The strongest headwind I’ve ever had – flying from my base airport LDVA to Pula LDPL opposite to jet stream – all the time between 70 and 80 knots, FL160 was needed to top up the clouds.
When you have a weather corridor, sunny destination is obvious and you don’t care about headwind 
Luckily, with Croatia reopening, it’s not just shooting the approaches, now we can fully enjoy the seaside and the offering of coastal towns.
Peter wrote:
Never thought wind would make enough electricity to set fire to something
The newest offshore turbines can produce up to 12 megawatts each. To put that into perspective, a type 5 diesel locomotive (e.g. the class 68) produces about 2.6 megawatts. 12 megawatts is about the equivalent of 54 S-35 Beech Bonanzas at sea level wide open throttle. It’s quite a lot of power :-)
I wonder how many pilots have been totally stuffed by the virus. I read on the UK sites that many (most?) renters have lost the 30 day school/club currency rule and are grounded indefinitely until a flight with an FI is allowed again.
Many could have flown but misunderstood the virus regs and though it was law, when actually it was guidance. However many are stuck at airfields which simply closed (in most cases because they were forced to close the cafe, but hey ho).
Usually the justification given is “insurance” but how many school policies actually have this requirement?
There are clearly loads of renters who have hundreds of hours – many are here on EuroGA – and who can sit on the ground for a few months and still be OK afterwards. It seems a crazy rule to apply to all.
Owners and syndicate members don’t have this issue – unless a syndicate has such a rule, and a forceful person to enforce it.
Peter wrote:
I wonder how many pilots have been totally stuffed by the virus. I read on the UK sites that many (most?) renters have lost the 30 day school/club currency rule and are grounded indefinitely until a flight with an FI is allowed again.
I would have been totally stuffed under such strict rules. Luckily, flying was always possible here and despite being a renter, I flew in both March and April. No A-B flights though because a lot of nearby airfields closed, luckily not my homebase. My school also doesn’t have a fixed 30 day rule or similar, instead it is all down to the owner’s discretion. In practice (for me) it is more like a “six months rule”.
It was always possible here in the UK too if the FI was someone living with you. In addition, the “essential flights only” was only guidance, not law.
Yesterday and today we went for a short vacation to Losinj LDLO and it was just great! Immigration just asked for the name of the hotel and a phone number. Everybody was very nice. About half of the restaurants are open. Very nice and relaxed atmosphere. Jet A1 was just 0,73 EUR / liter with all taxes! The skies are completely empty and we managed to fly all the way at FL300 non RVSM. We rented a boat to start the simming season as and all the nice bays which usually are a bit too crowded have been empty! We had meals outdoor so also the health risk seemed minimal.
I think the very nice Croatian people really need our help right now to get their economy going. We have been the very first customers of the year for the boat rental. I saw no foreign cars at all so GA tourists are probably the only foreign visitors they currently get. So I highly recommend flying there if you can!
