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
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.
Pilot DAR, you are always welcome in Italy, Rome area.
Nice post, Pilot DAR! Yes, I know just what you mean, there is a strong sense of fraternity in the aviation community, and it's good to hang on to that at times when bad-mouthing and backbiting in the small microcosm that is club life become too exasperating.
I hope I might get to join a fly-in and meet (more) EuroGAers some time...
Fly safe!
I would like to echo the above sentiments too. I must confess that I hold my breath each time I post here but so far I have not been attacked in any unpleasant manner. It makes me want to come back and post/ask questions/ answer questions and so forth. Thanks Peter and Co. :-)
Let me start a new thread on this Prague thing, in the Trips section.
Czech ATC is superb and Letnany is English speaking and offers top service. There is nothing to complain about it. Been there several times. Prague Ruznye (the big one) is not really for GA and the other one with IFR approaches (Vodochody I think) is very far out and only reachable by taxi.
I for my part wouldn't be interested in a fly-in if the weather wasn't halfway good so an instrument approach seems not necessary.
...and, if I understood right last Saturday, IFR let-down possible through Kbely. Then again, ISTR that it is not self-evident to get an English-speaking controller on Letnany radio?
Letnany is a super airfield. Very long excellent grass strip directly next to the Metro station.
The blow-up which happened on another site over the use of the term "fraternity" was totally in line with many of the people who inhabit that site and for whom aggressive behaviour is the default operating mode.
We don't have that here...
I hope Bremerhaven is not another Tempelhof.
Now... how about a meetup in Prague?
