The first few weeks of the year have been a busy time so this is my first ’Diary’ of 2009.
Les King, the Francoflyers Site Administrator, visited in mid-January but it rained for most of the week so we only managed to achieve his bi-annual check with an instructor just before he left.
Indeed, there were a few days of very severe weather during that week with horrendous storms ravaging the whole of France—in fact, the Limousin area got off lightly compared with the rest of the country and damage was negligible apart from the occasional fallen tree.
Les’s time was not wasted, however, as he is always useful for sorting-out various computer problems and also initiated the process of re-organising my business website (www.nearlyheaven.com) and converting it into a blog formal (similar to Francoflyers) whose many advantages include the facility for clients to leave useful feedback.
The transition was completed, fairly seamlessly, on February 13th—the only slight problem being a few hours loss of service on the website as the relocated domain name ‘resolved’ itself.
Lucia, who helps me with everything at home, returned to Spain for a short holiday in mid-January, which left me struggling to look after my holiday guests, the properties, the animals and the flying students.
Fortunately, Lucia has now returned.
The end of January produced the first PPL success of the new year when Dave Barrow finally beat the weather and completed his PPL ‘skill test’ with our resident CAA examiner, Georges Thety—I am also a CAA Examiner but this test must be conducted independently of the Instructor responsible for the student’s training.
Dave lives in France but works in England and has booked his skill test several times, only to be frustrated by the weather—in fact he seems better than a barometer at predicting the worst flying conditions.
The Aéroclub de Limoges has acquired another Robin DR400 which is always useful to avoid conflicts during busy periods such as summer weekends—as many of my students visit Limoges mainly for the purpose of training, they tend to be around during the week when aircraft availability is not usually an issue.
Lorraine’s confidence has improved very much since my last diary and she is happy to take any of the Robin aircraft into the circuit, including the larger DR400/180.
Unfortunately, one lesson was postponed due to an urgent requirement to act as midwife to some of her sheep who suddenly decided to produce several sets of twin lambs.
On February 15th, Lorraine completed her first solo in the new Robin aircraft.
Arriving at the aero club that day for our initial lesson, we discovered that we would be the very first people to fly the new aircraft since it had arrived from Niort..... therefore I was impressed at how easily Lorraine handled this unfamiliar Robin and then went on to fly it for her first solo.
Ryanair’s announcement of new flights into Limoges is welcome news—between Ryanair and Flybe, it will now be possible for UK residents to fly-in from London Stanstead, Liverpool, East Midlands, Bournemouth, Bristol, Edinburgh, Luton, Southampton, Belfast, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Guernsey, Jersey, Manchester and Newcastle.
My other news is that one of the Hungarian Vizsla dogs is pregnant.
This was the result of a mating between Meg (Bicton Bear it all), purchased from the famous Bicton Kennels in England, and Leko (Visions of Success) who was born here.
The puppies are due to be born in mid-March and I already have several prospective buyers—though further enquiries are always welcome.
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