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Best single flight you have ever had?

So here’s another new thread. What’s the best single flight you have ever had?

EGTK Oxford

That’s easy. Namibia. Rhino Camp to Wolwedans with a fuel and lunch stop in Swakopmund with my wife-to-be on our honeymoon trip (we did the honeymoon before the wedding, which took place at Wolwedans) Flying out of the arid north, seeing herds of elephants, then along the Skeleton Coast and finally over the highest sand dunes on the planet, Sossusvlei, into the sand strip of Wolwedans (a lodge in the Namib Desert), arriving at sunset. Pure bliss in so many, many ways. It’s a flight I will never, ever, forget.

How can I choose between:

  • Leading a formation of two Spitfires and two Hurricanes, with the men who flew one of the Spitfires and one of the Hurricanes in the Battle of Britain in the back of my aircraft
  • Flying in formation with the BBMF Lancaster with my aircraft full of WWII bomber crew
  • Flying a Spitfire
  • Flying over both North Poles, from Svalbard to Eureka?

But I guess it’s got to be one of them

I never forget to say, whether to passenger, student or myself “Let us not forget how lucky we are to be able to do this.

EGKB Biggin Hill

Taking off from Toussus with wonderful views of Paris, crossing the Alps with 40kts of wind at our back, and landing at Venice Lido to walk 100m to a taxi boat.

EGTF, LFTF

Great question…

For me, there won’t be any single flight.

The greatest ones visually have been crossing the Alps, flying down the Adriatic with the hundreds of beautiful islands, and then flying into Greece where the most memorable ones were approaching Sitia on Crete, Kalymnos, and a few others.

One recent really good flight was a departure from Brac in Sep 2016, with the 1700ft elevation airport being just above the clouds which were sitting right up to the runway. That was direct to Shoreham, but the rest of it was above an overcast so the resulting video was not really notable.

The best flight in the UK was one around Scotland in summer 2016 with (like the Brac one above) Colm (dublinpilot). That one, done at 1000-2000ft, produced a great video.

Great trips in other respects, for the other people who turned up, were the 2014 EuroGA fly-ins to Mali Losinj and Corsica.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

I agree with Peter; too many really great flights to really point out one. I would think that this is typical for owner pilots who fly through Europe a lot.

Anyway, this one here from Aix to Hohenems, in the middle of winter, crossing the highest Alps twice in one flight, low-level VFR, is a good contender.

Last Edited by boscomantico at 05 Aug 13:54
Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany

Timothy, that takes some beating! I agree there are so many, but I was able to log this….

N-X-211. That was quite special. We flew into the show in that.

Others include first flights in a new type. The YAK50 was a bit of a blast.

Fly safe. I want this thing to land l...
EGPF Glasgow

the first that comes to mine is a local flight from tromso during the arctic winter.


Pictures don’t do justice, but the light was so beautiful (and sense of calm), I just asked the instructor to take control for a couple min and let me enjoy the view.

Later that day flew during the real night Andy saw plenty of Auroras.

Flying alone over the channel while the sun sets and landing in Paris is always special

I thought about this for some time and agree with Peter and Philipp – it’s hard to pick. And I have not nearly as many flights (or as spectacular as Timothy’s “can’t choose” list), but sit back for a minute and realize what a great, great luxury it is not to be able to pick, maybe not even able to remember, the best single flight.

I’ve always thought “this is the greatest thing” when doing something for the first time, like the first Alps crossing, the first flight over a snow covered landscape, the first night flight through the Dusseldorf CTR (in fact, back then, even the first day flight through the Dusseldorf CTR), then crossing into Africa with a low approach in Gibraltar – priceless.

Hungriger Wolf (EDHF), Germany

Patrick wrote:

I’ve always thought “this is the greatest thing” when doing something for the first time,

I agree. There are times when a what was to be ‘’just a normal flight’’, turns into something totally unexpected. A sunset, a cloud formation, a particular way the sun lights up the land mass. I have many memories of situations just like this. Did not set put for it to happen, it just did. I always think that I will be the only one to savour that exact moment, that view, and actually how very precious that is.

Last Edited by BeechBaby at 05 Aug 15:15
Fly safe. I want this thing to land l...
EGPF Glasgow
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