A really great day to fly. Very sunny, very great visibility, albeit a little turbulent. It is no matter, though. Today was my very first flight with my mom!

You know the ‘hundred-dollar-hamburger’? We turned into a (bit more than) ‘hundred-dollar-toastie’! Zeeland is always a lovely airport to fly to. Very spacious, very well-organized, very easy to get to. Affordable landing fees (I paid EUR 20 today for a Tecnam P2002JF.

The flight down to Zeeland was quite relaxed. We took off from runway 31 and turned left quite early to avoid flying over the church (Hilversum locals will know…). Then, we turned South, crossed some rivers, flew by Dordrecht, down to the Zeelandbrug. From there on, it is always a breeze to find the airfield!

We parked next to an Aquila from Seppe and went to the restaurant to have our lunch. A refreshing drink was necessary – due to the sunshine (or rather, due to the lack of clouds) flying was quite warm.

I’ve now accrued two stamps on my EHMZ landings stamp card, how nice! Only eight more until I’ll get one for free. If those are only overland landings… Eh, well, you calculate. 🙂

As for the way back, we took an early right turn this time (runway 27) to avoid the camping. Cannot disturb campers and Zeeland has more than enough water to fly over as not to disturb anyone on the ground. Waved down at Veere and then headed North towards the Rotterdam CTR. Always nice to fly along the river!

Inside the Rotterdam CTR, there was another aircraft with a rather similar abbreviated callsign. See, we were ‘Papa Hotel Charlie’, and this other aircraft was ‘Papa Alpha Charlie’. The first few times we heard it we had to listen closely, but that mild confusion was sorted out quite quickly!

Flying along the coast towards Rotterdam was very smooth sailing. No turbulence at all, very relaxed! However, after the CTR, the jumping up and down began again. Thank goodness for seat belts!

Upon arrival at Hilversum we needed to make a quick 360 over right to avoid flying next to another aircraft on downwind. After we had let him pass in front of us, we could join the circuit and make a nice, soft landing on runway 31 again.

I’d do it all again tomorrow! And maybe I will… on Sunday.

Happy landings!