Flemming had a nap under the wing whilst we were waiting for better weather in Beaune Challanges airport.
We were going to Idar-Oberstein in Germany, and somewhere in the middle of our flight there was an area with low clouds, mist and limited visibility, so we had to wait. It was going to become better from around 12:00.
When the cloud base lifted, we took off.
The night before, The French Air Force had training exercises, and we noticed all restricted areas were active at night. Probably therefore, all areas were not active the day after (people had to rest), when we had our flight – except for the restricted areas by NOTAM or established by SUP. That made our flight possible and much easier.
Both Chenevieres and Phalsbourg were active, and we were asked to avoid.
It was nice to fly in that hilly area, with beautiful mountains around you, though the radio and radar coverage failed sometimes (which is very normal in the mountains).
Soon Flemming and I were on approach to Idar-Oberstein. The red arrow on the photo below points at the airfield which is at 1,575 ft MSL, and the blue arrow – at our hotel in the town.
After landing, we went to the tower, but it was empty. Flemming posed for me as an air traffic controller:
We asked around, and were told we could find the air traffic controller by the grill. There he was, preparing meals for the guests. He had his radio by his side, and had full control over, what was happening on the airfield.
The Idar-Oberstein restaurant is famous for its 350g steaks. You should have seen Flemming’s face expression when he saw those steaks! 🙂 The restaurant was well-visited, full of guests. It was also possible to stay overnight there, and we had our tents with us. That was very tempting, but I thought it would be too noisy and late before everybody leaves, and Flemming kindly agreed, though it was difficult for him – I could see it 🙂
A Kurdish family asked for permission to take pictures in our Aeroprakt, and we of course helped them:
Flemming and I walked down to the bus stop. The views were so beautiful:
The bus took us to the Stock Exchange by our hotel. It showed up, the stock exchange was for diamonds and prescious stones! Idar-Oberstein is a well-known gemstone town. On the main square, there was a monument of large gemstones 35 kg in total, from Uruguay, Brazil, USA, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, and Madagascar.
We checked in to our hotel and went out for dinner. The food was good, we were hungry, and for the first time on our tour decided to order desert:
The portions were big, and we couldn’t eat it all…
Our hotel room was on the 15th floor, very simple, but very big (standard from the old days!). Good huge bed and a fantastic view over the town. We also had a bathtab! All that for 400 dkk – how lucky one can be!
I love lying in a bathtab, relaxing and dreaming of having one myself 🙂
The night was slowly coming over the town…