Primarily for general aviation discussion, but other aviation topics are also welcome.
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By flyingearly
#1886900
The weather is now decidedly ropey...and as I finish off the latest box of Quality Street* I'm starting to think ahead to next year and what I'm hoping to achieve.

This will be Year 3 post-licence but my first year with my own share, so lots of opportunity to learn and go places.

Purely out of interest, what are other people's flying-related goals for 2022? Do you set yourself goals and if so, what guides them?

Very interesting to hear what others hope to achieve next year, partly for inspiration!


*significant digression, but our household has very firmly swung from being Roses afficionades towards the Quality Street end of the small, wrapped confectionary spectrum - something about the homogenous wrapping that has destroyed the appeal of it all.
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By Rob P
#1886905
flyingearly wrote:Very interesting to hear what others hope to achieve next year, partly for inspiration!

The glib answer for me is "To still be flying this time in 2022 with at least fifty more hours in the book"

For you, the one to watch out for will be African Eagle and his 2022 Raduno which was promised previously.

Whether this will happen is in the lap of Covid. But if it does then hop aboard, it's a forum tradition that has been running from the early years of this century (2002) and well worth being involved in.

Italy may seem like a long way away (Trust me in a 108hp, 80kt Piper Colt, my first mount for a Raduno, it is) but break it down into a number of flights, take a break along the way, or two, or three. Make it a project, you can spend hours thinking of places to call in on the way, alternative routes to cope with weather. If you allow plenty of time then weather ceases to be an issue. Just stay another day in Macon (we did) or wherever you happen to be.

Try and avoid getting involved in mass planning. It may seem a good idea getting together with loads of experienced types and planning routes, booking hotels, setting timetables. Trust me it isn't. The classic 2006 debacle when a nasty front was crossing France on the planned departure day, a leading light of the group opted out, and the rest followed like ninepins was a case in point. It was very empty on the 60-seater coach that AE had hired to transport the huge group that dwindled to about half a dozen aircraft.

Make it your holiday, if your group allow it book a week, book two, make it your first real growed-up aviation adventure.

Rob P
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By Iceman
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1886907
A Raduno would be a high point, as @Rob P says, particularly having been cancelled in 2020.

Other good trips for next year will be :-

Aero Friedrichshafen in late April (hopefully).
Glenforsa fly-in on the late May BH weekend.
There was talk of returning to Oshkosh next year but I think that will be 2023 now.

Iceman 8)
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By skydriller
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1886909
Iceman wrote:My main goal would be to get back to some degree of normality when flying GA to Europe.


^^^This^^^

I REALLY want to do a proper Euro Fly-in, meet up with friends and enjoy a long weekend without a single thought or concession to Covid.
No extra entry paperwork. No "health pass". No masks.

Just NORMAL...

Regards, SD..
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By StratoTramp
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1886939
Get me bleeding licence. :lol:

Feels like going backwards. Its not so bad if I consider I started just before GA got locked down so that was 6 months wasted from Aug 2020.

I suppose it's all more "saving time" for an aeroplane.
Last edited by StratoTramp on Mon Dec 06, 2021 5:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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By JJMurphy
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1886946
I've found that making a plan for the year ahead flying works best for me. Also, there is something quite satisfying about looking back over the past 12 months and ticking places and achievements off the list.

When I look at the time I have available, the weather, the unpredicted a/c issues, the time lost due to annual maintenance there is actually not as much flying time as I'd like and hence no time to waste! Making a plan for the time I have is the best for me to ensure I don't "miss" the precious opportunities.

My 2022 plan looks like this...

South West England tour (Newquay, Lands End, Scilly Isles),
A Jersey long weekender,
A trip down to La Rochelle, France for a week with some day trips from there
An annual pilgrimage to Glenforsa but this time with some island hopping to places I have not been before and hopefully this year get to fly up the Caledonian canal
A short bucket list of return trips to my favourite UK airfields..for breakfast/lunches
Build better proficiency in IFR approaches
Keep the dust off my night rating in the winter months
Fly 50hrs through the year (35hrs in 2021)

If I look back in 12 months at this and can mark all as done...that will have been a good year for me!
By TopCat
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1886947
My hopes are, in no particular order:

- Get the seats re-covered so that I'm not embarrassed to have people see my aeroplane
- Fly in to some more strips
- Get over to France again
- Renew my IMC rating.
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By Josh
#1886951
Iceman wrote:My main goal would be to get back to some degree of normality


Pretty much this. Return of normality = return of flying tokens!

Once that happens, get back upside down and get some G tolerance and UA recovery skills back.
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By Mz Hedy
#1886952
Mine's to fly more often in 2022 than in 2021, and much more than in 2020. I tend to fly fairly short local bimbles (it's what floats my boat) so I tend to count take-offs and landings as my measure rather than hours. I've managed all of 26 flights this year totalling all of 11 hours. Faint hopes of adding to that before New Year.

A secondary goal, which is actually an enabler of the first, is to get my confidence - and competence - back in launching into in less than ideal weather, especially gusty crosswinds.
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By flyingearly
#1886962
Very interesting! To answer my own question:

- Fly 50 hours + across the year
- Take my SSEA upgrade
- Take my first hop over the channel to France
- Fly to Channel Islands
- Fly somewhere and stay overnight (e.g. fly to a destination for a proper purpose of spending a night there)
- Attend my first fly-in (anywhere)

The Raduno sounds very interesting indeed; will keep an eye out!
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