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The Grumpy Gang

The Grumman Aircraft Pilots Association European Branch

Next day, all 4 'planes were due to meet in Sonderborg (EKSB), in the south of Denmark, to clear customs etc. before flying on to Aalborg (EKAH), 140nm north. We never expected an early start from those in Belgium, since Nigel can take some time to pull himself together in the morning, however, Yogi picked me up from my hotel spoton at 09:30 on Saturday, 1th April and we headed down to the airport. The weather to the north was not good, with multiple fronts, one occluded, passing from south west to north east, with all kinds of weather involved. I had filed IFR anyway and since we had available alternatives, we decided to go.

A tip. If I am flying IFR from an uncontrolled airport, I try to speak on the telephone with the ATC unit I will be calling on departure. This way, they expect my radio call and I (usually!) avoid holding, staying out of controlled airspace, while ATC try to recover my flight plan from their computers. This worked a treat with Köln Bonn, who instantly gave us a squawk code and an airways intersection to navigate to. Unfortunately, neither Yogi nor I could find this intersection, even on the GPS, so we had to ask ATC for a clue! They very kindly gave us vectors; we flew into the clouds and rain heading north. That was the last we saw of the earth we saw until we descended below 700 ft on the Sonderborg ILS (281nm).

Now, Sonderborg is just north of the German border and is in uncontrolled airspace, so we set ourselves up on the ILS, following the charts warning not to drift back into German airspace. We had hoped to get some lunch while we waited for the others, but the restaurant was closed. Thank goodness Yogi had brought along emergency supplies and we tucked into his sandwiches. Eventually, we received a message form the others saying they were somewhere consuming beer in Holland (Groningen) and had given up for the day. We got used to their giving in!

Anyway, the weather at Aalborg was forecast to drop below IFR minima, so Yogi and I immediately set off, into the clouds again to reappear at 500ft on the approach to Aalborg, where the rain was really heavy and the GA parking is a long walk from the terminal building!

Here we were met by Anette and Jens Neergaard and their girls. Now, Jens, who has been a member of the AYA for years, has his own farm landing strip on his farm and we had originally planned to fly in there, but the ground was still frozen preventing any rain from soaking away, so it was a no no.

His strip, Stagsted, is on the Jeppesen VFR maps, just to the east of Aalborg and I definitely want to fly in there when the weather improves during the summer! We stayed overnight with Anette and Jens (you wouldn't believe the 2 person shower/steam room he has in his new house!) and were joined by Jens's parents, sister and her girls for the evening meal. Wonderful hospitality!

The following day, the weather had improved to allow the lesser mortals in the other Grummans's to join us for a smashing lunch held for us in the house of Jens' parents.