It was a long time since I’d visited Prague, so it was good fun to re-explore the familiar tourist attractions around the Old Town, and also check out some new locations. After a relaxed brunch on an outside terrace at the Cafe Louvre we crossed the Vltava river and slowly ascended the many steps to the Prague Castle complex, built on a hill overlooking the city. It was packed with tour groups, all following guides who displayed various emblems on…
We had a day to spend in Stuttgart, and started off with a walk in to town and breakfast at a cafe along the way. We wandered north through the old town, enjoying the mix of old and new architecture. The city itself has a population of just over 600,000, and the central district is very compact. Given that it was a Monday, many of the buildings and other attractions were closed, and we ended up on a mostly-empty open-top…
After 28 days in the Iraqi sun, it was time to get back to the Netherlands and Planey McPlaneface. An upgrade to an Emirates First Class Suite on the flight back from Dubai made an auspicious start, and I landed in the Netherlands well rested on the Friday morning. My first stop was to check on Planey, parked up in Rotterdam; the main reason for this visit was that I had failed to plan ahead, and had left my overnight…
Solo return to Houston My return to Houston would be much faster paced than the outbound flight, with no stops for tourism. I headed back to San Diego early on Saturday morning, performed a careful pre-flight and departed, headed back to the east. As I took off, I flew over Sea World, getting great views of the park down below. I had requested a “VFR-on-top” clearance, which is designed to take you up through an overcast layer into good conditions…
Day 4 – Salton Sea to San Diego, California The temperature rose quickly, and fairly early in the morning it was already uncomfortably warm to be in the tents. This suited us well, however, as we wanted to spend the afternoon in San Diego at the famous San Diego Zoo! We headed west across the coastal mountain range and were soon flying overhead a low undercast layer, the typical marine layer that covers the California coast of a morning. We…
Day 3 – Bisbee, Arizona to Salton Sea, California Today’s flight would take us as far as we could go along the southern border before hitting restricted air space. Our first stop was Nogales, for fuel. As we flew along the border we could see imposing fencing along much of it; and the harsh terrain would surely be a difficult barrier in itself. Nogales turned out to be a rather strange airport; the FBO seemed to dedicate most of it’s…
Day 2 – New Mexico We woke early, mainly due to the very loud water pumps that were running the irrigation for the farming nearby. We snacked for breakfast, and then departed; no fuel or services available at Dell City! Our initial direction was north, to get around the restricted areas that were on the direct route to Alamagordo. We had to climb high to avoid the hills east of the city, and made a steep descent into Alamagordo once…
Day 1 – Across Texas Departure day came around quickly. We’d taken the rear seats out of the C172, which gave plenty of of luggage space that we’d filled with our bags, two tents and other camping gear, plenty of firewood, and a cooler filled with ice and food for along the way. I worked during the day and headed out from the office as early as I could get away; I’d called ahead to the airport and they had…
Laddingford, England to Rotterdam, Netherlands The time for returning to work was drawing painfully near. Before parking up the airplane for a month, it was important to take care of some routine maintenance. I organised, through the very helpful Liz of the Flyer Forum, to take the aircraft the 8 miles over to Headcorn and meet “Big Jon”, who had very kindly volunteered to give up a few hours of his holiday weekend to help me out. I had all…
Caernarfon, Wales to Laddingford, England Our first appointment of our day in Snowdonia was at “King Arthur’s Labyrinth”. This underground attraction is based in an old mine, the Braichgoch slate mine, and features a boat ride in to the mine followed by a walk around some of the mine tunnels, visiting animatronic displays that tell various stories about King Arthur. It was remarkably tacky and told us nothing at all about the old mine itself, which is what I had…