Azores 2017

The airport on Graciosa is very close to the sea. This allows us to fly with the Helicopter over water while still being in close distance to the ENA site and also close to our camp. During the flight, we can hear the helicopter most of the time and with good eyes also see it. When close, we can also spot ACTOS and in some lucky moments even SMART-HELIOS. During yesterdays flight, ACTOS and HELIOS were sampling a very thin stratiform cloud just above the airport. This was a nice view for all the spectators on the ground. The nice part was, that we only could see ACTOS below and in the cloud while Helios and the helicopter were already above the cloud layer. With the sun shining from above, ACTOS plus helicopter cast a shadow on the clouds which was clearly visible from below. Another nice view from the ground we got when the G1, operating in the ACE-ENA campaign, flew over the airport. During one runway approach G1 and ACTOS did come quite close.

It's not that easy to travel to Graciosa. Sure, we did not expect a direct connection from Leipzig airport. But three stops and one overnight stay seems quite a lot for a distance closer than New York. Unfortunately, having four single flights legs enhances the risk to miss a connection. Und that's what happened to some of us. Our flight to Lissbabon first was delayed and then, when sitting in the plane, suddenly an army of firefighters surrounded the aircraft. We had to go out and everything was checked for some misterious smell. So we were delayed even more and could not reach our connection to Terceira. Although, TAP spend us a 4-star Hotel including delicious dinner, we were a little unhappy because staying in Lissabon we missed the nice hotel we already booked for Terceira. Today on the early flight to Terceira we already could observe some of the clouds we are looking for. Amazing how structured these clouds are.