Grey Old Days - Late post but interesting story

After the fun and games of last summer the reality of Microlight flying in the British winter has really set in.

For various reasons (time, weather, broken plane, lack of sufficient brownie points etc) I wasn't able to get out and play between the end of Sept and the close of 2008. Unfortunately I lost a lot of time trying to sort out the problems with my leaking fuel tank..what a pain that has turned out to be!

The main problem now seems to be getting my timings right. Either I'm busy and the weather is crap or the weather is fine and I'm busy. The other gauling issue is trying to find someone available to take up the offer of the dog kennel. If the Shadow has one major drawback its the "two" person build requirement. Fine if you can afford or find space in a hanger not so good if you can't!

What all the above means is that for the first time since I qualified is that I managed to fall foul of the 90 day rule. This basically states that if you haven't flown for 90 days you must complete three take off and landings before you can take a passenger again.

That is why I found myself on a dull, damp grey afternoon in Dec at Deanland airfield. Under normally circumstances I don't think I would have bothered but with the need to requalify and the prospect of decent weather forecast for the weekend I'd dragged myself and my reluctant helper (wife Karen) down to the airfield to see what could be achieved.