This was it.

We entered the aircraft, settle down. Proper passenger briefing and some captains brief. Ivan decided he will handle flying and radios, I was to help with navigation and radio pre selection.

Pre takeoff checks reveals failure in pitot heat. We are uncertain about it, however during my Check A it was heating up.  Decided we have are ready for departure. There are 3 falcons taking off as a formation “Pink 1,2,3” fun.

Takeoff roll, air speed is not increasing , with the pitot heat fail in mind we abort and request taxi to Aviation Maintenance. Somehow , Ivan stops at Airtime, oops. Anyway, engine stop, he inspected the pitot and looks good, we are going.

This time there is a long queue of GA aircraft waiting for departure, this happens often in EGHH with so many schools.

This time we have proper indication of airspeed, however we are heavy and it takes a while to develop takeoff speed. Then climb out is very shallow, 800ft and we turn over Hensbry Head. Low and slow, but we make it.  Now climbing to 3000ft on track to LYD.

Passing between Solent we requested climb to 2500ft  in controlled airspace, surprised that controller imposed Radar Service on us, Goodwood, Shoreham radios ask us to report when we pass abeam their airports.

Time to switch to Farnborough East Radar, oh did we activate our Flight Plan ? Radar says no, we are filing airborne one. Good practice.  This ATC is really busy, constantly calling traffic around us. Really nice.

Time to talk to Lydd, routing overhead airport, not VOR, which gives us a couple minutes saved, we are over water. 10nm later we are passed to Lille Information, welcome to France.

France had more low level cloud, fortunately, just few so we are over the layer. Then cloud raised to about 4000ft what forced us down below. Well kinda, Ivan wanted to go low, I would prefer to go up, we would be still in sight of surface.

Unsure about the french, Ivan ask if we can speak to approach service of some of the airports below, Lille tells us to stick with him.  Then approaching Lille Airport we are handed over to Lille Approach, we are going strait through the controlled airspace, this was our first experience of “how nice it is to fly in europe”. From LYD to EDFH we kept same heading, not a single alternation.

Handed over to Brussels Information, we are in a 3rd country. Very nice service, we are about to enter Chievres, Charleroi CTRs, handed over, first time asked for zone transit routing, well, strait to destination, granted. Then we were handed over to Military responsible  for danger and restricted areas we fly through without a problem.

Quick jump to Luxembourg, and we are in Germany. We stay with information until Ivan decides to change to Hahn Approach. Confused controller asks us “what do we want from him” , “to land”, “are you VFR traffic” , “yes”, “then nothing to do we me, talk to Tower”. More confusion, Ivan switches … and thinks he speaks with Hahn Tower, but oops It’s Landen Information. 3rd try we talk to tower, everything is good now, requesting join instructions, got a do whatever you like we don’t have a patter published response, oops. OK, reporting base to Runway 21, requested airport elevation, we aim to start decent from 1000ft over.  Pre landings checks done, we are coming down. After 2 bumps we are safe on the ground. Off the runway “Follow Me” waits for us, how nice of them. Parked. Breaks, shut-down and we get chocks in.