By definition I only drive my car in The Netherlands and fly everything outside of it. Now this summer the wife wanted to go on vacation by … car, so we drove to Denmark and ended up having to wait for the ferry for 3 hours! While waiting outside in line I heard the engine of this aircraft and lo and behold here comes this great Cirrus flying overhead heading North. I made sure my wife did see that and would not forget :-)
I just waited for a ferry … in Split, Croatia. I can enjoy that too ( really)
One could argue (of course we would never do that :-)) that it can be nice to have your car at many places. With the family it’s really more practical many times …
But i definitely drive too many times. Have to work on that one …
AeroPlus wrote:
While waiting outside in line I heard the engine of this aircraft and lo and behold here comes this great Cirrus flying overhead heading North. I made sure my wife did see that and would not forget :-)
Did you arrange for that? Just sayin’….. 
Other than that, echo all that’s been said about CAT. Horrid….. luckily for me, my mad days of travel for work (100+ flights/year, much of it long-haul) were mostly before 9/11 and thus relatively enjoyable. Today – no way, avoid if I can.
On the up-side for flying lots of CAT, I do most of my Euro-GA posts from airport lounges (including this one 
).
When reading this thread initially yesterday I was tempted to post that I was at 41,000 feet as I read, which was the case. Likely it’ll be 44,000 feet tomorrow, headed west. Great for business travel as long as somebody else is buying the gas! The bizjet does an all day airliner + rental car trip in 2 hrs 55 minutes airborne, with the rental cars on the ramp when we get there and a 10 minute additional drive to work. One of the pilots is a light aircraft flying buddy so later on there’s some flying chat in the hotel bar… last night it was Cubs flying up dead end canyons. That’s really like home away from home
Re Euro ferry delays, they can be (at least partially) solved by taking your motorcycle with your wife on the back. Show up late, ride past the line of cars, first on, first off… my wife likes that as much as me. Our only problem is the very long CAT trip to get the motorcycle… in which we avoid LHR at all costs!
JasonC wrote:
My earlier post was followed by arrival into Heathrow with an immigration hall that looked like the Hungarian border
Terminal 5 by any chance? Last weekend the UK/EU immigration queue took longer than my flight into Blighty…
I have to visit Antwerp for work a few times a year. I usually fly from London City or Eurostar to Brussels then train or car to Antwerp. Usually its an absolute minimum of 1/2 a working day of travel from the south coast of the UK.
This week I flew myself into Antwerp from Shoreham. I live 15mins from the airport and can park right outside the hanger. 30mins to mess about kicking tyres, sniffing fuel, getting life jackets etc then 1.10 flight time direct to Antwerp.
If I get moving for an early departure by 8am next time I reckon I will be able to turn this into a day visit and save the hotel and a wasted working day each time. If two of us go together this equates to a saving on time and cost hands down.
@Alex_: have you never considered the LCY-Antwerp airline service? The ex-VLM now CityFlier F50 goes several times per day. Generally smelling of diamonds, I’ve been told. But very limited ground delays should make it attractive, far better than LCY-Brussels.
That said, in your particular case your own plane might be the best option indeed. As I read this thread, much seems to depend on either end of the route being close to one’s base, or to another field that does accept one’s own plane but has no competitive airline service.
PS there is now Southampton-Antwerp airline service by VLM F50 too. If the schedule is suitable.
italianjon wrote:
Terminal 5 by any chance?
yep.
Jan_Olieslagers wrote:
@Alex_: have you never considered the LCY-Antwerp airline service? The ex-VLM now CityFlier F50 goes several times per day. Generally smelling of diamonds, I’ve been told. But very limited ground delays should make it attractive, far better than LCY-Brussels.
Great if you live near LCY. Not any use if you don’t. As @what_next said, it is all about your proximity to commercial airports and tolerance for the cr*p that goes along with using them.
@Jason, sorry but have you read " " I usually fly from London City " " ? If using that LCY airport anyway, it seems queer to not use the airline service to the nearest destination. Then again, I also pointed out the nearest departure for commercial.
