Sorry BB….but I am really envious of your beautiful V-tail!! 
Thank you Anthony.
She is sitting tucked up in a nice warm hanger in Ireland. The discussion with my wife was along the lines of I will sell the plane, which will now pay for the boat.
On the positioning flight to Ireland I realized I could never sell it. So the conversation now goes along the lines of working just a bit harder to pay for it all. But that of course brings us full circle, because the envious ones do not, in fact cannot, appreciate that, unless you are very very fortunate, these things are the result of very hard work and effort.
Next thing I would do: Introduce that nice blonde girl “who was in school with you” to her.
;-)
BB
LOL, well, never mind the boat but I honestly think I do not want to be in your shoes right now regarding those discussions :)
these things are the result of very hard work and effort.
It doesn’t occurr to most of that commie crowd that MOST people who can afford more than them have gotten it working their behinds off. Those people believe in entitlement… to nothing in the end.
Interesting thread. I have recently been drawn into the world of sailing by going out in a friend’s boat. His boat is worth about £45,000. From discussions with him, no one seems to bat an eye…even people with boats worth £100K.
Yet I own a PA28 worth maybe £45K and I get raised eyebrows.
What’s also interesting, at least in the UK, is other flyers ALWAYS ask me if I own my plane in a group or as a sole-owner…like being a sole owner means I am a rich fool???
My vintage, tube and rag, two seat aircraft has much less utility than most aircraft discussed on the forum – outside of training. Ironically, though, perhaps because it is mainly in the flying for fun, relatively low cost category, it does not provoke comment.
When I operated an aircraft with some business utility, the aircraft would attract comment. In Europe social acceptance of general aviation as a business asset for small, medium enterprises outside training, or specialist missions, is not the norm. Visiting your customer base in a Cirrus in western Europe, is not regarded as enterprising, and efficient, as it might be in the USA.
I volunteer for Project Propeller – which is a great ambassador for general aviation in the UK, and if I get requests will volunteer the aircraft and myself, e.g. for photographing the floods last winter. My previous aircraft also carried out some Angel Flights, which is another positive volunteer movement which helps promote general aviation, again, especially in the USA/Canada. However, other than one or two other pilots making these flights in Europe, there wasn’t that much demand – or the demand was somewhat exotic, for example an Angel Flight into Kosovo when you still needed NATO clearance and special insurance.
Lo cost is not a solution for children with disabilities needing to travel far for specialist visits – one fight was Cardiff to Maastricht, which seemed to prove the value of the service. A vibrant Angel Flight in Europe would help build goodwill towards private, individual aircraft ownership. I believe the TBM owners group may have attempted a similar exercise by flying supplies for Medicin sans frontieres.
These volunteer organisations are not performing medevac type roles, but are supplying a service which is not covered by healthcare, for patients who can’t charter a King Air.
I have never heard of an Angel Flight equivalent in Europe. Is there one?
Jason, there was a few years back (possibly ten years ago!), with at least three active pilots. A gentleman in Zurich in a 210, another pilot in Blackpool in a Baron and myself. The first European Angel flight was from Italy to the UK, would need to check my old logbook, and it was arranged as two legs, with myself flying the second leg from Grenchen.
While there was genuine demand and we may have made around half a dozen, to a dozen flights, it needed proper admin to ensure care providers were aware of the service, and in helping bring volunteers and patients together.
The criteria for flights needs to be carefully calibrated as you are self evidently not equipped or trained for medevac, so the care provider needs to be involved to ensure the patient is OK for this type of service.
A cabin class single or twin would be ideal.
To resurrect Angel Flight Europe I think would require a business plan with permanent staff, and structure it as properly run charity with fundraising to cover some admin and marketing.
It may also be worth mentioning volunteer flying for Flying Scholarships for the Disabled – with G-LIZZ going as far as buying and wearing the T shirt!
I heard of some kids being flown down from Newcastle to London by PPLs for treatment – I forget the name of the organisation.
I can see that for a few kids it would be very helpful and a reasonable thing to do. Particularly from relatively isolated areas e.g. Scotland/Cornwall. But I would have thought that the number of kids in the UK who would benefit would be quite limited and would have concerns re. get-there-itis and flying over water, given that severely disabled kids would be very unlikely to survive a ditching.
Robert,
That’s a very nice picture to choose of my aeroplane, but this one captures the beauty quadruply 
