Cuba Libre!

Our ride from Havanna to Holguin - a 30 year old Boeing 737-200 from mexican carrier Global Air, operated for Aerocaribbean.

Viva la revolucion! Such paintings are just everywhere - like in most socialist-countries.

Bull-Taxi: such vehicles are very common in Cuba, mostly due to the lack of money and fuel. On the streets you see a lot of horse and bull-coaches, many bicycles but few cars. This great pic was taken by Katrin.

A long dream came true over Kartin's and my birthday: We decided to fly to Cuba and do it our style. We did not fly to the huge tourist resorts in Varadero, on the northern tip of the island, but rather to Holguin, which is a province in the southern part and less crowded. What a great experience. In Cuba there are two political systems at the same time - Capitalism and Socialism: tourists who live in luxurious hotels and can buy anything they want with their own currency - CUC (Cuban Pesos Convertible) - and the natives who just get the basics from their own currency (CUP). Some products you just cannot buy with the local CUP currency. Very confusing.

We did several trips by plane, train, boat and bus all over the island and including a short one-day trip to Havanna. Words can hardly describe the great time we had. This is truely a paradise island. Please have a look at my flickr.com pics (Click the "more pictures" button on the top right of this page) and view my Cuba photoalbum.

To Milano in style!

What a nice way to finish the week. Yesterday I was treated with a nice ride on our Cessna 560 Citation V for a nice filght from Hannover to Milano for a crew change. This flight came including nice views over across the Alps, spotting in Milano Malpensa, the international airport of Milano and on the way back with a great sunset. Such excursions remind me what a great job I have. Special thanks go out to my colleague Markus, who enabled me to do this while he was maning the office!

I want beaches, planes and great food, paraka'lo!

My wish was granted - Katrin and myself hat a great time on Corfu island, Greece. It has been a long time for me since I had a real beach holiday. We went snocheling, swimming, sightseeing and spotting - and the great thing is: on Corfu you can spend time spotting and swimming at the same time. We had so much delicious food - mainly fish - and I am turning into a greek redwine addict.

In this week we drove for nearly 1000km all over the island - and even found a little village that was a set for the 1979 James Bond "for your eyes only" movie.
One thing did not work out though - we were planning to fly with AirSealines scheduled floatplane service from Corfu to Paxos; however the airline just suspendet their services. On the other hand I cannot complain about the things we did insted on Corfu.
As usually I uploaded (and still annding to it) some more pics on my flickr.com site - please click on the "mehr Fotos/more pics! button on the top of this page!

London calling......

It has been a while, but last week I had the pleasure to return to one of my favorite cities for a three day businss trip. Allthough I have been to London quite a few times over the last 20 years, this has been the first time I flew into London City Airport in the docklands. Quite convenient as the DLR (dockland Light Railway) stops directly next to the terminal - so no need for a taxi at all.

A business partner treated myself and about 200 others with a pleasant day out on the river Thames and dinner at Madame Tousaud. We had a lot of fun that day. Also it was nice to catch up with many other guys I know since years, but rarely get to see them. I definetely need to comback...

Buenos Dias Espana

Handling a charterflight with an orchestra to/from Spain led me and my girlfriend to a nice weekend in Spain, involving lots of driving though from the very south up to the foot of the Pyrenees in the far north. We had one entire day to ourselfes in a tiny little cottage (www.masianovales.com). Far away from the next village Katrin found David and Maria's location through extensive internet reserch. Their little guesthouse in the Aragon area is a restored farmhouse which is nicely restored. All rooms have their own style and due to the lack of nearby restaurants, the couple cooks for its guests in the evening. Bikes were complimentary so we rode many kilometers along old railway tracks. The top pic shows our hotel. What a nice and relaxing place.
The business part of the job went very smooth as well by the way...

Hitching a ride..

... on our brand new Cessna Citation XLS+ - one of the very first ones in Europe! My girlfriend Katrin and I were lucky as we were able to spontaneously acompany a one and a half hor training session doing some touch and goes at Hannover airport. I envy our passengers to come a bit to be able to travel in style to their holiday and business destinations throughout Europe!

My ride of the day!

What a treat - last friday I flew with our Piper Cheyenne, today it was a lot of aproaches, touch-and-goes and overshoots with our nice looking Cessna 425 "Conquest I" D-IAWG. We did about an hour of flying on a cloudless day an a lot of landings at Hannover, our homebase.

Spottertour mit Torben

Right after the wall came down during the early ninties several aviation friends of mine and myself went on countless drives through the unknown GDR, exploring airfields. Regular stops included Harbke, near the former border, where an IL-18 was put up as a restaurant, Oschersleben, where at that time an old Tupolev TU-134 was displayed in the middle of the city (also as a restaurant) and Magdeburg - a major base for agricultural aircraft.
This weekend I decided to go an a similar drive along with my new aviation buddy - Torben. Our first stop was again Harbke. The old IL-18 restaurant is closed today and the aircraft is slowly rotting away (although it is still in one piece), our next port of call was the hospital in Olvenstedt (a suburb of Magdeburg). About 18 years ago this was the base for an Mil Mi-2 rescue helicopter. Today a much more modern Eurocopter EC-135 serves these duties.
Just a few more kilometers away is the very quiet Magdeburg "Business Airport". Not much traffic here, all the agricultural aircraft gone (since many years). But at least there is a nice attraction here: the Tu-134 which was before on display in Oschersleben. I already uploaded some pics on my flickr.com site (click Mehr Fotos / mehr Pictures).

Buenos Dias Mallorca!

Finishing my old job and starting a new one resulted in some time to spare, which Katrin and I decided to spend on a short trip to Mallorca and escape the dull grey winter here in Germany. The two of us working in the aviation business enabled us to get a very cheap rate for flights and hotel.
I have been to Mallorca island twice before: Once with my parents and brother some 25 years ago and once just passing through with one overnight while supervising a flight with a Cessna Citation about 6 or 7 years ago.
We had 5 great days. We enjoyed spring like weather with blue sky and blooming almond trees. We drove hundreds of kilometers all over the island, had great food such as paella and tapas. We had coffee/cappuchino in lovely small cafes visitied various markets - and there was some aviation, too: I got a chance to visit the old former Aeromarket Douglas DC-3/C-47 EC-EJB (or better: the remains of it) at the entrance of the old Son Bonet airfield, to the north of Palma where it serves as a gateguard. When you read my blog regularly you know I just love these old birds! As always there are some more images of our trip on my flickr.com site (click the link more photos / mehr fotos) - enjoy

Namastee India!

With just two weeks booking in advance, Katrin and I decided on a rather exotic destination for our short winter vaccation: GOA, India. With a passion for indian food, indepth sight-seeing and general curiosity we could not have made a better choice for our holiday. So many impressions: we had the grestest food in greasy indian restaurants, saw the most amazing animals in nature such as wild monkeys, pics, cows, snakes, crabs, buffalos. During our 10 day stay we did not see a single cloud in the sky.
The bigger part of our GOA-experience could be named "India by foot"! We walked for miles and miles everyday and only occational took a Tuc-Tuc or a taxi. We experienced very nice and helpful people during our adventure. I will be starting uploading some pics on my flickr.com site soon.
Although this was not an "aviation adventure", I could not have survived this time without at least a few airplanes - the Naval Aviation Museum on the southside of the airport was the place to go. The pic shows the last surviving Lockheed Super-Constellation in India ....with truck tires.

The other picture shows one of the restaurants we had lunch at - nice and clean... but the most delicious food you can imagine.