First CRONOS flight plan, Easter on Endelave island, and The Blue Bear

Beautiful clouds greeted me when I arrived to my flying club in Holbæk:

I prepared my Aeroprakt. Soon Erik, my club mate, was there – and we were happy to head for Endelave island:

It was first time, I filed a flight plan via CRONOS, a new system for processing and forwarding of flight plans submitted to AIS Briefing. In November 2022 CRONOS replaced the old Naviar online form we used in Denmark for filing our flight plans. I had applied for a CRONOS account last year, and received all the necessary (very lengthly) guides that helped we to create a login, access the system, and to be able to use it.

In March, I played a bit with the CRONOS functionality, to make myself ready. When you fly in Denmark, it’s not necessary to send a flight plan beforehand. But for flying abroad, it is mandatory – the same as in other countries. Now the days are getting longer, the weather (hopefully) better, and I’ve missed flying abroad on a longer weekend.

The easiest way to send a flight plan is via SkyDemon, or any other flight planning software. You instantly receive a confirmation that your flight plan is sent. The problem is – you don’t receive any confirmation from the receiving part. And if you call them, you learn they don’t confirm plans sent/received via SkyDemon. So you are forced to use CRONOS, in our case.

And what have been my experiences with CRONOS so far? Well, I’ve never seen such a cumbersome way of creating a login and the login process. Even Microsoft Authenticator does it better! First you need to login to one system, using given user ID and given password. You cannot change that password (!), and you cannot view it (!) when you type it in. Then, if successful, you need to login again, using the same user ID and an OTP (One Time Password) generated by a designated app you had set up. After that you need to log in for the 3rd time – the same user ID, but with the password you had set up when setting up your account. User friendiness is definetely not something that was considered!

When the day before my flight I wanted to create a flight plan, I suddenly couldn’t log in, and was confused by those different sites and login options. Nothing worked for me. So I contacted Mads, a fellow pilot from Roskilde flying club, and he helped me to find a meaning out of that mess. I was so happy!

My flight plan was sent, received, approved, and the air traffic controller could quickly find it. Everything worked fine. I guess, it’s like with any new system – no matter how good or bad it is, you need to learn it. And the more you use it, the easier it goes. But what a crap that CRONOS!

Well, back to the main story of this blog post. Erik and I continued our flight to Endelave. Samsø island was on our right, with a huge puffy cloud above it:

On our left, there was the Great Belt strait and endless views:

Shortly, we reached Endelave, an island of 13 km2:

On Endelave, the spring was blooming. The Aviator got himself a nice friend – The Blue Bear, whom he took with on that trip, and the two boys wanted to be photographed by the flowers:

The name Blue Bear is because he has a tattoo on his bottom half – a blue heart, which is a symbol of love for aviation, you know.
Erik and I took the bikes, and went exploring.

Not much water was in the “bay of Endelave”:

We were lucky to visit the church. Normally it is closed, but we met a kind person on our way. The man saw our red bikes (meaning you came to the island with your own aircraft and got the bikes from the airport), and when he heard we wanted to come inside – he had the key and opened the church for us.

Among other interesting things, the Endelave church has two hanging from the ceiling ships: a full-rigged ship from the 19th century, and the ship of the ‘Dannebrog’ line from the 1950s.

It is a common tradition in Denmark, to have a hanging replica of a sailing ship in a church.  The practice of giving the replica of a vessel to the church is very old, and can be traced back to times long before Christianity. The ancients believed, offering of a scaled-down ship model would guard the ship and its crew on their journeys. Such a gift is called a votive offering.

In the Christian era, the magic nature of this act faded away, but the tradition of carving a replica of the ship in which a retired seamen had spent his life remained a hobby for many.

This tradition coincided with an old Christian allegory of comparing the church itself to a ship. Even to this day we call the main part of our churches the nave. This word was derived from the Latin word navis, which means ship and which is the origin of word navy.

My favourite part of the Endelave church is its porch, where one can see an ancient cross, a tombstone and an old oak door from approx. 1550, that leads to the nave of the church. The doorway is from the church’s origin – 15th century!

A short stop in the marina with a couple of sailing boats.

The island has around 185 inhabitants, and is well-visited during summer time. Last July, a record of almost 12,000 people made their way to Endelave by the ferry from Snaptun in Jutland. And plus visitors with sailing boats and of course aeroplanes.

There are many activities on the island, like hiking and running trips, sailing school, crossfit, football school, yoga, and Denmark’s smallest golf course.

Erik and I found a nice and warm spot in the sun to have our sandwiches:

After the break, we biked to the village. A beautiful cat came out for a lazy stroll, and I took some pictures of it:

The cat behaved diva-like, tolerated my presence but didn’t even want to glance at me.

Louise’s Pensionat was undegoing its thutched roof renovation. It was interesting to see the details:

By the way, the property is on sale. Someone interested in the hotel business will surely find this half-timbered house from 1777 very charming.

Time spent on the island went quickly, and we were back at the airport.

On our flight back home we did a round over the Nekselø island:

I thought, I’d visit Nekselø on foot again soon, before the tourist season begins. It’s nice to have this feeling of being in the nature (almost) alone.

At home, I cleaned up my Aeroprakt, and gave it its night dress on, to protect from dust and bird droppings:

A canopy cover also gives a good protection from sun and heat during warm sunny days. I often bring it with me om my trips. Check out my products here.

It was good we finally had a flight together with Erik. I did invited him several times, but I was falling sick again and again, and had to cancel every singe time. The weather was nice, and it was great to visit Endelave.