Einmal Afrika und zurück  /  Part II

von Bernd & Lisa

One "doing nothing day" done!

Day at the pool and trying new food...

To avoid boredom, I started a laundry bussines in Tanger - Lisa has been hauling Stones, so I did the laundy :-)
 
Nex day, we hired a taxi and  did a trip to the local shopping center...                    Mr.Bricolage = OBI    ;-))

Another gusty day went by. But untill now, we at least got no phone call from the Tanger Airport authoritys... so I guessed, the Aircraft is not "upside down" or blown into the atlantic ocean...

We decided to give it a try the next day, on monday, to leave Africa - the wind is going down a bit, but now some clouds started to get in...
FEW 1600ft, VIS 8000  :-|

To avoid high terrain in poor visibility, we again changed our flightplan to a westerly departure, into the open sea, via ADKIM and packed our bags.
 
After security, customs and emigration, we came to the APRON...

And far, far in the distance, we could see it...

...after 5 days of battering maroccain storm and dust and all the force Allah had send, the FK9 survived!!!
The new name of the mighty plane is now: "daughter of the winds".

Lisa is draging away all the fixing stuff.

We now had to refuel at an ancient "chariot de carburantes", where I suspected to come out more water, sand and gravel then AVGAS...

But somehow, the "fluid" was clear, blue and smelled like Petrol  :)))

Final preparation...

Taxi to holdingpoint runway 10 and.... waiting... for flightplan activation.
 After 3km (!) of tailwind-taxiing In 30deg OAT, the engine got to 125deg water temp.   :-|
And so we had to shut off to avoid overheating!

Departure over the beach, then turning north...

If Spain has not left the EU meanwhile, we are back in Europe now...

happy crew over andalusian landscape.

Endlessly helpfull EasyVFR. It has become a brave tool so far and brought us save back to the attractive marshaller girl in Granada LEGR.

Happy to be back on european soil, the plane full of maroccain dust and Mitrasa AVGAS and after security, immigration and again stupid compulsory handling, we grabbed another Daimler taxi ;-) and headed to the Hotel.

Now a shower an ad beeeer (or two) and... you guessed it: Tapas!

Next morning, departure preparation LEGR to LECN.

At preflightcheck we had to refill boiled-off water from the Tanger hot departure and then I heard a "kling, klong" sound while turning the prop for Rotax oil check... Exhaust Spring broken!  :-/  :-/  :-/

APRON repair session...

With african mentality, german engineering, good tools and a feew feet of Markus fixing wire, we could bring the Spring back in place...   ;-)))

The repair went well and we were still within the ETD of the flightplan. Departure to the north-east, crossing inactive R110...  

We got an clearance for VFR crossing 1500ft or below via SIERRA and NOVEMBER and decided to divert for a landing in Mutxamel LEMU.

Crossing the Alicante LEAL runway, overhead threshold 28 because of an departing Airliner.

PapaKilo fixed for the night and the crew heading to a nearby hotel...

waiting for the taxi...

Lisa (best copilot in the world) booked this via iPhone from the Apron in LEMU, 20 mins ago - for a pretty cheap "indeed last minute" fare!  :-)))

Hmmmm... nice food in Spain...   and another 4 star laundry task in the hotel bathroom - this tour is sponsored by REI in der TUBE ;)))

Next day, next stretch, LEMU to LFMZ in southern France.

There was still a bit of clouds and low visibility predicted over the spanish mountains and so we decided to stay more along the coast to avoid the bad WX.

Heading north is the goal. Along the zillions of hotels at the mediterranean coast.

Short refueling in Castellon LECN and departure with 30deg OAT and MAX TOW (and our shiny new AVGAS sticker on the plane ;-)

20NM off-coast, to avoid the super busy Barcelona CTR ...but only 1500ft allowed by ATC  :-|

Leaving the Barcelona CTR behind, we could proceed along the coast, passing famous Lloret de Mar - Tourist baking station ;)  and other hotel citys.

Big Boys Boat Toys

North of Ampuriabrava, close to the French FIR border,

Back in Lezignan LFMZ for refueling and a small hotel, not far from the airfield.
The nice Madame in the tower could not get a taxi in the whole area, so her collegue drove us to the city in his private car... verry helpfull people here!
Merci beaucoup!!!
 
Next day and last stage of the journey - LFMZ to EDFL

The Cartes AZBA showed: all RTBA restricted are not active today. So no war games this friday in France and a free run for us.

Into the great wide open...

le Citadel of Besançon

The daughter of the winds touched german ground again in Bremgarten EDTG for a last short refueling and crew rest.

Touchdown in LüLi EDFL after exact 3005 NM, 13 days and roughly 33 hours of flight.
Crew not divorced and the mighty daughter of the winds never missed a single beat.
(and also the exhaust spring is in place :-)