This year’s Albatros’ annual flying tour went to Poland. We were 37 persons in 19 ultralight aircraft and 2 autogyro, and the plan was to have longer stops in Wroclaw, Zakopane, Olsztyn, and Trzebicz Nowy. Different activities were planned, like hiking in High Tatras, canoeing in Mazury region, sightseeing, etc. Flying was estimated to be in total around 1200 NM:
Plan illustration
The first day (Denmark to Wroclaw) was going to be rather challenging due to several reasons:
- Relatively long flying to Wroclaw, with stop for refuelling in Germany, and customs clearance in Poland. None of us had tried customs clearance on our flying trips before.
- 2 extra NOTAMs were issued in Poland’s FIR just before our trip that affected our planning.
- The weather was unstable, and we were unsure whether we would be able to leave at all.
This is how it looked like from Ringsted airfield (EKRS) at 08:30 in the morning:
Promising weather
Those of us who were going to leave from EKRS met there, shared a breakfast, and had a briefing. The weather was slowly getting better but with shower rains here and there. When VMC minima were met, we took off. The first stop was in Anklam, Germany where we had lunch and refuelling.
Søren is preparing a flight plan in Anklam tower
Our next stop was supposed to be in Zielona Góra-Przylep (EPZP) for customs clearance, but Søren and I were granted permission to proceed for Wroclaw (Ask and you shall receive!) – we were very happy about that. Others had to land in EPZP. They had a pleasure of paying 30 PLN for something and having an ice cream. Thereafter all headed for Wroclaw as well.
The weather on the way was fine, sunny and pleasant. Poland is a beautiful country, also from air. It is very green, with lakes and rivers:
Oder river
Occasional showers came by, but didn’t affect our flying:
Rain in the air
All reached safely Szymanów airfield (EPWS) and were greeted by its staff. Marek Jóźwicki, managing director of the Aeroklub Wroclawski http://www.aeroklub.wroc.pl/pol/, was also there helping us to arrange the practicalities. We had been in contact since last year arranging this trip, and had excellent collaboration.
Brian is taxiing to parking
We got to Wroclaw, and enjoyed the warm weather, beer, crowded Rynek, and celebrated successfully reaching our first destination in Poland.
We loved the beer glass!