Category: Foreign

Surprisingly cloudy start to the day – I thought it was supposed to be wall-to-wall sunshine in Florida all year round. METAR reported overcast at 300 feet, with a TAF suggesting it might rise to 1500 (for VFR) around lunchtime. Reports from further north were better, but still in the range of 1500 to 2000 feet. A NOTAM check confirmed that the Presidential TFR which would have limited our tour

Today was highly anticipated to be the most exciting of the trip. We’d be flying over the Aligator swamps of the Everglades (one rogue student pilot was reportedly eaten), then over shark-infested waters across to the Keys. Just to add to the tension was a TFR (Temporary Flight Restriction) because the US Vice-President was visiting Key West – any aircraft not complying with the restrictions could be shot down. And

Deciding on a Daytrip With so much of my flying time now spent instructing, I was still keen to fly my group share TB20 G-CORB somewhere. The flight profile of an instructor can often be limited to 25 miles from base, although I have managed a couple of cross-channel day trips with PPL pilots. Some of those taking my formal cross-channel groundschool later ask me to join them on their

Our last day, and we were keen to get home in good time. The forecast wasn’t brilliant, mainly some concerns about visibility than anything else. However we could all make use of our IR(R) ratings in the UK if we needed to. We’d also gain an hour by moving our clocks back when crossing back into the British timezone. After a leisurely breakfast, another Uber got us out to the

The weather had been good to us but was starting to look a little more unsettled, and we were aware that we had two long days of flying to get back home to Gloucester from Malmo in our club PA28. Today’s legs would be Malmo – Flensburg – Bremen – Rotterdam.VFR Flight plans required for first and last legs only because they crossed international boundaries. We reckoned that this would

Guess the next country? If you fly north east from the top right hand corner of Germany, which country do you think you’d reach first? Finland, Russia, maybe Sweden? Well you’d be wrong. The fifth largest Danish island of Bornholm awaits you. It’s in the Baltic rather than much of Denmark in the North Sea, and combines a lot of tourism with a busy fishing industry. Transport is either by

Day 2 of our 5 day trip with Russ and John in the club PA28 also involved three legs, and we flew in the same order as the previous day. There was less time pressure, so after a fairly leisurely start we stopped for a quick coffee in the airport terrace. It took a few minutes to gain access to the GA office – I think they must have been

Last year, Russ, John and I had a great three days flying up to Scotland and landing on the beach at Barra. So this year, we agreed to set aside five days, and look to have an adventure somewhere in Europe. Various route options were identified, from Friedrichshafen in Germany to southern France and Ireland. In the end, it would depend on the weather. This would again be in the club