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Report:
 After
our Summer holidays around France with many a
day trip to the countryside, we had finally returned
to the Hopper which we had stored safely in one
of the many gimungous hangars on Le Bourget airport
property. Like all flights, we try to time our
takeoff time around our estimated landing time
to fully appreciate the wonderful FS Environment;
what could beat a sunset flight to the top party
destination in the Mediterranean? Not French
Country Ale that’s for sure.
As
we taxied and held short at RWY 7, awaiting Le
Bourget Tower to clear us, we noticed we had a
perfect view of what appeared to be Notre
Dame , but what I really think is a different
but similar landmark. Most notably missing (at
least from my perspective) was one of my favorite
words in architectural nomenclature, the “flying
buttress.”
 Takeoff
around 1900 was choppy. No it wasn’t the
3 kts of wind or thermals, we're talking about
choppy frame-rates in this very scenic area. Paris
scenery blessed us with single-digit frame-rates
until we managed to get south of the city. Paris
is a beautiful area indeed, but perhaps we’ll
dial back the amount of scenery detail next time!
Once
airborne, we also noticed the amount of air traffic
in the Paris area is by far the busiest we’ve
encountered to date. As we gained altitude and
turned to our flight heading, we had some spectacular
aerial views. We had a few issues with our vertical
speed; GZ must have set our ascent rate a bit
high at 1,800 which had us climbing high at around
90 kts Each of us was too busy drinking to notice
until we heard the stall warning. This is why
sane people don't drink and fly in real life,
kids! Thankfully, with enough altitude to spare,
we took action quickly and decisively, and coupled
with the forgiving nature of the Pilatus, recovery
was reduced to nothing more than a hiccup. We
were quite a bit off-course by the time we got
things back in order, but the Hopper quickly corrected
herself and we were back on course.
 Climbing
through FL120 over the outskirts of Paris, winds
had already picked up to 32 kts, and then 42 kts
by the time we reached FL190. In no time we were
headed over the south of France at dusk with the
Pyrenees in sight and a beautiful French-Spanish
sunset. Once over Spain we crossed paths with
a Bombardier that left a great contrail across
a star flecked sky. The night sky had officially
set in by the time we crossed into the Mediterranean,
headed first for Mallorca, and the turning East
towards Ibiza (pronounced: Ibeetha).
GZ
set us up a ILS approach for LIEB, our first ILS
approach on this worldly jaunt. Although the weather
didn’t call for it, it still worked like
a charm. You  see,
after a few in-flight beers, my approaches are
decent but never very precise, as one would expect.
This time, though, ILS worked its wonder and our
approach was spot on. As we taxied to the parking
area, we scribbled down the total flight time
as 3:11 (speaking of which, 311 has a new CD coming
out next week).
We're
off to hit the local clubbing scene which is peaking
this time of year; a Mecca of global dance music
and THE place to party each Summer. More news
in the next pirep of which DJs I saw, and maybe
even a link to a set. That
may provide the perfect soundtrack for our next
leg to Lisbon via Barcelona...
GB
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