Saturday, May 3, 2003

Report from Amstelveen, Netherlands, by John Van Bladeren

This resumes the report on the flight from La Rocelle, France to Lelystadt, Holland from the point where Karl signed off in northern France. 

We were at FL100 at the time and solid.  The temperature outside was minus 5 C but, because of the stratus type of clouds, there was very little ice build up.  N8256Y has hot props and, as a precaution, they were on, along with the heated pitot. Ice build up in the clouds barely got to a quarter inch of rhime, so not to worry.  The Tailwind God was with us as you can see in the pictures included with the last report.  Ground speeds were typically 190 to 200 knots.  With an operating weight of 4,500 pounds, we were very happy. 

Entering Belgium airspace, the weather cleared up, along with the accents from the French controllers. One thought that had always been presented to us about European flying, was the rigidity of the system.  We did not find that to be the case entirely, although they were insistent about the flight plans which had to be filed for the flight.  While we are used to "direct routing" in the US, our flight plan from La Rocelle to Leleystadt had 12 points in a 500 NM flight.  They zigged and zagged all over the place.  Once the flight plan was approved from Center, we picked up our clearance from the Tower without any amendments.  This has been typically how it operated for us.  Getting it approved initially was the difficult part. 

Once over Belgium, we asked for some direct routings to avoid the longer filed paths, and they were accepted.  We also were able to vary the altitude without much resistance.  The time over Belgium was short as the country is pretty small. We were now at FL 80 approaching Rotterdam.  Again, a change in flight plan was requested and granted.  We also asked for FL60 when available and that was granted.  The Dutch controller asked if we wanted to remain IFR and we assured him that we did, to not make the mistake we did in England when we left controlled airspace.  The Dutch controller was in Amsterdam and sounded as good and clear as any of the controllers in the U.S.  The sighting of Amsterdam was like coming home, as Barb and I visit Amsterdam often, and Karl and Judy have been guests of my cousin Dini, and Jaap in Amstelveen before. 

We were now cleared to 2,000 feet and given a QnH setting of 1012, which meant we were about to leave the Flight Levels.  The controller asked if we had Lelystadt in sight.  We indicated we did and he responded with a question about canceling IFR. We agreed to cancel.  He then came back and stated we could go to Lelystadt information only after descending to 1,500 MSL.  We were told previously by others that there is no VFR in the Netherlands above 1,500 MSL.  This would seem to confirm that.  The landing in Lelystadt was uneventful.  We were met by a follow-me truck which led us to parking.

We purchased fuel for 1.75 Euro per liter which is about $7.00 per gallon.  The landing fee was 37 Euro ($40.00).  Had we been a Baron, it would have been 67 Euro ($75.00), with a passenger charge on top of that.

Saturday in Amstelveen was very quiet and we are beginning to think about the trip back to the U.S.  Karl has a stomach ache and is a little slowed down today.  Sleep appears to be the best cure. 

Quiet at times, but Dini and Yapp's house is right under the approach path for Schipol

John feels right at home at Dini and Yapp's

On Saturday afternoon, we went to a town north of Amsterdam which had put together floral pictures of the community to review.  There were even some political comments involving George W. Bush.

First thing tomorrow, Barbara leaves for Portland, Oregon.  Her plane departs Schipol at 07:00 Sunday morning so we need to get to bed to get her to the airport by 05:00.  We will come back to the house and sleep for an hour or two and then depart for Lelystadt at 08:00.  It is an hour drive to the airport and a two hour flight back to Blackbushe in London. We will prepare for the return trip across the ocean by putting the aux fuel tank back in and packing the extra goods we had sent back to London with the Buttles.  Judy will stay with the Buttles until Wednesday, when she will fly commercial from London to Denver, Colorado.

Our next report will be sent from Iceland, as we will be busy Sunday night doing flight planning with our British Comanche friends at a local pub--the Queens Head.