Adding a multi-engine rating and considering (seriously) acquiring a US based Baron 58 if I can get it here post a proper pre-buy inspection. First lock-down in France was horrendous wrt to flying but I flew to Menorca the first day we got some of freedom back. That being said, will probably still be 30 or so hours below last year (despite having my plane stuck in St Johns without an engine) and at least a hundred less than I was planning on since we sold the company… More motivated than ever to fly privately vs commercial and think a high performing twin fully de-iced and FIKI will be the exact right tool for that. If my future endeavours will require travel (likely) I am quite looking forward to flying even more. Greta hasn’t managed to shut me down just yet and according to the POH the heater in the BE58 is a 15l/hour luxury to stay toasty ;-).
Congratulations for the coming upgrade ! Barons are becoming rare birds in these lands.
Long trips are an issue in the US mainly because it’s hard to know where restaurants are open without some research. Given a rental car at the far end it’s not a problem, you sort it out by looking around and maybe just get drive thru or takeout… but not every trip allows for a rental car. Airspace and hotels are not typically a problem, but hotel restaurants are typically not open and eating is important…
My flying has been local for the past few months, but still good recreation. Soon I will start getting the plane ready for paint, which will involve some down time including an annual inspection followed by a 300 mile trip to the paint shop in the spring.
My last flight was in July, so I stopped flying since then mainly because Covid-19 has killed my free days during the week, which I got as compensation for weekend shifts. Now I am getting paid more in exchange, but with no free time to spend the money on I’d rather get paid less…
This year has been very unfavorable as we fly trips abroad to discover and explore until I finally put myself through the paces of the practical part of SEP/IR/PBN training. The ATO and my home aeroclub have been quite busy training students despite various lockdowns.
Most of my hours this year were actually commutes UK-France on weekends, I was not keen on public transports or airlines and neither my family, so it worked pretty well and actually I end up with roughly the same numbers of hours as my annual average
Trips not much after March, shame there was no way to make it to Lofoten in August, but at least I managed to sneak one trip to Corsica and re-discover England & Wales, of course on the rare occasions when both countries were open 
also pity Isle of Sicily was closed most of this year !
Main uncertainty factor for any flying this year was food (just cook & pack n case things get tough )
Causal flying almost nada: no gliding, not much tailwheel, no instruction neither….
Lot of simulator flying while in quarantine, about 100h so far !
MedEwok wrote:
My last flight was in July, so I stopped flying since then mainly because Covid-19 has killed my free days during the week, which I got as compensation for weekend shifts. Now I am getting paid more in exchange, but with no free time to spend the money on I’d rather get paid less…
I got a lot of overtime from my university for converting courses to online teaching. Like in your case, I’m not allowed to compensate with days off. So I bought a Brunner force-feedback yoke for the overtime pay!
I’ve had quite a busy aviation year, despite not flying for about three months in the middle. Decided to keep the FAA busy by adding new licenses and ratings. Did my CPL in January and then a MECIR in November. Guess my flying just got more expensive, LOL ! That said, I had to cancel a 2-week x-country trip to Wyoming, the Dakotas and Colorado and recently had to re-plan (and shorten) another one. As others have said, the main issue is local infrastructure once you get to your destination.
On a more general note, GA here in SoCal seems to have held up remarkably well. The flight schools are full, in some training areas there’s almost more traffic in the air than on the freeway below – for those who know SoCal traffic, you know what that means!
Airborne_Again wrote:
I got a lot of overtime from my university for converting courses to online teaching. Like in your case, I’m not allowed to compensate with days off. So I bought a Brunner force-feedback yoke for the overtime pay!
woah, nice piece of hardware! The Logitech X52 Pro HOTAS I got as birthday present is puny in comparison. I am now planning to use it to familiarise my wife with flight controls though
I had about -50% of EASA CB IR instruction slashed due to covid and all the stupid short notice legal changes each country enforced.
I did one family trip over three days, and a couple of short other flights. So the pure private flying was still possible but more hassle, so did less.
