2008/10 Texel - Holland's greenest airport

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YES! I managed to pass the IFR exam last Friday (Oct.10th). Performing an exam is not my favorite hobby, but the flight to De Kooy (EHKD) and back with examiner Jan van Wonderen went quite OK. Thanks a lot to Wings over Holland, Patrick and a special thanks to Eelco. Eelco did not only prepare me for the exam in only a couple of months. His attitude towards using the capabilities of the Diamond to the max will certainly help us when we'll really be using it in our next travels.

Having an instrument rating still does not mean that you can always fly, but gives additional possibilities and easy of mind in a lot of situations. Of course we still respect the fact that we fly in a single engine plane, without any form of de- or anti-icing like for instance the DA42 or in the near future the DA50 will provide. Apart from that the Diamond DA40 TDI G1000 offers an amazing number of features that enable inexperienced pilots like us to fly the plane in a relaxed and comfortable manner.


I still have to wait until the IR is added to my license (I wonder how long this will take this time) but it feels great that it's in the bag. Just the feeling that I can do this already gives a lot of support for our Pancake trip next week to Portugal.

To celebrate Marijke and I decide to fly to Texel the next day and spend the night in the airport hotel. Ed and his son Mike are indisputably the warmest hosts we have ever seen at any airport so far. It is only a short flight, but it is always fun to visit the billiard like long grass strip on the island. Even if it's only for coffee and back again. There's always a lot to see at the airport with a lot of parachute drops and plenty of old planes.


The next day we first flew to Eelde to let Marijke make additional practise approaches for her IFR training and then back to Lelystad. Har and Rud, Marijke's parents would come to Lelystad as well to fly with us to ......Texel and back again. In the meantime I had the chance to take some images of Martin's Air Charter, the PH-DDZ Dakota during its landing on Lelystad.









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.

2008/05 IFR training Annecy - Meribel - Lausanne

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It is easy to get to Annecy center from Meythet airport by taking the bus which stops just in front of the airport. Annecy center is a lovely place to stay the night. There are a couple of hotels very close to the lake with some nice restaurants just around the corner. Even in May you can enjoy your dinner outside on the terrace. Perfect.

In front of the hotel there is a big park. The sun was shining brightly, not to high in the sky yet to render a sparkling glow on the lake. Ideal place to plan the route to follow for the next leg. After take off you use the length of Lake Annecy to gain enough height to be able to cross the mountain passes on the south end of the lake. Best time to fly in the mountains is normally in the morning where the air is the most stable.
No worries that day, although its still impressive to monitor the red area's on the MFD which indicate the mountains that are still higher than your actual flight altitude.

After the first row of hills you enter the valley of Albertville and Moutiers. Albertville airport (LFKA) can be used as our final destination when we want to go into the Trois Vallees. You have to fill in a form to the regional ACC and you can even phone Jerome at Meribel Altiport to pick you up (just 15 minutes flight in the Mousquetaire).

We overflew Albertville airport and followed the vallee towards Moutiers and then into the Trois Vallees. With respect for the mountains and the possible wind effects we carefully maneuvered to circle over the Meribel golf course and Meribel Village before heading toward Lake Geneva again.

Our first stop that day was going to be Lausanne airport. Flying over the lake with calm sunny weather gives a beautiful view and corresponding colors. We got a straight in approach over the water towards the runway which has a strange down slope followed by an up slope with a number of high-tension masts not to far behind the runway. Marijke made a perfect landing (as usual) before enjoying our lunch on the terrace outside. The restaurant has a bit of an upper class atmosphere, but the food is good and the service as well.

We did not think about passports, but as Suisse is no part of the Schengen area this might have lead to problems because not everybody in the plane bought it along. A little bit of creative bookkeeping prevented further consequences but keep in mind to bring the documents when making a full stop in Switzerland.

The way back to Holland was pretty regular. We past overhead the very long runway at Luxembourg and we saw a military jet cross below us when passing Beek. No peculiar things anymore, but no need for them since we encountered enough during the last 2 days of flying.


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.

2008/04 First IFR training PCA

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On 25.2 I managed to get my PPL/SE license. I was not very proud on my performance during the exam, but apparently it was enough to pass.

Also in February both Marijke and I had started our ATPL theory course via Orbit Groundschool in Arnhem. Orbit uses the Bristol material in a distance learning program. The material is quite good and especially when using the Bristol practise databases as well (and putting in enough effort) it is not a real problem to pass the theoretical examinations.
But it really is a awful lot of material and you have to know the most ridiculous details about virtually anything. For ATPL you have to do 14 exams. Some exams are almost the same (e.g. VFR and IFR communication) and the examination costs at CBR are ridiculous (131 euro per person per exam per attempt).

In March and April we were that occupied with our theory lessons (first exams in april) that we did not find the time to fly. At the end of April after passing the first 8 exams we started our IFR training course.

The first IFR lessons for both Marijke and me was from Lelystad to Eelde and back again.
IFR flying in the Diamond DA40 is not that difficult once you master the capabilities of the G1000 in combination with the autopilot. In the new Diamonds the autopilot is even integrated in the G1000, we use the G1000 with a KAP 140.
If you understand the systematic logic of the IFR procedures it is easy to learn the appropriate functions of the G1000 that support the specific parts of the departure, en-route flight and the arrival and approach procedures.

Some air work, like steep turns, are even easier in IFR mode compared to VFR mode; just concentrating on the instruments.

IFR training is in my experience all about increasing handling speed and the workload capabilities. During the first couple of lessons it seems virtually impossible to combine flying the aircraft with ATC communication. You think you will never be able to do this but repetition does the job. I very much liked it to have only short time spans between the lessons. That way it is much easier to pick up the level were you were the lesson before in stead of partially starting over again.
The other very important element is building up a reference based on all kinds of different situations. In the beginning when you are about to think that you can do it, something happens that you did not anticipate for and you mess up completely.
Finally if you have encountered certain situations before you are able to respond in a more relaxed manner. The weather and related circumstances like visibility and turbulence do have a major impact on the general sensation during certain manoeuvres although the basic technical handling you have to demonstrate is the same.

Eelde airport is pretty busy, a lot of flight schools use it, and you see more and more commercial airliners and business jets as well. It helps a lot that local ATC is used to a lot of training flights, they always seem to be in control and are still very flexible to all kinds of training requests.
Strange feeling still, the first time you see a Transavia 737 waiting at the holding point during the approach in stead of the usual Cessna or Socata.

On the video (which is in HD from April 2008 onwards thanks to the super Sony HDR-SR12E I got for my birthday) you can see how the instruments support you on a manual ILS approach, and during a steep turn. The G1000 makes it easy, especially when you train yourself to perform maximum preparation of all potential next steps during the relaxed moments before or during the flight.


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.

2008/02 Loopings and barrels in the Fuji

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The same day that Philippe made his first flight in the Pancake we were taking our limits to another level as well. Harry took us with him in the Fuji from Wings over Holland. At first Sander was the only one who went into the plane with Harry to fly a couple of manoeuvres and unusual attitudes.

We went into the air with the Pancake as well to try to make some 2-way shots from the airwork and of the PCA itself in the air.

As Harry demonstrated a looping, barrel and spin to Sander, he was able to copy a couple of them himself. In the video we managed to film pieces of this from the Pancake, even watching it brings back part of the sensations from that day.

After both Sander and Philippe turned out to be heroes that day I couldn't stay behind. Unfortunately I was too impressed to be able to film it from within the cockpit. I did not like the looping at all, perhaps also because of the lower seats in the Fuji (no neck support as in the diamond). The barrel is fun but the most impressive thing for me was undoubtedly the vertical spin with the earth approaches you really fast and right in front of you.


Harry is practising for aerobatics once in a while an he has joined the national championships in his league now for the second year on a row. He is getting better and better and was about to win his category this year when he took a bit to much risk with the plane he was flying and ended up stalling the engine with a magnificent tail slide as the result.

The traditional cockpit from the Fuji is so different from what we are used in the Diamond. I expect that very experienced pilots have no problem in finding their way in the overload of different analogue gauges. If you are normally looking at the very well organized G1000 in the Diamond it is a whole other story. I really can imagine that in tense situations or sudden incidents being able to get an immediate and clear overview of the situation can make the difference.




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 video on DailyMotion.

2008/02 Philippe is not afraid of flying

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My big friend Philippe is a hero. For people who are not afraid of anything understanding the magnitude of that heroism will not be clear right away. That will probably be the kind of people who like it when they can see the slope when skiing downwards. Philippe does not. I can not relate to that as well.

Both Philippe and I join a fear of heights. They say your fear of heights is gone the moment your no longer in touch with the ground. I am not sure whether this is true. For me the basic sense of fear of flying is not related to my fear of heights. I think its more about control, at least it is for me. For Philippe there seems to be a link.

But, nevertheless, he really wants to fly. Or wanting to fly is perhaps a bit big. After the first session where his Marijke proved to survive a flight with my Marijke, he was now ready for is own air baptism. Not with Marijke of course, as goals should be challenging but achievable. No, captain Harry had to fly the PCA. I haven't got any material from inside the cockpit during that flight but we would be able to compensate for that later on.

That same day the next step was made. Now Philippe flew together with Marijke and Marijke, just before sunset and you can be a live witness of a design feature of the DA40 that had not been emphasized before. As Philippe states: why should you look outside when you can see exactly where you are on the MFD....





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 video on DailyMotion.

2008/01 Cross Country solo Mark

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One of the last hurdles to get the PPL license is a cross country solo flight over more than 200 Nm with at least 3 full stops. At first I thought I would prefer a triangle completely over land. The thought of having to cross water for a distance far beyond the gliding range of the plane did not appeal to me at all.

On the other hand I already had the experience of the trial cross country flight in the Dwarf. There we planned Hilversum - Hoogeveen - Teuge - Hilversum. Hilversum - Hoogeveen is a piece of cake. You just follow the border of the Flevopolder, double check the tower next to the A28 and than head straight for the crossing of the highways at Hoogeveen where you can see the airfield from miles away. All based on estimated course and time, but with plenty of visual references.

On the second leg from Hoogeveen to Teuge I found out that, even in perfect weather, visual navigation is really difficult. The wind is of course never equal to the forecasted wind, every village looks the same from the air, and once you have lost certain visual references it is not impossible to get completely lost. Especially with the added pressure of flying solo. Another flight trainee from Dwarf missed Hoogeveen on his cross country flight, ended up in Germany before he was sure that he was lost and managed to return to the field on only fumes of fuel.

I certainly did not want that to happen to me. Again another good reason to use the DA40 for the cross country flight. Long range tanks (38 USG) provide fuel (Jet A1) for 7 to 8 hours (depending on the throttle settings, but 5 USG an hour is a good indication for the fuel flow at cruise speed). The DA40 features 2 GPS systems with a TV like MFD with a clear picture of where you are precisely, 2 COM/NAV systems an additional ADF/DME and of course the conventional instruments. Never mind the autopilot and the FMS. It is not possible to get lost. Period.

So my cross country flight plan became Lelystad - Texel - Teuge - Lelystad. Once you get the hang of it, even I enjoyed the cross country solo. Learning how to use the G1000 and the autopilot is intuitive. If you are able to control a PC and you have grasped the basic essence of navigation, anybody can use it.

That's the reason why I still had enough time and courage during the flight to be able to film some parts of the flight. In order to prevent the absence of a heroic feeling afterwards the weather gods spiced it up a little bit. Where Marijke had to wait 3 months for a chance at a CAVOK cross country flight in the Dwarf; the DA40 allows you to accept a lot less. Threatening clouds and poor vision in the neighbourhood of a very wet Texel and even hail on the way back from Teuge to Lelystad could not stop me. As Bert Huizinga, chief of Wings over Holland says: in a glass cockpit DA40 its always nice weather.

No matter how I love the DA40 and its possibilities, at that time I was more than excited having completed it. Now I was ready to take the PPL exam.


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 video on DailyMotion.

2008/01 Hoogeveen (EHHO)

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One of the first cross country trips by ourselves was to the local dutch airfield of Hoogeveen. Hoogeveen (EHHO) has a pretty long grass strip, and it is rather bumpy (you can't compare it to the billiard table like grass of Texel airport). Some people find the approach over some office buildings a bit scary, but there is room enough on the runway for both landing and take-off.

There is a restaurant directly besides the airstrip and you can regularly watch some glider towing and other small aircraft activities.

On this trip to Hoogeveen we were able to practise a bit with the basic G1000 functions including the horizontal and vertical navigation functions in combination with the autopilot. The video shows some images of these basic settings. I personally like that our instruction at Dwarf and with Patrick at Wings was a lot focused on manual flying. Later on, during IFR training, Eelco has emphasized on making maximum use of all of the rich features of the Diamond and its glass cockpit. In more difficult situations you will always want to use this to the max because it can limit your workload enormously.

Weather was good, not to blue (which is boring in the air), some layers of clouds, and plenty of cross wind during take-off and landing (90deg square, gusts just over 15 knots). Demonstrated cross wind capability of the DA40 is 20 knots and even with our limited experience 15 knots cross wind component does not create any problem.






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 video on DailyMotion.

2008/01 First Solo Mark

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Well, to be honest, it was the second first solo. My first first solo was in a Dwarf TMG, I was ready for my cross country solo on the TMG when we decided to buy the Diamond. Because our future flight would be in the Diamond I chose to switch the remaining instruction for my PPL/SE immediately to the Diamond and do a combined exam.

In the past I had fear-of-flying. Not at a BA or Philippe level but enough to get all sweaty even when aboard an airliner. More than 20 flights in 4 weeks during our honeymoon helped a lot, but still I was easily scared at every abnormal bump or sound.

No wonder that flying solo has never been one of my favorite hobbies. I think it gets more of a psychological hurdle, because unlike in an airliner, as a solo pilot your are very much in control (or you'd better be).

So although the weather was perfect, it still felt as a big victory to make just that simple circuit. I can't even remember if I ever left the airport circuit. After the first solo and the big relieve it gets easier and easier to make the needed solo hours and prepare for the required cross country solo.



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 video on DailyMotion.

2007/12 Marijke and Marijke in PCA

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Time to take our great friends Philippe and Marijke aboard. Marijke wanted to be a stewardess before she became a teacher, but she can't wait to fulfil her prior ambition at Pancake Airlines. Philippe's fear of flying is even greater than mine has ever been, so in this episode he is just checking whether his girlfriend will survive a trip in Pancake Airlines.

The short video shows Marijke and Marijke during take-off and landing at Wings over Holland / EHLE and a few pictures of the area.



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.

2007/12 Marijke's first flight in PCA with license

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Conversion of the TMG PPL to Single Engine turned out to be pretty easy. After just a couple of lessons on the Diamond DA40 at Wings over Holland, Marijke was already up for her exam.

Big compliment to both Cees Quist at Dwarf and the easy handling of the Diamond (and the flying genes of the Wellens family of course); according to the examiner he was positively surprised of the demonstrated skill level.


So, ready to really start using the plane. Beautiful calm winter day, still a bit nervous to take passengers aboard. To increase the comfort feeling, we first made a test flight (just to be extra sure). Then we were ready for the first passenger flight, a local flight over Loosdrecht and her lakes and the picturesque Loenen aan de Vecht.






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.

2007/10 Delivery PCA (OE-DRG)

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We followed Harry's advise to have a look at the Diamond DA40 at Wings over Holland. August 2007 we had our first demo flight in the PH-TDG at Lelystad Airport. We liked it immediately. Even with our limited experience in the Scheibe it felt pretty natural from the start. Of course the origin of Diamond lies in TMG so perhaps a lot of basic characteristics are similar. Nose wheel in stead of tail wheel was not really a problem. Basic flying with the Garmin 1000 is also quite intuitive although at first we might automatically have looked at the analogue primary flight instruments on the top of the dashboard. Of course it takes time to learn all the possibilities of the G1000 in combination with the autopilot, but it is not necessary to know everything upfront.

It didn't take us long to decide. Wings already had an option on a demo plane of Diamond with just a few hours on it, and it would be available within weeks after we made the final decision.
Timing was perfect, since we left our jobs in the same period, so now we had the chance to focus a lot on our flight training (still a long way to go to the left seat at KLM :-)).

October 2007 Wings' Luuk and Patrick accompanied us to Wiener Neustadt for the factory delivery of our first airplane at Diamonds' Headquarter. First to Vienna with SkyEurope and then we would fly the airplane back ourselves via Tempelhof and Aarhus where final delivery took place.

I can't remember much of the first time we where at Diamond, we were just to excited about the flight we were going to make. Until then we had only flown in Holland or just across the German Border and this would really be something completely different. The weather added some suspense to the whole story because it was foggy with a thick cloud layer, we were between Austrian hills and the freezing level was a lot lower than we had to fly. Even for our instructor Patrick it did not seem an easy decision, as the laminar profile of the Diamond is not very keen on ice.

After departure we got into clouds almost right away and it did not take long for the first ice build up. The most difficult thing for Marijke and me was the complete lack of reference. Is this just a little ice or already a lot? How much can the aircraft take? What can we do if the speed keeps on dropping? How long do you try to go further up and is it still possible then to make a safe return descent? Not a very relaxed atmosphere for someone with my fear-of-flying background.

After climbing to about 9000ft Patrick was just about to decide to return as we saw the first glimpse of the sun. At 10.000ft we were completely above the clouds and the ice starts disappearing gradually from that point. Further on we had to climb a little bit more to stay on top, but once you are on top the whole experience changes 500%. Where the airliners keep on climbing to levels far above the clouds, I really love it to be just above them. Both during the day where the sun is lighting up the clouds, but especially in the evening where the colors are getting indescribably beautiful.

First stop was Tempelhof, the famous Berlin airport (closed since Oct08), where Marijke made her first ILS approach. It almost looked like we were real pilots, with the follow-me car and the impressive old airport buildings. The next morning again, with a big fuel truck filling up the tanks for our onward route to Aarhus (EKAH) in Denmark.

Again IMC but a lot less scary this time, and just before we reached our destination all clouds disappeared all over sudden. Aarhus has two long parallel runways, and just when we were about to turn final the tower kindly ask us if we had a problem to take the smaller one. After landing we see why: a commercial airliner lands on the other runway and in the opposite direction.

Final delivery of the aircraft to us was performed at Aarhus, and everything went that smooth that we decided to check whether we could get a night slot at Lelystad. No problem, so back into the plane again.

The flight back during twilight with both the sun and the moon present is still one of the most beautiful legs we flew. Of course everything was very new to us, but see for yourselves. An impressive moment to me is when the plane gradually descents into the clouds again, especially with the magnificent light effects.

The approach looked quite complicated, we had to fly a procedure turn in IMC towards Pampus followed by an NDB approach. Next time we would use the LLS waypoint on the OBS and arm the approach on the autopilot for an automatic intercept. Sorry we couldn't film the actual landing in the dark at Lelystad, I ran out of batteries after everything we had to record all day.

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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 video on DailyMotion.