Warning - this post has virtually no actual flying content, so feel free to skip it if you only want to hear about happenings in the air.
We managed to have a bit of a lie-in, before all meeting to go to the airport, where we had a room booked for the AGM. I'd met a few of the other women the evening before, including Nathalie, the Dutch woman who organised my 2002 flying trip to Russia; I'd told her about the FEWP, and she'd decided to come along. Now we found ourselves among over 40 female pilots from ten countries - UK, France, Germany, Holland, Spain, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, and Slovenia (I've missed one out; can't remember). Nathalie, as a new member, was asked if she wanted to say what were her reasons for joining, and she said that the people there didn't need a women pilots organisation, but a lot of women did, in places and countries where they rarely met another woman who flew, and could feel isolated and lacking in confidence. She said it would be great if we weren't needed, and she wished that were the case, but in her experience we still were. There were lots of nods of agreement, from people of all ages, countries, and cultures.
The meeting was in English, and fairly short and sweet. There were plans to extend the website, which is most people's source of information about the FEWP:
www.Europeanwomenpilots.com Slovenia will host next year's gathering, and it will be in the UK in 2006. And Caroline Gough-Cooper of the UK, current women's world helicopter champion, was elected the new president.
The rest of the day was spent on a whirlwind series of tours - of the aircraft museum at the airport, and of various places in Salzburg. We then had half an hour before a rather good banquet, where I got to chat to a Slovenian glider pilot who spends most of her time over the Alps, and a Dutch PPL student who got bored after she gave up skydiving at the age of 60, so decided to learn to fly. We four left relatively early, since we were planning to drive back to Biberach early on Sunday. The reason? A text from a flying friend in the UK: "Nasty weather Northern Europe Monday, moving SE Tuesday, breaking up Wednesday. Looks horrible" Yikes!!! We hadn't had time to look at an aviation forecast, but we'd heard that it was a rather nasty frontal system that was crossing Europe. So we decided to drive straight back, and try to fly out of the hills before all the crap hit us.
More actual flying reports later.