Tim from Dusseldorf

Full text of email from Tim.

Hi guys,

Sorry that I´m a little late calling in as a UCAP-listener from outside the Continental US but I´ve been quite busy moving those last few days. Nevertheless, I just listened to your recent episode and wanted to do my part just like those guys from "down under"....

OK, my name´s Timm, I am 30 years old, I´m from Germany and I´ve been a Private Pilot for about 4 years now. Since I am now living in Dusseldorf, Germany, I´m probably going to call EDDL (Dusseldorf International Airport) my new "home airport" soon but until now I´ve done most of my flying out of Marl-Loemuehle [maal - low´mul´a] (EDLM -- www.flugplatz-loemuehle.de) which is a rather small airport which has been struggling with some closure issues for many many years since it´s been owned by the county. Fortunately 6 months ago, it was bought by a consortium of several pilots and companies using EDLM and not only are they going to keep the lights on, they want to expand the runway ... :). My FBO (www.flugschule-marl.de) in Marl offers 1 C152, 1 C172, 2 Archers, 1 Robin R2160D and 1 Partenavia Twin. For one hour of flying the C172 you have to pay $200+ (USD). As you can see, GA is pretty expensive in Germany: AVGAS is about $10 per gallon, you have to pay landing fees ranging from $5 to $60+ at every airfield and handling fees at most "bigger" airports. Sadly, GA is considered by many people a hobby of rich people who have nothing better to do than fly their noisy airplanes over land of guys who bought that land for a special discount because of the nearby airport :(. Well, don´t want to go to much into detail. If you´d like to hear more, I´d be happy to give you some answers ... BTW: I do much of my flying in the US, I hold an independent US PPL and a "converted" PPL and I am in the process of getting my ME ticket this year. Most of the time I fly out of KCRQ near San Diego. So I am familiar with both the US and the German / European system.

Thank you guys very much for my regular hour of hangar flying, even in the middle of my move ... Keep up the good work.

Best wishes from Germany,
Timm ..., MD