Algarve Airsports Centre, Lagos, Portugal September 2011

As you know this time of year my wife and I like to have a holiday that involves some rest & relaxation and if possible some flying. Last year it was in Cornwall flying from Roche and the year before the Isle of Wight flying from Freshwater Fruit Farm. So where were we going to go this year that would at least equal that. Well a good friend of mine Brad Wagenhauser who passed his GST at around the same time as me under the same instructor, which of course was the late Jay Madhvani, has been out in Portugal and is now a QFI working for Gerry Breen at the Algarve Airsports Centre in Lagos. Well after some discussion we decided to visit Brad and have a good holiday to go with it. As we both like the All Inclusive type of holidays we booked 2 weeks at the Pestana Delfim in Alvor which was about 17 km from Lagos by road, this was about the only All Inclusive hotel in this area of the Algarve. After a couple of days of R & R we hired a car and went in search of Lagos Aerodrome which we found with no trouble at all. It was really good to see Brad again and a surprise for him as he didn’t know that we were coming, he didn’t have time to run away! It was also a chance to get some refresher training with an instructor and where better to do it. It was great to meet Gerry Breen and the rest of the team including Dave and Karen Norwood. Dave instructs on the fixed wing X-Air microlight and also the fixed wing microlight floatplane. What a great place to experience flying in a microlight floatplane or maybe get a conversion done if you fancy that sort of thing. Brad instructs on both fixed and flexwing microlights. So what would be the advantages of learning to fly in Portugal, about 320 flying days a year, accommodation right next to the airfield and two very good instructors. Although everything comes with a cost would it be worth the trip? For those with some money in their pocket you could get your license a lot quicker flying above and around a beautiful coastline. No more cancelled lessons or long spells of not flying due to bad weather which in turn increases the time and cost to get your license, so maybe it’s worth thinking about!! For those who are interested the website is http://www.gerrybreen.com and if you do decide to give it a go, may I wish you good luck and safe flying. There is now some video of our flight in this album!