03.03.2012: I went flying with my wife today, but as I only had one landing during the last 90 days I had to do two short flights first. Circuits are currently forbidden, as our grass runway is pretty soft on top, but still frozen underneath. So I did two short flights leaving via sector south, doing a 180 and arriving via sector south again.
Afterwards we did a nice tour to the mountains, checking how much snow there still is as we are planning to go on a ski weekend in a week. It all looked ok, as the picture below shows. It’s the Chäserugg, the closest skiing area from where we live (45 min by car). It’s highest point is at only 2’400 m altitude, but there were still a lot of skiers on the slopes
07.03.2012: I went to renew my medical this morning, and as it was nice weather and I was home anyway we went for a coffee to Neuchâtel. That’s about an hour flight west of Lommis, along the Jura mountains. I have not been to Neuchâtel since the 150 miles navigation flight I had to do to get my PPL, and even though my wife once lived there she had never been at the airport, so it was a nice visit for both of us. When we arrived two Pilatus PC- 6 Porter of the Air Force did circuit training, but we easily managed to squeeze in between.
23.03.2012: I just came back today from two weeks in Australia, which should explain why I did not update this website for a while. In the evening we had the annual general assembly meeting of our flying club, which I had to attend as the technical manager of the board.
24.03.2012: As every year the Saturday after the general assembly meeting of our club is our spring cleaning day. That is the “official” start of the flying season, where everything is brought back to full service condition. Here a few impressions of the day.
First of all the freshly cleaned, but empty maintenance workshop. A planes of the club are now ready for the season, giving the maintenance crew a welcome break. This year we had two engine overhauls, plus numerous repairs, annuals etc., which kept us pretty busy throughout the winter.
Below a lineup of some private planes, which are all based in Lommis, including three Bücker biplanes and a Fairchild. All planes have been moved out of the hangars for cleaning the floors.
Some of our members are busy clearing the stone framing of the landing T from moss and dirt, so that others can later repaint it…
…while others give our club planes a thorough wash.
25.03.2012: Today I flew to Bad Ragaz, one of the nearby airfields I have never flown to before, neither with my SportCruiser nor with any other plane. Below a picture of my plane with the castle of Bad Ragaz in the background. One flies over the castle on the final approach to the runway, which is a bit tricky on days like today with strong winds. The hill on which the castle stands creates quite some upwind, so some concentration is required to get the plane down.
