After being on handling duty for a well-known forumite and his mate, I took advantage of the crystal-clear late afternoon air to inspect the impressive Northern coast of Mallorca.
My wife is not into really into flying, only a little bit if going somewhere. However, she is a very avid hiker and the mountains of the North coast are her habitat. Unfortunately, she has developed a knee injury and has been out of action, so has not been there for weeks now. So my cunning plan was to seduce her to do some aerial sight-seeing instead. Lo and behold, it worked.
The South Western tip, just over the island of Dragonera, which was salvaged in the 80-ties from becoming a luxury resort. Thanks environmental hippies!:
Banyalbufar:
Puerto de Soller. M. Zuckerman’s floating palace on the left:
From here, the coast becomes unhabitated. This gorge, called Torrent de Pareis, is an emblematic hike. Only to be done in summer, but one needs to get up early because it takes four hours and you really want to be down before noon for obvious reasons. I can assure you that getting in the sea when you get there is the most heavenly experience one can have with a swimming suit on:
Towards the end of the range:
Time to go home, no such thing as pilot activated lighting at my field:
Nice, aart. The terraces (like contour lines) in Banyalbufar are remarkable
It was again mountain flying this morning, as an excuse for SEP prorogation as I was close to expiring it. We flew in what we can call bad weather in the mountains around Nice. Isola2000 altisurface was foggy, we didn’t enter the very tight valley, did an approach of Valberg that was muddy as hell.
Finally an engine failure simulation over La Mure airfield, under the rain, and back to Cannes.
It’s good to confront marginal conditions to see what is possible and how far we can get, with an instructor.
2 pictures taken while reaching col des Champs (2045m), where Neves are still showing, the second is the valley to col de la Cayolle to Barcelonette.
Spent the weekend on Tresco in the Isles of Scilly. Flew into St Mary’s on Saturday from Oxford IFR just before the fog set in. We took a shuttle bus to the harbour to catch the boat to Tresco and stayed at the New Inn. Tresco is delightful and has been run by the same family for several generations. Getting accommodation is not easy as everything is booked up well in advance, but well worth trying.
The BE33 parked up on the eastern side of St Mary’s. Fees including parking for three days around £70. Used RWY 27 and a visual arrival, although the airport is served by an NDB (no DME) with a couple of NDB approaches. The first 50 yard of runway 27 is on a steep gradient, so landing slightly long, but it has only 500 m so emphasis on ‘slightly long’.
By the mid afternoon fog rolled in and stopped the SkyBus shuttle.
Tresco heliport would be Super Cub friendly.
Abbey Gardens is one of the main attractions.
Lots of good walks and some good beaches
Even a cricket match for the locals
If you have accommodation you are given access to the gardens and the local swimming pools, around three or four, some indoors.
What bunch of beautiful touring you blokes have been up to! I´m jealous. I have f@ck all photos, but went to DWC (Dubai, OMDW), Amsterdam (EHAM), Le Bourget (LFPB), Katowice (EPKT), Edinburgh (EGPH), Glasgow (EGPF) and Munich (EDDM) on my last work trip. OMFG what a bloody nightmare the Scottish airport security have become – anal is the first word that comes to my mind. Nice ppl, just super tight security screening, at both airports. The only good new is that Taylor Swift had gone through the same security screening for her private jet a few nights earlier at Signature Edinburgh.
Flew to Lydd (EGMD), the warm weather is enough to call Dungeness a desert
We participated in an EMPOA fly-out. Together with 18 other Mooneys from Finnland, Sweden, Germany and France we flew to Kalmar, ESMQ and Mariehmn, EFMA.
Mooneys at ESMQ
While most crews returned to base yesterday, a few stayed up north. We continued to Honningsvåg, ENHV, and circled the Nordkapp before landing.
Nordkapp
Base 08 at ENHV
A real burger run on Saturday, literally. Moose burger at Namsos (genuine moose burger from Namdal) where it also was a competition and a glider meet up I was going to participate in the landing competition, but the tower (remotely controlled) was not exactly used to a dozen GA aircraft + gliders flying at the same time, so the landing competition never really got going before I had to fly back
But, fun nonetheless, and excellent moose burger
Saturday, did a morning’s work on the Vagabond with co-owners. Needed to adjust the timing on one mag and try to stop it weeping a little bit of oil where it mates with the engine block.
Unfortunately the lack of space once a C-90-8F is installed in a Vagabond means that any work on the mags needs a crane and the engine pulling forward. Simple work but time consuming, and we rewarded ourselves with a round of bacon and egg sandwiches from the world’s smartest breakfast cafe not far from EGTN.
Flew it in the afternoon and the engine now runs incredibly smoothly.
Sunday a little morning tour in the RV-8. Fenland airfield, which I’d not been to before, which I thought I’d try because it’s something of a UK rarity in not requiring PPR and I want to support anywhere that is sensible enough to do that. Then on to White Waltham, down Mig alley with an invaluable traffic service from Farnborough LARS north – the controller was working incredibly hard and doing a great job, and finally back to Enstone.
So a bunch of short flights, a number of sandwiches and cups of tea. Very satisfactory.