Diamonds are forever

Wedenesdday, November 16th, the day was finally there. After having had to postpone it a couple of times for various reasons, I had an appointment with Wouter Nagel to go fly a Diamond DA-20 Katana. He has a share with Katana Flyers (and it's for sdale ;) ) just like I am considering. So this would be a nice opportunity to get to know both the airplane, and the organisation.

Wouter doing the paperwork of the PH-FLK

Wouter had booked the PH-FLK for the entire day, so the idea was to do an overland to a field just accross the border in Germany or Belgium. Unfortunately, the weathergods were (again) not very favourable...

Flying Miss SP-ACY

After a couple of cancellations due to the typical Dutch summer weather (either too much wind, or rain, or even thunderstorms), last wednesday I finally got to fly around the "polder" with Erwin in his AT-3, SP-ACY.

 

Man of the hour ...

The day before yesterday, it finally happened: I got to log my first official PPL hour!
I did not fly in one of the potential participation planes, but in a C172M, reg. PH-ACT. It had to be a 4-seater, because I wanted my wife to fly along, to see if she dreaded flying in such a small sardine can as much as she anticipated. Luckily, that was not the case.
The original appointment was at 10AM, so at 8AM I checked the METARs and TAFs of all surrounding airports (EHLE does not have METARs, let alone TAFs), and "buirenradar" (a Dutch site with current and extrapolated rainfall radar images). My conclusion was that it would be VMC from 1600LT onwards, but less than 10 minutes later, my instructor called to reschedule to 1300LT. He said he had all confidence that the weather would look better from then on.

No luck so far

Yesterday, Wednesday the 10th: Got to ride my motorbike in full sunshine during the morning hours, but during the afternoon a rain front with low clouds and gusty  winds moved in from the North-West. Another no-go for SP-ACY :(
Next possibility Thursday (today) late afternoon / early evening. TAFs looking bad, though, with:
- 24015G33 at EHKD,
-24018G28 @ EHAM as a baseline with "TEMPO BKN015 -RADZ" and "PROB30 TEMPO 24023G33KT 4500RA BKN020".
- EHLW looks VMC (marginal until abot 1500Z, clearing up afterthat)

Let's just hope that this weatherfront clears the country more quickly than predicted...

Grounded

Too bad! The weather spoiled today's flight. 22015G27 was a touch too much for a small GA aircraft, and of cause the BKN022TCB did not help either. This means we'll have to pick another date. Lucky for me, I have the next two weeks off, so if Erwin finds a window in his calendar, I'll be happy to fill it for him.

Meanwhile I have also set a date to go fly with a DA-20, so this promises to be a very nice holiday (weather permitting)

Going SP-ACY

I shared my experiences so far on Airwork (amongst others), and to my question "anybody got any flying experience with an AT-3?", I got an answer "better yet: I own one!". So of cause I contacted that owner, and now I have an appointment next Sunday to go fly with him a bit. :)

For an impression: Here is a short movie, starring the plane in question.
Can't wait 'till Sunday ...

JAA ICAO EASA RPL PPL LAPL SEP MTOW ICAO

Pffff.... all those abbreviations!

European legislation in the area of safety for civil aviation (requirements for Pilot's Licenses, amongs others...) is about to change. So far, JAA (Joint Aviation Authority) was the measure, but within the framework of free commercial traffic within the European Community, it was decided at EC level that all applicable law must be harmonised (equal for all member states). For that purpose, EASA (European Aviation Safety Authority) was founded, and mandated with the task to supply the European Counsil with legislative proposals on civil aviation. Of cause, the starting point was the JAA rules, amended to fit the current European situation and/or specific wishes of some member states.
Now, how does that affect my flying adventures?