Thanks to the kindness, thoughtfulness and generosity of friends, family, acquaintances and possibly complete strangers, we have raised over £1,000.  Thank you all.  The page remains open, as we could get the total up further, but I only want to say how much this means to Martha Trust, who will continue doing what they do so well, and me, who came out with the begging bowl at maybe the most difficult time for many people.  

I've left the rest here, which may now seem disjointed, but that's the way it is...    :)  Cyberhugs to everyone and thank you again.  Nic.

The Dawn to Dusk Challenge is a flying challenge: setting ones own theme and flying it in one day.  I wanted to link mine to the wonderful work done by Martha Trust*, a small charity that is greater than the sum of its parts.  

Since I first went live with this page, I have done it.  Well, I in my 1946 Aeronca Champ ('CC).  Currently, due to that thing there were only limited opportunities to drop into airfields for fuel and those that are open have limited days or hours or both, so that was a bit of an extra challenge, but it came out all right.  In a very thermic and lumpy sky, it was interesting trying to get the photographs I wanted, but I think I have some usable ones and will post some in due course, here or on facebook for those who use it.  The first photo was of Monty, my ursine Observer, who lives in his pyjamas, thus being fully equipped for the start and end of the day, probably more so than I was.    I'm not sure where justgiving has hidden that picture now.

The day became over nine hours flying, over four legs.  At the end of the day, it felt a little like getting back on land after time at sea: I could still feel the vibrations and a sort of swaying (I don't think I sway when I fly, but that was the effect).  'CC is now covered in so many examples of ex-insects that cleaning will take a while, but she performed flawlessly.  Since my whole day has been 'outed' via other sites, I'm not worrying about the competition effort anymore and concentrating on this.  (Previous updates are below).

Thank you to those generous people who have donated via JustGiving or elsehow.  I want to thank each of you personally but to Anonymous/es  - anonymice? - I can say only a generic thank you and hope you know how every contribution is appreciated greatly and used wisely.  

*You can read about them here.

http://www.marthatrust.org.uk

Times are tough for many now and every charity deserves support but the smaller ones are suffering more, evidently.

Thanks for taking the time to read this!

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.