https://csiess85.github.io/flugtagebuch/en/ 95 VFR flights between March 2025 and August 2026, told as a blog. en https://csiess85.github.io/flugtagebuch/en/chapters/10/#f95 en-flug-95 Wed, 12 Aug 2026 14:47:00 +0000 On the evening of 12 August 2026 the moon moved in front of the sun — not entirely over Austria, but almost. Reason enough to take the Aquila and fly to Graz: 164 km, 54 minutes, 6,591 ft, alone, from Bad Vöslau straight across the Semmering.The route is the old Southern Railway seen from the air: Baden, past the Hohe Wand, Neunkirchen, Gloggnitz — and then the pass. The highest point of the … https://csiess85.github.io/flugtagebuch/en/chapters/10/#f94 en-flug-94 Tue, 04 Aug 2026 10:53:00 +0000 10:53 block off, 95 minutes after landing. Back to Bad Vöslau, but not the same way: 338 km, 98 minutes, 9,292 ft — past the mountains to the north instead of straight through them.Out over Kaprun, then northeast: the Gosaukamm, the Wolfgangsee, the Attersee, the Traunsee. From Gmunden on it is the Alpine foreland under the wing — Steyr, the Danube at Ybbs, St. Pölten — then the Vienna Woods and … https://csiess85.github.io/flugtagebuch/en/chapters/10/#f93 en-flug-93 Tue, 04 Aug 2026 07:37:00 +0000 07:37 block off, five days after the first hour on the type. 316 km, 92 minutes, 9,039 ft — across the Alps to Zell am See in the PA-28.For long stretches the route is the same one as in March: the Hohe Wand, Mariazell, the Erzberg, the Gesäuse, the Ennstal, the Grimming. After that further north than back then — over the Hallstätter See and the Gosaukamm, then along the Hochkönig and past … https://csiess85.github.io/flugtagebuch/en/chapters/10/#f92 en-flug-92 Thu, 30 Jul 2026 13:27:00 +0000 One more new thing: OE-KBS, a Piper PA-28 Archer. The third type, with a new name on the right — T.181 km, 67 minutes, six landings, 4,878 ft, out over the Hohe Wand and back. Converting to a new type always starts the same way: circuits, landings, getting a feel for it.The PA-28 is again a different animal from the Aquila and the Cessna: a low-wing machine made of sheet metal, broad, … https://csiess85.github.io/flugtagebuch/en/chapters/10/#f91 en-flug-91 Sat, 11 Jul 2026 14:03:00 +0000 The biggest flight of this logbook, in every respect: 550 km, 163 minutes, 7,864 ft, alone, from Hohenems-Dornbirn right across the entire republic to Bad Vöslau.The list of landmarks reads like a travel brochure: Lake Constance, the Allgäu Alps, the Chiemsee, the Salzkammergut, the Traunsee, the Danube valley, Melk, St. Pölten, the Vienna Woods. Four provinces, two countries, one afternoon.Two … https://csiess85.github.io/flugtagebuch/en/chapters/10/#f90 en-flug-90 Fri, 10 Jul 2026 16:01:00 +0000 A flight somewhere else entirely: departure and destination is Hohenems-Dornbirn in Vorarlberg, 500 km from home. 48 km, 21 minutes, 5,681 ft.A short circuit plus an excursion over the Rhine delta and Lake Constance. The Rhine comes out of the Alps here and pushes a grey plume of sediment into the blue lake; from 5,700 ft you see Austria, Switzerland and Germany at the same time, and far to the … https://csiess85.github.io/flugtagebuch/en/chapters/09/#f89 en-flug-89 Wed, 24 Jun 2026 16:45:00 +0000 93 km, 29 minutes, 104 knots. Across the Kamp valley, Tulln and the Vienna Woods, home.The shortest cross-country flight of the summer, and one of the fastest. Sometimes flying is simply transport. https://csiess85.github.io/flugtagebuch/en/chapters/09/#f88 en-flug-88 Wed, 24 Jun 2026 14:30:00 +0000 144 km, 46 minutes, two landings, in the C172. Across the Vienna Woods, St. Pölten, Krems and the Kamp valley.Over the course of this logbook Krems-Langenlois has gone from "exciting unfamiliar airfield" to "somewhere you just fly to". Five approaches in a year. That is basically the definition of routine. https://csiess85.github.io/flugtagebuch/en/chapters/09/#f87 en-flug-87 Thu, 04 Jun 2026 07:25:00 +0000 Block off 07:25, 265 km, 84 minutes, alone. Lake Neusiedl, the Rosalia range, the Bucklige Welt — 102 km out and back again.A June morning shortly after half past seven, 5,030 ft. At this time of year the fields in the Burgenland are still green, the Bucklige Welt lies in stripes of mist and sun, and the air is so calm that you can let go of the aeroplane for a moment. https://csiess85.github.io/flugtagebuch/en/chapters/09/#f86 en-flug-86 Mon, 25 May 2026 08:02:00 +0000 The longest flight in the logbook: Bad Vöslau — Portorož. 448 km, 133 minutes, 344 km to the furthest point. Alone.The route runs straight across southern Austria — the Rosalia range, the Bucklige Welt, the Styrian hill country — then over the border into Slovenia, across the karst near Postojna, and then the landscape does something it does nowhere else in central Europe: it stops.After two … https://csiess85.github.io/flugtagebuch/en/chapters/09/#f85 en-flug-85 Mon, 27 Apr 2026 14:34:00 +0000 Destination: Hatě near Znojmo, entered in the logbook as CZ-0163 — a small airfield immediately on the Austrian-Czech border, six kilometres south of Znojmo. 114 km, 37 minutes, alone.The way there leads across the Vienna Woods, past the Danube near Tulln, through the Weinviertel and over the border into the Thaya valley. The third country in this logbook.From above, the Thaya valley is a … https://csiess85.github.io/flugtagebuch/en/chapters/09/#f84 en-flug-84 Sat, 25 Apr 2026 07:26:00 +0000 Block off 07:26 on a Saturday at the end of April. 199 km, 64 minutes, alone, across the Vienna Woods, Vienna and Lake Neusiedl.The earliest departure of the year. And the best. At half past seven in April the air over the Vienna Basin still stands completely still, the thermals have not started, the haze hangs in the hollows, and a flat yellow light lies over everything. Anyone who has been over … https://csiess85.github.io/flugtagebuch/en/chapters/09/#f83 en-flug-83 Sun, 12 Apr 2026 11:42:00 +0000 An entry that breaks the pattern: the flight does not start at Vöslau but at Vilshofen an der Donau in Lower Bavaria. 295 km, 97 minutes, alone.The route follows the Danube east: over the Bavarian Forest, past Passau, where the Inn and the Ilz join the Danube and three rivers of different colours run side by side. Then across the Waldviertel, past Zwettl, down into the Wachau, over St. Pölten and … https://csiess85.github.io/flugtagebuch/en/chapters/09/#f82 en-flug-82 Tue, 07 Apr 2026 11:36:00 +0000 The second-highest flight in the whole book: 8,477 ft, alone, in D-ELFH. 155 km in 53 minutes.The route is a lap of honour over the local mountains: Hohe Wand, Schneeberg, Rax, Semmering. Those are the four silhouettes you see in the west every day from Bad Vöslau — and which throughout the training you only ever saw from below and from the side.At 8,477 ft the Schneeberg (6,811 ft) lies a good … https://csiess85.github.io/flugtagebuch/en/chapters/09/#f81 en-flug-81 Thu, 02 Apr 2026 16:21:00 +0000 181 km, 63 minutes, four landings, in OE-DCL, with a new name in the crew field.An April afternoon over Lake Neusiedl with four landings: sounds like type training or a refresher. The rhythm — a long distance, several landings — fits both. https://csiess85.github.io/flugtagebuch/en/chapters/09/#f80 en-flug-80 Sat, 21 Mar 2026 14:05:00 +0000 Alone in D-EUTC for the first time. 123 km, 40 minutes, three landings, out to Lake Neusiedl.The first time solo on a type is always a small repeat of the first solo flight — only with considerably more context. You know what you are doing; you just do not yet know exactly how this aeroplane feels while you do it. https://csiess85.github.io/flugtagebuch/en/chapters/09/#f79 en-flug-79 Wed, 18 Mar 2026 16:42:00 +0000 221 km in 68 minutes, alone, from 16:42. Across the Vienna Woods, past Vienna, out to Lake Neusiedl, back over the Leitha mountains. The only one of all 95 lines in the logbook to read: day/night.The flight starts in daylight and ends in darkness — night from 17:35, the landing at 18:01 counts as a night landing. This is the first practical use of the rating finished four weeks earlier: no longer … https://csiess85.github.io/flugtagebuch/en/chapters/09/#f78 en-flug-78 Sat, 07 Mar 2026 08:53:00 +0000 8 March, block off 08:53. 303 km, 93 minutes, 7,046 ft — and across the Alps alone for the first time.The route is a cross-section of alpine Austria: Mariazell, the Hochkar, the Gesäuse, the Enns valley, the Grimming, the Radstadt Tauern, and at the end Lake Zell with the Kitzsteinhorn behind it. 274 km from the departure airfield as the crow flies — the second-furthest point in the whole … https://csiess85.github.io/flugtagebuch/en/chapters/08/#f77 en-flug-77 Wed, 18 Feb 2026 17:50:00 +0000 17:50 to 18:01. Last landing of the evening, alone, in the dark.The balance of this Wednesday evening: eight landings in 69 minutes of block time, five of them solo at night. An evening on which nothing happened except the most important thing.That completes the night VFR training: begun on 26 January, finished on 18 February, six flying evenings, 23 landings in the dark altogether.The GPS track … https://csiess85.github.io/flugtagebuch/en/chapters/08/#f76 en-flug-76 Wed, 18 Feb 2026 17:40:00 +0000 17:40 to 17:50, six minutes in the air. On an 18 February the sun has been gone for over an hour by this time.Above Bad Vöslau there is nothing now but the airfield lighting, behind it the lights of Baden and Wiener Neustadt, and in the west nothing but black mountains.The GPS track of this entry is shared with the neighbouring flight — it shows the whole session, not just this leg. https://csiess85.github.io/flugtagebuch/en/chapters/08/#f75 en-flug-75 Wed, 18 Feb 2026 17:30:00 +0000 17:30 to 17:40. Halfway — the third of five solo circuits at night.At this pace something shifts: you no longer think about the landing, you do it. That is exactly why you repeat it five times in a row.The GPS track of this entry is shared with the neighbouring flight — it shows the whole session, not just this leg. https://csiess85.github.io/flugtagebuch/en/chapters/08/#f74 en-flug-74 Wed, 18 Feb 2026 17:21:00 +0000 17:21 to 17:30. One landing, five minutes in the air, alone at night.Eleven minutes of block time for one circuit means: touch down, roll off, turn around, take off again. No shutdown, no break. In the dark that rhythm is considerably more demanding than by day.The GPS track of this entry is shared with the neighbouring flight — it shows the whole session, not just this leg. https://csiess85.github.io/flugtagebuch/en/chapters/08/#f73 en-flug-73 Wed, 18 Feb 2026 17:10:00 +0000 17:10 to 17:21, one landing, alone, in the dark.The first solo flight at night. Eight months after the first solo in June, and in some respects the bigger step: this time not only is the right-hand seat empty, everything outside the cockpit is black as well.Five minutes in the air, one circuit, 1,702 ft. Four more follow that evening — each one entered separately in the logbook.The GPS track of … https://csiess85.github.io/flugtagebuch/en/chapters/08/#f72 en-flug-72 Wed, 18 Feb 2026 16:52:00 +0000 18 February, 16:52, three landings with an instructor in 13 minutes. The last flight of the night VFR training with anybody in the right-hand seat.What follows on this Wednesday evening is unique in the whole logbook — and the real reason the last four weeks have looked the way they did.The recorded track covers the entire evening; all six entries lie on the same recording.The GPS track of this … https://csiess85.github.io/flugtagebuch/en/chapters/08/#f71 en-flug-71 Thu, 12 Feb 2026 16:46:00 +0000 109 km, 45 minutes, six landings, 2,568 ft. Night circuits on a Thursday evening.Six night landings in a row are the core exercise of the whole rating. By day you judge your height above the runway from the picture the ground makes. At night that picture does not exist — there are two rows of lights, and the flare has to come out of them.So it is repeated until it sits. In the logbook the night … https://csiess85.github.io/flugtagebuch/en/chapters/08/#f70 en-flug-70 Fri, 06 Feb 2026 17:08:00 +0000 Block off 17:08, 150 km, 50 minutes, over Vienna and out to the Danube near Tulln. A pure night flight, one landing.Vienna at night from 3,300 ft is one of those things that make the night rating worth having on its own: the Ring as a bright circle, the Danube as a black band straight through the lights, the bridges as strings of pearls across it, and all around the suburbs that simply do not … https://csiess85.github.io/flugtagebuch/en/chapters/08/#f69 en-flug-69 Mon, 02 Feb 2026 16:47:00 +0000 144 km, 50 minutes, and 6,532 ft — the second-highest altitude since the Alpine flight in August, and the highest at night in the book. Night from 17:40, one night landing.Night navigation is a completely different discipline from navigating by day. By day you take your bearings from woods, fields, the courses of rivers. At night all of that is gone — what remains are villages as islands of … https://csiess85.github.io/flugtagebuch/en/chapters/08/#f68 en-flug-68 Mon, 26 Jan 2026 17:18:00 +0000 26 January, block off 17:18. From here on the logbook carries an entry that was never there before: night. Night from 18:05, three of the six landings counted as night landings.The night VFR training begins. At the end of January the sun sets in eastern Austria shortly after half past four — so you take off in twilight and land in darkness, and the interesting part lies exactly in between.Flying … https://csiess85.github.io/flugtagebuch/en/chapters/07/#f67 en-flug-67 Tue, 06 Jan 2026 10:48:00 +0000 88 km back, 36 minutes, 2,374 ft. Home over Sopron and Lake Neusiedl.A January flight stays low — 2,374 ft is the second-lowest maximum altitude of any cross-country flight in the book. In winter you fly below the cloud base, not above it. https://csiess85.github.io/flugtagebuch/en/chapters/07/#f66 en-flug-66 Tue, 06 Jan 2026 09:17:00 +0000 The first flight abroad: Bad Vöslau — Fertőszentmiklós, south of Lake Neusiedl in Hungary. 155 km, 54 minutes, five landings, in OE-DCL — the second Cessna in the book, again with P. in the right-hand seat.The way there leads across Lake Neusiedl, past Sopron, into the Hungarian plain. From above, the border is invisible and yet completely obvious: the fields get bigger, the roads straighter, the …