Summer, glorious summer! It snuck right up on me. Sailing the relentlessly sunny Caribbean for seven months aboard Windbird, the pageantry of northern seasons played out distantly across the flickering screens of muted beach-bar TVs: Halloween horror flicks, cable-news Snowmageddons, Yankees-Red Sox at Fenway Park. So when Dawn and I hurricane-prepped and hauled Windbird at a Puerto Rican boatyard in June and flew home to Minnesota, our abrupt return to the land of seasons caught me a little flat-footed. Having survived the long winter we elected to skip, friends and family were excitedly shaking off their winter doldrums and basking in the golden euphoria of a freshly blossomed summer.
A Quest for Flight Across Two Continents
Key Takeaways:
- An airline pilot, seeking to resume flying small general aviation aircraft during his summer break, faced unexpected and significant difficulties finding rentals or instruction in the United States.
- He ultimately found success at a microlight flight school in Mainz-Finthen, Germany, during an international layover, after striking out with US options.
- The author thoroughly enjoyed flying an Ikarus C42 microlight over the scenic Rhineland, finding the experience rewarding, providing a fresh perspective, and surprisingly affordable.
- The positive experience in Germany has inspired him to plan for more international general aviation flights on future layovers.
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