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Report:
This flight was supposed to be direct to Halifax, Nova Scotia. But thanks to a last-minute beer suggestion, we altered our plans to include a brief stop in Bangor, Maine. Thanks, Paul.
 This was also the first official flight of the new Hopper, N317G. We had tried last week, but we had problems with the GPS. During the week, we had it flown to Montreal and integrated a Garmen GPS which was much more to our liking. Finally, the REAL Hopper rises!
So, with the destination changed to Bangor, ME, and a new Pilatus at our fingertips, we readied ourselves for departure. The actual takeoff from Montreal was tricky. We were flying this flight in multiplayer mode at FsimCafe.com, which as far as I can tell means that the ATC options are nil... including ATIS. So we mainly relied on what few details were offered by one of our favorite hot keys, SHIFT+Z (three times). We were a bit engaged in our initial beer reaction and hit the throttle without paying enough attention to wind direction. Not smart. After slaloming through the dashed centerline as we gained speed, I finally noticed we had 12-19 knot wind gusts which made this takeoff an exciting learning experience. Once airborne for this short trip, we soon realized it was going to be a bumpy flight.
For reasons unknown, we spent much of the flight cloud hopping, with childlike giggles as we plowed The Hopper through the turbulence. Quite a fine physics engine the Redmond boys have created, coupled with the work of Flight1 to be sure. Overall, we saw a lot of clouds en route to Bangor as our plane got tossed like a tourist in a Bangkok whorehouse.
 Not too far into our flight, we were joined by a young pilot from Wisconsin, zipline_x2, who was piloting a Mooney. He seemed to be interested in flying some formation with us and stuck nearby for much of the flight. Well, "stick nearby" may be an understatement. He was all over us at times, but seemed to have a good handle on spatial relations and never got too close. We found frequency and chatted for a bit until we approached Bangor.
 Again, as is becoming habit, we began a late descent into Bangor and did a large sweeping turn to bleed off some airspeed and align with the runway. I took the Pilatus in slow... flirting with 95 KIAS and a 8 knot crosswind but managed to put her down nice and clean. A quick taxi to the local FBO to meet a friend with some Sea Dog Ale and we're off the ground again and really headed for Nova Scotia this time.
GB
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