2013: 145
2014: 187
2015: 179
2016: 160 (approx)
I am hoping the TKS bits will arrive before the Annual is started on 24th January, and if they don’t it will be postponed till the next winter. Otherwise I will have a fully de-iced plane, finally after 15 years 
Downtime ~ 2 months.
Some more Greek islands this year.
And more ski trips (in 2016, only 1 was any good: Grand Bornand, near Annecy) with Bolzano / Alta Badia being the first planned one.
I should do LPV (GTN650+750 or 2×IFD540) but there are too many problems with organising and managing it, and there is no way to do it while I am having the other major work done.
The usual 300 hours +/- a few in 2016. More instructing than the years before, a bit less business flights, especially the last quarter was very quiet.
For 2017? Don’t lose my job doing stupid things. Get new glasses so that I can read the glass cockpit in our training aircraft from the right hand seat (never was a problem with the steam gauges).
A fantastic flying year. Not so much because of the sheer number of hours flown (only a little less than 100 hours), but because of the quality of the flights. Among these:
-a wonderful “fly & ski” trip in March with my father
-a beautiful flight to France in May
-a terrific trip to Greece and Macedonia in May
-a trip to Sibiu (Romania) with lots of tailwind, both ways!
-an incredible trip to Belle Ile and to Dorset
-an epic weekend trip to Vejrø and Copenhagen with friends
-two trips to the Franche-Comté
-a wonderful day-trip to Konstanz in August
-a flight to Mauterndorf, the highest elevation airfield in the Austrian Alps
-a nice late summer trip to Italy in September
-many instrument approaches, albeit most of them in good weather (the last one of the year, on the 23rd of December, was nicely down to minimums though)
Really pleased.
Plans for 2017:
-get back into PPL instructing (wanted to do this in 2016 already…)
-get back into flying tailwheel aircraft
-fly motorgliders
-fly somewhere outside Europe again
-maybe buy a share in an aircraft here in the Frankfurt area
148 hrs in 2016
Other than keep breathing my aspiration for 2017 is to learn to fly a taildragger. Long overdue..
It’s turning into a nice tradition to do this thread. Was just going to grab my logbook when I realized I’d sent it off this week to the CAA for license update. So will have to do this from the top of my head (and maybe start a electronic log some time).
Silvaire wrote:
There is no better way to learn the geography of an area (in our case it’ll be the western US) than to see it from VFR flights in good weather.
That is very true. One of the most long-lasting impressions from my first few flying hours was to see and put into perspective the distinct characteristics of my home area. I’d never realized before just how many water bodies there are in the Niederrhein area, making it look like a Dutch cheese with all the holes.
So, 2016: Definitely a good flying year – probably more hours than the years before. 70+, with 27 attributed to the long trip via France and Spain to Tangier in May, including the Euroga Fly In in Carcassonne. Several trips to the islands (when I say “the islands”, I’m referring to the East and West Frisian islands along the North Western coast of Germany) with friends and family, first trip to Sylt where an ice cream for all aircraft occupants is included in the landing fee. Some Wingly flights with strangers, including two lawyers who were signing their partnership contract while circling above their law office in the city of Dortmund and also including a German living with his family on Mallorca who joined me on the way back home to be in Mülheim for, among other things, a dentist appointment. Flying was also more evenly distributed across the year. I was able to fit the 5 hours needed for the night rating into a tight work schedule in November and December, so that’s ticked off the list now. Also, just before the year ended, I made good use of the amazing high pressure area to finally fly to ski (see trip report to Zell am See in the trips section).
No distinct To Do list for 2017 yet, I will see what the year brings along..
Best wishes for 2017 to everybody and thank you for this wonderful forum.
54 hours in 2016
Hoping I could buy my aircraft and complete my CBIR.
174 hrs. in 2016 – not a bad year. And “only” about 120 of those were instructing, which translates into more than average “personal flying” for me.
Highlights:
- flying trip with a buddy from Florida to Canada and back, visiting New York (KFRG) doing the famous “Hudson Corridor” tour, Washington (KIAD) and Toronto (CYTZ)
- finally racking up 200 hrs. IFR-time, so…
- got my FI-IR-rating in October
- got the only missing EASA-SEP-differences training into my logbook (“Cabin Pressurization” on a P210)
Plans for 2017:
- getting a Courchevel site-rating
- attending a EuroGA-fly-in ;-)
- making up my mind whether buying a share in an airplane would be for me
43 hours.
U/S for fitting 8.33, and solving interference. U/S for the best 6 weeks of weather with reconditioning Generator and Starter. Bad weather when serviceable. 2 days of good weather this weekend, and I’ve the flu.
Would like to buy something of my own in 2017, as I’m into a financial disaster where I’m not spending enough money to be broke when I die.
Although 2016 was mostly about moving into our new house, I was still able to make some nice flights…
102:25 hrs total
66:25 hrs IFR
36:00 hrs VFR
05:30 hrs NIGHT
82 landings of which 2 at NIGHT
28 unique destinations
9 different countries
110 hours in 2016 – best year so far. The highlight was a first trip to Greece, which was a wonderful experience. Landings in seven countries. The longer trips IFR but plenty of VFR flights in the UK. I’m really lucky in that my wife loves the foreign trips too.
Hopefully 2017 will be as good or better. My flying club are putting together a summer trip through Germany, Poland, Baltic States to Finland and the Arctic Circle, which will be great. No doubt I will seek some local advice on aspects of this nearer the time.
