EEL VOR/DME

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EEL photos

Designation EEL
Name Eelde
Position N53°09.8' E006°40.0' WGS84
Google MapsN53°09.8' E006°40.0' WGS84
Frequency 112.4 MHz
Operational range 150 NM/FL 500; BTN 165° and 285° MAG 70 NM/FL 500
Type VOR/DME
Geography About 1.5 km North-East of Onnen, a small village which belongs to the municipality of Haren near Groningen. The beacon sits in the middle of a polder, surrounded by canals and dikes. You can access the site by driving first to Onnen and finding the Bakkersteeg which leads you after a few curves to the Zuiderhooidijk. This road, as the name suggests, sits on top of a dike in between canals. It is especially fun to drive over this dike when it is covered by snow and the canals are frozen over. The dike leads you straight to the beacon, which actually sits on a sideroad called Zeelandenweg.
Procedures EEL plays a role in both local (Eelde/Groningen Airport, EHGG) traffic and in enroute traffic. Instrument departures from runway 05 all go direct EEL; from runway 23 a DME reference from EEL is used. For arrivals, EEL is straight on the approach for 23, but being only 3.6 nm from the touchdown point it is too near by to be useful as a locator. SO is used for this (no visit yet). For Amsterdam Schiphol (EHAM) arrivals, EEL is a prime beacon from the North and North-East.
Remarks Being in a polder, there are only two ways to access the beacon. One is from Onnen; the other should be from the other side of the polder, but I couldn't find it in the snow with bad visibility. The beacon is three and a half hours drive from our house and we needed to stay in a hotel to make this reasonable (no, we did not go there just for the beacon).

Photo 1 North-Netherlands in winter is beautiful. [...]
Photo 2 There it was! [...]
Photo 3 To reach the beacon site, you take a side road. [...]
Photo 4 No need to jump the ditch. [...]
Photo 5 On the way back, the tire trails of our car still clearly visible in the snow. [...]
All photos

Page updated 2008-12-29

© 2024 Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers For more information, mail to hoppie@hoppie.nl