Flight 19's European Vacation

[Willy]

We've decided to aimlessly wander around Europe and see what we can find. Took off from Groningen, Holland and headed up to Copenhagen Denmark. Sure is a lot of fog around here this time of year....

[PRB]

Rgr on the fog up in the northern territory this time of year. They got some giant bridges to drive on too, dang!

[Moses03]

Found a suitable ride. Promised the owner I would ferry it back to Australia...someday.

[lefty]

Think I'll nip up to the roof platform and get the Bofors greased up.............

[Willy]

After finding the back seat full of haggis, I traded the Cessna in on a Aero Commander 500.....

[Moses03]

We survived the Bofor bombardment and made our way to a chilly Poland.

[Willy]

Nice flight to Poland. Spring has come to at least part of Europe.

[Willy]

Had an old friend show up tonight to fly with us from Poland to Lithuania?. Nice flight although the usual Flight 19 weather was waiting for us at EYPA and we couldn't see the runway until we were almost on top of it.

[PRB]

Roger on an old friend showing up. Got a couple of kodaks, along with the usual approach-in-the-heavy-fog shots.

[Taco]

Howdy CNs,

Should be joining up with you all tonight. Been down in North Africa flying trying to make a few bucks for the old warchest. Picture, the plane I will be flying tonight, but with winglets.

Taco

[PRB]

Another day, another fog shrouded airport in Eastern Europe. This time flew from Palanga (EYPA) to Vilnius International (EYVI) in Lithuania. A pleasant flight, and we're headed into land covered by forests now, more or less.

[Willy]

Great flight across Lithuania to Vilnius with another old friend showing up.

[Willy]

We had a full house tonight and a great flight to Riga. Here's a few pics....

[Moses03]

What Willy said.

[Taco]

Howdy all,:salute:

Well, it’s sure nice to be back in the cockpit again after a long hiatus. Let me tell you this, this was one very interesting flight. The radio chatter covered a wide range of topics, including the some of the local words in some of the weirdest translation I have ever heard. But all in all it was a very nice and fun flight. The picture show all pilots parked at Riga with the exception of vW who was on final approach.

[MM]

Nice to join in on the fun. Here is the gang gathering to depart from Riga for Helsinki. Then a quick snap of the Aerostar passing over Tallin.

[Willy]

Great flight to Helsinki, but I forgot to load the darn camera.

[Taco]

Hey There!

Well, again Flight #19 crew came up with a real nice flight, and as strange as it sounds they got the weather right, with the exception of the 40+kt headwind lol. But what the heck, got something’s right. I sure am getting tired of seeing all the snow; maybe someday we will plan a flight in Northern Europe during the springtime. Interesting radio chatter tonight about the demise of older, and maybe classic airports, to the money grubbing, no comment. Oops, going to get me-self in trouble if I keep going, so cya later.

[Moses03]

Here is a interesting photo taken at Helsinki Malmi airport. Curious mix of aircraft; Focke-Wulf Fw58, Junkers Ju86, de Havilland Rapide, Fokker D XXI, among others. Note the autogyro as well. The aircraft might have gathered for the official grand opening on May 15th, 1938.

The calm before the storm...

[Willy]

We left Helsinki for some little airport in Stockholm Sweden. Nice flight although it was pretty darn foggy in Sweden. I got a bit turned around in the fog and came in on a unlit runway while the others found the one that was lit up like a Christmas tree.

[Taco]

Hello again,

Well, after setting around the coffee shop at the FBO at Heisinki it was decided to fly over to Stockholm, Sweden to check out an ex-air force base (ESCN) that might just make a nifty place for some operations by a questionable group of people who shall, at this time, remain nameless.
This base has been closed for quite sometime, but we heard rumors that Swen’s Meatball Co. maybe working out of this base, and again rumors has it that Swen’s Meatball had something to do with something called Sweden Bikini contest or something to that effect! So this might be an interesting afternoon after landing…….Ah Bikinis.
The weather wasn’t to bad until we neared the coast of Sweden and then Flight 19 old buddy named FOG (fig as called by the CNs) settled in. Me, heck I didn’t see the bloody runway until I was almost passed it, made a quick descent bounced all over the place, and finally ended up in the grass next to the runway, but couldn’t have been to bad, was able to taxi over to the ramp and join up with the group.

[Willy]

Got to thinking about it and decided that maybe a working vacation wouldn't be a bad idea. So I went over to the local swap n shop and traded the Aero Commander in on a converted Beech Kansan. Figured I could haul a little cargo in the back and maybe a passenger in the nose (two if they're friendly and maybe even three if they're small and really friendly).

Going to have to see where Sven has a takeout delivery going to....

[Moses03]

We furthered the cause due west into Sweden's forested interior. Also traded out the V-tail for a push/pull Cessna.

[Willy]

The Kansan flew pretty well deeper into Sweden. There's a few things I want to add to it, but not much. My copilot, Fred doesn't have a set of controls for the right seat, but considering his flying, that's not a bad thing. We did have some foo fighters buzzing about, but they weren't a real problem...

[Taco]

Just a few photos of last nights flight.