Deutschlandflug 2011 - Anniversary edition event in General Aviation

Deutschandflug 2011 Touring Group - Complete Photo Log - Flight Simulator Version

The prestigious and traditional General Aviation Event organised by the Deutsche Aero Club (the primary German Organziation for General Aviation) was celebration the 100th anniversary, based on a tradition of such Events starting as early as 1911. (At that time a 1800km cross country flight starting and ending in Berlin)

"Deuschlandflug 2011" is an orientation ralley for aviators. A three-day Event held from July 7 to July 9 2011 starting from Hannover International Airport EDDV and leading to Oberschleissheim Airfield EDNX near Munich.

The Competition Group ("Wettbewerbsgruppe") with over 60 teams had a different route over Kamenz and Weiden, while the Touring Group flew the following legs:

All pictures are taken on a flight with an Evektor "Eurostar" in real time, real weather during the actual time of the real event in Flight Simulator 2004 with additional Scenery where available.

Leg1: EDDV Hannover - Marburg Schönstadt EDFN 100nm

Start Time 8:33 UTC

Deutschlandflug 2011 Start in Hannover EDDV Rwy. 09R

More than 120 General Aviation Movements within two hours was a rarely seen peak load at the Hannover Airport, but is was perfectly organised. The entire south runway was practically reserved for the Deutschlandflug participants and a special controller on the alternate tower frequency 120.40 Mhz provided a perfect service.
Southbound Touring participants (true course to Marburg 196 degrees) turned downwind and followed the Whiskey route leaving the Hannover CTR.

DF2011 Leg1 Right Downwind Rwy 09R leaving CTR on Whiskey Route

Orientation points in Hannover are the A2 Autobahn the Power plant to the left and the "Steinhuder Meer" lake right in front in the distance.

Leaving Hannover CTR on Whiskey Westbound

Leine River and Mittellandkanal near Whiskey reporting point

After leaving the Control Zone (CTR) we turned left on the original southbound course to Marburg.
GPS was available but not used! The ethics of a true visual flight with terrestrial navigation dictate to try without. After passing the Deister Hills (Tower on the left) and crossing the "Süntel" Hills the city of Hameln was expected left.

Hameln and the Weser River as expected to the left

The next checkpoint enroute was the city of Bad Pyrmont which was expected right flying over the Bad Pyrmont Airfield EDVW.
Both was indentified easily.

Bad Pyrmont right across

EDVW Bad Pyrmont Airfield (FS standard scenery)

The the weather got marginal and we were partially at or even slightly below the minimum safety height of 500ft.  The city of Brakel positively identified and the next major Checkpoint and landmark was the Edersee lake which was expected to be crossed right in the middle.

We tried wind correction angles between 6-9 degrees based on the still easterly winds and hit Edersee perfectly in the middle.

Edersee lake

Eurostar flying over Edersse (FS 2004 Std. Scenery)

Not long after the Edersee Checkpoint we expected to spot the Marburg Airfield. A750m grass strip in 04/22 orientation. The 1700ft. traffic circuit is flown south east, so we joined right downwind on Runway 04 based wind 100 to 111 degrees.

EDFN Marburg Schönstadt Joing Right Downwind Rwy 04

Final approach to EDFN Marburg Runway 04

Final and landing in Marburg was fine despite the right crosswind component. The Eurostar LSA Aircraft has an officially demonstrated crosswind performance of (only!) 10kts but can handle more pilot with experience.
Touch down was at 9:55 UTC after 1h22

Final in Marburg - Freeware Addon Scenery

 

 

Parked in Marburg

 The beautiful scenery has designed been designed by Joerg Dannenberg www.flightport.de

Fueling up in Marburg for Leg2

The lunch break in Marburg was used to fuel up and prepare

Leg2: EDFN Marburg - EDRG Idar-Oberstein 88.8nm TC 220 degrees


Start Time 11h45 UTC

City of Marburg southbound to Idar Oberstein

We expect cross Autobahn A45 and pass the city of Wetzlar.

Wetzlar with river Lahn (Std. scenery)

Enroute to Limburg

After crossing the City of Limburg (with a major cathedral as checkpoint) and the A3 Autobahn we expected the next major landmark and spectacular sight:

Crossing the river Rhine at it´s most beautiful stretch between Wiesbaden and St. Goarshausen.
At 12:34 we reached the rhine and saw the Loreley Rock (a major landmark) to the right.

Loreley Rock at the Rhine River Valley

View to the left along the Rhine River valley

The FS Scenery can only partially portray the actual beauty of this landscape. Every 2000m or so medieval castles are mounted  on the cliffs along the river.
We have another 30 minutes or to go until reaching the final destination for today: Idar-Oberstein.
Expecting a 650m grass strip in 06/24 orientation we joined right base on the north-west oriented traffic pattern for runway 24. The FS 20004 std. scenery wrongly features EDRG with an 11/29 orientiation(!).
The winds had changed south-westernly.
So we landed on runway 29 at 12:57 UTC (1h12 flight time) and parked overnight in Idar Oberstein.

Joing Final in Idar Oberstein

Final in Idar Oberstein

The next day: Friday July, 8th:

Leg3: EDRG Idar-Oberstein - ETEJ Bamberg

A longer distance (138.9nm) eastbound. The westernly winds meant tailwind and helped to shorten this longest leg of the tour.
We started at 8:23 UTC and turned left to an eastbound course (TC 84 degrees)

Climb from Runway 24 in Idar-Oberstein (cathedral on the left)

We expected to cross the river Rhine again - but this time on a less spectacular stretch between Mannheim and Wiesbaden. The Rhein-Main Metro area (with it´s major airport and CTR) was avoided by passing alongside in the south.
We crossed Darmstadt and recognized the military airfield which is closed in reality but still usable and "active" in FS2004.

Closed Military American Airfield near Darmstadt

The Kraftwerk / Power plant at the Main river near Elsenfeld was crossed at :08 minutes. We were surprised by the animated smoke effects, some (unknown) scenery must have provided the effects for this object.

Power plant enroute to Würzburg

Crossing the Checkpoint

There were no spectacular sights on the rest of the flight. Wheather was beautifully clear. We crossed the River Main three times based on its turns between Würzburg and Bamberg. The river is only a poor creek in the standard scenery. Würzburg as visual checkpoint was reached at :26 minutes.
ETEJ in Bamberg is a military/civilian mixed airfield with a 1290m asphalt runway in the city. A northwest traffic pattern with a 04/22 orientation meant that runway 22 would be in use.
We planned to approach from north east to directly join right downwind Rwy.22.

Joining Final in Bamberg ETEJ Runway22

Military/Civilian City Airfield Bamberg Breitenau (Std. Scenery)

Bamberg was the final destination for Friday.

The Final Leg for Deutschlandflug 2011:

Leg4 ETEJ Bamberg - EDNX Oberschleißheim

Start Time 8h20 UTC, Saturday July 9th

On this final leg to Oberschleißheim the Touring Group will join the Competition Group coming from Weiden at the airfield. The evening is reserved for the award ceremony.
On this route we had to cross Nürnberg CTR midfield and also Ingolstadt CTR. We decided to overfly the latter at 4000ft. and cross Nürnberg following the visual operation routes.

Midfield crossing of Nürnberg Airport EDDN

City of Nürnberg to the right/southeast - Checkpoint EDDN at :42m

In order to make no mistakes with the CTR the GPS was finally used. Vis/Ops defines vector tracks to enter and leave Nürnberg CTR. We left on a 140degree track soutbound to Foxtrott and the followed visually the A9 Autobahn to Ingolstadt.

Southbound along the A9 Autobahn

Despite the explicet reccommendation to fuel up "full" at every location, I had not done so in Bamberg. Fuel was at 35% which should be ok for Oberschleissheim but did not provide a wide margin. Alongside the A9 we expected to see the Thalmässing Airfield EDPW and flew a low approach only to recognize that it was not open and/or did not provide fuel anyway.
So we continued to climb 4000ft. to overfly Ingolstadt CTR and happily recognized the first sight of the Alps Mountains in the far distance south.

Over Ingolstadt CTR with Alps in sight in the distance

In 4000ft. over Ingolstadt - Zoom Photo of Munich and Alps Mountains

Shortly after passing Ingolstadt we started a slow descent to 2800ft. the defined traffic pattern for Oberschleißheim EDNX. The latter is located at the edge of Munich CTR, clearance to enter for landing in Oberschleißheim can be assumed on certain weather minima which was no point at this beautiful Saturday.

Oberscheißheim Airfield is directly south of the Oberschleißheim Castle and park. The olympic regatta race track can also be seen widely so finding the field and joining the traffic pattern correctly was easy.

Castle Oberschleissheim and Airfield EDNX

We approached from north and joined downwind for runway 08 (the wind was again south/easternly) and enjoyed the beautiful sights on this final approach based on the very nice freeware scenery from Dr. Falko Dienstbach.

Approaching Oberschleißheim from North

Downwind Rwy 08 EDNX - Regatta track as orientation point

Turing base in EDNX Oberschleissheim

Turing final - approach for the asphalt strip

Ending Deutschlandflug 2011 - The final approach

Summing up at this point, the 100years anniversary edition Deutschlandflug 2011 was a great success. Partipants had fun, and the weather was above average all along the tracks for all three days.
My own flight education will be finished this summer, so that it is not unlikely to join the 101th version of this GA Event the next time in real life.

Final in Oberschleissheim

Parking near the blimp - (Scenery from Dr. Falko Dienstbach)

Parking spot with Museum Hangars and Castle in the background

Finally - The Storks are back

...always a much awaited joyful event:
 The White Storks (Ciconia Ciconia) are back from Africa.

Signalling the end of a long winter season the storks are adjusting their chimney-nest.

Seasons Greetings / The wackiest house in the region

I just watched CNBC with a report from Bejing´s impressive Xmas-markets (!), Santas en masse and all the cheap deco stuff that we use to ornate our holiday season, including of course all the different LED lighting gadgets.

The wackiest house in the region 

The people interviewed about "What Christmas means" all said things like

"... it´s the alien´s "new years feast""
".. it celebrates the spring" and so on.

There was no relegious association whatsoever (among those people in this chinese market).
But we should not wonder as we drive it ourselves in this direction.

This does not mean that I would not appreciate this marvellous and award winning Xmas-Illumination above.

The house is more a simple wooden cottage and in its simplicity rather untypical for the middle class German neighborhood. But around Chrismas this little hut becomes the phoenix from the ashes and dwarfs all other illuminations of the town.

With this I wish all readers happy holidays and a successful new year!.

Eventually the blog will finally find a clear focus and direction in 2011 ;-)

Why Ansel Adams still matters

Sharing some thoughts and insights after reading #1 of the classic book series from Ansels Adams - The Camera -

Cover Photo of "The Camera" - Half Dome and Moon in Yosemeti NP

To start with the summary first:
Ansel Adams explains in clear language the very basics and successfully transports his belief of perfectionism that is simply contagious and motivates to produce higher quality.
The issue "The Camera" is certainly a valuable addition to every photographers bookshelf.

Rubber Trees (Hevea brasiliensis) in Cu Chi, Vietnam
35mm lens, Nikon D90, f22, 1seond, exposed in "Ansel Adams style"

The book contains a foreword from 1980 (Ansel Adams died in 1984) and is technically up to date until the late seventies. Some quotes may seem antique, deranged and irrelevant in today´s electronic world but they are not:

Some examples: (Quotes)

"There is no question that using a view camera requires some physical stamina"

- About his enormous set of equipment in the early days with a 8x10 view camera

"The modern monorail camera is designed to accept interchangeble bellows"

"On a trip to the canadian rockies I had a secondary pinhole image on the ground glass which after about ten days work I traced to an unfilled screwhole"

- About the importance of checking older lensboards and the sealing of mounting screws

"In general, I do not find the normal lens especially desirable, functionally and aesthetically"

- About his preference for shorter focal lenses under aesthetic criteria.

" I can recall the time in the early 1920s when my means of regulation exposure was by remove and replace the lens cap"

" The early shutters had only a "bulb" setting for manually timed exposures and perhaps a setting marked "instantaneous" for exposures of about a 1/25 second.

- About the evolution of shutters, then continuing to leaf and modern focal plane shutters, illustrating the space compression effect of those modern slit shutters that I have not seen anywhere else in this clarity.

"Those who have this eye condition should consult the doctor"

- about extraocular imbalance as being the frequent medical cause for many people who produce images with a tilt horizon.

"Otherwise...it promotes a shotgun approach to photographing which some photographers substitute for active use of the eye and brain"
- About the increasing trend to use a motor winder for transporting the film

This collectionof quotes from a diffent time and world seems to suggest that in fact there might be little real relevance left - but I don´t think so.
The ground-up explanation of all the details and fundamentals together with consequent craftmenship is absolutely timeless. And 35mm SLRs are covered up to the Nikon A5.

Ansel starts to explain the basic camera concept with the pinhole like every major physics textbook - but unlike those he actually takes photos with a pinhole camera, explains why these exposures can never be 100% sharp and suggests the "optimum" pinhole size as 1/64 inch on a piece of gold foil, but aluminum would do as well.
Lenses, lens design and aberrations are discussed,  every picture in the book is explained with metadata "I took this with a 12" Sonar lens on an 8x10 film" and illustrations of all the different adjustments on a view camera (sliding the lensboard, tilt and shift of the lens-plane and/or the film plane). You begin to understand what you lose when counting on fully automatic functions of today´s DSLRs and the dominance of the fixed 35mm handheld cameras.
There is no mention of any of the recent electronic features like "smile and face recognition", "predictive autofocus" or any such thing. I do not see this as a left out but instead it is a refreshing reminder on the things that really matter.

Ansel himself states in the beginning:
"The world does not need another book on equipment" - but this one is a true classic and can be considered a must have for every serious enthusiast.

In his own words:
"It is my intention in this book to stir excitement for photography and its craft in terms of personal expression. Too many people do what they are told to do."

Lexware Taxman 2011 Billiger bei AMAZON

Here a quick post in German as it applies to an actual offer for tax preparation software and in this case enormous spreads - Amazons selling the same product 35% under publishers direct price.

Update: Alarm clock bug fixed with iOS 4.2 - and much more...

Finally, the much awaited iOS Update has arrived. As described in the previous post this Update is considered to be a bug fix for me and many users of the alarm clock - but of course - Apple would not issue an update for such "minor" thing only.

And so, iOS 4.2 comes with Airprint and wireless (Video) streaming to compatible Client such as the Apple TV Box GameCenter and more - just in time for Black Friday and the coming Shopping Season.

And even more importantly iOS 4.2 brings all of this to the iPad as well and puts it - for the first time since launch - completely in sync with the latest iPhone. It brings Folders, Multitasking and Game Center to the iPad which makes it "a totally new device" as somebody prominent from Cupertino is quoted.
(Apple recently has lost just a little sense of reality it seems, as they have touted the Beatles iTunes release as "a day you will never forget" (!))
C´mon guy´s you make great things but too much is too much.

Anyway, with all major and minor things fixed and a feature packed new iOS everything is ready to mark just another record sales and earnings quarter.
I have heard analysts who express "doubts" that the elevated expectation of 6m iPads shipped in Q4 could be reached.
They base these doubts on Samsung having to downwardly adjust Galaxy tab production capacity.
Make no mistake -  the iPad is simpy so much superior and not by any chance the "whichlist item #1" for the current holiday shopping season.

Oprah Winfrey is said to have given 275 iPads as a gift to all of her staff recently - if that tells anything..

According to a recent post from John Paczkowski Apple has ordered FoxConn to ramp up additional capacity at the Chengdu Site to 300k/month in order to reach a total of 2.8m (monthly) runrate.
Apple has shipped 4.2m iPads in Q3, Analyst consenus is 6m in Q4 (with few  exceptions  as mentioned  above who think this might be a stretch goal.)
My stomach and market feeling tells me it will be rather in the 6.5m to 7.5m range.
My newest 12month price target for the stock is now 415$ based on continuing strong growth on iPhones, iPads (completely offsetting the decline in ipods) a continuing growth in market share for Macs (as dominance in mobile devices has a positive drag effect on PCs) Apple isn´t anymore the niche maker of design PCs that only Graphics Pros and Photographers really need, it´s becoming main stream.
And last not least the tightly controlled App-Universe creates an ever money machine - a growing revenue stream from software that scales extremely well and has margins well beyound those a hardware maker could ever dream of.
Stay tuned...

The Iphone Alarm Clock DST Bug - and how to fix it.

Yes, I have got it too. And yes I WAS late Monday after the Daylight Savings Time (DST) Change in Europe.

iPhone Alarm Clock Bug "in Action".

Apperently all iPhones 3G, 3GS, iPhone4 and iPod Touches 2nd through 4th generation are affected by a software bug that rings alarm clocks 1h late after the DST time switch.
The internal clock (which is also the source for the built in (alarm) clock as well as third party alarm clock apps) is adjusted correctly but internal alarms WITH a  REPEAT SCHEDULE setting are NOT.
 They go off 1h late. Deleting and reprogramming the alarm doesn´t help.

The only fix is to RECONFIGURE alarms to NO REPEAT setting - which effectivly sets them to "daily" as long as they are activated.

And finally of course apply the Apple iOS bug fix for this which is in the works (I have heard a "Gold Master" ist out already.).
The bug has been first found in New Zealand and Australia (who were first to switch back from DST to "Winter time". Then Europe was hit beginning of this week - and the US will suffer next Monday Nov. 8th - IF, and only IF (fingers crossed) Apple will not be able to supply the fix "JUST IN TIME" on this very weekend. We can only assume that Apple engineers are working feverishly to publish the fix before 10 millions alarms will fire off late on Monday.

Right now (as I write this 8h50 CET New York time) there is no Update available yet in iTunes.

What will be the economic impact?

Here´s a first approximation:
Around 90 Million iPhones or so are out (not counting all the ipod Touches), let´s assume 40% of those are used in the USA. Let´s further assume 20% of the users do use the alarm clock and rely on it. Let´s estimate that being an hour late to work creates an economic impact of 25$ (Machinery not operated, Calls not answered, shipments not expedited, flights missed etc.).  This adds up to 250Mio$ economic damage on Monday not counting the hours 50 million users will spend time to find out the cause, browse the internet for solutions, time spent finally with iTunes to apply the fix etc.
Another hour per user which could have been spent productively otherwise to increase the GDP  is certainly a conservative estimate. Makes another 1.25 Billion $ (!) Together 1.5b$ - conservatively...

Small cause - big impact.