Event and Trip Reports

Our traditional EMPOA Christmas meeting took place in the Bavarian capital this time.
Nicola Voss and Markus Balser agreed to host the weekend early on in the year. A guided tour of Munich's old town and a visit to the branch of the Deutsches Museum in Schleißheim were planned.

The annual general meeting of our Mooney Club took place in Fontenay-le-Compte this year, not far from La Rochelle on the French Atlantic coast. It was hosted by our Vice-President Peter de Grove, who organized the meeting as well as a tourist, oenological and culinary supporting programme.

This year, the EMPOA trip organized by David Kromka took us north. Kalmar in Sweden and Mariehamn, the island between Sweden and Finland, were on the agenda.

Tina and I flew our Mooney N228RM from Europe to Australia and back between mid-October 2023 and mid-March 2024. With Tina's help, I created an ebook about our trip, which you can download here for free.

David Kromka

Once again a good number of Speedmachines set off for Picardy in France on June 23. 17 Mooneys had landed at Eu-Tréport-Mers airfield in the early afternoon. On the way there, there were only a few small showers to fly around in the east, because in contrast to the previous day with heavy thunderstorms, it had once again turned out to be a very nice sunny flying day.

Our Mooniac Manfred Giebel accomplished a real miracle: managing to put together a weekend program with culture and delicious food in the city of his home airfield Bayreuth within a really very short time period.

This year's Annual General Meeting of our honorable association took place in Mannheim. Planes with correct tail design from all over Europe arrived in the course of Friday afternoon. Once again weather cooperated to the outmost and allowed for flights under both VFR and IFR without any restriction.

The event organized by our member Reinhard Kammerer on April 27 and 28, 2023 was a complete success. 16 Mooneys were allowed to land at the military airbase Faßberg ETHS and participate in the program.

At last COVID-19 seemed to be behind us all and a trip like in the years before was possible again. So David Kromka and Britta Hasskerl took over the organization of this year's fly-out to Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic and Krakow in Poland. Unfortunately the virus hadn’t given in completely - one crew had to cancel due to an infection - nevertheless the trip was a complete success. A first thank you to David and Bri here! And fortunately, those who fell ill made a full recovery by now and are back in the air with their Mooney.

Karlovy Vary

In the best of weather, 18 Mooneys flew to LKKV. Under ideal conditions, the flight posed no problem for any of the crews, so everyone enjoyed the reunion over snacks and drinks in the terminal building. Also quite a few new faces could be warmly welcomed by the board and all participants.

The event for the season opener was announced at the end of 2021 and was quickly booked out. When the time came, 9 crews were there on time for the briefing at 11:00 in Mainz EDFZ. Some Mooniacs had already arrived the evening before to spend a nice evening with Mooney talk.

By Lothar Lucks and Dr. Timm Preusser

On the weekend of November 13-14, 2021, a COPA University Avionics Workshop was held in Salzburg, and I was able to attend as a guest representative of EMPOA. COPA University is the training part of the COPA Safety and Education Foundation, and its program is aimed at all pilots flying Technologically Advanced Airplanes (TAA) for a few years now, so about 30 pilots gathered in Salzburg, flying Mooney, Diamond, Piper and Cirrus.

Dear EMPOA Mooniacs,

here are some pictures taken at the X-mas event in Düsseldorf (November 26-28,2021).

Thanks to the organizers for the great programme and to the participants for the pictures!

Arrival at EDLN

Dear Mooniacs,

here are some impressions of our meeting in Paderborn (EDLP) on June 11-13.

EDLP photo album

After a long break, people were happy to get together again. We had more than 50 Mooniacs and almost 30 Mooneys gathering. And a lot of fun! :-)

Thanks to Gina Bieber for the pictures!!

Best,

  Tina

In diesem Jahr wurde die Weihnachtsfeier am 3. Adventswochenende von unserem Mitglied Reinhard Kammerer aus Bonn ausgerichtet.

Rain and low-lying clouds set the scene at Regensburg airfield on Thursday morning, which was the location of this year’s EMPOA trip organised by Fritz Kaiser.

(by Lukas Straubinger)

At 3rd of advent it was time for the annual EMPOA Christmas meeting.

By courtesy of our member Roland Kern who organized the Christmas celebration, we were invited to the city of Speyer. Due to weather only Alex Haselmann managed to fly with his Mooney while all the other Mooniacs arrived by land.

(by Philippe COFFINET)

After Austria and Croatia, after Troyes and the Île d’Yeu, it was Germany and the Czech Republic to receive our Mooney squadron for the traditional club trip around the Annual General Meeting of EMPOA.

Protokoll
Datum: 14. Juni 2018
Ort: Hotel Goldener Ochsen, Aschaffenburg

Die Sitzung wurde um 19:05 Uhr von Präsident David Kromka eröffnet. Es folgte zunächst eine kurze Vorstellungsrunde aller anwesenden Mitglieder.

David Kromka: gab einen kurzen Überblick über die Mitgliederentwicklung. Insgesamt besteht die EMPOA derzeit aus 285 Mitgliedern. Diese verteilen sich wie folgt: 80% Germany, 10% France, 5% Austria / Switzerland, 5% Others. Besondere Zuwächse gab es in der Schweiz und Österreich. Sergio Petrig wurde zum neuen Schweiz – Vertreter ernannt. Insgesamt gab es im vergangenen Jahr 30 Vereinsbeitritte, 5 Mitglieder traten aus der EMPOA aus. Es folgte ein kurzer Rückblick auf vergangene Events.

Lothar Lucks: gab einen ausführlichen Überblick über die Finanzen der EMPOA. Das Vermögen der EMPOA beträgt circa 56 000€, im vergangenen Jahr wurde ein Überschuss von circa 14 000€ erwirtschaftet.

Rolf Bienert und Werner Wohlfahrt:  prüften die Kasse und bestätigten Lothar Lucks eine einwandfreie und hervorragende Kassenführung.

Philippe Coffinet: hielt die Ansprache als 2. Vorsitzender der EMPOA und ging dabei besonders auf die deutsch-französischen Beziehungen ein.                                             

Lukas Straubinger:  gab einen Überblick über getätigte Anschaffungen. Hierbei handelt es sich um zwei wasserdichte Boxen, welche Überlebensausrüstung (VHF Handheld, Signalgeber, Strobelight, Seewasserfärber, Signalspiegel) enthalten. Diese werden als Ergänzung zu unseren Rettungsinseln gesehen und gemeinsam mit diesen wie bisher verliehen. Jeder Pilot ist für das Funktionieren der Ausrüstung selbst verantwortlich. Diese darf wegen enthaltener Pyrotechnik nur an Personen mit vollendetem 18. Lebensjahr weitergegeben werden. Ferner ist geplant im laufenden Geschäftsjahr insgesamt vier Kälteschutzanzüge (2xL, 2xM) anzuschaffen.

Ines Bauer: nahm die Entlastung des gesamten Vorstandes vor. Die Wahlen erfolgten mit jeweils einer Enthaltung.

David Kromka: rief alle Mitglieder auf, sich an der Organisation von Vereinsveranstaltungen zu beteiligen. Ferner erfolgte ein Ausblick auf anstehende Projekte.

1. Benni und Co: hierfür wird ein Verantwortlicher in den Reihen der EMPOA gesucht. Freiwillige mögen sich bitte beim Vorstand melden.
2. EMPOA Young Eagles: ein Programm zur Nachwuchsgewinnung der EMPOA
3. EMPOA Cars: eine Zusammenarbeit mit App2Drive wird in naher Zukunft angestrebt.
4. EMPOA Christmas Party: ein Veranstaltungsort wird noch gesucht. Vorschläge sind willkommen.
5. Satzungsänderung: eine Satzungsänderung ist für 2019 geplant. Zu viele Dinge sind derzeit noch in der bestehenden Satzung unklar. Der Vorstand soll von 3 auf 5 Mitgliedern erweitert werden. Bei den zu ergänzenden Positionen innerhalb des Vorstandes handelt es sich um den Public Relation Manager und den Technical Director.

Ende der Sitzung: 20:30 Uhr

Protokoll: Lukas Straubinger

Anwesende Mitglieder: Jürgen Hack, Oliver Becker, Eugen Straubinger, Britta Hasskerl, Klaus-Peter Sternemann, Rolf Bienert, Werner Wohlfahrt, Uwe Bieber, Joachim Schulz, Björn Nolting, Sergio Petrig, Hannes Taborsky, Gerhard Hobiger, Dirk Toepfer, Lorenzo Cavalli, Gunter Haug, Klaus Ostenfeld, Paul Ring, Peter Loeprick, Birgit Hüffer, Wolfgang Hüffer, Dieter Hoch, Joachim Hofmann, Norbert Hohmann, Reinhard Kammerer, Hans Dietrich, Fritz Kaiser, Markus Beiber, Ines Bauer, Ingo-Julian Rösch, Alex Haselmann, Lukas Straubinger, Lothar Lucks, David Kromka, Philippe Coffinet

(by Lukas Straubinger und David Kromka)

Great was the interest in the journey to Troyes and the Ile d'Yeu organized by Philippe Coffinet.

(by Birgit Hutz)

Because it was so beautiful last year, the EMPOA has again invited this year to a Christmas Fly In

(by David Kromka)

It was a little different design for the EMPOA Annual Club trip in 2016: instead of five we only ventured off for four days and instead of two destinations we had a single homebase this time. Flying and the fun associated with our Mooneys did not fall short nevertheless as weathergod Peter did once again favor us this year.

(by David Kromka)

It is a standard procedure for EMPOA trips: the days before departure are spent watching the latest weather developments and hoping that everybody will be able to fly.

(by David Kromka)

With lots of tailwind EMPOA is taking off into the new year and presents all Mooniacs the program for our official club excursion in upcoming June 2014.

(by David Kromka)

The longest day, the longest flightline: two words that give a good impression of the superlatives achieved during this year's EMPOA club trip.

(by Birgit Hutz)

When the French Mooney pilots invite us to a Fly-In we need to take an evening dress and black tie with us. These Fly-Ins always take place at a special location and there is a cocktail reception with lots of champagne and an excellent gala dinner.

(by David Kromka)

If there are any conclusions to be drawn from Tannhosh, then those two. First: Thursday has become a full-scale Tannkosh day and second: no Tannkosh without rain, in our case plenty of it.

(by Birgit Hutz)

In June 2012 the EMPOA – European Mooney Pilots and Owners Association - organized the third EMPOA Mooney Proficiency Training in cooperation with the MAPA Safety Foundation

(von David Kromka)

Mooniacs lieben Fliegen – haben aber auch nichts gegen nette Momente mit anderen Mooney-Piloten einzuwenden.

(von Birgit Hutz)

Wir waren schon am Mittwoch bei schönstem Wetter über die Alpen nach Rijeka (LDRI) geflogen und warteten am Freitag Morgen in Punat auf die Mooneys aus Jakabszallas.

(by Birgit Hutz)

This year's Mooney Fly-In on 22nd and 23rd September 2012 took us to Oostende.

(von Bernd Hamacher)

On the way to our third EMPOA Mooney Proficiency Training in Erfurt, I started remembering the saying from back in my old glider pilot days: Sahara´s irrigation problems could be easily solved if it would only be made venue of the World Gliding Championships. Too often the World Gliding Championships suffered from bad weathers – no matter where they took place.

(by Birgit Vogelbruch)

(von Bernd Hamacher)

EMPOA was on Tour

Die EMPOA war in diesem Sommer auf Tour! Manche mögen sich gefragt haben, wo denn der Erlebnisbericht dazu bleibt oder es gar Gründe dafür gibt, darüber nicht zu berichten.