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Report:
Just
a few days after Hurricane
Wilma passed directly through our real
world neck of the woods, we decided that a much
needed break from the
post-disaster madness was in order. George was
one of the lucky few to
live in an area that had power restored very quickly
in comparison to
the rest of South Florida. And with that, we picked
up where we left
off in Hamburg, Germany which was the origin of
the First Hoptoberfest.
This was our 22nd Hopper flight, however it was
the first that was flown at George's abode using
George's joystick (Nope... We don't use those
bulky CH Products Flight Yokes).
It
was a beautiful fall day in Hamburg with scattered
clouds, in fact
the biggest issue we had was power lines that
crossed over the active
taxiway en route to RWY15, we got special permission
from the tower to
make a S shaped detour through the grass. Yes,
it was an unorthodox
call from ATC, but apparently a farm animal had
been seen there earlier
and we wanted coerce it back into the trees.
Upon
takeoff it was evident that we were leaving behind
excellent
weather, leaves changing color and most of all
GERMAN BEER. Farewell,
Paulander
Salvator, perhaps we shall meet again.
The
time to Copenhagen was a short 43-minute flight
around 138nm. Not
too much in the way of scenery in the northern
parts, we did cross over
a bit of water on our way to the eastern tip of
Denmark which on our
maps appears to extremely close to Sweden; in
fact it may be the same
distance as the Pumpkin
Chunkin Contest Winners distance at this
years event, if not, its not much further.
The
flight went by fast, passengers happy, despite
some winds on final.
Now, as I mentioned before, this was the first
time we had ever flown a
Hopper flight at George's house. That being said,
I wasn't accustomed
to the stiffness of his joystick (ya, we are avoiding
that one too...).
George disabled the ILS, while attempted to put
the Hopper down nice and smooth. Being on autopilot
much of the flight, I hadn't acquired a good feel
for the stick.. That combined with a frame rate
of about 6 fps on approach and the combination
of a jerky screen and unfamiliar controls and
I brought her in for a Hard
Landing... how hard you say? How about
-637 ft per minute! Our virtual FSPassengers "Wonder
if they landed or if they crashed ." Reminded
me off some of the stories that used to circulate
in the
old Lynx PUB.
Our
next stop in our around the world flight is Amsterdam...
I'm
sure
we'll have some good stories - If we can remember
them.
GB
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