24.12.2012: Not much related to flying has happened since mid November, as I was too busy at work and the weather was also quite bad for flying. The only hours I have flown were on airliners, and quite a few of them, as I have been back to Australia for another short visit. Here an impression of what I saw after landing back in Zurich:

I noticed that the Miles&More website gives some statistics on how much one flew during the last two years. For me it says that I have spent 449.8 hours in the air, travelling 297.875 km. During the same time I flew 128.33 hours myself, which is around 23’740 km, assuming an average speed of 100 kts. My goal for next year is to improve that ratio in favour of the hours flown with the SportCruiser.

25.12.2012: As mentioned earlier I got a kit to build a remote controlled SportCruiser model for Christmas. It is on e of these “almost ready to fly” kits, with the main components already assembled. The plane is made from wood, and covered with plastic foil, which looks then as follows:

I do however want my model to be painted the same way as my real SportCruiser, so I have to re-cover it in different colours. This requires removal of all covering, which went easier than I thought. The vertical stabiliser / rudder now look as follows:

I had to do the same procedure also with the wings, as well as with the fuselage:

The picture above nicely shows how the kit is built, a friend who is regularly building model planes considered it very nicely made.

31.12.2012: Lommis airfield has been closed for several weeks, which, combined with my recent business travel meant that I last flew on the 21st October. The reason for the closure was the poor weather, first with snow and then a lot of rain which made the grass runway very soft.

Today however the airfield was open “with restrictions”, meaning only a single takeoff / landing per plane, only light planes and taxiing on the runway only, as the taxiway is still too soft. I of course took the opportunity for a New Years Eve flight, which was very nice after having been “grounded” for two months. Luckily I still had three landings in the last 90 days, so I could go with my wife without having to do some landings first.

We did a small tour to the mountains, …

…and then flew along lake of Constance and along the Rhine to Schaffhausen.

As can be seen below all the snow is gone, it was white for about a month but then just before Christmas the temperature went up again.

This was the final flight of the year, bringing the total flown to around 45 hours. That’s more than most hobby pilots fly, but significantly less than I had hoped for. That makes it clear what my New Year’s Resolution will be.