Leg 59 Part 2: Luxembourg (ELLX) to Leylstad (EHLE)

[hlminx 301]

After being totally spoilt rotten at the Hotel and Spa Castle of the island, I thought I’d better pack my bags and find my next ride to get to Lelestad. After all, the rest of Mutley's Hangar would be expecting me to get the baton back safe so we could get the final fly-in organised... plus i'd maxed out the MH credit card!

It was only about 180 nm from Luxembourg, so low and slow’ish seemed to be the way to go. I gave Phillippe (my sometimes ‘handler’) a call and, as (his) luck would have it, there was a rather decrepit Baron that had been left in a corner at Luxembourg for almost 4 months, which I could use.

How convenient, I thought, but the benefit of this arrangement was most definitely on Phillippe’s side. He could do with the aircraft back in the UK to be re-fitted with the usual surveillance equipment, and then ferried back out to the US. I had just saved him the cost of a pilot for a day, and also the extortionate fees he was obviously paying to leave it there ‘moth-balled’.

It wasn’t much to look at, but Phillippe had assured me it had been looked over by one of the local maintenance companies.

Flight planned, filed, and I taxied to the active. I’d slot in between the huge Cargolux 747s, Luxair’s 737-800s and Q400’s.

My route would take me about 90 minutes given the busy skies, but it would at least be scenic.

I'd head North to the Luxembourg border, NNW to Maastricht, and on to Eindhoven before hanging a right near Utrecht then into the Amsterdam airspace.

The weather was starting to close In as I neared Eindhoven and the scenery below turned a sludgy gren/grey.. great, nothing to see, and not a lot to do apart from monitor the instruments for the next 30 minutes.

Just when I thought the flight couldn’t be more boring, I heard an amusing radio call between Amsterdam ATC and a flight crew from a popular European airline, which shall remain nameless although I guess most people will figure out which one it is. They wanted to land as soon as possible to offload the group of ‘troublesome’ passengers.  It transpired that all the travellers involved knew each other, and had planned to join the mile-high club on that flight. In doing so, they had literally taken over every single bathroom on the aircraft at the same time. Other passengers were in uproar (and some were probably crossing their legs from all the beer consumed in the departure lounge), but the cabin crew were particularly annoyed as the occupants had only paid One Pound (1 Euro) for the privilage of using the facilities and 2 had snuck into each cubicle…

This little fiasco helped to pass the time for the next 20 minutes or so, before I contacted Leylstad Radio Traffic. As I descended I finally managed to make out the beautiful Gooimeer and Eemmeer lakes, known for their sailing, beaches before entering the pattern..

Leylstad has no ATC so it was time to concentrate and make sure I was making my call outs.

On final for Leylstad

 

I'd park up the battered Barron and send a note to Joe to let him know I had arrived.. Time for a well earned J.D.

As a last leg on the absolutely EPIC ATWC 7, which had started 2 years ago, it kind'a went a bit too fast for me, but i have some incredible memories of my first full trip around the globe.

As thoughts of the fly-in buzzed around in my mind, i wondered when the next ATWC would be kicking off, and when i could put my name down for what has been one of the most exciting, challenging, and ultimately rewarding 2 years of my flying career. 

ATWC8... bring it on!

 

[mutley 4,497]

Bravo Steph! 

Thanks for flying our last regular flight, the final flight will be in the next couple of weeks or so.

Have a great holiday weekend!