|
Previous | Next
LPHR - LPPT - LEMG
Normal routine: Awoke, showered,
packed, ate, examined the fax from Universal. Damn! What strong
winds from the northeast! The front desk fellow had trouble
running our AmEx card, but his boss lady came and got it done
in minutes. Now, however, our taxi driver had been waiting
about 20 minutes. He, Terry, owned the taxi company we had
used for transportation both from and to the airport, and
it turns out that although he had been born in Horta he had
dual citizenship and had lived and worked in Boston for 47
years! Obviously, he spoke excellent English. He loved his
years in the States, but found returning to his roots and
the slower, more intimate, relaxed lifestyle of the Azores
was what suited him at this time of his life.
The terminal at Horta airport
is undergoing a major expansion and modernization. Again,
a friendly handler fellow zipped us out to the plane and provided
us with an updated weather packet. Unfortunately, no ice was
available to put on board. Pam pulled the charts for Lisbon
- we have one book where we have put all of the instrument
charts for all of the airports we are scheduled to use, but
then we have a stash of about ten more books to cover all
of the airports on our route, for contingencies such as this
unanticipated fuel stop - while I did the exterior preflight.
Pat and Ashley show up right on time, and we taxi out right
on the dot of our pre-filed flight plan: 9:00 a.m. local,
and 0900Z.
The clearance is a lengthy one,
but not too much different than what Universal had filed for
us, and soon it was entered into the GNS 530s. We depart with
3,150 lbs of fuel. There is no radar contact until we climb
enough for Santa Maria to see us, and we make a visual departure
with a turn out to the west along the shore line so P & A
can see from the air what they saw from the shore yesterday…a
volcanic undersea eruption that added some land to the island
in the 1950s. We circle back and are told to be above 10,000
feet when back over the airport, as we climb straight away
to FL270.
When told to switch to HF as
we get near the end of our VHF range - wonder-of-wonders!
- the HF works like a champ! I had tweaked one adjustment
in the radio's set-up menu before we departed, but whether
this caused the fortuitous change or whether it is just the
nature of quirky HF, the radio worked great all the way. Thank
goodness!
The winds start out fairly light
from the south, but then swing to the northeast and keep getting
stronger. At one time we had 115 knots, quartering from the
left front, that cut our groundspeed down to 190. Position
reporting went smoothly and we were in clear skies almost
all of the time but with some fairly continuous light chop
due to the strong winds. Making our final report on HF, Santa
Maria told us to contact Lisbon on VHF, and they came in loud
and clear. We were cleared direct to the outer compass locator
for the ILS approach to Runway 3 from some 300 miles out!
Finally, the coast starting showing
up on the radar screen and then it came into sight visually.
Our first ocean was just about crossed!
The visibility was spectacular
and the skies clear as we descended to Lisbon (Lisboa, as
they call it), probably because the north wind was blowing
all the haze and smog away. What a beautiful sight! A huge
city on the water with lots of bays and bridges. Reminded
me a little of San Francisco, or maybe even New York. We landed
at 1332Z, 2:32 p.m. local time, for a flight time of 4.5 hours.
Remaining fuel was 700 pounds. We made a short taxi to the
assigned parking area where the routine "Follow Me" car showed
us to our spot, or "stand," as they say over here. We were
met by the handler who told us that the fuel truck was on
its way and he gave us an updated weather packet for the next
leg, to Malaga. No passports or anything else were checked
and he drove P & A into the building to use the facilities
while Pam and I stayed at the plane. This time we topped only
the outboard tanks, or mains, giving us a starting fuel of
2,600 pounds. Fuel here is measured in liters; we took 1,039.
The parking stand was near the active runway and we had quite
a sight and sound show as many airliners arrived or departed
as we fueled. It was in the low 70s, a little windy, very
nice.
In less than an hour we were
starting up again, this time with Pam in the left seat. We
taxied out at 1420Z and were airborne at 1428. For you pilots,
as we first took the runway, we received the European "Line
up and wait" clearance instead of the American "Taxi into
position and hold." Same difference, just different phraseology.
The clearance again involved
a rather complicated departure procedure but when we made
our initial contact to departure control after getting airborne,
the controller gave us a right turn direct to a waypoint on
the Portuguese/Spanish border. Love GPS! Also, we were immediately
cleared all the way up to our cruise altitude of FL230.
What is with the winds?! Of course,
as all pilots know, headwinds are more prevalent than tailwinds,
and that strong northeasterly flow we had inbound to Lisbon
now swung around to the south and we battled head winds all
the way to Malaga. We went into clouds soon after leveling
off and were in them all the way. Luckily, not too turbulent,
with no thunderstorms nor icing.
The ATIS at Malaga told us bad
news: "Information Tango at 1520Z. Wind 270 degrees at 4 knots,
1,500 meters visibility, heavy rain showers. Few clouds at
800, scattered at 1,000, broken at 2,500. Temperature 13.
Dew point 12. QNH 1015 hectopascals."
The RVR for the ILS was 500 meters
so we anticipated getting in without problems but nonetheless
we briefed the missed approach procedure thoroughly, just
in case. The Malaga approach controller cleared us for the
VOR ILS DME 14 approach - How's that for a name? - and offered
us a straight in on the localizer. However, since no published
minimum altitudes were shown for as far out as we were, we
opted to take the published routing that overshot the localizer
just a few miles, before coming back to it via a radial off
of the Martin VOR. This added all of about 2 minutes to the
flight, but gave us warm fuzzies, knowing the terrain clearance
was guaranteed all the way.
Pam flew a great approach using
the King KFC-300 autopilot and we broke out and saw the runway
from nearly six miles out on final. The heavy rain had moved
by and she made a greaser landing on the wet runway. I had
squeaked one on rather nicely at Lisbon, but she showed me
up well here!
The flight was a short 1.3 hours
and we shutdown with 1,700 pounds remaining. Temperature about
55 degrees, overcast, very windy, occasional rain…welcome
to the "Costa del Sol!" Hell, should be Coasta del Rain, I
said!
A car was waiting for Pat & Ashley
and likewise for us once we finished putting the airplane
to bed. Alex, our handing agent, was again very friendly and
helpful. Once you are in Europe, there is no further clearing
of individual country's Customs, so the procedure is very
simple.
We rode in a van with driver
from the airport at Malaga to the hotel where we are all staying
in Marbella: The Marbella Club, or, as they pronounce it here,
the Mar-BAY-a Clewb. The drive took about 45 minutes, mostly
on four-lane highway paralleling the Mediterranean coast to
the west. It was very built-up and modern. Reminded me a lot
of San Diego, but with the mountains coming closer to the
shore. Maybe a touch of Miami Beach is thrown in, what with
all the high-class shops and hotels.
We arrive at the Marbella Club,
register in the beautiful lobby, and follow the bellman through
tree-lined and flower bedecked paths to our room. Perhaps
because of the lousy weather - or feeling sorry for Americans,
many of whom are staying home? - we were upgraded without
requesting it to a junior suite. Whew! It is NICE!
CNN on TV, a huge bathroom with
double sinks and soft terry-cloth robes, a separate bedroom
with a canopied king bed, a living room with a minibar, as
well as a bottle of red wine and fruit basket waiting for
us…needless to say, we collapsed into the luxury of it all
and never left for the evening. Room service brought dinner,
soon the wine was gone, and bedtime came quickly. Now we are
two hours ahead of Zulu time, so nine hours ahead of Phoenix.
It feels good to be here, like
the trip has truly begun. Thanks to a good airplane and good
equipment, crossing the Atlantic was no big deal. Still, it
feels very good to have that behind us, and relatively short
hops ahead for the next few.
Pam as SIC |
Lisbon Airport |
Refueling at Lisbon |
Previous | Next
|
