The town of Elsenfeld Germany (foto: )
6th September Aschaffenburg Worms 62 km
There were more press events this morning, organized by Ursula on behalf of Victorinox, Aschaffenburg. The huge Victorinox truck was there, offering a background of snowy Swiss mountains for two Ximangos (Werner and Hilmar’s and PT-ZAM). The weather forecast for my flight to Belgium was not good, another cold front having already arrived in Brussels and moving eastwards towards me. I knew I would have to race to reach the Ardennes, a range of low mountains between the two countries, before the weather socked in.
Aschaffenburg Airclub generously filled up my tanks (many thanks, folks!), and I took off at 1300 hours, escorted by two Pipers and with German TV cameras still rolling. In view of the low ceiling, I intended to follow the Rhine valley for as long as possible. In addition to the windmills scattered all over the countryside, there were many other obstacles – high chimneys, transmission cables, radio and telephone antennae – to worry about, as might be expected in a highly industrialized nation such as Germany. When the weather forced me down very low, I had to concentrate fiercely on what lay ahead. Luckily, the Garmin 430 GPS shows most of the power transmission cables, but nothing replaces a pair of eagle eyes.
About 30 nm short of the Ardennes, forward visibility dropped to no more than a kilometer. There was no way to go around, as the weather was not localized but blanketed over a vast area of Europe. I turned back, looking out for a place to land. It wasnt like flying in the Middle East, where airport might be hundreds of km away. With the GPS map on a 20 nautical mile scale, I had four airports to choose from. Within minutes I was over Worms, had a look, checked the frequency and landed. I could never have guessed I would end up in this town. Thats one of the beauties of light aviation: you know where you take off from, but you never know where you’ll land!
Este texto foi escrito por: Margi Moss
Last modified: setembro 6, 2001
