Final call for your #FLY2022 stories!

#FLY2022 has been a huge success among FLYER club members with pilots rising to the challenge of flying at least 2022 minutes during the year – and now it’s the last call for your personal stories, photos and videos.

You may remember it was in January 2022 that we announced #FLY2022:

We’d like your help and suggestions with an initiative for 2022 which we’re calling #FLY2022: A Challenge for the FLYER community.

The idea is simple: a target of flying time for 2022 of… 2022 minutes. That’s 33 hours 42 mins which is a modest target for some and a not-impossible-but-a-stretch for others.

To help inspire pilots to go for this target, we’re coming up with a bunch of ideas to incorporate into their flying in 2022 including (but not exclusively):

• Places to go: Destination airfields like Le Touquet, Duxford, Old Warden
• Where to have lunch
• Where to spend a weekend
• Skills to learn – All of the usual training add-ons
• Experiences to share – could be strip flying, tailwheel, floats, etc.
• Events & fly-ins
• Equipment and accessories which could improve enjoyment such as action cameras (GoPro, Garmin Virb etc)
• Buy an aircraft – share or outright.

Keir Williams hitting his 2,022 minutes of flying for the #FLY2022 campaign.

Last call

Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be putting together a compilation of your personal #FLY2022 challenges and awarding the prizes that have been promised by a supportive General Aviation industry. They include £2,022-worth of flying and a top quality ANR headset!

Just a few of the many stories shared on the FLYER forum to date:

Uncle T, who on 20 November passed the 2,022 hours. He said, “It’s been an interesting year, including getting my SEP rating renewed after more than two decades, allowing me to fly as PIC for the first time in over 22 years. Loving being back in the air.”

skydriller: “Just completed my 2000th minute this year. A rather special flight with my daughter… now 14, she has flown with me before but this was the first time she has wanted to actively take the controls and learn how to fly the aeroplane. And she was pretty good actually! Just 22mins to do now…”

GrahamB: “Sad git that I am, I’ve got a ‘minutes countdown to next 2022’ calc on my logbook spreadsheet.”

Peter Gristwood on 9 October: “Made the 2022 figure yesterday with an enjoyable trip from Dunkeswell to Shobdon and return over the Malverns and Bath. Almost a perfect day, except the ‘joy’ of the return being into a low sun…”

Let us have your story via the FLYER forum here, or direct by email to [email protected] Deadline for inclusion in the article is Friday, 9 December.

#FLY2023

Before you ask, YES, there will be a follow-up #FLY2023 Challenge. The format will be slightly different but with the same aim – to encourage pilots to get out there and enjoy the hard-earned gift of flight. Full details to come in few weeks!