A planned trip with pilot friend Tek to northern England and Scotland did not come to fruition, partly due to being unable to obtain an aircraft that was available for a longer time period and partly because flying to England in a private plane is quite a complicated process. Hopefully we can schedule it for a later date but Tek will shortly be working for one of the airlines, which will mean limited free time for him. Not wishing to come to the end of the summer without achieving something exciting I suggested something smaller, such as a flight to the little airfield of Speyer/Ludwigshafen and a day spent visiting the Speyer Technik Museum. Tek replied that if we brought a friend of his then we could cut costs even further and enjoy a day out together. In the end, it turned out to be one of the best and most interesting days out I ever had, with the company of Florian who turned out to be very much my sort of person.


RWL is the German Flight Academy which is based at Mönchengladbach airport


Planning the flight route up the Rhine gorge to Speyer/Ludwigshafen


Boarding the Piper aircraft on the apron


Completing the preflight checklist

We convened early on a Sunday morning in late August in the pilot's briefing room at Mönchengladbach airport, in the terminal housing the RWL German Flight Academy. Tek, like before, completed his preparations carefully and methodically, taking care to print the weather report for our route and file the flight plan. We then went out to the Piper 28 aircraft on the apron to do the exterior preflight checks, including checking the fuel levels in both wings. Putting what little we had in the way of bags in the back of the plane, I took the seat behind the crew seats, so that Fabian could sit in the copilot seat and I found the rear seats surprisingly comfortable. Apart from the pilot and copilot seats, there are two further seats just behind, making a total of 4 seats. We started up, then went through the interior preflight checks while waiting for the motor to warm up. We all put headphones on, for noise protection and to be able to communicate with air traffic control, and taxied out to the head of the single runway at Mönchengladbach MGL airport.


Taking off on runway 13 at Mönchengladbach MGL


Looking back at the runway at Mönchengladbach (just right of center)


A close-up of the Kölner Dom (Cologne cathedral) as we flew over it


A nice clear view of the Rhine river; you can see the exposed sandbanks at the sides of the river

Takeoff was a smooth affair and we were quickly airborne, first of all banking to the right, southwest, before turning sharply to the left to follow our flight path up the Rhine gorge. Presumably this manoeuvre is to avoid traffic in the Dusseldorf Airport area. We flew over the old city of Cologne with amazing views of the Kölner Dom (cathedral) and Rhine River, although it was difficult to get a clear photo. It was a similar issue while flying up the Rhine gorge, whereby the sunlight on the left side of the plane was too strong and our position was mostly directly over the river which made it impossible to see. There was a clear view to be had of Koblenz, however. What I could see of the Rhine River was frightening. While there are some spots of very deep water in that river, much of it is relatively shallow and with the water level being over 2 meters lower than usual, it is rapidly becoming unnavigable. Sand bars were visible everywhere and the river barges are carrying half loads at most.


Inflight briefing about the route


Here the Mosel river disappears into the distance


This is Koblenz, where the Mosel joins the Rhine


Another rather dry looking part of the Rhine

There were some good views in the upper part of the gorge, before reaching the Boppard area. Beyond that there was a stretch of flat country with Ingelheim (!) and Mainz further to the East. There followed a largely flat region of agricultural land, which in prehistoric times had been a huge lake, maybe the largest in Europe, while the water cut through the rock to make the Rhine gorge we know now. As we flew past the Mannheim urban area on the left, the tiny airstrip of Speyer airport came into view. We quickly lost height and did two u-turns before coming in for a smooth landing. We were directed by local ATC to park at the top of the airfield on the grass.

EDLN - MGL Mönchengladbach D (UTC+1)
EDRY - ZQC Speyer/Ludwigshafen D (UTC+1)


Approaching the Speyer area


Although the Technik Museum dominates Speyer and the huge aircraft exhibitions are visible from anywhere, here is a pic of Speyer itself without the museum


Landing at Speyer/Ludwigshafen airfield


We parked the Piper on the grass as instructed and headed off to visit the Technik Museum