decided to visit the gliding airfield Wenzendorf, near Buchholz in der Nordheide - a former WW2 aircraft factory and military airfield on my way back home. Today only relics remain in a little forrest grown over by trees and it is only possible to imagine how this looked seventy years back. Some parts of the barracks are still in use as an old-folks home and a few other purposes.

Antonov AN-2 D-FWJC

2008-05-05T12:48:00.000-07:00

My ride for the last weekend. I just love it - this is an Antonov AN-2, one of my favorite planes. I have flown so many times on this particular one, I can even fly it myself. On friday, 02MAY08 we flew from the former russian airforce base FINOW/Eberswalde (about 60km north of Berlin) to Hannover and on Sunday we returned from Hannover via the historic Berlin airport Tempelhof. This airport is one of the airports used in the Berlin Airlift (1948/49) sixty years ago and is one of the oldest airports existing in the world. Unfortunately it will be closed due to supidity later this year which is very sad. I was lucky enough to fly there most likely for the last time in style.

As always there will be more pics at my flickr.com page. Enjoy.

2008-04-28T11:49:00.000-07:00

My ride of the day: Yesterday I managed to fly with Guido (my brother) is this bird - and believe it or not, we managed to fly all the way from Hannover to Bremen nonstop! The entire distance of 90km in 13min. For me it was the first time to fly on a Cessna 525A / Citation Jet 2.

As usual, there are some more pics on my flickr.com site (click the link).

Netter Ausflug mit Guido am Sonntagabend nach Bremen. Für mich eine Typenpremiere - der CJ2 fehlte noch in meiner Sammlung. Die ganzen 90km haben wir nonstop in 13min zurückgelegt mit einem netten Anflug auf den Airport Bremen. Weiter Bilder gibts wie immer auf meiner flickr.com Seite (Link oben rechts).

Luftbrückenmuseum Fassberg

2008-04-21T13:00:00.000-07:00

On the road again... this time with Torben to the Luftbrückenmusem (Berlin Airliftmuseum) in Fassberg in the middle of nowhere about 90km to the north of Hannover. Fassberg was built as a "secret" town in the thirties around the Airfield which is still in Military use today and despite the German Forces there is not much here. The drive up to Fassberg is quite scenic with litte villages and farms.

Allthough the Museum (www.luftbrueckenmuseum.de) is quite small, it is very well maintained and informative. Of course the reason for us to drive up there was teh centerpiece of the exhibition - the C-47 "Fassberg-Flyer". This aircraft was donated to Germany about 10 years ago by the Turkish Air Force and restored to represent a contemporary airlift plane.

I am so glad Torben likes airplanes, too..... and other things! Quite interresting: about 10km away from Fassberg is "Kleinamerika" (Little America). It is so small it does not even apear on any of my roadmaps.

2008-04-03T06:59:00.000-07:00

Help us!

These two tired looking AN-2 are sitting at Lesce/Bled Airfiel in the northern Part of Slovenia. They do not seem to be active for some time. Quite scenic location.

Diese beiden AN-2 sehen eher inaktiv aus. Immerhin nicht komplett vergammelt wie viele ihrer Brüder und Schwestern in einigen anderen Ländern. Zu hause sind die beiden in Lesce/Bled im Norden von Slovenien

2008-04-03T06:50:00.000-07:00

What a beauty! Allthough hidden between new bulidings now, Douglas DC-6 YU-AFF is still in one piece on public display at LJU airport, wearing seventies Adria Airlines c/s.

Es gibt sie noch! Die Adria Airways DC-6 YU-AFF steht zwar mittlerweile zwischen diversen neuen Gebäuden, erfreut sich aber guter (optischer) Gesundheit.

2008-04-03T05:21:00.000-07:00

What a treat to fly over the Alps!

Even if you can just see some parts under the clouds it is still impressive. This pic was Taken from Adria Airways Airbus A320 S5-AAC en route from Frankfurt to Ljubljana, Slovenia on 01APR08.

Immer wieder beeindruckend über die Alpen zu fliegen. Das Bild ist auf meinem Flug nach Lubljana am 01. April entstanden.

2008-03-28T06:10:00.000-07:00

Zimmer mit Aussicht... En Route zurück nach Hannover 27MAR08

2008-03-28T05:58:00.000-07:00

Gestern ist es mir gelungen, trotz aus-Flug pünklich zu Hause zu sein. Dieses Mal ging die Reise nach Eindhoven - eine Airport Premiere für mich. Mein letzter Versuch nach Eindhoven zu fliegen hat mich vor 7 Jahren nach Liege geführt: Als Flightmanager auf einer AN-26 war ich damals unterwegs von Ostende nach Eindhoven. Als Flugzeit dorthin waren ca. 30min geplant. Nach ca. 1:00h landeten wir dann gegen 22:15 und ich sah aus meinem Fenster im Frachtraum gerade noch die Leuchtreklame vom "Airport Liege" vorbeisausen...

Diesmal war ich aber etwas moderner unterwegs: Mit einer Cessna 425 Conquest 1 ...und den richtigen Airport haben wir auch getroffen!

2008-03-26T06:43:00.000-07:00

Der Ausblick? Unbezahlbar - für alles Andere gibt es die...Card

Blick von meinem Copiloten Sitz über das wolkenarme und sonnige Ungarn beim climb-out aus Budapest

2008-03-26T06:17:00.000-07:00

Und das ist "my Ride": Piper Pa-42 "Cheyenne" IIIa. Nicht nur der Ausflug nach Budapest und Zweibrücken letzte Woche, sondern bereits viele Flüge habe ich in Fliegern dieses Typs verbracht...

2008-03-26T05:47:00.000-07:00

Aus langer Weile habe ich letzte Woche eigentlich nur eine kurzen Umlauf mitfliegen wollen: Ein kurzes Dreieck von Hannover "kurz" nach Budapest und weiter nach Zweibrücken und wieder zurück nach Hannover.

Da ich in diesem Jahr bisher viel zu wenig Zeit in der Luft verbracht habe, fällt die Entscheidung leicht. Herausgekommen bei meinem spontanen "kurzen" Ausflug sind einige Flüge quer durch Europa. Zurück war ich natürlich auch nicht am selben Abend, wie ich Trista versprochen habe, sondern eher am nächsten Morgen.....

Entgegen meinen Erwartungen passte der Schüssel dann doch noch. Hier einige Eindrücke von unterwegs. Oben unser Anflug auf Budapest im Final zur Piste 31left.

2008-03-25T09:31:00.000-07:00

Geschaft!

Lange vor mir her geschoben und nun: hier ist meine erste selbstgestalte Internetpräsenz. sporadisch werde ich hier Bilder und Erlebnisse meiner Flüge posten. Freue mich auch gerne über Kommentare!

Finally!
After long delays and thinking it over and over I managed to create an own blog. I will post pics and adventures about my flying. I am looking forward to your comments.