Report:
We were greeted at the Bangor FBO by our intrepid friend Paul, baring a 6-pack of Sea Dog Blueberry Wheat Ale. Huh? We were hoping for the Cabin Fever brew, but Paul explained that this was all that he could get his hands on with such short notice. No matter. It would do fine. After all, it is free beer we're talking about.
A few minutes later and we were off, en route to Halifax Shearwater. Again mostly cloudy and a fair amount of turbulence and our shadow, zipline_x2, in tow (this time in a Beech King Air). He stuck with us again for much of the flight, until he started experiencing engine problems and set his craft at a small airport just inside the Canadian border. Aside from the wind, things were smooth from there on in to Halifax.
Approximately 20 miles out of Halifax Shearwater, with low visibility and blueberry pie on the mind, I thought I had a visual on the runway. But as we got closer, it appeared to be a large monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey, no wait... what the, its a nuclear plant!
Now, I've never flown to Halifax Shearwater in real life, nor have I spoken with anyone who has. I am assuming this nuclear plant that was practically on airport property and very close to RWY34 was just a MS scenery glitch. I cant imagine anyone in their right mind building a nuclear plant right next to an international airport. See screen shots to see what we are speaking of. Interested to know if anyone else has experienced this at Halifax Shearwater.
[NOTE: This nuclear plant is in fact an anolmoly. Here is a .bgl file fix for this bug: Halifax Nuke Plant Removal]
After our fly by of the nuclear plant to ensure that what we saw was real, and not a beer goggle oasis, we reentered the pattern to begin our approach. Approximately 4 miles out, we must have hit the 15-minute mark, because we had a fresh batch of real-time weather loaded, which reduced our visibility to about 5 miles. The runway was now barely insight now for our VFR approach. We stuck with our approach and nailed the landing just a bit right of center. We then taxied to our parking spot and lined up the Pilatus for a few more screenshots with the Halifax Tower and nuclear plant in the hazy background.
Please note that this is the first few flights we have flown using Ruud Faber's FScene Worldpack. Unfortunately, visibility was such that his magnificent textures were mostly obscured. Maybe the next flight will produce some better examples of his work.
Next, off to the sleepy logging community of Port Hope Simpson on the coast of Labrador. We may have to stock up on some beers found here locally, since the area in which we are headed seems pretty desolate.
GB
|