20140327 Flying over the Belgian Highest Point
288 views · Published 29 March 2014 · 4:18 · Indexed 4 November 2026
Channel: Eric Vyncke · 2014 · Sports
My first short nav since my PPL ;-) The top of Belgium is very close to Spa: Signal de Botrange in the High Fenns (Hautes Fagnes in French). Its elevation is 2267 ft, so, in order to be 1000 ft above ground level (even though I may have flown at 500 ft only), I flew at 3300 ft. Not that high after all ;-) It was also a sightseeing navigation: flying of Lac de la Gileppe, High Fenns then Lac de Robertville, the plan was to fly over Coo as well but there was a less than optimal visibility when flying towards the Sun... So, I preferred to cancel the last leg and go direct to Spa (with LNO VOR as a back-up but it was not required). To experiment, I did not use the civilian Brussels Information flight information service (FIS) but the military one: Belga Information. I made a mistake by assuming that their call sign was 'Belga Information' while it is simply 'Belga' :-O Interestingly enough, there were some minor mis-hap on the conversation, but a pleasant experience. Flew 27th of March 2014 on a Cessna 152 OO-SPP
