Part 2 of december all happened after christmas with nice sunny days all over the place and lotsa aircraft for hire out at the NFC. First off with Nicki at home for christmas thought i'd get her up for a while. We ended up heading down to Waterford along with Marc and his girlfriend Meave in a 2nd plane. Myself and Nicki were following Marc and could pretty much see him or at least a small wing shaped dot ahead of us most of the way there. At the zone boundary i was expecting to land on runway 21 and had to rethink quickly as he sent us round to runway 03. But this did allow us a nice tour across the city before starting our final approach. We were kinda pushing things a little with the time we had available before the sun set and we had to be back and on the ground in Weston and this became a slight worry as we left Waterford. We would be taking the most direct route possible home and pushing the engine a little harder then usual to gain a little more speed. As we got closer and closer to dublin, we could see the sugar loaf sticking out like a thumb – given we had pleanty of height I decided to cut inland of it for a different prospective. From there it was in towards the pigeon house chimneys and straight up the liffey to Weston. We landed with about 5 mins to spare before sunset so all was well, tho cutting it a little fine.
Next day I got Tim and Fiona up and we headed over to the shannon at athlone. Viz wasnt particulary nice that day – but mullingar and Athlone were both easy enough to find by following a few roads if worst comes to worst. Unexpectedly met Marc out at the airfield with a friend of his and so he decided that today he'd follow me over that direction. We both took off close enough but by the time we were out of the zone. We'd lost sight of each other. Litle worring but as we both knew where we were headed, we knew where to keep an eye out. Met the shannon at lough Ree – just north of athlone and turned south to fly over it. Did a circle or two around the town as an excuse for a look out before heading back intowards Weston. As I called for zone re-entry, I heard Marc calling for the same thing just after me – suggesting he was rite behind me. Turned out he'd turned north at lough ree before heading back in, when i turned south, making it all nice and safe. Landed very nicely and then got to turn round and which marc come in behind me, before tucking the planes away in the hanger for the night.
