Route: EBZH - Hasselt - BUN - EBZH

METAR:

• METAR EBBL 021755Z AUTO 08007KT 9999 NCD 19/05 Q1019 BLU=

Flight time: 00:49

Description

Again a longer than ideal time between this an my previous flight. Especially with low experience, rust builds up fast, so a month is really long. I tried to be extra slow and careful not to miss anything.

The weather was very sunny, which also meant it was expected to be quite "bumpy", thanks to the thermal activity and also a wind of about 8 kts with a variable direction between North and East.

I had prepared to do the same flight of last time, mostly to get more routine with Brussels Information Flight Information.

So in the air, I first did a touch and go and then left for my trip around Diest again. I contacted Brussels Information.

They heard me, but the response was completely unreadable. I responded with that and asked to leave the frequency. I didn't have any issues with the local radio at the airfield, and I could hear others talk to Brussels Info. I tried to climb a little higher (although I could not go very high), but that didn't seem to help.

After trying once more, I told them I'd change my frequency back, and just could make out they said goodbye. Maybe I did something wrong, but I didn't have any other problems with the radio. I haven't had this before, so not sure what was up, maybe just in the wrong place. It's always hard to understand, but this time it was absolutely impossible.

I could make up they were asking me to squawk something with a 0, but I only heard it once.

Anyway, so instead I stayed around Hasselt and did another touch and go.

The weather was indeed bumpy, but different from last time: it was sometimes smooth, but occasionally there would be up and down drafts. The bumps were less frequent, but the horizontal movement was bigger.

Luckily in the circuit it was mostly calm, although the wind was a bit tricky just above the airfield.

My first touch and go, not so good. The first time ever I did a little bounce. For a second I thought I could start "purpoising" but it wasn't very high and I tried not to overcompensate.

The other two landings were better, especially my third. So the flying was OK, but for my radio situation I could be more prepared next time:

What to do if you contact Brussels Info (FIS or Flight Information Services) and the response is completely unreadable (but they can hear you fine):

• BEFORE contacting, first listen out longer on the frequency. Today it wasn't very busy so after a while I did try to contact them
• Respond that you are reading them "1"
• Explain that you will leave the frequency, wait for an (unreadable?) response
• Have the frequency for Belga Information at hand (not sure why I didn't think of that): 129.325 - they also provide Flight Information
• If this doesn't work, it's still OK to continue the flight while just listening out the frequency: if requested to leave first. No need to return home

Not sure what will happen next time, I'll do the flight without contacting them per se.

GPS Track

Running Costs

00:49 minutes of flying time: € 88,20

Route: EBZH

METAR:

• METAR EBBL 271525Z 04005KT 9999 FEW050 17/03 Q1025 BLU BLU=

Navigation: EBZH - Hasselt - BUN - EBZH

Flight time: 00:59

Description

After postponing twice due to weather finally got to do my flight via Aarschot.

I had planned a little better on contacting Brussels Information, preparing well in advance when I'd call them and what I'd say. Also made sure I could already tell them I'm squawking 2000. And then asked for flight information.

At the end of the flight, when leaving Brussels Information, I probably should've switched back to squawking VFR (7000).

The flight itself was super bumpy the whole time thanks to the sun doing its work. The downside of evening flights in the longer days in daylight savings I guess.

The navigation itself went fine for the rest. I had planned on the VFR map and in Skydemon.

I did not see a lot of traffic along the way, it was quite calm also on the radio.

Two things I didn't do extremely well:

• Joining the circuit from overhead was a sloppy, will do better
• My landing was not extremely good

For the circuit, since there was no glider whinching, I decided to come overhead (circuit altitude + 500 ft) and then join downwind. But I started turn into downwind a little too early, and with the wind I was well south of the circuit and had to correct. Here's the sloppy circuit:

For the landing, I did not look enough at the end of the runway, the result was I was getting a little fast to the ground and overcompensated with the pitch up, making me float a little too high. But eventually kept the attitude steady and made a good landing.

GPS Track

Running Costs

00:59 minutes of flying time: € 100,30

Route: EBZH

METAR:

• METAR EBBL 231755Z AUTO VRB01KT 9999 NCD 14/M01 Q1029 BLU=

Type: Local

Flight time: 00:41

Description

Originally had planned a flight around Aarschot, but due to Biden visiting NATO some time later that day, I didn't go very far.

GPS Track

Running Costs

00:41 minutes of flying time: € 73,80

Route: EBZH

METAR:

• METAR EBBL 091225Z 15004KT 9999 SKC 13/M04 Q1022 BLU BLU=

Type: Local

Flight time: 00:57

Description

Rain, two months of rain! There were some days without rain, but then the field was so soaked, that it was unusable. There were some days where it was somewhat usable, but those days I could not go.

Anyway, so it has been two months!

To get back into it I planned two flights: one for touch and go's and the next one for a little more relaxed flight.

The touch and go's went fine, I managed to get 8 landings in. But after two months, you do feel it a little. So the practice was really good.

The weather itself looked fine, but the air was quite turbulent so it was a bumpy ride.

GPS Track

Running Costs

00:57 minutes of flying time: € 102,60

Route: EBZH

METAR:

• METAR EBLG 011220Z 19012KT CAVOK 13/09 Q1023 NOSIG=

Type: Local

Flight time: 00:53

Description

Finally managed to get in the air again. Winter time is always difficult, short days make it hard to fly during the week. The weather is very lousy usually, and even if the weather is good the runway is often just too soaked to be used.

Today, the runway was somewhat usable in some places. So everyone was briefed before leaving where we could and could not taxi.

With that, I was instructed to take-off north of the centerline, but not too much because there was also a huge puddle.

So I lined up and took off, but I don't think I was north enough, as during initial roll I was slowed down by the water. I was ready to call it off, but quickly acceleration was normal.

For the aircraft, we have a lot of runway, and I always start all the way at the back, so there was plenty of room to call it off if I noticed acceleration was not OK. But I'm sure for the condition of the field it wasn't all that great. It's very warm at the moment (for winter) but if it should start freezing soon, with all that water, puddles and grooves, that's going to be extra bad.

The down-sides of a grass strip.

Anyway, the flight itself: the air was very smooth most of the time. There were some bumps here and there. Wind was quite stiff from the South, but under 10 kts on the ground so not really an issue for landing.

I flew around from Hasselt to Schulen and then Bilzen. Visibility was very good as well.

When I was coming back to the airfield, I joined right hand downwind for runway 27 and announced me as such on the radio. I heard another pilot was on "final", but I wasn't reading him very clearly.

On downwind I looked at the field and saw - what looked like - someone approaching on short final on runway 09 (the opposite). That made me worry a little I may have missed a runway change so I immediatly left the circuit again.

This was probably unnecessary, because the aircraft did a low-pass and then turned around to land on runway 27. But I was already on my way so did another tour around Hasselt and cam in again.

To be sure, I did a radio check as I was leaving, but they were reading me and I was reading them fine.

The next approach was pretty uneventful and I landed on the part of the runway that wasn't soaked! So all good.

Parked and someone helped me put the planes in the hangar. Sadly, we were a little too quick and bumped the wing tip on the hangar door. It cracked a bit!

But luckily, the people who maintain the aircraft were there and it was fixed with some epoxy and tape in probably under an hour.

All in all, a good way to start the year.

GPS Track

Running Costs

00:53 minutes of flying time: € 95,40 (price went up to € 1,80 / minute)

Route: EBZH

METAR:

• METAR EBLG 080950Z 23005KT 190V260 9000 FEW048 08/06 Q1024 NOSIG=

Type: Local

Flight time: 00:55

Description

Beautiful flight around Mol, passing over "Het Zilvermeer".

Visibility, on the other hand, wasn't amazing. Especially when looking in the direction of the sun.

Apart from that, the flight went well.

GPS Track

Running Costs

00:55 minutes of flying time: € 93,50

Route: EBZH

METAR:

• METAR EBLG 051020Z 26008KT 9999 FEW008 SCT023 09/07 Q1024 NOSIG=

Type: Local

Flight time: 00:35

Description

Short local flight, I had planned a slightly longer flight around Mol, but due to some administrative stuff, and fueling, I got up a little too late and had to be back in time.

But it was important to fly, as I knew winter was coming: short days, bad weather and I did not have a lot of holidays left. I feared I would not get to fly much, and as I'm writing this already at the end of the year, I was right about that.

I left for a short leg just passed Lummen, then flew around Hasselt and came back.

It was quite a nice flight, there were some small clouds around. I always get a kick of clouds. I've always enjoyed looking up to them, and to fly around them is really something special.

That's really most I can say about the flight, everything else was pretty uneventful (which is good).

GPS Track

Running Costs

00:35 minutes of flying time: € 59,50

Route: EBZH

METAR:

• METAR EBBL 240855Z AUTO VRB02KT 9999 NCD 08/05 Q1024 BLU=

Type: Local

Flight time: 00:48

Description

Once again, had a longer flight planned. However, due to some waiting for opening of the field and for fuel, I ended up quite late. I only reserved the airplane for 2 hours, and didn't want to return late for the next pilot. I also didn't want to rush anything.

So instead of my planned route to passed Balen Keiheuvel and around Mol, I stuck to a local flight around Hasselt, and did one touch and go, for practice.

The weather was very nice, on the ground almost no wind, in the air there was some Southern wind (18 kts). It was morning, so the sun was still low which impact visibility to the East.

It was promising to be a busy day at the airfield, but it was still pretty quiet. Some aircraft arrived early and one was doing circuit training. The gliders were still setting up their winching tractor.

So I departed after one other aircraft landed, and left the circuit to the West.

Coming back to the field, I know that because of the winching activities they are not so keen on overflying the field, so I assured runway 27 was still in use and joined at the beginning of downwind, as there was nobody else in the circuit or departing.

One touch and go, and then a full stop was the plan. There was some bumps in the air, but nothing crazy, and at the surface it was still calm.

I'm going to try and plan a flight with an instructor, just to refresh and eliminate any wrong habbits I may have been picking up flying alone and to practice forced landings.

GPS Track

Running Costs

00:43 minutes of flying time: € 73,10

Route: EBZH

METAR:

• METAR EBBL 161555Z AUTO VRB02KT 1400 NCD 11/04 Q1021 AMB=

Type: Touch and go

Flight time: 00:19

Description

Had a longer flight planned last Sunday, but there was an issue with the pitot (which enables the airspeed indicator).

It was pretty busy so I only managed to find a one-hour slot this week. Sadly, a quarter of that was after sunset. Luckily, the previous pilot was back early enough and the sky even cleared.

It was a short flight, did a few circuits. To my dismay I smelt some burning after take-off.

The smell went away as I lowered the RPM. It came back the next take-off. At first I was worried, so I actually stopped a little earlier than I planned. I checked with an instructor on-site, he concluded it was probably the heater that was on, or somebody in the neighbourhood making a fire.

I had the heater on before, and never noticed it. So at first I concluded the smell was from the air around the airfield. However, in my next flight I concluded it was indeed the heater giving that smell - and nothing to worry about.

Apart from that, I did feel my routines were already a bit rusty. So I'm glad I got to do at least do some flying, even if it was a very short flight. My full stop landing was a bit clumsy because I let the throttle increase a little.

It does that by itself if I don't hold it, but I have to let it go to break. So I was breaking but the throttle was increasing. Not really an issue, just a little clumsy.

GPS Track

Running Costs

00:19 minutes of flying time: € 32,30

For now, I'll keep a short factual summary.

Flight 38

Date: 20 may 2021, 17:00 (UTC)

METAR:

• METAR EBBL 201725Z AUTO 19008KT 9999 OVC089/// 15/06 Q1014 BLU=

00:41 minutes of flying time: € 69,70

Flight 39

Date: 30 may 2021, 16:30 (UTC)

METAR:

• METAR EBBL 301625Z AUTO 07011KT 9999 NCD 22/05 Q1024 BLU=

00:43 minutes of flying time: € 73,10

Flight 40

Date: 19 jun 2021, 15:30 (UTC)

METAR:

• METAR EBBL 191525Z AUTO 01006KT 9999 FEW130/// 24/17 Q1013 BLU=

00:47 minutes of flying time: € 79,90

Flight 41

Date: 9 jul 2021, 16:00 (UTC)

METAR:

• METAR EBBL 091625Z AUTO 28006KT 9999 NCD 22/12 Q1020 BLU=

00:37 minutes of flying time: € 62,90

Flight 42

Date: 5 aug 2021, 10:30 (UTC)

METAR:

• METAR EBBL 051055Z 21007KT 9999 FEW035 SCT200 20/13 Q1009 BLU BLU=

00:46 minutes of flying time: € 78,20

Flight 43

Date: 14 aug 2021, 16:00 (UTC)

METAR:

• METAR EBBL 141625Z AUTO 28005KT 9999 FEW045/// 24/13 Q1019 BLU=

00:50 minutes of flying time: € 85,00

Flight 44

Date: 26 aug 2021, 14:00 (UTC)

METAR:

• METAR EBBL 261625Z AUTO 28008KT 9999 SCT026/// 18/13 Q1015 BLU=

00:56 minutes of flying time: € 95,20

Flight 45

Date: 6 sep 2021, 17:00 (UTC)

METAR:

• METAR EBBL 061725Z AUTO 05003KT 9999 SCT200/// 21/13 Q1023 BLU=

00:42 minutes of flying time: € 71,40

Flight 46

Date: 19 sep 2021, 08:00 (UTC)

METAR:

• METAR EBBL 190825Z AUTO 09004KT 9999 BKN042/// 15/12 Q1014 BLU=

01:00 minutes of flying time: € 102,00

Description

This flight, I did a flight from EBZH around Diest, passing Aarschot and BUN (Bruno VOR), back to EBZH. Because I finally received my Radio License in the mail, I also contacted Brussels Information instead of just monitoring the frequency.

It was quite busy and almost always somebody was talking. So I waited for a moment and contacted them.

Here's how that went:

OO-G83: "Brussels Information, OO-G83"

Brussels Information: "OO-G83, Brussels Information"

OO-G83: "OO-G83, VFR Flight from EBZH to EBZH via Aarschot and Bruno, 2 miles west of Hasselt, 1200 ft, request flight information"

Brussels Information: "OO-G83, Brussels Information, QNH 1013"

OO-G83: "QNH 1013, OO-G83"

Brussels Information: "OO-G83, squawk 2000 IDENT"

OO-G83: "say again, OO-G83" (I was not expecting IDENT)

Brussels Information: "OO-G83, squawk 2000 IDENT"

OO-G83: "squawk 2000, OO-G83"

Brussels Information: "OO-G83, squawk IDENT"

OO-G83: "squawking IDENT" (I press the IDENT button)

Brussels Information: "OO-G83, Identified"

That was pretty much it, for the rest I was listening to make sure I wasn't being addressed with traffic information. But all I ended up saying after that was to request my frequency change to Hasselt Radio.

I should've already been squawking 2000 and I thought IDENT was more unusual than it actually was. And a little less SAY AGAIN would've been good.

Next Flight

I still need a few more hours for my checkride for passengers (30 solo hours). But I also need some challenges, after building up some routine with local flights.

Some thoughts

My instructor had suggested us taking a slightly more elaborate flight. Unfortunatly we didn't get to that anymore. It would've made some great memories I'm sure.

He was an amazing instructor, always patient, knowledgable and positive. Always available for good advice or just to have a drink and chat.

My heart goes out to his family and friends. He'll be missed by a lot of people, including me.

The accident itself, is said to be a Stall-Spin shortly after a go-around. At low altitude Eric seemed to have lost control - for some reason - of his bright yellow Colibri F-PAMD.

When flying, he often reminded me of something that applies not only to flying:

Relax ... and don't forget to enjoy

Date: 26 apr 2021, 16:00 (UTC)

Route: EBZH

METAR:

• METAR EBBL 261625Z 06009KT 9999 SCT250 14/M03 Q1015 BLU BLU=

Type: Touch and go

Flight time: 00:39

Description

My original plan was two circuits, then a short flight over my house, then come back for landing. But I got airborne a little later than I anticipated, so I decided to only do some circuits after all.

The wind was variable from North to East, between 7 and 12 kts.

As I arrived, the CO mentioned it was a little turbulent. But after some evaluation with other pilots I decide it would be OK, albeit good practice.

So that already delayed me a bit.

I then noticed something during my external check that I hadn't noticed before, something that seemed more loose than usual. So I called my instructor to double check but it was not an issue.

Then I noticed the right tank was a little empty, so I wanted to fill it a little bit first. Since I'm short and the gas pump is manual this is a little complicated:

• Pull the aircraft to the fuel station
• Attached the Ground to the exhaust pipe (avoid sparks)
• Unlock the fuel pump
• Pull it out far enough to reach the tanks
• Notice the cart with the fuel wasn't attached so I was pulling it out instead
• Take the much-to-big stairs because I'm just a little too short to reach the tank on top of the wing
• Somehow put the gas pump in the hole and make sure it can stay there by itself
• Walk back to the pump and manually pump (1 pump = 1 liter)
• Notice the pump is empty and it was all for nothing

I had enough fuel though: 50% in the left tank and about 33% in the right, giving me at least 1,5 hour flight time. So I could leave, but lost 10 - 15 minutes messing with the pump.

I usually ask for help but I was pretty much alone there ... It wasn't a day with a lot of GA traffic.

After departure, I noticed the wind was mostly cross-wind from the North and that it was indeed a little bumpy. But only now and then. The other pilot told me it was mostly the thermals.

I expected the thermals to die out a bit as the sun was going down. But there were still a few moments where I suddenly went up or down more then needed.

One time I had a bump that actually got me out of my seat, which was a first.

The landings themselves were mostly really good. Some things happened:

• Once I bounced up a little bit, as I think some wind got under me, but kept calm and touched it down again smoothly
• One time, on my go-around I kind of had the nose down a little too much, which was a little scary mistake, but corrected quickly
• One time I was too high, did a slipping manouvre and came in correctly

I wasn't long and my roll-outs were shorter this time, which I was happy with, but I bet the head-wind helped.

Looking back, I should've just flown over my house, I could see the Schulens-lake from the circuit so I could have just went over there ...

Next Flight

If weather permits, I hope to finally not do some circuit training next time and do a short flight EBZH - Schulen - EBZH. And some other navigations as well.

I also hope to try out Skydemon in-flight. Which I also planned to do today, but I decided that would delay me further.

The reason I'm doing a lot of circuit is to build routine, but also to be confident I can land the damn thing. It's something you have to do frequently.

Also I'm aiming to fly more frequently rather than longer. If I would do 1 or 2 hour flights each time, my budget would force me to do less flights, which would be bad for my proficiency.

GPS Track

I forgot to enable the GPS tracker.

Running Costs

00:39 minutes of flying time: € 66,30

Date: 14 apr 2021, 16:15 (UTC)

Route: EBZH

METAR:

• METAR EBBL 141625Z 03006KT 9999 SCT055 SCT090 09/M04 Q1029 BLU BLU=

Type: Touch and go

Flight time: 00:46

GPS Track

Running Costs

00:46 minutes of flying time: € 78,20

Date: 26 mar 2021, 08:00 (UTC)

Route: EBZH

METAR:

• METAR EBBL 260825Z 20007KT 8000 FEW070 11/05 Q1017 BLU BLU=

Type: Touch and go

Flight time: 00:41

GPS Track

Running Costs

00:41 minutes of flying time: € 69,70