2008/10 Diamond DA40 Burgos to Holland

click on the title to see the video on DailyMotion

After diverting to Burgos (LEBG) on Wednesday there was no chance of flying back to Holland on the next day. Severe thunderstorms, very early snow in the north of Spain and over 50 kts of wind lead to an additional day in Burgos.
The people on Burgos airport are unbelievable friendly and supported us all the way. We were even offered a space in the hanger to get shelter for the storms during the night. Both landing fees and overnight parking charges are very cheap in Spain, as we found out in both Valladolid and Burgos.

Burgos turns out to be a very authentic Spanish city with all kind of local shops, restaurants and tapas bars. Lots of tiny little alleys, beautiful buildings (cathedral, castle, plaza major), and nice view from the hills. Apart from the hotel and airport virtually nobody seems to speak English, so we had to improvise with the few words of Spanish/Portuguese we were able to produce.

The next day, Friday October 31st, we decided to try to leave as early as possible to use the short and only temporary improvement of the weather. ATC at Burgos starts a bit later than the airfield opens which was new to us on an airport of this size. The very friendly girl from operations recommends using blind transmissions during backtracking and departure, in case of eventual other traffic.

Between two layers of clouds we were able to follow our VFR flight plan over Vitoria (LEVT) and San Sebastian (LESO) into France. The Pyrenees don't extend all the way to the ocean, so you don't have to fly very high to be able to cross the Spanish/french border over land. Both San Sebastian and Biarritz (LFBZ) are very nice airports close to the ocean. The beautiful San Sebastian airport is even directly parallel to the water in a small bay.

ATC allowed us this time to follow the coastline across all restricted area's around the coast between Biarritz and La Rochelle. Further north we encounter some rain showers until we have to decide whether to stay below in marginal visibility or go on top. The TAFs promised us an easy descend further up north, and clouds seem stratified and not to high so although freezing level is at FL50 we start to climb. After an additional hour cloud tops are getting gradually higher and higher until we are at FL115 and minus 10 degrees.

The altitude is no problem for the DA40 with its turbo diesel whatsoever, but with this temperature we would have to stay out of clouds even when switching to IFR. ATC provides us with MET updates for Deauville and Le Touquet (both are indicating good weather), but in real life the overcast extents a lot further north than we had anticipated.

We had been flying for almost 4 hours already at that point, but with the long range tanks still no worries. No worries would be appropriate for experienced pilots. The lack of experience with icing conditions made the situation for us personally lot less relaxed. Finally we decide to descend through a number of mailbox like openings in several layers of clouds and we find out that there is no ice build up at all.

Later we are told that even if there would have been a thicker stratified cloud layer of a couple of thousand feet, a freezing level of FL50 will give you plenty of time to loose the ice if you are building up some. Nevertheless, a DA42 or DA50 anti-icing system would offer a more relaxed descent to us in similar situations.

Approaching Le Touquet we asked Paris area control for an ILS approach. No problem for them, and he gives us a heading at 2000ft across the Channel. According to the MFD we are almost in the UK before we get a base and intercept heading which gives us clear view of some huge container ships at high speed.

Arriving at Le Touquet (LFAT) after a 5 hour flight we witness a lively discussion between a German private jet pilot and the local tower about their flight plan, who has this flight plan and who should have had this flight plan. The jet is already at the holding point for the runway, has to catch a connecting flight somewhere south with very little margin in time; but has to return to the apron nevertheless. 10 minutes later we see it depart anyway, lovely sight the acceleration and climb rate of a private jet.

After a short stop on Le Touquet (if you have more time visit the fish restaurants in town in stead of the airport restaurant) we were just in time to be able to beat sunset at Lelystad (EHLE). Flying at 2.500 feet we were just on top of a cloud layer in the sun, marvelous sensation. Holland turns out to be rainy, with poor visibility (what else is new).



Pancake Airlines Crew is trained by Dwarf Powered Gliders (http://www.dwarf.nl/) and Wings over Holland (http://www.wingsoverholland.nl/). Information on the PH-PCA Diamond DA40 can be found on http://www.diamond-aircraft.at/. You can click on the title link to see the HD video on DailyMotion.

2008/10 Portimao diverting to Burgos

click on the title to see the video on DailyMotion

After 10 days in the Algarve we had to head back to Holland again. We wanted to be back on Friday, and because the weather did not look very promising for both Spain and Portugal we decided to start already on Wednesday.

We tried to take-off as early as possible, but Portimao is at the far end of the Faro TMA and you are not allowed to leave without a local controller present at Portimao airport. Never mind about filing flight plans before via the internet; this country has its own rules and everybody will stick to them. In Portugal you have to file a flight plan for local flights, even when not at or towards a controlled airport. Leaving before the filed departure time, even for a VFR flight is out of the question as well.

After take-off we were able to have a good look at the new racetrack near Portimao that would be opened that weekend. Some people say it might even be used for F1. Nearby is the Baragem do Bravura, where we considered buying some land. You could buy a lot of land, for not a lot of money, but I am glad that we decided to go for more developed parts on the coast.

The first part of the trip in Portugal was fine. The weather had not changed yet, and we were able to fly underneath the big restricted area's in the north east of Portugal and the west of Spain. Whilst passing Evora a dutch instructor wished us a good trip home. The NLS (now CAE) is using Evora as the base for their flight academy and we had already seen a couple of the dutch students on Portimao airport. The route straight through the Salamanca area went well, be it a bit turbulent between the local hills.

Just after passing Salamanca you are approaching Valladolid airport. Valladolid is a reasonably big regional airport. We had to circle around for a while at the southern approach point to give way to a Ryanair plane with a medical emergency. The, apparently dutch, female captain seemed to be in control.

Behind the Ryanair, we were allowed to land and our parking position was just next to the emergency medical helicopter that was ready for take-off.

Because of the deteriorating weather we just stopped for a quick lunch. Refueling was again not necessary since we had filled her up the previous day at Portimao. Worth mentioning is that the cross country landing including parking and handling cost at Valladolid where about 4 euro's (the airport would have been the number 2 airport in Holland).

When taxiing out to the runway again another Ryanair plane backtracking on the runway gave way to us so we could cross the runway to the taxiway on the other side. Not a very usual experience for us ..

We tried to fly over San Sebastian / Biarritz towards one of the smaller airports on the west coast of France. We had prepared the charts for a lot of options to deviate to but in the end we did not get that far. Big towering clouds where blocking the passage between the ocean and the Pyrenees. We tried flying over them, as we did on the way in. But at FL105 is was clear that this would not work this time, or at least we were not going to take the risk.

Above the Bay of Biskaie thunderstorms were predicted and we could already see the snow in the Leon area. Flying north over the ocean and trying to cut of a large corner did not seem a careful alternative as well. Even Vitoria was out of reach for a VFR approach so we called Burgos on the radio for approach instructions. Pure coincidence but surely a good choice afterwards.

Burgos has a large asphalt runway, and a whole new airport terminal. The people at the airport are very friendly and they help you with anything you need. Because they expected snow they even offered us a space in the local hangar, at the old part of the airport where the fueling stations is as well. Gladly accepting the offer, we were picked up and brought to the terminal building, received an advice for a hotel downtown. Perfect.


Pancake Airlines Crew is trained by Dwarf Powered Gliders (www.dwarf.nl) and Wings over Holland (www.wingsoverholland.nl). Information on the PH-PCA Diamond DA40 can be found on www.diamond-aircraft.at. You can click on the title link to see the HD video on DailyMotion.