On Sun, 6 Jun 2010 07:40:07 -0700 (PDT), a wrote:

I just looked over the last dozen pages of my logbook -- the only
flight listed as local was an unusual attitude recovery flight with me
under the hood and a buddy as a safety pilot. Every other one was from
one place to another so as to be able to do something at the 'other'
place (business, visit a friend, mini vacation, that sort of thing).

Is that typical for you, or are a large number of your flights local
just for the pleasure of flying?

Uh, you guys who get tethered to an airplane with an engine to get
aloft need not reply, we're pretty sure we know your answer (there's
no question glider guys fly for the singular pleasure of flying) --
sel and mel drivers only please.

one of my great pleasures is to fly the GAFA solo. something like 900
nautical miles of barren scrub with 300 miles between airstrips.
wonderful flying if you have the confidence.
not a single definable feature anywhere from horizon to horizon.

the GAFA is airline pilot slang for the Nullabor Plain and surrounds
in the red centre which is described as the "great Australian f**k
all"

if you get down close to a featureless brown carpet and look out
across the floor you'll have a sense of what it is like. :-)

family circumstances being what they are I make many hundreds of miles
of flight getting back to where I started at the moment but they are
all in practise for the GAFA and beyond.
they are all for the pleasure of flying and for the gazing down at the
countryside as a tourist. (long live high wing aircraft!)

actually my happiest times are when I fly or walk for weeks on end but
never drive a car.

Stealth Pilot