|
Report:
After
realizing we missed the Haggis
Hunt by a few months, we did what any
self respecting male in Scotland would do: Head
out into the country in search of some pubs, waste
yourself and have incoherent conversations with
the locals. A blast indeed, oh, and it’s
a beautiful country too.
 But
alas, we are only in town for so long as we must
press on as new destinations and beers beckon.
We roused ourselves in the late day and headed
to the Glasgow airport. The Hopper was outside
on the tarmac awaiting us, with a mini-cooler
of Skullsplitter.
The Scots, who are always quite clever, somehow
placed the beer on board snug in the cooler without
us even noticing. Nice. Perhaps as an ode to the
potent concoction (or our frail American constitutions),
there was only a 4-pack in there. Probably not
a bad idea.
As
we pushed back from the Glasgow parking ramp,
we simultaneously popped open the first round
of Skulls, did our preflight (a bit haphazard
as always), called up Glasgow Ground, and got
our taxi clearance. Thank god for progressive
taxi, I still don’t quite have this whole
airport navigation thing down. Get me airborne,
and I'm fine, but on the ground - watch out!
There
was some traffic in the area, but we were quickly
cleared for takeoff on RWY 5 on a hazy Thursday
evening. It was a bit cloudy at 5,000 feet as
we climbed through to our cruising altitude for
the flight. Further away from the city the landscapes
below slowly melded back into that fabulous Euro
farmland texture that makes any flight in Europe
a welcome change from the boring landscapes of
our native Florida.
 We
headed south to fly over the Isle of Man,
I took us low and slow around the perimeter so
GZ could check out some of the roads that they
race motorcycles on each year (The Isle of Man
TT). The south east corner of the isle was most
populated with the majority of the isle’s
residents appearing to live on the coast closest
to the England in Douglas. We enjoyed it so much
that we decided to land on the southeast corner
at the main airport, rent some motorcycles and
ride around the island a bit. In these higher
latitudes the sun doesn’t set until much
later in the evening, and we had some time to
kill. Although the winds were mild (226 at 1),
I still managed to botch the approach a bit, but
brought her in smooth nonetheless. I’ve never
been one to follow a line to close, and this time
the centerline was no exception.
 Small
world. Small island. Small airport. And who would
have thought we would have run into Stickman
(an old friend from our days with Lynx
Airways) and BO in these parts
of the FSimcafe
world. Upon returning our motorcycle rentals and
cleaning the bugs out of our teeth, Stickman and
Bo greeted us on the tarmac, ready to head off
into the wild blue wonder that is the online multiplayer
flight simulator environment. After a quick Teamspeak
sync, we were aloft and flew circles around
the airport awaiting Stickman and Bo as they received
clearance in their Beechcraft King Air 350’s.
 We
headed across the Irish Sea to Belfast
in Northern Ireland just to check things out.
We flew a few circles around the Belfast airport
at 3,300 ft. Around 9:30pm local, we then headed
due south towards Dublin. As the sun dipped lower
towards the horizon, the weather got cloudier
and we had some difficulty getting a visual on
the Dublin airport. Thank God for ILS! We flew
out into the Irish Sea in order to lineup on our
approach for RWY 28. Once below 2,000ft we had
some gentle winds from 334 at 6. Closer to the
airport on approach some fog rolled in. The Hopper
descended nice and easy, and we proceeded towards
the end of the runway to rendezvous with BO and
Stickman. At the opposite end of the runway, the
rain picked up a bit. We banged out a quick souvenir
picture and then proceeded to the parking ramp.
 We’ve
got a week’s stay here in Ireland, with plenty
of sights to see. I’m hoping to get up early
one morning to wake up Ned
Devine. If I can only get a decent map
of what part of the countryside in which he lives.
Next
Hop: Bastille
Day at Le Bourget, Paris, France!
GB
|
