Pancake Airlines - Traben-Trarbach Friedrichshafen april 2010

En route to Aero 2010 in Friedriechshafen we planned a stop on top of a hill in the German Eiffel. Mont Royal airport inTrabe-Trabach has a 750m grass strip and is surrounded by trees. Additional challenge is the 2% slope. Afterwards all preparations didn’t make a lot of sense, because when circling around above the airport, there simply was nobody there. No PPR remarks in Jeppesen or in the Notams, and a beautiful sunny day, but still only one solution: divert. We diverted to the nearby Frankfurt-Hahn airport, almost 4km long, and not very busy at all. A taxi had to take us back to the beautiful town of Traben-Trarbach on the shore of the Mosel. Nice hote (Bellevue) an a nice walk to the top of the hill (airport and old ruins) and back again through the wine fields.

The next day we used the last leg to Aero as an IFR practise flight in clear blue skies. Thomas and Martina reserved a room in the Waldhorn in Ravensburg, the same as last year. We had a marvellous evening together with them in an Italian restaurant in one of the harbours on the Bodensee.

Thursday was Aero-day, easy to get to the Messe by train and shuttle. Aero was basically a copy of the last year version. We did not see a lot of new stuff, does not seem to make sense to go every year.

Positive where the optimistic signs from Centurion, where the 2.0s would definitely be a much better option for our DA40 compared to the heavy Austro engine. We have a couple of years to go, but it’s nice to know that there is good solution for the continuity of the Pancake. Of course it’s still very important that Centurion finds a viable business model for the long run.

Part II will cover our flight to Annecy on Friday, a couple of days ofskiing in Meribel and the flight back to Holland.