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Report:
 01:00am
- GZ and I had spent the night out on the town
soaking in the best that Ibiza had to offer during
these peak time summer months. We parted ways
at the bar, GZ headed back to the suite to catch
a few hours of rest before the 7am departure.
I headed off to Amnesia (link to pic) for the
Cocoon party to hear Richie
Hawtin spin.
06:30am
-- Unwillingly I left the club and met GZ and
the airport, the maddening loops still reverberating
in my head. We did a proper pre-flight check of
the Hopper and prepared the flights libation.
You might say to yourself; you started drinking
at six in the morning? Well, yes. It is the purpose
of this journey, and we must be willing to sacrifice,
even in the wee morning hours.
 07:00am
- We push back from the gate with the sun just
beginning to illuminate the sky, as we were immediately
cleared for takeoff on RWY 24. 15knt winds pushed
us a bit of course after takeoff, but GZ quickly
locked to our GPS flight plan and we stayed on
course. We made a big sweeping right turn as we
climbed through 8,000 feet (8,000ft) we had a
nice morning view of the island with some long
shadows adding some great dimension to the buildings
on the ground.
 Flying
direct to Palma de Mallorca before turning left
to head towards Barcelona we noticed that Mallorca
is much larger than Ibiza, the majority of the
island is flat, except for the north coastline
which is a bit mountainous -- I'd estimate it
around 3,500 ft at its highest point.
The
stretch between Palma de Mallorca and Barcelona
is all water, with Barcelona lying right on the
coastline. Our landing pattern for RWY 20 took
us a bit to the northeast of the airport, which
placed us directly over Barcelona. Seems to be
such a beautiful city, but unfortunately we won't
have too much time to visit.
 We
spent only an hour or two on the ground in Barcelona.
I wandered off to snap a photo of the Guggenheim
museum, and headed back to the airport. Had the
beer been better, we would have stayed longer
in this city. So, in no time, we were off to Lisbon.
This particular trip is more about the beer, so
regretfully we're going to miss some of the sites.
A
few minutes before 1100 we were back on the tarmac;
the once idle airport was now a bit busier as
we were number 3 in line for takeoff on RWY25
with a 737 and A320 in front of us. We were blessed
to have gotten in line when we did, the line grew
quickly with an additional nine planes lined up
behind us. We waited for awhile as a ATR 72 landed,
follow by a CRJ 100's missed approach before the
line started to move.
 Takeoff
was at 1100 on the dot, with mild winds at 7.
We had a few autopilot issues which had our rate-of-climb
skyrocketing near the airport, a problem which
GZ solved as quickly as he had created it. In
a matter of minutes, our Pilatus was climbing
through FL240. The area between Barcelona and
Lisbon was mostly flat, some rolling hills here
and there and a few rivers but nothing too exciting.
Descending
through 5,000 feet around 30 miles out we encountered
a cloud layer with low visibility but broke free
of it around the 3,000 foot mark. As we turned
to line up with the RWY we  realized
that we must have misunderstood the ATC and his
Portuguese accent because we were passed quite
closely on our right by an Alitalia MD80. At 1,200
feet and only a few miles out on approach we again
had some lower visibility to deal with; still
flustered by the near miss with the MD80 I had
a near miss with the centerline, strongly favoring
the left side of the runway. Landing time was
1235.
The
plan is to head from here to London, but that
looks to be a bit too far for comfort. Perhaps
we'll find a place to rest along the way...
GB
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