Cambrian Flying Club had been planning a fly out to France on the 18 and 19th of July. We were all geared up for it, but because of the weather we had to cancel the flight to France, and plan “B” was implemented; a flight to Galway on the West coast of Ireland.{mosimage}  Next morning we took off from Pembrey, stopped at Haverford West for fuel and breakfast before setting off across the Irish Sea.  This was my first private flight out of the country and across water. We cruised at 3500ft most of the way over the beautiful green countryside en-route to Galway, touching down just in time for lunch, at a very nice hostelry in the city centre.  After a look around I went to visit some friends who lived nearby that I hadn’t seen for many years, whilst my club mates enjoyed the local hospitality and entertainment on offer in the lovely City of Galway. Next morning after a city tour we took off for Innis Mor, an island off the Coast. We had a beautiful scenic tour around the 3 islands before landing, followed by lunch in the only local pub we could find.

I got into the habit early on in my flying of reading the accident reports which the AAIB publish. It seems rather morbid, and several non-flyers I know are appalled — “Doesn’t it make you nervous knowing all the things that can go wrong?”.

Well no actually. The engine failures that manage to land safely in fields are comforting more than anything — reassures you that all the PFL practice does work. And some of the accidents that can be looked at and thought “oh well I wouldn’t have done that”, are almost too easy to dismiss.

But the endless string of accidents that can simply be put down to “bad landings” do depress me.

And every so often an accident report is released where the combination of circumstances conspire to prove deadly and I read it in mixed horror and sympathy and change something in my checks or my flying, or my thinking as a result.

It’s not necessarily the simple fact that an accident was fatal that strikes me that way. It’s the unpleasant realisation that yes, that one could have happened to me.