Pilot DAR, you are always welcome in Italy, Rome area.
I'd love to meet up with some forumites. This year has been a bit busy as I'm doing my IR, but once that's done I will try to be at the next meeting.
Jim, nice post and I fully agree.
It was a pleasure meeting those who made it to Bonn Hangelar on Saturday and despite the sleepiness of the place, I think and hope everyone who came had a worthwhile time.
There's a particular aspect for me: I'm really in the early beginnings of my flying career (and it's not intended to be a career, really) and I find it particularly valuable to exchange information, ideas, and experiences with fellow pilots, but I'm not a "club" type of person. I'm not planning on joining any GA club, but rather renting flexibly from charter companies and flight schools in the area. This comes at a cost, of course, because you don't get the knowledge sharing that takes place in a club environment. The only other way to formally acquire new knowledge is to pay instructors, which isn't really the same as casually sharing with others. Hence, being on this forum and meeting some of you in person every now and then is the ideal complement to solo flying for me. Hope to see you soon! :-)
As a side note, I received the license from the CAA on Wednesday. They quote 17 working days on their website, but it only (though it seemed to me like a lifetime) took them 12.
Cheers
Patrick
