aart wrote:
My ignorance, but I did not realize that one can’t fly over ‘non-EASA places’ with a LAPL. So if one has a PPL or CPL, but it flying that on a LAPL medical, would that also not be allowed?
Yep. In theory, my primary destination is Bulgaria and the way there leads over Serbia with a possible landing in Belgrade. Non-Easa territory therefore not accessible for people with a LAPL or LAPL medical. Same goes for the UK I reckon.
aart wrote:
You mentioned EASA twice:
Fact of the matter is that without EASA FCL I’d be gone from flying since before I came back in 2009, as not only my ratings but my LICENSE and all the theory would have been gone under the old regime prior JAR/EASA FCL. They saved my behind more than once. The temptation to stay on the LAPL rather than PPL is the 2 year medical period primarily. Nothing else.
As for the paintjob, the main thing there is that in Bulgaria there are many maintenance and paint outfits which can get their work acknowledged by their own CAA but not that many are EASA 145(i believe) certified to sign off a EASA airplane and satisfy the requirements of the CAMO and EASA. Also my CAMO needs to have someone to write a work order to, which has to be an EASA shop. I am sure that a solution is there, but I have to sit together with the people involved to make it happen.
The chances of somebody in Serbia caring is -273.15C. The chances of somebody in the UK caring is -273.14C 
172driver wrote:
if Serbia is such a concern, why not route via Hungary and Romania? Admittedly a detour, but not a huge one.
I really do not wish to derail this thread much more but I have to say that BEG airport was the BEST experience I ever had, along with Serbian (and Croatian) ATC going VFR on such a trip. Cheap, fast, great folks at the airplane, extremely happy to help, simply a very fond memory. Also BEG has the cheapest Avgas in all of the Balkans as far as I know.
And apart, as long as I have to do the medical for work as well (which is 90% of the Class 2) I will keep it alive. What happens after I retire is a totally different affair.
I do not wish to derail the thread either but I have met many people who feel that once they don’t need their Class 2 for flying, their health will suddenly magically stay the same or even improve. If you can’t get a Class 2 then you need to get yourself fixed. Unless it is purely financial, but then you won’t be able to pay for any avgas either
Flying to LYBE for avgas makes sense only if it is pretty well on the route. It’s like over here, people do huge detours via EGJJ (Jersey) for cheaper fuel, and this makes even less sense since a) you need to be landing there with nearly empty tanks (a really great idea for an island) and b) you get much of the saving via the duty drawback anyway.
I used to think that absolute zero was -273.16 but it now seems to be -273.15
Peter wrote:
I used to think that absolute zero was -273.16 but it now seems to be -273.15
Global warming, innit? Happy Christmas everyone!
Peter wrote:
Flying to LYBE for avgas makes sense only if it is pretty well on the route.
It’s pretty much on the route and extremely convenient as the destination has no Avgas. So it’s filling up there, going to Plovdiv (AoE) and Primorsko (LBPR) which again has Avgas. Also Switzerland – Belgrade is just about the max range of the Mooney. However, things are more complex now as from my new homebase, a direct to Belgrade is no longer possible, as Birrfeld AFAIK only allows departures and arrivals to Schengen airports. From ZRH it worked perfectly. But even with a stop at Klagenfurt or so, it still is the preferrable place to take fuel for the 2nd part and back.
65 hours on 6 different plane types. Got my PPL in June and did 40 hours since then. Slowly spreading my wings outside of Belgium, went to Midden-Zeeland, Epernay, Maubeuge, Le Touquet, Koblenz, Texel to start doing real travel, but all trips had to be day trips. For next year hope to go further afield, including to England, Channel Islands, and further into Europe. That and finish my night rating.
Not a bad year of achievements flying.
Acquired my first private aircraft and logged 54 hours on her since April this year (2023).
Workwise did 120 hours on the Gulfstream. Boring stuff as such.
36H or Nitendo flying in the Gulfstream (550/650 sims).
Got my EASA part-FCL Flight Instructor(airplane) rating in January.
Got a new G650ER job starting in Q1 24´, which should entail some more real inter-continental flying (as opposed to ME, Europe only).
Seems Log Ten totals 208H+25M last 12 months ;-) (Got paid for most of those!)
Bring on another year.
