SWISSMOONEY IS NOW IN THE USA

[Oscar Avalle]

BTW... really cool pictures!

[AmigOne]

Hello Heinz,

Glad to learn that you made it safely accross the pond and from your description of the flight it was hard work in some legs.  I noticed that you have overcome your concern with the complex SFRA around Washington DC and you are planning to stop at Culpeper. As I mentioned to you before I'm based at Culpeper and I will be glad to help you with logistical arrangements to get you back and forth from the airport and trying to find you an empty hangar while you are here. I will be going to Oshkosh on the 25th returning on the 29th. Send me a PM or EM if I can be of help, I would certainly like to meet both of you.  By the way, approaching CJR from the south is straight forward, just stay below 250kts! 

As you may know so close to the elections in the USA temporary flight restrictions areas (TFRs) are poping up every day all over the country and pilots say that not even the FAA dedicated site (http://tfr.faa.gov/tfr2/list.html) is up to date sometimes, so you need to be careful in this regard or you may find yourself in formation with a couple of F16.  This weeend in the northern Virginia area we had 4 or 5 TFRs, including one tomorrow for radio control airplanes near my home.  Best thing is to call a flight service station to confirm the information in the website.

Happy flying and hope to see you soon!  Jose

[AmigOne]

I had the pleasure of welcoming Heinz and Edith to my airport in Culpeper, Virginia and spend a few days with them, first driving  around DC and then for a barbeceue at home.  Graciously they invited my wife and I to dinner and we had a wonderful time trying not to talk airplanes too much.  Although I have several long ferries to and from South America in single and multi-engine airplanes I was fascinated by how meticulously Heinz prepared for trip, including ditch training in a specialized place in Europe.  As I understood his ditching/coldweather suit which they wore in flight has a built-in mini raft that can be deployed in case they are unable to deploy or reach the bigger raft, also neoprene head covers and special gloves.  As we know even in the middle of summer the north Atlantic is not a very hospitable place.  The panel in his Mooney lacks nothing !!!

They left this morning and they are already in Farmingdale, NY for sightseeing in the big apple, he just emailed me saying that he had a "hectic" flight, maybe the NY controllers gave him a rough time. 

Have a safe trip back !!

[AmigOne]

A couple of more pictures.

[AmigOne]

Forgot this one

[carusoam]

Hope they got a picture of the statue of Liberty on their way East.

That was a great gift from our European friends, 100+ years ago...

-a-

[AmigOne]

I don't think they got it on the way there since they were IFR but Heinz already discussed the Hudson River SFRA with a local instructor at Farmingdale and bought the appropiate chart to fly the corridor so I assume they'll do it before they go back.  I have flown that corridor a few times and it is a unique experience.  After the mid-air last year (I think) the flight rules have been tightened up which hopefully should prevent future incidents.

[Swissmooney]

Hi all,

Well as Jose mentionned we are now on Long Island and enjoying the last couple of days together before Edith is leaving back home via Swiss airline!

thanks to Jose and Juanita and their great hospitality our stay in the DC area was a blast...we enjoyed every minute of it and especially the interesting talks with J+J and their family, THANK YOU AGAIN!!

Hermann Moosbrugger, a good friend and excellent and experienced Mooney Pilot will be joining me on our flight back via the north atlantic...we hope to fly VFR via the Hudson river and then we may have a stopover at Bar Harbor then probably on to St John for customs and then to Goose Bay!!

our experience here in the USA has been just great and all flights were very easy with lots of direct routings, the wx cooperated more than perfectly except that we mostly encountered headwinds!!

Yellowstone and Moab were the highlights from a landscape point of view and Tulsa brought back lots of memories and talks with old friends.

Washington is just amazingly full of history And we could easily correlate to the museums of Tulsa, Gilcrease with a special exhibition of Washington! Philbrook is just an amazing estate as is now the Oheka Castle on Long Island

The service for DGL by Don Maxwell was just perfect! Now the flight up to Farmingdale was short but not so easy with a couple of reroutings but no real problems....controllers were helpful...it was a saturday so maby it was a bit slower than normal

We have organized an album with some pix for those interested the password is hbdgl

 

http://www.photobox.de/album/1386290965

So thanks again for all the tipps we got and if you have dreams, just go for it!! 

Kind regards

Heinz & Edith

[jnisley]

I enjoyed the photos, I would love to hear about your trip back to Switzerland. Safe flying!

[BorealOne]

Give a shout when you get to Goose, Heinz - our number at home is 709-896-0803. 

May you find tailwinds on your trip back!

Larry

[Oscar Avalle]

have a great flight back! 

[AmigOne]

HB-DGL is now between half way Bangor and Goose Bay, 17,000 feet, 200kts.  If interested you can follow the flight in Flightaware, I believe even across the Atlantic.

[BorealOne]

And now smokin' along at FL 22, 220 kts...

[AmigOne]

SwissMooney arrived at Reykjavik on Sunday and on Monday they are off to Wick in Scotland and from there straight home.  Hey they made it look easy which of course it isn't.  Mabe some day.

[AmigOne]

Final report from Zurich:

Total = 12,700 NM 23,500 km / 78 flight hours / approx 2200 pix / and countless lasting memories!

Greetings Thank u

Edith and Heinz Hermann

 

[DaV8or]

Awesome! Just awesome. That's some hardcore adventure flying.

[Piloto]

Glad to hear that you made it back. Looking forward to see more pictures. Your wife looks great in the inmersion suit. Are those custom taylor? I have an old fisherman type and I don't look that good in it.

José

[Oscar Avalle]

Great

[Swissmooney]

Hi Mooniacs

yes we did it!! and arrived finally safe and sound back home!! The return flight was also unbelievable impressive!! see pix in sep album / password is again hbdgl....see link below

- Hudson Flight was quite a sight and the controllers @ JFK were very helpfull!!

- Flight via Bangor (US Customs) to Goose Bay CYYR were we went to 23'000 ft and had a GS of 220 kts with some minor fronts to pass and a nice approach to Goose (Larry kept his word concerning better wx), but as soon as the CBP left it startet to rain very hard

- The wx for Friday was bad (especially greenland) so we had breakfast with Larry and some very interesting discussions and then we visited two Labrador Museums...very interesting and staffed with young people...Darren and Amanda, which were an absolut delight!!

- on saturday then the big flight...in order to go dct to Narsarsuaq and with no HF Radio we had to climb to 25'000 ft, wx was good and the approach to BGBW extremly interesting...the final approach was in VMC which was helpful....I would not like to fly this approach to minima....but it was spectacular and after takeoff we climb over the icecap to 17'000 and all of the eastcoast of greenland was severe clear...a sight ...just undescribable...see pix!!

the rest of the flight was uneventful...Reykjavik in low clouds, drizzle, windy and no hotel rooms...we finally found a place in a  youth hostel....well we are still young!!

- after this intense flying day we decided to fly on sunday only to WICK in northern scotland and then take it easy, because the flight home would have been too long for the same day....Andrew from Far North aviation provided the absolutely perfect service!!

- the next day we planned for a flight to the southern part of England...Manston..but it was 24 hrs PNR...so we rerouted to Norwich EGSH, which was perfect....had some minor problems with the routing because of the restrictions dur to Olympia...we got some ice but no whisky at FL170, even some clear ice...after descending to FL130 it was OK but never got rid of it until final approach to Norwich! and it cost 15 kts and we had an headwind of 15-20 kts...so it was definitely a slow flight!!

and after that it was just the homestretch to swiss customs (maintenancoe cost have to be taxed!!) and then our ladies were expecting on us on the homebase LSZE!!

It was a trip of a lifetime!!! and Hermann was the perfect partner for this return trip, THANK YOU HERMANN!

Thanks for everybody who helped...escpecially Jose and Juanita for their hospitality and friendship

all the best to all of you and 

HAPPY LANDINGS and enjoy the freedom you/we still have....

Heinz

http://www.photobox.de/album/1399247165

[carusoam]

Heinz,

Spectacular photos!

I like the Statue of Liberty with a Mooney wing in the foreground!

Best regards,

-a-