@Capitaine, I feel privileged to be mentioned by you among all the big names on this forum. I am just an enthusiastic consumer of the wealth of information shared by others, yet I feel proud to be a member of the EuroGA family of fellow aviators.
Here is what I want to say:
I’m honoured to be in @dublinpilot’s random sample. After such a comprehensive initial post it’s difficult to follow up with a worthy response.
I particularly enjoy the shorter trip reports on EuroGA, what might be called travel writing: to read about and see somewhere completely new, with some background information on e.g. history and culture. A quick example from @Pavel. That’s the beauty of the aeroplane: it opens up a whole world of previously unknown and almost unreachable destinations.
I’ll add thanks to:
@Silvaire for making me see the world differently (in aviation and outside)
@Graham for logical analysis, making something new suddenly blindingly obvious
@kwlf for analysis and insight, and a medical viewpoint
@Ultranomad for a wealth of practical and mechanical knowledge
RobertL18C wrote:
there should be a fly in to Ancona
I’ll vote for that one. LIPY no longer has avgas but it has a long runway and instrument approaches, it may work. There is even a 650m airfield (MC06 former aviosuperficie, unsure of its current category under Italian regs) right next to the basilica! Surely a lot of the renegade fleet would join in on that one!
@Nuccio posted on ..a Holy Flight to Loreto and lest the thread diverts too much we maybe could post further therein before @Peter asks us out of here!
Thanks @dublinpilot for your thoughtful post, and I could only echo what you and others have said about our community. I have once or twice dipped my toe in other fora, only to quickly withdraw. So for me it’s basically EuroGA only where to learn and interact with nice folks. However, a few weeks ago a Bristell owners forum has been set up by two nice Germans which seems to have the same positive vibe as ours.
Thanks @Peter for all the work you put in. I know you do it because you like it, but still..
@Antonio also the Q’uran venerates Mary. Perhaps there should be a fly in to Ancona, the cathedral being home to our lady of Loreto, patron saint of pilots and cabin crew :)
dublinpilot wrote:
@Emir – I’ve been lucky enough to meet Emir (I think) four times now, at various flyins. Emir lives and breaths aviation, and is a very experienced pilot and is always happy to share his knowledge which he manages to do in a non-judgemental way. He’s equally nice in person as he is on the forum.
Thanks for these kind words. I didn’t have the opportunity to reply earlier because of being last few days at remote location with no internet. I remember when we first met (10 years ago? more?) when you absolutely persuaded Hinda that your job was ensuring safe street crossing to school children. She’s far from being naive person but you were so serious that she didn’t have any other option than to trust you 
Very good point @RobertL18C: quite a few non-Christian shoulders we are also standing on too.
Good thing you bring it up, since Christianity did not come to abolish prior cultures, but to build upon the good things in each one, (admittedly sometimes literally by building cathedrals inside former mosques ) . Missionaries have always been asked, to this day, to learn the local language and culture, taking up the good and minimizing the bad.
For example, in a kind of allegory of the meaning of Christmas (unlike, for example, Greek, Roman, Arab and even Jewish deities who were high above humble humans, God wanted to become one of us), all historical apparitions of our Lady have been in culturally embedded form, like, for example, Guadalupe in Mexico (if not familiar, this is the story )
There are many detailed studies online, but one of the more accessible and mundane explanations along this train of thought in English is in this Youtube video
@Antonio we should obviously also give thanks to the demands by Arab commentators on ancient greek and latin texts, both in Byzantium and Spain, for preserving the foundations of European civilisation, including that of the Church Fathers :)
Peter wrote:
far too few people have posted in this thread…
Very true. My excuse has been for the past few weeks it has all been about family and year-end business chores.
Thank you @dublinpilot for bringing this up. I kind of introduced my own “thank you” version in the “2023 flying summary thread”https://www.euroga.org/forums/flying/15323-your-2023-flying-year-how-many-hours-and-aspirations-for-2024/post/358427#358427 .
As the Americans like to say, lest not forget we, not only as a GA community bus also as a European society, are standing on the shoulders of giants. So much of the good in who, what and how we are has to do with the Christian origins of Europe and He Whose birth we celebrate at Christmas. No matter what your faith is, the enduring and positive impact is undeniable. UNfortunately religion has also been used as an excuse or shelter for not-so-good deeds, but may the positive impact keep on building on our Christian past not only for the Glory of God, but also for the well-being of our often-troubled civilization.
Thank you all, but especially @dublinpilot for the thread, @jujupilote for reminding us what this fuzz is about, and @Peter for looking after the place and hosting the family: Merry Christmas!
I am hugely grateful to Peter and the team at Euroga. As I have said several times in the past, this is an unrivalled resource. When the weather is inclement, I do my daily ‘flying’ right here on the forum. Not a trip gets planned without recourse to the airport posts. I really appreciate all the wisdom and help available from the fantastically engaged community. And above all it is fun!
Thank you very much!
