The Flying Monkeys

07.00 on Thursday morning John, Eunice James, Paul & Rob arrive at Thurrock ready to go in N-SA.

Mitch & Kim arrive & are ready to go in G-MK.

Dee has gone to Southend airport to meet Jim & the Lance.

The plan is to all meet up in either Cannes or Venice later on in the day.

With the weather looking ok in the UK & forecast to be much better in France,

N-SA took off for the first fuel stop in Lydd.......

Whilst re-fuelling, a call came from Mitch that they were still working on G-MK. 

It was begining to look like the trip to Croatia was off!

N-SA decided to make for Troyes & then Cannes to meet up with Dee & Jim

& then plan for Spain instead. 

Troyes. After refuelling N-SA again, a call came that G-MK had departed Thurrock

& was en-route to Chambery as originally planned!

Trip to Croatia back on!

..........then a call from Dee..............the Lance had fuel flow problems & wasn't able to make the trip.

Approaching Chambery with the Alps in the backdrop,

.....we plan to go over the top of them (& save a couple of hours going round them) to get to Italy

Chambery town with the Airfield & lake in the distance.

Chambery Airfield.

 On Final. We heared G-MK call up on the radio that they were inbound!

To make time up, G-MK flew high & direct to Chambery, picking up Ice on the way!

The crew of N-SA. John, Eurnice, Paul, Rob and James..

 Awaiting the arrival of G-MK & then the plan for the onward journey!

G-Mk and N-SA parked up in Chambery, all fuelled & ready to go!

The Croatia crew!

Some food & drink at Chambery, flight plan filed, we were ready to head for the next stop.....Venice,

via overhead The Alps!

Route to Venice

Starting in the climb to 12,000ft, not much snow!

G-MK in the lead (Mitch is familiar with the valleys here), N-SA following behind!

Getting higher & Colder!

'Mother Ship' G-MK up above.

 The highest point.......we climbed to 12,000ft & flew between two peaks & across to the top of Italy

where the controller asked us to descend quickly to 2000ft to keep clear of his airspace!

With 2 x Garmin 296's, Skyforce 3C & all the rest of the nav kit onboard N-SA,

we were determined not to get lost! (did anyone remember a map) !!!!

Captian of N-SA.....John - concentrating

Venice Airport.

We had planned to land at San Nicolo, a small airfield on a small part of the Island,

but it closed at 16.00 & due to our earlier delay we were too late,

so it was in to the main commercial Airport instead!

This is Venice!

It was good so see our final destination after a long day!

We took a water taxi from the airport to the town!

Eunice & Kim ready to go for Dinner in Venice!

We checked into a hotel & asked the bar manager to recommend a good restaurant,

He directed us to one in the town. We arrived & they were just preparing a table for the Seven of us, 

so they brought us Champange to drink! The Restaurant turned out to be a fantastic chioce!

We left the whole meal & wine selection up to the choice of the waiter & it was fantastic!

Well recommended!

John was busy on the phone (working)..so as to not leave him out we decided to take Champange to him!

'Hard day at the office John'???

The Monkeys make Venice!!

After a good meal & well earned drink we strolled around Venice & took the compulsary photo on a bridge!