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Report:
As
you may recall from our last pilot report, weather
in Stockholm was thick with a gray/orange haze.
Visibility improved slightly during our brief
layover, but was still quite poor as we taxied
for departure. Once we were airborne, the sky
wasn't much better. It was definitely more gray
than that orange sunset tinged fog that greeted
us hours before, but still zero visibility through
approximately 10,000 ft.
For
the most part this short hop was fairly uneventful.
We saw a little bit of Finland below, but didn't
get to enjoy it too much as it was pretty dark
out there. Helsinki brought with it difficult
ATC accents and low visibility, not Stockholm
mind you, but definitely another challenge for
the Hopper crew. GZ dialed us in nicely for a
proper ILS approach.
On
approach into Helsinki, we had a 737 and an A320
in line ahead of us and some persistent turbulence
that put the passengers on edge. Around 900ft,
I had a visual on the runway. I kept the ILS locked
until a few feet above the lights and then I had
GZ switch over to manual -- this is where my skills
(or lack thereof) shine as our virtual passengers,
reputations and ego are at stake. Even with a
few beers in me, the thrill of the approach really
offers quite a bit of clarity. Well, that and
the very sober thoughts of a crash with the resulting
restart from St. Louis -- home of Budweiser. Eeew,
that doesn't sound too good, does it?
With
this motivation, I centered The Hopper pretty
well and made a fairly good landing, at least
according to the passengers. One
more hop and we'll be out of this Scandinavian
soup we've been swimming in for the past
few legs. Then, on to Hoptoberfest!
GB
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