(by Birgit Hutz)

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

4. Mooney Fly-in Ostende - EMPOA

Oostende is a Belgian seaside resort on the North Sea. Bernard Maeterlinck organized this 4th International Mooney Fly-In for us. 8 Mooneys arrived during the afternoon at Oostende airport, EBOS,  where the weather was fine. We had a great approach above the sea to runway 08. Bernard welcomed everyone personally at the airport and had organized transport to our hotel, the Thermae Palace, which was located directly at the beach of Oostende. There we met more Mooniacs, who came by car because they were near by.

At 4.30 PM we started with the EMPOA Annual General Meeting. Rainer and Birgit presented the statistics on our membership and the events we had organised this year. We discussed our website and how to keep it alive and updated with ongoing reports. We further talked about how to handle registrations of future Fly-Ins and about Mooney service shops.

Afterwards we had an interesting presentation by the Aerospace engineer F. Lambert about ADS-B Implementation in Europe. And then Bernard Maeterlinck showed us how to fly to Africa as he did in 2010: "The Sky is the Limit - From Belgium to CapeTown and back in a Mooney TLS/Bravo"

At 7.30 PM we were dressed up and met in the Leopoldzaal of our hotel for a cocktail party which was followed by a Gala dinner. Every partcipant received a magnum bottle of champagne with a special EMPOA label presented by the EMPOA.

The next morning we went by bus to Brugge. There Bernard had organized a tour guide who showed us around. Unfortunately the weather was unexpectedly cold and rainy but nevertheless we enjoyed the beauty of Brugge. It was very nice to see the city from a boat tour around the river. Except a small group of Mooniacs who were freezing and therefore preferred to warm up in a coffee shop with good Belgian chocolate. 

After lunch in 'The Halve Maan' in Brugge we returned to Oostende and flew back home.

Thanks to Bernard for the perfect organization of this Fly-In.

As it has often rained at our last Mooney Fly-Ins we are now thinking of flying further south next time. 

Best regards,

Birgit