Folks,
Glad you liked the brief description of two weeks fun ‘n’ frolics
Thanks for the appreciation strafer, all the more so since it was written coming off the back of a double night shift, half my brain had taken a holiday.
As far as the ‘skills test’ debate is concerned, just prior to the trip that’s exactly what I felt like, I’d just passed my skills test. This in a way was true. I had a grand total of 9 hours on type with one cross country; to Popham in July. If someone had thrown a circling approach at me at that stage the resultant arrival would have been somewhat different to the one 20 hours into the rally, of that I’m certain. Ties in a bit with the thread going at the moment, When is a pilot no longer considered "low-time"? The consensus there seems to be currency is the key. I couldn’t agree more.
Andy, if you’re a fan of St. Ex. Then the rally would probably be a bit of a disappointment. The level of organization required to make the rally work takes a lot of the adventure out of the trip. With the exception of the overnight in Tarfaya ( Cap Juby in St. Ex’s. writings.) It’s 700m of (abandoned) crushed shell and compacted sand, which the organizers dust off in the week prior to the rally’s arrival, with a rather large mast a mile and a half off the approach end of the westerly runway, pretty much on centreline. The mast itself isn’t so much the problem as the substantial guy wires used to secure it. The whole concoction tends to concentrate the mind somewhat !!! To cap it all, the evening is spent with the rest of the participants under a Berber tent not far from the beach. The following morning, you get to do it all in reverse …. Back out the way you came in. With, in our case, the second and thankfully last ‘gear unsafe’ indication. If you are contemplating this particular trip, a word of advice ….. brush up on your French!
Groundbound, this is about as far as I’d venture with episodes / sequels, call it what you will. The trip is still very fresh for me and I’m still enjoying the buzzzzzzzz. As strafer says ‘one man's diamond is another man's zirconium’. It’d be too easy, in my enthusiasm, to bore the pants off all and sundry. BTW, have you ventured skyward with our mutual friend, Mr. A., recently …. Or was your last trip just one wx diversion too many?