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The Reykjavik flight
Long flight, but still much faster than planned due to strong tail windsThe first flying day was quite successful. As usual, when the planning is particularly chaotic, the actual events are very smooth.
As of yesterday, all the flight planning for the trip to Reykjavik were ready - I found a flyable route through England and Scotland, and decided to have s top in Wick, on the Northern tip of Scotland. And the weather forecasts looked fair as well - some clouds, but no serious problems to be expected. So I filed my flight-plans last night, and all was ready for an early departure this morning.
But when I checked the weather this morning, nothing was well - WIck had clouds so low that even an instrument arrival was not possible, and the outlook for the day was not positive either. And all England under clouds and rainy - no fun.
So either stay another day at home (and maybe longer, as the weather outlook is quite bad the North sea), or re-plan the trip quickly via Norway. Stavanger is also a good starting point to Iceland, and although weather was still bad, it should be fine by lunchtime. And the whole route showed a strong tailwind - nice benefit
Mooney before departure
DDN waits for a nice flying adventure for this long trip.
New route planning (over 10 hrs total time without tailwind), flight-plans filed, and luckily I found some approach charts for Stavanger on the internet, The finally Regina could drive me to Rotterdam Airport (was still before 8:00 local time).
Mooney took off at 9:19 local, some clouds but nothing bad around Amsterdam. But a lot of airliner traffic on the frequencies - the controllers really had to work a lot. But away from Amsterdam, the frequencies got quieter, and in Denmark I had to ask for a radio check as it was quiet for over 10 minutes. The tailwind moved the Mooney very fast, ground speeds typically 160 kts, and controllers straightened the route significantly compared to the flight planned route (that happens each time - why file the flight plans at all?).
Arrival in Norway gave some spectacular views (but difficult to photograph), the weather was as expected nice in Stavanger, with a smooth visual approach between some airliners. Only 3 hrs flying time, flight planned was 3:42 hrs! Lovely tail wind!
Self service fuel station is in principle easy to use, but still I welcomed help from a local pilot.
departure in Rotterdam
Clouds from 3000 ft altitude - Alphen visible in the gaps Turn around is very fast, but I had some delays as the controllers had some problems to move the departure time for my second flight plan.
Then came the long water leg, about 700 nm or 1300 km. The Shetland islands were about 50 nm South (not visible due to low clouds), and I flew over Faroe Islands. Initially I had planned to stop there, but when I got closer it wasn't very attractive - all cloudy and apparently quite windy. I'll visit the Faroes some other time when weather there is nicer (if that ever exists).
Another 2 hours from there to Island, but very smooth air, enough to eat and drink and to read, so it was quite enjoyable.
The last flight hour was over Iceland, and the views were spectacular. Iceland looks like its worth a longer visit - maybe together with the Faroes, when the weather is nice.
The controller offered my a nice visual approach to Reykjavik - unfortunately the airport was invisible as a dense layer of low clouds had covered the area. The controller seemed surprised (he sits in Keflavik, the larger international airport, which had apparently still nice sunshine),
over the North sea
over water in a comfortable cockpit (at least for one person) so he guided me to the instrument approach. The cloud layer ended just above the minimum height for the approach, definitely no visual approach possible.
The airport is very close to the city, and the instrument approach leads directly over the center, and you come out of the clouds very low over a nice park. I walked there before (downtown is less than 30 min walk) and saw other planes coming out of the clouds just over your head. Looks quite impressive.
Reykjavik is about the size of Leiden and looks quite interesting. But the real treats of Iceland are the volcanoes and the wild landscape - I want to see more of that some other time.
But tomorrow its off to Greenland. It looks like I'll make it tomorrow to Nuuk, the capital of Greenland - but plans may be changed after weather updates tomorrow.
More from there.
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Marga Bott
non-member comment
your first day
Hi Martin, great to get your update! You handled the weather-induced so calmly - no surprise knowing how calm and circumspect you are. We wish you a sunny day tomorrow with gentle tailwinds. Marga and Steve