A flight somewhere else entirely: departure and destination is Hohenems-Dornbirn in Vorarlberg, 500 km from home. 48 km, 21 minutes, 5,681 ft.

A short circuit plus an excursion over the Rhine delta and Lake Constance. The Rhine comes out of the Alps here and pushes a grey plume of sediment into the blue lake; from 5,700 ft you see Austria, Switzerland and Germany at the same time, and far to the west Lake Constance running to the horizon.

21 minutes for one of the most spectacular views in central Europe. A good deal.

The biggest flight of this logbook, in every respect: 550 km, 163 minutes, 7,864 ft, alone, from Hohenems-Dornbirn right across the entire republic to Bad Vöslau.

The list of landmarks reads like a travel brochure: Lake Constance, the Allgäu Alps, the Chiemsee, the Salzkammergut, the Traunsee, the Danube valley, Melk, St. Pölten, the Vienna Woods. Four provinces, two countries, one afternoon.

Two and a half hours alone in an Aquila A211, at 109 knots average with a peak of 164 knots over the ground. Departure at 14:03, block on at 16:55.

It is exactly the kind of flight that would have been unimaginable at the start of this logbook. The first entry, in March 2025, went 16 km and lasted 28 minutes. This one goes 500 km and takes almost three times as long as that whole afternoon did.

One more new thing: OE-KBS, a Piper PA-28 Archer. The third type, with a new name on the right — T.

181 km, 67 minutes, six landings, 4,878 ft, out over the Hohe Wand and back. Converting to a new type always starts the same way: circuits, landings, getting a feel for it.

The PA-28 is again a different animal from the Aquila and the Cessna: a low-wing machine made of sheet metal, broad, good-natured, with a wing that really wants to keep flying just above the ground. Six landings are a good start.

And with that the logbook stands at 92 flights, 215 landings, 77 hours and around 12,300 kilometres — in 17 months. The next entry comes five days later.

07:37 block off, five days after the first hour on the type. 316 km, 92 minutes, 9,039 ft — across the Alps to Zell am See in the PA-28.

For long stretches the route is the same one as in March: the Hohe Wand, Mariazell, the Erzberg, the Gesäuse, the Ennstal, the Grimming. After that further north than back then — over the Hallstätter See and the Gosaukamm, then along the Hochkönig and past Saalfelden into the Zell valley.

Twenty-five of the 92 minutes are spent above 8,000 ft, at 111 knots average and 167 knots peak over ground. The comparison with March sits right beside it: 303 km in 93 minutes at 106 knots in the Aquila back then, 316 km in 92 minutes at 111 today — more engine, more mass, a little more speed.

In March the same destination was a deep-winter flight, with the Kitzsteinhorn and its full glacier to the south. This time it is a summer morning; the runway at 2,470 ft lies between the lake and the Schmittenhöhe just as it always does. Block on at 09:18 — and the flight home is still to come the same morning.

10:53 block off, 95 minutes after landing. Back to Bad Vöslau, but not the same way: 338 km, 98 minutes, 9,292 ft — past the mountains to the north instead of straight through them.

Out over Kaprun, then northeast: the Gosaukamm, the Wolfgangsee, the Attersee, the Traunsee. From Gmunden on it is the Alpine foreland under the wing — Steyr, the Danube at Ybbs, St. Pölten — then the Vienna Woods and home over Baden.

9,292 ft is the highest point of the day, 26 minutes of it above 8,000 ft, 112 knots average over 98 minutes. Block on at 12:37.

The flight out goes through the mountains, the flight back runs alongside them: first the valleys and the ridges, then the chain of lakes and the plain. 654 km in a single morning, alone, on a type that was still new five days ago.

On the evening of 12 August 2026 the moon moved in front of the sun — not entirely over Austria, but almost. Reason enough to take the Aquila and fly to Graz: 164 km, 54 minutes, 6,591 ft, alone, from Bad Vöslau straight across the Semmering.

The route is the old Southern Railway seen from the air: Baden, past the Hohe Wand, Neunkirchen, Gloggnitz — and then the pass. The highest point of the flight sits exactly above the Semmering, 6,591 ft, and it falls almost on the halfway mark: minute 27 of 54. After that it goes down the Mürz valley — Mürzzuschlag, Kapfenberg, Bruck an der Mur, where the Mürz joins the Mur — and on through the Mur valley past Frohnleiten to Graz.

Graz has been in this logbook before: on 18 July 2025, with an instructor, across the Bucklige Welt and the Wechsel. Back then it was the longest flight of the training and the first controlled airport of all. Thirteen months later the same destination and the same type, but alone and on the other side of the mountains: not around them to the east, but straight over the pass.

An hour and a half after landing, the eclipse began. Maximum came at 20:16 local time, just under ninety per cent of the sun's disc covered — except that by then the sun was no longer in the sky: it had set two minutes earlier. The deepest eclipse of that evening happened below the horizon, and anyone who wanted to see something of it beforehand needed a clear view to the west.