Ferry flight fun

Pilots and controllers come in all shapes and sizes. I have seen quite a few of them who started as controllers than became pilots and many of those who started their carrier as pilots but for some reason ended up in a tower or in front of the radar scope. But you hardly see people who can combine both professions: work as an air traffic controller while flying as a commercial pilot.

I know one of those guys, and I was happy to accept the invitation to join him, my colleague from the Maastricht Upper Area Control Centre (MUAC) for a short ferry flight.

Jan is a duty supervisor in the MUAC operations room and he is also a freelance pilot, working for ASL nv, a Belgian air taxi company with its headquarters based at Antwerpen Deurne airport. They mainly fly from regional airports out of the Benelux but as they advertise their flexibility, depending on the mission, their aircraft can be placed anywhere where there is a suitable airfield. ASL was founded in 1998 and they started their flying activities with a single Piper Seneca II. Today ASL has a fleet of 5 turboprops and 5 business jet aircraft: 4 Beech King Air-s, (an F90, a B200, a 200C, and a B350) 1 Beechcraft 1900 D and 4 Cessna Citation Jets and a Cessna Mustang VLJ (Very Light Jet). ASL offers individual business, charter and cargo flights, ambulance and organ transportation flights and also aircraft management service to its customers, which includes the selection, operation and possible commercialization of corporate aircraft. ASL’s aircraft are operated by 14 fulltime employees and 30 freelance pilots.
Jan’s mission of the day was to pick up one of the company’s business jets, the Cessna C525A Citation CJ2 at Dusseldorf airport where some engine maintanence had been carried out by Jet Aviation’s maintenance unit.
As the type can be operated by a single pilot Jan would be the only pilot flying the aircraft on the short flight between Dusseldorf and Antwerp, hence the possibility for me to occupy the right seat in the cockpit. ASL has the policy that despite of the single pilot option, they operate all commercial flights with 2 qualified pilots.
During a lengthy and thorough hand-over procedure by the maintenance technicians, Jan received a detailed explanation as to what sort of work exactly had been carried out on the aircraft. Engine cowlings closed and having completed the paperwork, we were ready to settle ourselves in the state of the art cockpit of OO-FLN. This aircraft (cn C525A-0179) was manufactured in Wichita, Kansas in 2003 and ASL acquired the aircraft used in 2006. The Citation CJ2 is a business jet that accommodates a maximum of 7 passengers and has an operating range of 2500 km.

In the meantime ASL’s flight operations had already filed a flight plan for us and while Jan was preparing the flight he talked me through the PREFLIGHT and  BEFORE START checklists. The information received via the latest ATIS confirmed what we already knew: we can expect runway 05 Right for take-off in perfect weather conditions. There was a slight crosswind component (330 degrees 9 knots) but otherwise no clouds and more than 10 km visibility had been reported. I was given the chance to handle the radio and make all our communications with ATC (a real feat for an Air Traffic Controller!).
All check lists completed we were ready to go so we called delivery for our clearance: we received our departure procedure (the NETEX1Z) and our squawk, 2573.
For the taxi clearance we called the Ground on 121.9 and obtained our clearance for the short distance from the General Aviation terminal via taxiways Victor and X-Ray, to the holding point of RWY 05 Right. The preceding aircraft, BAW945 to Heathrow has already started its take-off roll, so there was no delay for us. We quickly finished the BEFORE TAKE OFF checklist followed by the RUNWAY LINE UP CHECKS items: Jan made sure that the anti-collision lights, landing lights, ignition and pitot/static heat were selected ON and also checked the QFU (the magnetic heading of the runway) was  indeed what the heading indicator showed, and also the altimeter setting.
Having received the take-off clearance from the Tower controller, Jan applied take-off power and the two Williams Rolls-Royce engines (producing a maximum 10.2 kN or 2300 lbs thrust) accelerated us down the 3000 meters runway. At the take-off weight of less than 11000 lbs (the type’s MTOW is 12500 lbs) we did not need the entire runway, in fact we were airborne after a take-off roll of approximately 800 meters. The positive rate of climb was obvious and noted, so Jan retracted the gears and following the prescribed noise abatement procedure he applied take off thrust until passing 1500’ then reduced power to climb thrust climbing with a speed 10 to 20 knots higher than V2 (V2 is the take-off safety speed: the target speed to be maintained in case of an engine failure) up to 3000 feet AGL where he retracted the flaps and accelerated smoothly to en-route climb speed.

We could easily comply with the restrictions of the NETEX1Z SID (that is also the noise abatement procedure) which required a minimum climb gradient of 7% (or 425 feet per nautical mile) until passing 3000’.
We remained on the TWR frequency until passing 2000’ then contacted Langen Radar. We soon found out that we didn’t have to complete the standard departure procedure as we received the next clearance direct to MODRU then soon afterwards to BATTY. We climbed unrestricted to our requested level of FL180 which was of course much lower then the aircraft service ceiling of FL 450. With a bit of tailwind of 17 knots we managed a ground speed just above 300 knots. This was just a very short hop so when we called Brussels Radar on the 129.575 who cleared us direct to FLO then BUN (FLORA then BRUNO VOR) we knew that the cruise phase will only last for a few minutes. During this short phase we passed exactly above our home town Zutendaal and we could also easily identify Zwartberg (EBZW) airfield, home base of our flying club, the Limburgse Vleugels.

Jan started his flying career here in 1993 when he obtained his PPL. Completed CPL/IR training in 1999 he then started flying a private Citation Jet OO-PHI, the first one in Belgium. In the meantime he’s got additional qualifications on CJ2, CJ3 and Learjet 60XR and holds a frozen ATPL
From our cruising altitude the “EBP05” Danger Area – aka the Pampa range, a firing and bombing area of the Belgian Air Force – was also nicely visible. We did not have much time for sightseeing though as we had to start the descent about 20 miles before FLO. The direct course to BUN meant an almost straight in approach for RWY 29 in Antwerp. We already checked the latest ATIS (by radio, EBAW does not have an ATIS) which reported 6 knots wind from 350 degrees and only few clouds at 2000 feet in the vicinity of the airport. As we crossed the transition altitude of 4500’ we noticed that even during this short flight, conditions were becoming hazier as we were quite close to sunset. Just before BUN, we were cleared to intercept the LOC on the present heading and gradually descended to 2500 feet. Despite of the haze we had visual contact with the airport – which is situated in a densely populated area – quite early during the descent. With only 1 other VFR traffic on the opposite end of the traffic circuit we obtained the landing clearance from Antwerp tower. We descended on the glide slope and our position was confirmed by the PAPI lights. Following a smooth touchdown we rolled along the 1510 meters long runway to enter taxiway A and taxi through the apron where 2 VLM Fokker50-s were being serviced. Jan parked the Citation on Apron 2 infront of ASL’s own hangar.

This short ferry flight only lasted for 25 minutes during which we managed to burn 556 pounds of jet fuel. It was a short flight, but lots of fun!