Mon professeur préféré Eric Buyens not in Tienen anymore

My first flying instructor was Eric Buyens in the late 80’s at the Hasselt, Belgium airfield. I only have good memories of Eric and his lessons. His was very exam focused in teaching me the theory of flying and practicing radio lessons with him. He was as well my flying instructor. I got very well along with him. He was perfectly bilingual. His courses worked our very well, I passed all exams with such a high score, I remember I even achieved even the score of 100% on reglementation and meteorology back in that time. Great memories. Eric moved however to the flying club of Tienen in Belgium. That’s the last update I ever got.

On June 25th, 2017 as I was planning a solo precision flight and looking for a nice airfield, I stumbled upon Tienen for a short flight from Genk Zwartberg.
The Tienen airfield proved to be very outdated, it looks being back in the 1950’s, such an old and dated infrastructure. The welcome was nice although.

After landing, I asked for Eric Buyens but they did not know him here anymore. Strange story as he has been flying here many years.  I hope to meet him again sometime. If any reader of this blog knows, drop me a comment hereunder

Eric Buyens – flight instructor

technical problem in Cessna 172SP whilst flying to Teuge

Last weekend, I went flying with my lovely sister-in-law, Micheline Bodson. It was her first time in a small plane, so we selected to go flying a Sunday with nice sunny weather conditions. The plan was to fly to the Netherlands and have lunch at their airfield of Teuge. However, something happened on our flight to Teuge.

After take off in Genk Zwartberg, I flew north towards Eindhoven and climbing out towards flight level 55. After climbing out, I checked the engine settings and noticed an error I never encountered before


I was wondering what this could be, just an erratic reading or something else. Probably nothing to worry about as the motor was running smoothly. I continued my flight.

Ten minutes later, the situation seemed to worsen as I got the following reading

2 out of 4 EGT sensors causing troubles

2 out of 4 EGT sensors did not work, a big fat red cross appeared. On top, the sensor of the CHT did not work either.

Not sure what to think about. Crazy sensor readings, but the plane runs smoothly, which is the most important. So I continued my flight and kept my worries for myself and landed in Teuge without problems. Here’s a screenshot of how our flight was retrieved on Flightradar 24.

OO-LVA on flight radar



First things first, we discovered a VERY nice restaurant on the airfield, with even a sushi bar. Amazing and atypical from what I typically encounter. Micheline and myself ordered a light lunch and we enjoyed a nice time as you’ll see on the picture below whilst I was thinking about our technical problem aboard.

lunch at Teuge with Micheline Bodson


I called the President our Gank-Zwartberg club, Michel Notelaers, as well as with Kristof Goossens, my flight instructor to discuss the problems I encountered on our one hour flight.

The advise I got was to perform a run up at full power, it the engine was running smooth, he advised me to fly back to Genk Zwartberg. Apparently, it is only a sensor reading which is false.

excellent and cosy restaurant in Teuge, what a difference

I performed the run up tests , everything seemed normal. However, after take-off in Teuge back to Genk-Zwartberg, the same problem appeared again…whilst the engine still runs smoothly. We continued our 60 minutes flight and landed early afternoon In Genk Zwartberg.

I noticed the plane was booked by three other pilots, I decided to stay at the airfield in order to notify them as it was a Sunday afternoon and the maintenance was closed.

I was somewhat pissed to see that all three persons who booked the plane after me that same afternoon, did not show up at the airfield and canceled their flights. Bad habit, especially on a sunny Sunday afternoon. I hurried to be back in time in Genk-Zwartberg, there was no reason too.

Luckily for me, some nice planes passed that same afternoon in Genk-Zwartberg and I enjoyed watching them on the terrace of our clubhouse.

Spotted in Genk Zwartberg

I informed the maintenance of our club and they decided to fix the problem prior to allow further flying on this plane.

dining in Trier

Summertime is the season by excellence for making cosy evening flight with friends. This year it is not different. Together with my my pilot pal Maurice  and Céline Flammang we decided to try out the nearby airfield of Trier on June 14th, 2017. 
 
It is indeed only a short flight, but I realized I never flew to that place before, don’t ask me why. 
 
First, we refueled the plane (Cessna 172 – call sign LX-AIO)  in Luxembourg and headed off for the Trier airfield. 
 
refueling LX-AIO
 
 
Good atmosphere in the cockpit


In less than 30 minutes, we landed in Trier. The staff on the tower proved top be super friendly.
We found out that Trier airfield has got a super nice terrace for outside dining whilst the sun slowly goes under. Perfect and so cheap prices compared to Luxembourg. Amazing and high quality with German portions. We went for a cosy dinner (I cannot retrieve the pictures).

Around 9pm we hurried up an took off again in the direction of Luxembourg where we landed around sunset. The views we had from the plane were absolutely stunning. 


sunset over the Moselle river

Landing in Luxembourg is a luxury, the strip is nearly 4kms long. Nevertheless, I always go for a precision landing, this time was no different

Perfect landing at Luxembourg airfield

Helicopter in Luxembourg

June is the most popular flying month, simply because of the length of the days. On June 10th, I received early in the morning a call from my French friend Maurice with a very generous offering to join him for a flight in his helicopter over Luxembourg. Great weather, great idea and we planned to attend the BBQ organized that same weekend at the airfield of Noertrange in the north of Luxembourg. My son is always happy to join, this time was no different. Our friend Valerie Dumas is also joining. I notified Mika Wagner, head of the Young Pilots and that’s how our great helicopter journey started.

Maurice’s Robinson 44 helicopter is located at the Chambley airfield. He picked us up at Luxembourg airport. Here’s the picture report

Maurice  and his helicopter
take off at Luxembourg airport
Cockpit view
Kirchberg Luxembourg
Luxembourg castle
more castles
meander
perfect weather
Luxembourg landscape
arrival at Noertrange airfield
other visitor with great old timer
Luxembourg BBQ starts
more planes flying in
Luxembourg Young pilots are the BBQ organizers
aviation enthusiast
Mika Wagner plane
skydiving hangar
preparing for action
relaxing
my son is also an aviation enthusiast
Robinson 44
Thank you Maurice for this nice flight