60 plus hours, 4 less than last year.
All of them in my C172 except an hour in a rented one in Capetown, flying over Robben Island and along the Table Mountain.
6 new to me airports and 1 new country (Slovenia).
Flights from my homebase just south of Rome to Sardinia, Sicily and Croatia/Slovenia and many local flights at dawn.
Lots of memories but the flight from Sicily to home stands out: wake up at 04.40 local time, drive to the airstrip at Marina di Modica, preflight in the dark, take off before sunrise and catch the sun rising from behind the Etna. A 3h40 flight home, arriving at the office at 09.00 for work.
Next year goal: just fly as much as I can.
Lots of memories but the flight from Sicily to home stands out: wake up at 04.40 local time, drive to the airstrip at Marina di Modica, preflight in the dark, take off before sunrise and catch the sun rising from behind the Etna. A 3h40 flight home, arriving at the office at 09.00 for work.
That’s awesome 
0 hours this year, but I expect some flying in 2024.
Africaneagle, that epic flight needs a report !
@AfricanEagle, that‘s a super-interesting flight from Marina di Modica to Sabaudia! From your noted flight time in a C172, I assume you more or less followed the coast. Given that Marina di Modica doesn‘t seem to have fuel, and the C172 range, where did you fill up in Sicily?
This year I clocked 47 hours which fell a bit short of my desired minimum of 50 hrs. The main reason was the abysmal weather in November-December combined with lots of stuff at work so that I couldn’t easily just take a day off when the weather cleared up for a while.
Still, I did some fun flying. Notably in a major Voluntary Air Corps exercise including things like locating power line damage and then guiding repair vehicles to the site avoiding road blockages. Also I ferried my club’s brand new Evektor Sportstar RTC from the factory in Czechia. And some vacation trips with my wife, of course.
It is nice to see the community up an running!
Using this thread as a barometer for GA flying one does get the feeling that it is well, alive and kicking, although probably those having more trouble to fly as much as they would like are underrepresented. It does show that GA is a high-commitment activity and hence interferes significantly with the rest of your life, and hence when situations outside of GA arise, it is easy to let GA wane.
That is why having a large community to assist in making things easier is so important.
Thank you:
@Peter for keeping this community healthy
@FlyingAppel for starting this thread and congrats on achieving your targets, SFO included!
@Emir for showing the GA to commercial route might be of interest!
@Dan for sharing your stories and stopping us from keeping too sober
@maxbc for increasing our numbers and showing your trust in the community
@arj1 for not giving up on your IR, do let us know once in your pocket
@Stickarnrudderman for showing ou can get back on the saddle after a long time
@Steve6443 for putting Norway in your GA agenda: way to go, but do read the threads!
@johnh for successfully handling the very public loss of your aircraft and quickly getting fully back into European GA at its best: a nicely equipped TB20!
@IO390 for showing airplane acquisitions and sales do not have to be terrible ordeals
@aart for showing the luxuries offered by the GA -under-rebel-world
@RobertL18C for keeping the faith despite obvious hurdles, here’s to a fuller report for 2024
@LeSving for keeping threads busy, maybe you could just be a bit more merciful to us simple minds, GA is complex enough! I hope you can also report some not-so-local bimbles-also keep that F104 flying!
@Thomas_R for helping up the average stat above the 100hrs/yr
@etn for keeping us posted, do keep us more regularly appraised next year, we like to hear from you!
@Destinatus for showing the 61.75 route is alive and kicking, do taek that IP test and let us know. Good luck! (I used an app to practice tests and it proved very valuable)
@Buckerfan for showing how GA can be an integral part of your life prospects and congrats on deciding to brave the disorderly world of Mediterranean life: welcome to the fun!
@Dimme for keeping up hope and helping others up their skills, keep it up and here’s to a lot more flying in 2024!
@Indochine for your new ratings. I hope you can put them to good use in 2024… do tell us!
@Snoopy for the most wonderful of Xmas trees
@Whiskey_Bravo for getting the TB10 back in the air, 2024 promises to be much better!
@MooneyDriver for sharing your ordeals, handling the balance life vs GA in reasonable fashion, keeping hopes up and managing to keep the Mooney used in the meantime. Congrats on the new home and here’s to reading on some of our flying in 2024! PS: I am all in favour of period liveries for period aircraft…
@gallois for showing you can get the wife back onboard!
@172driver for sharing : 2024 will for sure be better!
@Aveling and likewise!
@ji for the great progress: keep it up and do let us know fo your trips!
@Yeager for getting into the ownership route and showing both extremes of the GA (subsonic) speed envelope can be handled safely!
@ivark for still managing to build house+flying . Nice country, Parnu now surprising new home to our next A320 project with MMRO, keep up the good work!
@MichaLSA for bringing your #1b into GA and keeping your all-time-low >100hrs…wow!
@ermajn for your bit into bringing Serbia into EASA-land (not sure that is a good thing but at least we are all in the same boat)
@denopa for keeping such a capable machine for over 1000hrs, surely mixed feelings seeing it go…good luck with whatever your new mount is!
@Darkfixer for getting into ownership with a nice Arrow!
@NicoKM for putting the IR to good use…we need more PPL-IR’s
@Shanwick for, well…upping the average!
@Capitaine for keeping the family into GA, and congrats on your upgrades!
@AfricanEagle for keeping us appraised: we miss your stories
@loco for showing there is life outside flying, but that is not living after all, or is it?
@Airborne_Again for helping keep the ES GA community alive and kicking
Thank you all. As to myself…I used to target 100hrs/yr as a balanced budget. When switching from 177RG to 210 I figured the faster aircraft meant I would fly same # of NM (trips?) in 75FH and that has been my new target for years. THis year I blew it @ 100hrs mainly due to a couple of longish trips (ski, Morocco, Norway) added to my more usual shortish and currency flying. I cannot wish for more…but there are a couple of projects on the horizon potentially clocking a couple hundred hours in 2024…here’s to a more user-friendly and accessible GA in 2024 for all!
That’s a very nice post ! We appreciate you too !
denopa wrote:
denopa29-Dec-23 11:5558
That’s a very nice post ! We appreciate you too !
I second to that!
@Antonio for the person he is (happy and honoured to have met him (ok, others too ) in flesh). His detailed trip reports sure are a treat. The time he must have spent writing that post is proof of his dedication towards EuroGA.
I will repeat what I already wrote somewhere else, respect is the biggest attribute of this site (ok, Peter is running close 2nd 
) and is reflected in many a form.
