Up early and out to the airport by 8 am local. By the time we had negotiated security, taken off shoes and belts and recovered luggage on otherwise a deserted airfield, it was nearly 8:30 am. Geoff restarted work and about three quarters of an hour later after adjusting both magnetos timing using a clever electronic device attached to the prop spinner declared we were ready for an engine test run. This went well and the aircraft was once again serviceable – hurrah!!
Flights plans had already been filed so off to the terminal again for a last pit stop and to find some refreshments for our flights and (again) security and we were off. We left first in Juliet Bravo climbing to FL120 and later FL130 as we routed through Hungary and Austria to Schwabisch Hall in southern Germany. On the whole, the weather was good; we were between layers of AC above and CU/SC below; the cloud thickened at one stage in W Austria to put us in IMC and we picked up some ice but this sublimated off helped by the upper cloud clearing as we went into Germany.
Schwabisch Hall was a very friendly field and their ground staff drove us into the town to our hotel and will collect us again tomorrow morning for the final leg to Carlisle. Later we walked round the old centre of the town, a charming and attractive place. We noticed how much cooler it is – jerseys now on.
It was good to get into the air again; Geoff remarked that a mag failure was very rare so we were unlucky. At least it did not happen in the middle of Africa! Geoff and Phil had a good flight home in D-FLEX routing again via Luxembourg for fuel. Phil is off somewhere else tomorrow so he is certainly adding to his hours in his new plane.
Sibiu to Schwabisch Hall 635 nm in 4 hours 25 mins