Long time, no writing

A new post since December 2009. One and a half years to be precise. So, what has happened since my last post? Not much.

First of all, I didn't pass the Studienkolleg. Sad, but true. Anyway, as Steve Jobs said: "Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith." It's a line from his speech given at Stanford University in 2005. I watched the speech some time ago and I liked it. You can watch the speech here.

"Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle".

That said, I had to make up another plan for my career. I flew back to Mexico the 22. December 2010 for Christmas, etc. and to go through the inefficient and unnecesary process of my private pilots license revalidation. In Mexico, you must go through this process every 2 years. So, I checked the regulations for the requirements and made an appointment for my Class 2 medical examination. What do I learn after having the examination? The Class 2 medical certificate in Mexico is now 1 year valid. And the Class 1 certificate? 1 year as well. Is there any logic in that? No, they need more money. More examinations, more money for the medical and transport authorities.
After three awesome flights with a Cessna 172N (practicing emergency procedures and high performance maneuvers) I finally got everything for my revalidation.

I got the new license the 16. February 2011. Great! Two more years with a valid private pilot license.
I flew to Mexico City in March to meet some friends. Actually, I met new pilots and amazing people who also are passionate about flying and aviation. On both flights I had the opportunity of seating in the flight deck's jumpseat. Those were my first jumpseat flights in an Airbus. Awesome airplane. No doubt I'll fly an Airbus in an airline some time...
On April, I flew to Toluca for the Aeroexpo 2011. It was pretty good! There were many stands and airplanes in display like a Cirrus SR-22, the new Beechcraft King Air 250, a B350i, an Embraer Legacy, etc. I spent most of the time in the EnElAire stand because my pals were there. They host an internet radio aviation program every tuesday and thursday at 7:00pm CST. You can listen it here (It's in spanish).

So, what's my new plan? I decided the best thing I could do is start my Commercial Pilot License training, followed by the convalidation process in Mexico (More to that in a future post). There are great opportunities now in Mexico for pilots and the airlines are hiring. I returned in April to Hamburg to finish the glider pilot license course. I've only flown three days, but there will be more glider-flying in the coming days!


There is lot's to write about, but I wanted to write my current situation in this post. Anyway, it's a pilot's story ;)

Speedbirds and Maple Leafs!

Que tal como estan?

Some weeks ago I found a British Airways Captain Blog, who flies Boeing 777s all over the globe.
"The Flying Scotsman" is his Blog title. I found it thanks to Captain Doug Morris' Blog "From the Flight Deck". It is very cool to see how blogs are connected. It creates a net of aviation blogs I always like to read. They give me the motivation I need to continue my career and of course, I learn tons of new things.

Now studying in Hamburg for a german certificate (just one semestre to go), I am, have been, and will be totally concetrated on reaching my goal: To be an Airline Pilot.
I have a PPL and now I'm going to ground school for the PPL-(C), for gliders. Some of my friends have finished CPL training (with IR and MeR), but my goal is to fly for Lufthansa. It's a big goal for a guy born in Guadalajara, Mexico and it requires time and patience. If not training for a license or rating, I study everything aviation-related on the internet, books, etc. Nothing stops me from learning more and more to achieve that goal...

The Standard Instrument Departure

Hi, this post will be about Standard Instrument Departures (SID) or also known as Departure Procedures (DP). It has been a long time since I wrote about charts, so here it is:

Hamburg Runway 23 Departures (German AIP format):
The Jeppesen format is the simplest one, but I want to post different kinds of formats.
On the upper part of the chart, the transition altitude, variation and the airport frequencies are published. The transition altitude is 5000ft. That's standard for Germany. The variation is 1° East. More about transition altitude and variation later.
As we can see, the chart shows a top view of Hamburg and it's departure procedures. It may seem confusing at first, but it's very easy to understand and interpret a SID chart. The lines point to different Fixes or Navigation Aids. Those Fixes or Nav-Aids are the points where we finish the departure procedure and continue flying on an Airway. The departure names are designed with the Navigation or Fix of the departure followed by a number and a letter. For example IDEKO2B: IDEKO is the departure fix and 2B is the number and letter that indicates this departure is from runway 23 at Hamburg. Every runway (and some airports) has the same departure fixes and that's why they assign a number and letter.
We can see some Restricted Airspaces between the fixes IDEKO and ULSEN. Maybe there are some military bases over there or something important. ED-R 31 extends from Ground Level to 14500ft Mean Sea Level.
Our Minimum Safe Altitude (MSA) is 2100 feet, on a radius 25 NM from the HAM VOR. This chart is on a scale of 1:1 000 000, meaning that 1cm in this chart equals to 1000000cm (or 10km) in reality.

So how do we fly a departure?
When making the flight planning and routing, the departure fix or nav-aid is selected. In this example I will choose the BASUM9B (Basum Nine Bravo). Remember that this chart only shows departure procedures from runway 23.
As we take off, we must fly direct to the FU NDB (350.5), or 5.5 DME from ALF (115.80), on the track of 229° to intercept the 235° Radial from HAM VOR (113.10). As we reach 38.0 DME from HAM VOR, we make a left turn to intercept the 208° Radial from LBE VOR (115.10) and fly to BASUM. BASUM is 60 DME from LBE VOR. Our Minimum Altitude on this departure is 4000ft and you can see the 4000 written parallel to the lines.

There are two pages for each departure on the German AIP. This is the second page of this runway departures:
It explains the route to follow of the departures. Shows instructions such as climb to 5000ft and contact Bremen Radar. It also shows remarks for the different departures.

Well, I think I've told everything there had to be explained. I hope you didn't get bored reading this.

Goooood bye.

Jumpseat en CRJ-200

Moin! I'll write this post in spanish. It's about my first jumpseat flight on an airliner and it happened someday in April 2008...

Foto por Victor Garciamontes, Airliners.net

Todo empezó cuando un Capitán de Alma le dijo a mi tío que lo invitaba a volar en cabina a Puerto Vallarta y de regreso. Mi tío le comentó que no podía, porque tenía mucho trabajo y entonces le dijo si invitaba a un "sobrino", osea yo, a volar y respondió que sí. Le habló a mi papá y me dijo justo cuando me levanté.

Emocionado me bañé rápido y me puse el uniforme. Fuimos al aeropuerto a la Terminal 2 en Guadalajara y nos encontramos con el Capitán. Lo saludamos y me despedí de mi papá.
Subimos al segundo piso de la T2 a la sala de los briefings (donde se comentan los planes del vuelo y se coordina con la tripulación. Esperaramos a que llegara el avión de otro vuelo y estuvimos platicando con otros capitanes y sobrecargos.

Ahí conocí al Primer Oficial y la Sobrecargo del vuelo, muy buena onda los por cierto. A la 1:00pm caminamos hacia el poderoso CRJ-200 y ví lo de costumbre en plataforma: ERJ-145s de Aeromexico Connect y CRJs de Alma. Abordamos el avión y mientras el PO (Primer Oficial) hacia el chequeo exterior, el capitán ya estaba sentado haciendo la preparación de cabina. Yo estaba admirando el CRJ por dentro porque nunca me había subido a uno. Caminé hasta atrás y me senté en un asiento. No estan tan mal y el espacio es suficiente para un vuelo corto.
Cuando entré a la cabina me dice el Capitán que me siente del lado del PO y me explicó unas cosas referentes al CRJ. Me dijo que subiera la intensidad de los displays y que programe el FMC (Flight Management Computer). Programé la ruta y el performance. Sí no hubiera sido por el CRJ de Wilco-feelthere (para el Flight Simulator 2004), no hubiera podido programar nada.

Cuando regresó el Primer Oficial y saqué el jumpseat. El jumpseat se saca del lado derecho (en dirección hacia la cabina de pasajeros)), lo desaseguras con un botón y lo mueves hacia la izquierda. El asiento es como los del cine que se baja y si no te sientas se regresa solo. Para asegurarlo introduces un tubo en un seguro rojo grande hasta que suene "click".
Me senté, y el PO copió la autorización con la ruta GDL-V14N-PVR a 16000 pies de altitud. Como despegamos de la pista 10 (en dirección contraria a Puerto Vallarta), con el viraje hacia TUITO (un fijo imaginario de navegación en la aerovía hacia PVR) ascendemos a buena altitud. Eso nos permitió ascender a 18000 pies. Me dijeron si despegan de la pista 10 también pueden ascender a 20,000 pies, volando por la UJ14N (una aerovía).

Yo listo con el cinturón asegurado, procedimos con los chequeos previos de vuelo. Los Checklists se leen rápido y se hacen para asegurar que todo esté listo en la cabina (switches, configuración del avión, etc) Iniciamos el pushback y encendido de motores. APU: on, APU Bleeds: on, PACKs: off, etc. Se presiona Start para que comience el encendido de un motor y se deja de presionar cuando el motor neumático de ignición de marcha a la turbina. Como al 30% de N2 (Compresor de alta presión o turbina), "Fuel: on" (se desasegura el throttle para ponerlo de Fuel Shutoff a ON) y hay ignición. Mismo procedimiento para el segundo motor y se hace el chequeo después del arranque. Rodamos via Golf y Alfa a la pista 10.
Se completan los chequeos ántes del despegue y ántes de nosotros, despegó un Cessna 152 de la escuela de vuelo Provuelo. El controlador nos dió instrucción de entrar a posición y mantener en la pista.

Nos autorizaron para despegar y cuando estuvimos listos, aceleraron al porcentaje de N1 (Compresor de baja presión, o Fan) indicado por el FMS y sentimos la aceleración creada por los dos General Electric CF34-3B1 con un empuje de 8,729 libras (38,83 kN) cada uno.
100 nudos en el indicador de velocidad, V1 (velocidad de decisión), Vr (velocidad de rotación), en el aire, V2 (velocidad mínima para un ascenso con un motor). En la carrera de despegue el avión se mueve mucho por la superficie de la pista, pero ya en vuelo el movimiento desaparece. Va uno flotando... casi mágico.

Ascenso positivo: tren de aterrizaje arriba y seguimos la salida por instrumentos GDL1A (Guadalajara uno alfa). Piloto Automático engarzado y el Capitán, siendo el PNF (Pilot Not Flying o Piloto Monitoreando), solicitó un viraje por la izquierda a la aerovía. En el ascenso por la izquierda pude ver el aeropuerto. Volamos directo al fijo TUITO y como despegamos por la pista 10, ascendimos a 18,000 pies. En el ascenso el PO programó la llegada VOR-DME 3 a la pista 22 de PVR en el FMC. Hubo una ligera turbulencia, pero divertida, en nuestro pequeño tiempo de crucero.

En el T/D (Top of Descent) comenzamos el descenso y nos autorizaron a la aproximación final del VOR-DME 3 pista 22. Yo quería que hicieran la aproximación completa con el arco, pero si se puede ahorrar tiempo, mejor. En el descenso y aproximación yo leí el checklist al final de cada checklist siempre se debe de decir: "x checklist complete". Reducciones de velocidad, flaps 8 (en grados), flaps 20 y aproximadamente a 10 millas en final: tren de aterrizaje abajo, flaps 30 y full flaps. Se mantiene una velocidad de referencia y el CRJ es característico por mantener un ángulo debajo del horizonte en la aproximación (ver foto). El aterrizaje estuvo excelente. Efectuado por el Primer Oficial, utilizando solo una reversa porque la del motor izquierdo estaba inoperable.

Rodamos a plataforma y no me acuerdo que posición nos asignaron, pero como había cambiado PVR!! Le construyeron una terminal satelital hay más posiciones. Ahora se ve mas congestionado. Muchos aviones y de diversas aerolíneas y cuando bajaron los pasajeros me salí con el PO a hacer el After Flight y Before Flight Exterior Check al mismo tiempo. Solo sentí el calor y humedad por 20 minutos en Puerto Vallarta, pero no estuvo tan mala esa pequeña visita.

Después abordamos otra vez y me senté en el Jumpseat. Mientras abordaban los pasajeros, hacíamos los checks y esta vez el PF era el Capitán. Pushback y startup. After Startup Checklist y rodamos a la pista 22. Before Takeoff Checklist.
Despegamos y ese mismo feel mágico ya estando en el aire. La salida PVR1B (Vallarta 1 Bravo), pero el Capitán solicitó otra vez por la izquierda directo a la aerovía. Ascendimos a 17000ft o 15000ft no me acuerdo y pasando el volcán de Tequila, ya cerca del bosque de la Primavera, empezamos el descenso. Nos autorizaron a interceptar el Localizador (señal horizontal del ILS= Instrument Landing System) de la pista 10.

Derecho a la pista 10 ya desde la Primavera. Reducciones de velocidad, Flaps, Glideslope vivo y tren de aterrizaje abajo. Before Landing Checklist.
Aterrizamos muy bien otra vez, usando una reversa. Desalojamos por la pista 02, After Landing Checklist y rodamos a la posición via Golf. Se bajaron los pasajeros, metí y aseguré el Jumpseat y salió el Capitán a hacer el chequeo exterior. Me despedí del PO y de la Sobrecargo y tomé pocas fotos con mi celular, el cual ya no lo uso. Después me bajé del gran CRJ-200 y le dí mis gracias al Capitán despidiendome.

Fue una experiencia de nivel. Estuvo muy padre! Todavía me puedo acordar de muchas cosas. Espero que les haya gustado!

Nos vemos, Daniel.

München

Not posting much as you can see. Five weeks ago I planned a trip to München and booked a Lufthansa flight which was cheap. I then googled hostels in München and booked four nights in one. They are called Jugendherberge and there are thousands over Europe. I planned travelling on Thursday 15th of October, but the flights got expensiver and I booked for Friday 16th of October to the 20th. Done.

Then, a school-mate flew from Guadalajara to Hamburg yesterday and I picked him up at the airport. I waited for him to arrive and I thought he lost his connection and was flying on the next flight to Hamburg. I thought right and it appeared his luggage didn't arrive with him and we reported it to Lufthansa. As we finished reporting it, he saw his luggage on the bands. The Lufthansa guy gave us the thumbs up and we walked to the S-Bahn and got home.

The day after, today, I got up at 5 o'clock and got to the airport. As I tried to check in with the automatic machines, they went out of order. I just laughed and the guy behind me said “What did you do?” Nothing of course. The time for boarding was near and the system wasn’t online. When it was back, I successfully checked-in and got my boarding pass, but then I had to document my bag and there was a long queue to do it. When I was in the middle of the queue, my flight was already boarding. A lady was asking for passengers that departed at 7:30 and I was one of them. She told me to wait at the beginning of the queue and then the lady of the counter told me that I couldn't make it to my original flight, but she would change me to the next flight departing to München. I was happy and put me on the 11A seat (emergency exit of the A320). I was very happy! ? I have long legs, so I thank her. The weather was very poor: Low clouds, rain, poor visibility and very cold. Below (VFR) minimums as we pilots say.

I went through the security checkpoint and the metal detector beeped, don't know why, but I had no guns nor bombs or any stupid things. Probably it was the metal button of my jeans. The terminal is very cool. Very modern and simple. As any airport, they are infested with stores and duty free shops. My gate was 16 and I already knew the flight was delayed, so I walked around there and took photos of other aircraft on the gates. I saw an A320 landing and I knew that was our airplane so I stood in front of the window to see the arrival activities. 15 minutes after, they called for boarding and I walked into the jetway to board the good Luftbus. As I boarded, I asked the lead flight attendant if I could take some pictures of the flight deck and the captain allowed me. I said “moin!” as I walked in and both pilots laughed. The captain seemed to be happy and the first officer was woman. Major cool! I introduced myself and began to talk about my plans to apply for Lufthansa Flight Training and what I was doing in Hamburg. I took some pictures and asked if they made an ILS CATII approach, but they didn't. It was a normal ILS CATI approach. As I was ready to go to my seat, I made the final question: May I fly in the jumpseat? The captain told me kindly “Another day”. It would have been an experience, but maybe next time (On the return flight maybe?).
I got to my seat, checked the emergency paper and the instructions how to open the emergency door and waited until the boarding had finished. The flight attendants began to demonstrate the safety procedures and the pushback began. Packs off, engine startup. We taxied to runway 33 in Hamburg and we took off. You gotta love those takeoffs! AMLUH5G departure and climbed through the cloud layer and it was a pretty nice sight.

We had turbulence on the climb and I don’t know what our final altitude was, but I suppose it was above 29,000ft. Cabin service began and I drank orange juice. We started our descent and approached to Munchen Airport. It was very cloudy and we landed on runway 26R and we quickly taxied to our stand. I remained on my seat while everybody de-boarded the Airbus and when I got out of the plane I took some pictures. It was the Lufthansa A320 “Wiesbaden”.After that, we were taken by bus to the terminal and I waited for my bag. The München Airport is very big and modern. After I got my bag, I walked to the S-Bahn station of the airport to get to the Jugendherberge. The airport is not near from the city, so it took a while to arrive. It's very cold in München. Cloudy, rainy, cold: Typical European weather. The Jugendherberge is very nice. It has lots of rooms and the people here are families, bag packing students and groups of friends. I went to the city centre (Marienplatz) and it is very nice, but the temperature wasn’t cooperating. In the night I began to write this post.

The next day I went to the centre to say hi to a class-mate. She's studiing architectur in München and lives with her brothers. Her brothers and I went to the Hofbräu München: A very famous bar and restaurant in München. I drank 1 liter beer and I couldn’t believe that! Haha, I don't drink beer very often.
The next day I went to the Deutsches Museum. There are many technical things to see in there: Cars, airplanes, locomotives, boats, rockets, etc. The funny thing is I couldn’t find the locomotives and cars section. I took many photos and it would have been very cool to have flown all those airplanes in the museum. Then, I went to another museum, part of the Deutsches Museum, in a small airfield located in Oberschleissheim. I took many pictures of different kinds of airplanes, but my battery went dead there. I enjoyed it and returned to the Jugendherberge.

I stayed in München 5 days, but I could have been there in 4. On the second to last day I did nothing. Only chat and watch wimp.com with my netbook.
Last day (20th October): I checked out at approximately 9:00am and went to the S-Bahn to the airport. When I got there, I went to the terrace and watched the activity on the platform. 737s (Bobbys), A330s, A340s, many A320s, Dash 8s, etc. My flight departs at 9:35pm and it’s 12:50am. 8:45 hours to go...

I wrote this part in the actual posting day (03.11.09):

When I decided to charge my cellphone, I began searching for a charger. There were no chargers! I only found one at the exit and I waited there reading the Airbus A320 FCOM (Flight Crew Operating Manual) with my netbook. Many airport employees were riding scooters! It was so cool and it must be fun to ride with a scooter in the terminal :)
When the cellphone battery finished charging, I went to the Lufthansa check-in machines, chose my seat (35F) and printed my boarding pass. I then approached a counter and the guy was bored. He laughed when I showed him my boarding pass and then he documented my bag. Bag free, I proceeded to a Lufthansa World Shop and saw some airplane models. A Hogan model of a Lufthansa 747-400 costed 14€ and I bought it. As I didn't want to stay there, I went to the security checkpoint and this time the metal-detector didn't beep. I then walked through the duty-free shops and searched my gate.

Most of the time before my boarding time I walked through the concourse and watched the activities of the arrivals and departures from the gates. Our nice Airbus A321 arrived the gate and 20 minutes later it was time for boarding. I walked into the Airbus and asked again if I could visit the flight deck. Both pilots were very friendly and asked some technical things about the Airbus. I didn't bother them asking if I could fly in the jumpseat and proceeded to my seat. The Flight Attendants were very friendly as well and I had a first look of how long the A321 was. I chose 35F, the second to last row of seats because I wanted to hear the engine exhaust hitting the fuselage.
Pushback began and the engines began to start. It was a longer taxi to the runway than Hamburg and I always enjoy taxiing. Runway 08L, another aircraft took off and we were ready for takeoff. The sound of the exhaust hitting the fuselage and the acceleration increased. We were flying and turned to the left to the North. Next stop: Home Sweet Home Hamburg :)
The Flight Attendants began with the service and I asked for orange juice. The pretty lady asked me "Don't you want a tea or a coffee?" I responded: "Maybe later" and she said: "No, there won't be later" and started laughing. I laughed too and my face went red. When she returned she asked me again and I said no thanks. Very friendly crew!
We started our descent and I recognized Hamburg at the moment I saw the Alster. We flew from the Southwest and continued heading North for an ILS approach to runway 15. The landing was very good and the taxi to the stand was very very short. It was an amazing flight and after everybody got out of the airplane I said bye to the crew and went to the baggage claim area and it didn't take too long to appear. Then, I walked to the S-Bahn station to my house.

I hope you enjoyed this post! Bye for now.

More glider flying

Second post about glider flying!

I've been many times at Boberg since my first glider flight. Now that I'm part of the club I have to be there every weekend. I've had 7 flights (8 with the first one) as a glider student and on the 5th, I landed without the help of the instructor for the first time.

On the 6th flight, the instructor took off and after 50 meters, I took the controls. On the 7th flight, I had the controls the entire flight. It is very cool to take off and you only have to mantain your heading and climb with an airspeed between 80 and 90 km/h. As you climb higher, the rate of climb is reduced and you have to push the nose a bit to mantain 80 km/h. When the cable is released, you pull the lock three times to ensure it has released and you glide! If you take off with a crosswind, you must fly into the wind so that it doesn't moves you from the climb trajectory. The next step is to find thermals.

One option, tipically used, is to fly below a cumulus cloud and hope there's rising air. You can also search for other gliders flying around in your area and if they are making turns, it means they found one. You fly there and then fly on that same circle with the same direction. You fly on his 9 o'clock if turning left, so that he flies on the other side of the circle.

When you don’t find more thermals and you’re flying below 250 meters, it’s time to land. All flights all made near the airfield so that you don’t land somewhere else. You fly parallel to the runway (Gegenanflug or downwind in english) and check if there are other gliders landing. As you fly abeam 500m from the runway threshold (at your 7.30 o'clock), you start your turn to the Queranflug (Base) and it’s perpendicular to the runway. Then, you start turning to the Endanflug (Final) and apply speedbrakes as required. Normally you descend with 90kmh and use speedbrakes with pitch control so that you don’t get too fast or too slow, or too low or high and make a nice approach. When crossing the treeline, you apply full speedbrakes and land. The flare is extremely easy and the glider stops with less than 20 meters on the ground.



Hope you enjoyed this post! Cya

My First Glider Flight

Moin Moin! I didn’t have time to write in my blog. This post will be about my first glider flght on 15th of August 2009. (Didn't published this one until this day... ups!)

One Saturday I decided to go to Boberg Segelflugplatz, that’s south of Mummelmannsberg (Southeast from Hamburg). Not very far from where I live. I only take my bike and change in one or two stations and when arriving at Mummelmannsberg I ride with my bike to Boberg. When I got to the airfield, there was good activity around. I asked someone where I could make a flight in a glider and I went to a van, where all the members where sitting and chatting.


The place where that van is, is the Start-position and one calls the “catapult” to launch the glider with the cable so that it can fly. I asked someone again if I could make a flight and yes, I could fly that day. I explained that I was already a pilot and I wanted to make the PPL-C, the german glider licence. He told me that I could make a “Schnupperkurs”. It consists of 10 takeoffs (flights) to see if you like gliding. Of course I will like it! I joined the club the next day as a normal member.

When it was my turn to fly, I put the parachute on and I got into the back seat. That glider, the ASK-13 (german glider), is for two: one in the front and one in the back. I strapped myself, but it was uncomfortable inside. I have long legs and the position wasn’t very comfortable for me, but heck! I flew ^^. We closed the “window”, it’s the hatch-window and the pilot explained me some things. We made the pre-takeoff checks and we were ready to go! The takeoff is very cool. The cable pulls the glider very fast and you’re in the air in less than 4 seconds. The climb is spectacular... right after you takeoff, the glider climbs at about 1200 feet per minute or 6 meters per second. Reaching an altitude where the “catapult” can not get you higher, the cable is released automatically (When the cable reaches more than 57°). We glide at about 80 to 90 km/h and the key to remain in the air for a long time is to find thermals. Thermals are the “air-bubbles” of hot air. The sun heats the surface and because the hot air is less dense than cold air, it rises. As this hot air reaches a level of comparatively cool air, where the moisture in the air condenses, cumulus clouds form. They are the puffy ones. When we find a thermal (tipically below a puffy cloud), the variometer indicates a climb and we begin to make A LOT of turns to climb. When turning the glider, you must use more rudder than an engine-powered airplane. I controlled the glider for some time and made some turns. It’s a lot of fun!

It was time to land and we flew parallel to the runway and the pilot took the controls. The landing is very cool I must say. The sound of the air hitting the speedbrake is awesome and you start descending to the grass runway. The landing is very simple and so I finished my first glider flight. No words, it was amazing! I’ve flown all my life in different kinds of powered airplanes, but gliding is so cool! I got out of the glider with a BIG smile and then asked how could I join the club.

The club name is Hamburger Verein für Luftfahrt. HVL in short. You can find more info on www.hvl-boberg.de

I wrote most of this part when I was on the train to Münster. I visited my granduncles there. More gliding adventures and pics next! Stay tuned!