February 2011

05.02.2011: After weeks and weeks of low hanging clouds, low temperatures and occasional snow and icing rain last week was even worse. It was very nice "on top", but impossible to go flying due to a thin, but very persistent cloud layer. We had intended to do some night VFR training last week and moved one of your Archer II to St. Gallen airport for that purpose, but it was impossible to even go flying during the day for the whole week.

Today, however, the sun finally managed to make the thin layer disappear and it turned out to be a beautiful day. I of course jumped on the occasion and went to Lommis to get my SportCruiser out of the hangar. I did have some problems again with the battery, as already in January where I had to charge it first, but managed after some attempts to get the engine started. I was rewarded with some spectacular views.

It is however really disturbing to see how little snow there is. It should be peak season for skiing, but many ski resorts are having problems keeping all the slopes open.

I went to Wangen-Lachen, which lies on the lake of Zurich, but when I pressed the com button during taxiing the EMS went dark due to the low battery voltage. I really have to see next week whether I have to get a new battery. Surprisingly the engine started without problems after a short stop, so I flew back to Lommis. I could not resit giving the Säntis a short visit...

...some visitors on the viewing platform of the telecom installation waved when I flew by.

06.02.2011: Last autumn, after all the test flying, my wife decided it is silly to always sit in the right seat but not really understand what's going on. She therefore decided to do the PPL theory course, and to demonstrate some of the theory in praxis we went flying this afternoon. The weather was even better than yesterday, and less windy. We did not fly to the mountains but stayed in the plains, and with temperatures above 10 degrees C it was nearly like in spring. I was busy explaining things but here two pictures of the area just a bit north of Lommis.

Below in the background the "Untersee", which is the lower part of Lake of Constance. Beyond the lake is Germany, but as I have not yet received the full permit to fly I have to stay on this side of the lake. I have sent all the papers to EAS and expect the permit soon to be allowed to carry passengers. I will however still have to do the noise measurement before I get the unrestricted permit to fly and go abroad.

12.02.2011: During the last few flights I had problems with the battery, as already in the beginning of January. On one flight the battery voltage dropped so low when I pressed the radio button with the engine idling on the ground that the EMS switched off. I therefore decided to install a new battery, which I did today. I of course had to make a little test flight, everything seems to look fine.

Here a view of Stein am Rhein, a nice village where the Rhine river leaves the lake of Constance.

I landed just about at sunset, here the view when taxiing back to the hangar.

13.02.2011: Today I decided to make a longer flight to the mountains. In the morning it rained a bit, but then it cleared up and I took off on what would be the longest flight with the SportCruiser so far.

Below the lake of Zurich, with the dam from Rapperswil to Pfäffikon. One can see that it was quite hazy, visibility only got better above 7'000 ft.

I passed the Rigi mountain, near Lucerne...

...then continued past Mount Pilatus...

...and then via the Brünig pass toward the famous Eiger (with the even more famous North Face), Mönch and Jungfrau above Grindelwald. The highest one, Jungfrau (on the right) is 4'158 m / 13'642 ft high. For those who are not familiar with Swiss airspace structure, Class C airspace starts at FL130 in the mountainous regions during times when the Swiss Air Force is flying, and at FL150 when they are not, and on weekends they normally don't fly. And then there is also a 2'000 ft class G layer "above ground", so it's possible to fly around even the highest mountains without ATC clearance. In the "plains" Class C starts at FL100.

Below the Jungfraujoch Observatory at 3'417 m / 11'388 ft, which lies between Mönch and Jungfrau. One can drive up there in a train, it is the highest train station in Europe.

Below a second view at the Observatory, with the Aletsch-Glacier behind it. This shot and the following one of the Eiger summit were taken form around 13'500 ft, the highest altitude I reached during the flight. The plane still climbed nicely even at that altitude, but I only stayed there for a few minutes as I had no oxygen with me.

Here the Eiger North Face, I leave it to others to climb it...

On the way back I passed the Rigi again, there is really not much snow left.

When turning back towards Lommis and descending to below 6'000 ft the haze started again, but it was less bad than when I took off earlier. The flight lasted 1 hr 45 minutes for a distance of approximately 170 miles, which means I flew an average speed of 97 kts. That's not bad considering that I climbed 12'000 ft. I only used 23 l of fuel, according to my fuel flow meter, again an impressively low figure compared to a Piper or Cessna.

19.02.2011: Today I went for a test flight with Thomas in his Europa. Thomas and I studied together for some time nearly thirty years ago and then lost touch until last year when he showed up at our airport with his nearly finished Europa on a trailer! He even has the registration HB-YNK, which is just next to my HB-YNL. Thomas flew for the Swiss Air Force (Hunter, Tiger II and then PC-9 target towing) until recently, so his Europa is of course equipped with a Rotax 914 turbo engine.

We did the EAS test flight to determine v_x and v_y, which means climbing for 9 minutes at different speeds from 1.1 v_S until clearly beyond v_y. We did 7 or 8 climbing legs, which took us more than 2 and a half hours, but at lest in very nice weather. We did the tests at a reduced power setting, as we would probably have reached the stratosphere at full power, or at least have passed FL150 where airspace C starts. We also did not have oxygen... Unfortunately I messed up the pictures, so nothing to show, but his plane is very nicely built.

20.02.2011: I spent a few hours at the airport today to investigate the problem with my battery. I did some minor wiring changes, with the result that the Dynon EMS now shows the correct battery voltage instead of 0.7 V less, lets hope that this also cures the charging problem. I saw on the internet that a lot of Rotax users have problems with the Ducati voltage regulator, maybe mine is faulty too. I will do some more test flights, and if the problem is still there I will buy a new regulator at the Aero Exhibition in April

I also hooked up the Garmin GPSMAP 695 to the Dynon, so that I can now select three different NAV sources on the HSI (VOR, Garmin GNS 430W and GPSMAP 695). I know its a bit of an overkill, but men need toys... Unfortunately it started snowing around noon today, so I could not do a test flight. Next week the weather should improve, maybe I can do that on Wednesday or Thursday. After that I will go back to Australia, so no more flying until around middle of March.

24.02.2011: I heard yesterday that two more SportCruisers have been registered in Switzerland, one each by the flying clubs in Thun and in Lugano. I managed to find a picture of the one in Lugano on the internet.

That brings the total registered in Switzerland to 5 (two homebuilds and three factory planes) and another one under Dutch registration is also stationed here. We can soon organise a fly in...

25.02.2011: Today I got my signed copy of the AFM back from EAS, I should now receive my permit to fly any day.

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