that is a great post. Particularly the part about the common target or goals is what makes a family work… I guess a lot of people who have problems with their spouses regarding flying has to do with this, that the pilots goal is different from the spouses.
I have always tried to combine the two, to make the plane a tool to achieving goals rather than a goal itself, at least in the eyes of my wife. In the first year we travelled to Bulgaria with the airplane which she was very happy about. In the 2nd year we had to abandon the trip due to enduring bad weather (as it turned out neither the way down nor the way back could have been done within a week of the target dates each due to the alps being closed almost all times) which put a damper on it. We did some shorter trips thereafter which worked out apart from one diversion to sit out a thunderstorm over Zurich.
However, when we got our child 5 years ago, anxiety set in and she has not flown since. Whether we will be able to fly as a family is totally open at this stage. I hope so.
Antonio wrote:
Having the wife bragging with friends about the improvised family four-day trip to the Alps in gorgeous wx while our friends stayed home- bound with the kids in bad wx: priceless!
Yes that is what happened after our first trip to BG. As you say, priceless.
Peter wrote:
Well, I can tell you that by doing exactly this for years I have achieved a near 100% despatch rate, with the TB20.Obviously if you have x kids then you have to travel during school holiday time and your accommodation isn’t going to be as flexible as it would be for a couple with 0 kids who are semi retired and who can stay in any number of self catering apartments found on airb&b or booking.com.
If you have to prebook holidays a long time ahead, and need a specific type of accommodation, an airline flight is probably the only way.
GA is great for nice trips at a shorter notice.
Same here. Being lucky with flexible work schedule, I’ve never canceled vacation trip 
the only reason can be bad weather for multiple days on destination but in that case there’s no reason to travel there at all. Regarding the accommodation, I’ve always booked day or two prior the flight and have never had problems even when kids were younger and travelled with us.
@Emir, being situated where you are helps, doesn’t it?
All the great destinations in most of the pilots north of the Alps are located south of the Alps. So you have a huge advantage there. A friend who had a plane stationed in Graz at times was flying all the time while we were sogged in for weeks and moreover while the Alps were closed for almost all summer a few years ago.
For us in the North of the Alps, the ideal thing to do is to prepare two trips every time: One to the actually desired destination south of the Alps and one to someplace you can go without crossing. Many times from here, the South of France via Rhone valley is feasible, whereas Croatia and Italy are impossible for lots of time VFR.
Well, there is VFR and there is VFR.
Some people, when crossing the Alps VFR fly in the canyons, basically. That is the traditional training, probably because you can do it in any type.
Others fly straight over the top at “IFR MEA” altitudes. That’s what I always did, whenever allowed by ATC. FL140 or so. Not generally possible in Swiss airspace because of Class C being mostly inaccessible, but there are other routes.
Mooney_Driver wrote:
However, when we got our child 5 years ago, anxiety set in and she has not flown since. Whether we will be able to fly as a family is totally open at this stage. I hope so.
I hope so too! We started flying with our first kid when she was 2 months old or so. Lots of hearing protection and research , as well as a waiting family at destination to meet the new kid on the block seemed to ease the anxiety enough…and set the right precedent in my case.
The bad precedent was a few months later with a fresh IR on a late evening (read night) 1.5h flight mostly in continuous IMC just below the freezing level in continuous moderate turbulence…to be avoided in general but especially if you want the family onboard! Luckily a few subsequent good flights calmed any axiety generated on that one.
Peter wrote:
Not generally possible in Swiss airspace because of Class C being mostly inaccessible, but there are other routes.
I had the impression that have changed recently after some VFR pilot hit a mountain when refused Class C VFR clearance…
Under SERA, VFR in Class C is allowed, but Switzerland is probably operating outside SERA (IFR in Class G is not YET allowed )
The same in UK, SERA allow VFR in Class C on PPL but it’s banned under ANO2016 unless you have an IR (then you can fly VFR in Class C associated with ATS routes or general >FL195 with PPR), but these days we have few CTAs that are reclassified from Class A to Class C down to 3500ft, plus IMCR is now valid for IFR in Class C, so the ANO point is getting moot, however, ATC are still probably out of date on the rules, the MATS was written in the dark ages
VFR in Class C is allowed
Sure, but ATC can refuse at any time without any reason.
Swiss does give VFR clearance in Class C, as I well know, but you can’t rely on it. As with much in ATC, the principle of “fait accompli” works well, so cancelling IFR at FL140 is much more likely to get you a VFR clearance into CAS than popping up as previously unknown VFR traffic.
Flying distances around Europe VFR actually comes pretty close to doing it IFR, except you don’t have an IR, so you have to be “VFR”. A lot of the time you fly exactly the same routes… The challenge is getting into this way of flying if you are starting with a PPL, from a flying school. I had to learn it all myself, without any mentor. The long VFR trips here were done that way.
Under SERA, VFR in Class C is allowed, but Switzerland is probably operating outside SERA (IFR in Class G is not YET allowed )
Things change.
IFR in class G is to be expected now along Low Flight Network routes.
Mooney_Driver wrote:
@Emir, being situated where you are helps, doesn’t it?
Actually it does trip to Losinj is 0:50 min, Split 1:00 min and trip to Dubrovnik is 1:30. And flying to Italy, Southern France, Spain, Greece and Turkey also doesn’t require crossing the Alps. But flying to the rest of France, UK, Belgium, Germany, Sweden… requires and these were pretty big portion of my trips.
T28 wrote:
IFR in class G is to be expected now along Low Flight Network routes
Looks promising, I think Switzerland had already a first proof-of-concept of uncontrolled IFR to non-instrument runway, Grenchen LSZG can operate IFR outside ATS hours with RMZ and APP managed by Bern, but I don’t recall reading anything yet about uncontrolled IFR en-route, an obvious practical limit is orography & topography !
