Flensburg (Germany) to Stauning (Denmark)
Route: EDXF DCT EKEB DTC EKVJ
Capacity: P1 (Pilot)
Logged time: 0.9 hours
The route from Flensburg to Stauning
We woke early to be greeted by ‘Severe CAVOK’ and sunshine, at least in Flensburg, so it was off to the airfield. The METARS for Stauning were not encouraging, with OVC at 300’ and 3000m visibility, but a quick look at the temperature and dewpoint showed these to be damned nearly the same, so it was pretty clearly early morning coastal fog / mist that would lift and break up as the temperature rose.
We refuelled, at first struggling with a card at the pumps with instructions in German, until one of us had the inspiration to turn to card over and hey presto – instructions in English (DOH!). We got fuelled.
Note to self: refuel when you arrive, not when you want to depart, I did know this, but one gets lazy after a while).
The idea today was to change the original plan and bypass Aalborg as an overnight stop (which was only really a whim anyway), but to stop and Stauning for lunch and a mooch around the Danish Air Museum, then a single leg south of Aalborg, out to Goteborg in Sweden via the Danish island of Laeso to shorten the time over water out of glide to the land. I was to fly the first leg and the other group member was to fly the Stauning to Aalborg leg.
We filed out flight plan with the helpful guy on reception at Flensburg and the route was very simple. A check complete, we loaded up, buttoned up and trundled off as quickly as possible as it was already getting hot under the bubble canopy.
It was only a relatively short one hour or so hop to Stauning, routing via the airfield at Esjberg on the west coast of the Danish mainland, about ‘halfway up’. I climbed to around 2000’ which was fine for this hop and kept me below some airspace. We trundled along in wonderful clear weather in glorious sunshine. There was a slight breeze from the south, but nothing much to speak of. Well, Denmark certainly is flat and intensively cultivated. They too are fond of wind farms, which are useful when you are flying to get a gauge if the wind direction and strength.
Initially we spoke to Skrydstrup Approach for the border crossing from Germany to Denmark and for clearance through their airspace. Then we switched to Billund Approach then to Esbjerg Tower as we would be routing through their overhead. As it turned out they were spectacularly un-busy with only one other aircraft in the area.
The coast itself looked interesting, sandy with a shallow sea and lots of sand spits and bars.
Esbjerg town (western Denmark)from the air
On approach to Stauning, we spoke to the tower and did an orbit of the airfield for photographs, then joined left crosswind for runway 27. We got a wind check and they reported it as 200/17! Well this shook me a bit but he cleared said ‘one – seven’ for the wind strength. I expected a slight crosswind based on my GPS groundspeed and the laconic spin of the wind turbines, but 17? We both heard him say this, but I asked again for a wind check and he said the same thing. Even the windsock didn’t seem too bothered, but maybe it was a 35kt windsock or something? OK - this could be an entertaining crosswind landing then. I decided to approach a bit faster than normal and set up for 80 kts, as the runway was plenty long enough and it would give me time to bleed the speed off in the flare and get properly set up for the crosswind or to abort if I really didn’t like it. On final, we didn’t seem to be getting pushed anywhere near as much as I expected.
Stauning airfield - Denmark EKVJ
I rounded out and flared faster than normal and felt for the strong crosswind, but again, it just didn’t seem to be there. I was bleeding the speed off riding the rudder bars with into wind aileron, when we touched before the stall warner was solid, so of course I was ‘rewarded’ with a bounce, nothing major, just annoying. Held it off more and we touched and stayed touched. I taxied in and asked for fuel. This was at the pumps just past the tower. We filled up for the next leg and parked up just outside the tower.
G-GDRV at Stauning Airfield (Denmark)
We checked the breeze on the ground and it was nothing like 17kts – 7 kts maybe, but 17 kts? No. I suspect there was some sort of English problem in the tower, as we both very clearly heard him say ‘one-seven’ twice (he then said the same thing again on take-off, I wonder if the only English number he knows is ‘one-seven’!).
The place was again deserted, although there were a couple of touch and go’s while we were there, but hardly anything moved on the apron. The airport staff were very helpful as usual. We made our way through the passenger terminal and walked the 400m or so down the road to the Danish Air Museum.
Danish Flight Museum at Stauning Airfield
This was a beautiful, modern and very well laid out building, but if they had more than 5 visitors when we were ther, I would be surprised. Admission was a modest GBP4.00 per person or thereabouts. A number of the exhibits must have been in flying condition as they had drip trays under the engines, but then they were in perfect condition, so I suspect that if they do fly, it isn’t very often at all and we couldn’t spot the route they would take out of the museum to the airfield. Some good stuff anyway, my favourite being the F104 Starfighter and the Saab Drakken. Unlike many museums, they were quite happy for visitors to touch the exhibits, just not clamber all over them that’s all.
A very nice Saab Drakken at the flight museum
Our visit didn’t take too long and we made our way back to the airport to saddle up for the run to Goteborg in Sweden. I sent a text message to my contact in Goteborg who said he might be able to meet us, but would certainly want to hook up for the evening and promised us a local flight in return for the flight I gave him when he was visiting the UK.
Stauning (Denmark) to Goteborg (Sweden)
Route: EKVJ DCT LINDTORP DCT HALS DCT LYNGSA DCT LAESO DT RAVEN DCT ESGP
Capacity: SNY (Self loading freight)
The airport has free WiFi and free use of an Internet PC, so we checked the METARs. It was CAVOK, so we filed the flight plan and saddled up.
Danish west coast near Stauning
This was my turn as the passenger. We routed at around 2000’ south of Aalborg. We spotted what must be the only hills in Denmark, a small wooded spine of undulating ground (hills is too strong a description) that seems to run North / South for much of the mainland. At the east Danish coast we got approval from Aalborg Approach to climb to FL50 for the sea crossing from the Danish mainland to Goteborg across the Kattegat via the Danish island of Laeso.
Danish countryside south of Aalborg
Danish island of Laeso
Copenhagen Information took over for the over-water part. They caused us a bit of concern when they asked if we had filed a flight plan. We confirmed we had and they seemed happy, presumably they found a copy of their advice. Copenhagen Information handed us over to Sweden Control (we were expecting to go straight to Goteborg, but we assumed that Copenhagen Information knew what they were doing).
Numerous coastal islands around Goteborg in Sweden
Sweden control then advised us that Goteborg wanted us at no higher than 1500’ by their reporting point RAVEN. So we started a cruise descent. At RAVEN, Goteborg took over and advised us to approach the field due east and join right base for runway 19. The wind was minimal and what there was of it was straight down the runway.
Goteborg Save airport
We spotted the airport in good time and landed on 19. We were transferred to a ground frequency who advised us to park on the grass to the north of the fuel ‘island’ which was pretty easy to see. We parked up as quickly as possible as it was getting hot with the canopy buttoned up and tied down. I sent a text to our Swedish contact who couldn’t meet us then, but would meet us at the hotel that evening to show us around the town.
G-GDRV on the ground at Goteborg Save airport
We sorted ourselves out and reported where indicated. They weren’t interested until we wanted to leave so we took a cab to the accommodation we had pre-booked. Although it wasn’t far (probably no more than 5 miles) it cost around GBP 37 – ouch! IT also turned out that we were still quite a way out from the town centre, so taxi’s would be a bad idea.
