Wow. Where did you book all that sunshine? 
Great photos.
Mine has to be flying the Spitfire from Duxford to Goodwood.
flying my RV-8 back from LA to England after my job finished in California.
That is an awesome trip. Not many RVs doing that route!
Going from the deserts of New Mexico to the frozen seas and wilderness of the Arctic over three weeks, taking in so many interesting sights and meeting so many kind and interesting people.
Mark1, great trip and great writeup! Congrats, that’s prob the ‘trip of the year’ on here!
An unplanned stop in the alps due to an engine problem turned out to be a great trip in 2013.
We were 8 pilots in 3 aircraft departing from south Sweden (ESMI) with destination Brac in Croatia. We departed on a Friday morning and landed uneventfully at Salzburg airport (LOWS), after a short fuel and food stop in Hof (EDQM). We spent a great evening in Salzburg and did some sightseeing after dinner.
On Saturday morning we headed out to the airport again. Everything was looking good, including the weather for a VFR trip through the alps towards Portoroz in Slovenia, until we did our engine checks in the Cessna. In a few seconds we understood that Salzburg would probably be the final destination for this trip, it was obvious that 1 cylinder wasn’t running. Vibrations and smoke puffs are usually a bad sign.
The other aircraft continued towards Brac while a pilot friend and myself were forced to stay at the airport. Since it was Saturday we were unable to get in touch with any mechanic, instead we decided to make the best of the situation, which meant renting a car and after a quick glance at the map we steered towards Zell am See.
We expected a quiet and peaceful stay in Zell am See since it was the in the middle of July, but nothing could be more wrong. We managed to arrive just in time for the Zell am See water festival 2013. Those Austrians know how to party! It turned out to be a great afternoon and evening with lots of live music, beer, fireworks and a view of the largest lederhosen in the world (according to Guinness World Records) which they seemed very proud of :) The stay at grand hotel wasn’t bad either ..
The next day we drove to Zell am See airport and had a coffee while we watched 10 or so go-arounds in an hour and also a rough landing with an ultra-light, which ended with a broken nose wheel and lost self esteem for the pilot. After lunch we headed to werfen castle and stayed in a nearby ski village (this time quiet and peaceful).
On Monday morning we were back at the airport and got great help from AAC maintenance. To make a long story short it turned out to be a more serious problem than we estimated, so we had to fly back to Sweden with SAS. The aircraft needed 4 weeks or so at the maintenance shop. Lucky it happened on the ground and not in the air.
Sometimes it doesn’t turn out as expected, but this time plan B turned out to be great!
