Melo965
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Welcome back. Keen eye, good job!
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Please see the most recent updates in the "Where did the .com name go?" thread. Posts number 16 and 17.
Spitfire K5054 90th Anniversary Circumnavigation of the UK: PIREPS
- Thread starter Melo965
- Start date
bosspecops
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Leg 03 (Part 1)
Having spent far too much time in trying to find an FSX Spitfire XII, and after NOT finding one I decided to repaint a clipped wing Mk XIV as if it was a Mk XII, eventually I got 41 Sqdn's EB-Z, MB854 to the ramp at Leuchars for Leg 03 y'day. Parked next to that Sea Fury again.
Having found a slot to take-off in the middle of that air show I found myself in, the Tower asked me to taxi around past the crowd for a photo-opportunity, of all things, but I wasn't likely to refuse seeing as they'd filled my tanks for me. Firstly I passed two very weird looking machines, all angular and pointy, not as stylish as a Spitfire at all.............
And then I paused by the crowd line as requested before heading to the threshold and getting airborne. It seems there's some people using flash for their cameras in broad daylight, would you believe?
I got airborne OK, and didn't follow the full list of waypoints as it seemed the RW Spitfire Tr9 had backtracked down to Edinburgh, and I was interested in catching the rest of you guys before you all landed back at Eastleigh and went off to Morocco to fly whirlybirds! I headed off north east right away at around 2000 ft and going as fast as I could, prop in fine pitch, mixture leaned out and throttle on the firewall! Thus setup the Mx XII was doing WELL over 300 kts, which was very pleasing indeed.
One of the beauties of flying over the JF Photo-real scenery that I have is that all the old and abandoned airfields are still clearly visible from this altitude, and this one's RAF Kinnell, just south of Montrose a way.
It's notable in the pic above how well the RAF camouflage scheme works over the UK countryside, it's pretty difficult picking out the Mk XII's shape above those varied fields.
Just a little way further north I passed o'head Montrose itself, a lovely seaside harbour town that's well worth a visit if you're in range. I hadn't time to do that, and pressed on towards Lossiemouth. Note Scotland's predeliction toward golf courses, they're all OVER the place!
Turning north and paralleling the coast line for a while, I was approaching the large port city of Aberdeen, but my next waypoint was actually the VOR aerial at Dyce Airport, a little inland. At one time Dyce held the record as the busiest helicopter field in the world, but that was during the North Sea oil boom here in Scotland. There's Dyce directly ahead.
I was going somewhat faster than the Tower there expected (just over 330 kts at this point...) and they were so surprised they took this shot of me passing o'head. D Day invasion stripes weren't too common in that area of course.......
Heading further and further north I passed over another derelict airfield, this one was a Fleet Air Arm field during WWII and as with all such FFA fields, it had it's own ship's name, this one being HMS Mergansar.
Only a little further north the coastline turns abruptly to the east into the Moray Firth itself, which eventually leads all the way to Inverness. Right on the corner is the town of Inveralochy, which also had its own RAF airfield back in the day. Nowadays it's a road transport depot, part of a housing estate, a kart racing track and farming of course.
After another 40 nms heading east I was in sight of Lossiemouth, a station I know VERY well indeed having spent many hours there with my youngest daughter while she was learning her trade as an Air Trafficer in the RAF. Having got the OK from the tower I was all set to do a low, fast pass along the main 23 runway even though I would have to land on the 10 strip due to the wind. The Spitfire's not as forgiving of crosswinds than the stations Typhoons & Poseidons of course. They need the much longer runway and the 10-28 one is only used for special flights like mine.
The scenery I have for the station, from UKMil, is very accurate, even having the red & white threshold caravans in which I've spent more than a few hours, arrowed in red below.
Part 2 follows.
Having spent far too much time in trying to find an FSX Spitfire XII, and after NOT finding one I decided to repaint a clipped wing Mk XIV as if it was a Mk XII, eventually I got 41 Sqdn's EB-Z, MB854 to the ramp at Leuchars for Leg 03 y'day. Parked next to that Sea Fury again.
Having found a slot to take-off in the middle of that air show I found myself in, the Tower asked me to taxi around past the crowd for a photo-opportunity, of all things, but I wasn't likely to refuse seeing as they'd filled my tanks for me. Firstly I passed two very weird looking machines, all angular and pointy, not as stylish as a Spitfire at all.............
And then I paused by the crowd line as requested before heading to the threshold and getting airborne. It seems there's some people using flash for their cameras in broad daylight, would you believe?
I got airborne OK, and didn't follow the full list of waypoints as it seemed the RW Spitfire Tr9 had backtracked down to Edinburgh, and I was interested in catching the rest of you guys before you all landed back at Eastleigh and went off to Morocco to fly whirlybirds! I headed off north east right away at around 2000 ft and going as fast as I could, prop in fine pitch, mixture leaned out and throttle on the firewall! Thus setup the Mx XII was doing WELL over 300 kts, which was very pleasing indeed.
One of the beauties of flying over the JF Photo-real scenery that I have is that all the old and abandoned airfields are still clearly visible from this altitude, and this one's RAF Kinnell, just south of Montrose a way.
It's notable in the pic above how well the RAF camouflage scheme works over the UK countryside, it's pretty difficult picking out the Mk XII's shape above those varied fields.
Just a little way further north I passed o'head Montrose itself, a lovely seaside harbour town that's well worth a visit if you're in range. I hadn't time to do that, and pressed on towards Lossiemouth. Note Scotland's predeliction toward golf courses, they're all OVER the place!
Turning north and paralleling the coast line for a while, I was approaching the large port city of Aberdeen, but my next waypoint was actually the VOR aerial at Dyce Airport, a little inland. At one time Dyce held the record as the busiest helicopter field in the world, but that was during the North Sea oil boom here in Scotland. There's Dyce directly ahead.
I was going somewhat faster than the Tower there expected (just over 330 kts at this point...) and they were so surprised they took this shot of me passing o'head. D Day invasion stripes weren't too common in that area of course.......
Heading further and further north I passed over another derelict airfield, this one was a Fleet Air Arm field during WWII and as with all such FFA fields, it had it's own ship's name, this one being HMS Mergansar.
Only a little further north the coastline turns abruptly to the east into the Moray Firth itself, which eventually leads all the way to Inverness. Right on the corner is the town of Inveralochy, which also had its own RAF airfield back in the day. Nowadays it's a road transport depot, part of a housing estate, a kart racing track and farming of course.
After another 40 nms heading east I was in sight of Lossiemouth, a station I know VERY well indeed having spent many hours there with my youngest daughter while she was learning her trade as an Air Trafficer in the RAF. Having got the OK from the tower I was all set to do a low, fast pass along the main 23 runway even though I would have to land on the 10 strip due to the wind. The Spitfire's not as forgiving of crosswinds than the stations Typhoons & Poseidons of course. They need the much longer runway and the 10-28 one is only used for special flights like mine.
The scenery I have for the station, from UKMil, is very accurate, even having the red & white threshold caravans in which I've spent more than a few hours, arrowed in red below.
Part 2 follows.
bosspecops
Members +
Leg 03 (Part 2)
Making a very low (50 ft.....) run across the field in front of the Tower was pretty darn effective at waking them all up for sure.
Making a long right hand turn over the west end of the field I lined up with the 10 runway, canopy open, wheels and flaps down and full rich mixture, with my prop in coarse pitch of course. This being Scotland, they didn't have just the odd tree on the runway centre line, they had a small FOREST there!
Touch down was just about OK, I've done a lot better, but my excuse is I'm not used to the opposite torque of a Griffon engined Spitfire. (that's my reason and I'm sticking to it, OK?) As Melo discovered, the taxiways at Lossie are long and twisty, but luckily I could remember them from my time there in the RW and soon I was parked on the Visiting Aircraft Parking just to the west of the Tower, and went to sign in at the Ops Office, a place I know very well indeed.
On my first visit there I spent some hours in that greenhouse in the pic above, being the 'Visual Confirmation Officer with a HUGE pair of binoculars for SATCO for the day, GREAT fun!
The UKMil scenery is a little vintage in that their aircraft at Lossie are all Tornado FGR4s, which were there when I was, so it all looked very familiar to me, but to my amazement one of them started up and taxied off to the far end of the 05-23 runway to take off! I didn't realise they were AI aircraft, complete with flight plans, and I watched them doing their thing for quite a while. The arrow shows the one I saw startup actually taking off, and it went off across the Firth, presumably to the Tain Range on the North side.
All in all it was a very good and quite exciting flight, the extra power of the Griffon engine suited the low level characteristics of the Mk XII a treat, and as a result I AVERAGED 350 kts for the whole flight! I burnt 69 gallons of fuel, which was hardly surprising really, which gave me a burn rate of only 3 galls/mile.
I'll keep the Mk XII for Leg 04 down to Prestwick I think ad I can do its 'low level thing' down the Caledonian Canal quite nicely.
Making a very low (50 ft.....) run across the field in front of the Tower was pretty darn effective at waking them all up for sure.
Making a long right hand turn over the west end of the field I lined up with the 10 runway, canopy open, wheels and flaps down and full rich mixture, with my prop in coarse pitch of course. This being Scotland, they didn't have just the odd tree on the runway centre line, they had a small FOREST there!
Touch down was just about OK, I've done a lot better, but my excuse is I'm not used to the opposite torque of a Griffon engined Spitfire. (that's my reason and I'm sticking to it, OK?)
As Melo discovered, the taxiways at Lossie are long and twisty, but luckily I could remember them from my time there in the RW and soon I was parked on the Visiting Aircraft Parking just to the west of the Tower, and went to sign in at the Ops Office, a place I know very well indeed.On my first visit there I spent some hours in that greenhouse in the pic above, being the 'Visual Confirmation Officer with a HUGE pair of binoculars for SATCO for the day, GREAT fun!
The UKMil scenery is a little vintage in that their aircraft at Lossie are all Tornado FGR4s, which were there when I was, so it all looked very familiar to me, but to my amazement one of them started up and taxied off to the far end of the 05-23 runway to take off! I didn't realise they were AI aircraft, complete with flight plans, and I watched them doing their thing for quite a while. The arrow shows the one I saw startup actually taking off, and it went off across the Firth, presumably to the Tain Range on the North side.
All in all it was a very good and quite exciting flight, the extra power of the Griffon engine suited the low level characteristics of the Mk XII a treat, and as a result I AVERAGED 350 kts for the whole flight! I burnt 69 gallons of fuel, which was hardly surprising really, which gave me a burn rate of only 3 galls/mile.
I'll keep the Mk XII for Leg 04 down to Prestwick I think ad I can do its 'low level thing' down the Caledonian Canal quite nicely.
Melo965
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Spitfire K5054 TR9 Flight 7: MOD St. Athan AB (EGDX) to RAF St Mawgan AB (EGDG) Part 1
For this event I am flying in FSX. Using Active Sky 2016 for weather and Little Navmap for navigation.
Flying an Aeroplane Heaven Mid-War pack TR9 Spitfire. Repainted to match the livery of the K5054 TR9 Spitfire.
Ready to start the engine for this seventh flight of the UK tour. Wind direction indicates a takeoff on runway 08. Taxied down the grass beside the runway for takeoff on runway 08.
Lined up for takeoff on runway 08.
On the way to RAF St Mawgan AB (EGDG).
My routine adjustments. Set the throttle, mixture, and prop settings to conserve fuel. Throttle set to about 63%, then coarsened the prop pitch and moved the mixture back to get a RPM of 2500 with about 4 boost.
Cardiff is below.
A freighter waiting for its turn to enter Newport Docks.
Since it is nearby I could not resist heading further up the river toward Dean Forest Regional Airport (EGDF). Kit first built the airport for FS98 on the bank of the river Severn, and I have since helped him upgrade it for FS2004 and FSX. EGDF is near the town of Lydney where Kit lived for many years.
Approaching the Prince of Wales Bridge.
Squeezing through at 11 feet altitude.
Under the Severn Bridge at 40 feet altitude with plenty of room to spare.
This is the first time in a long time that I flew under both of the bridges from the South.
Continued in Part 2
For this event I am flying in FSX. Using Active Sky 2016 for weather and Little Navmap for navigation.
Flying an Aeroplane Heaven Mid-War pack TR9 Spitfire. Repainted to match the livery of the K5054 TR9 Spitfire.
Ready to start the engine for this seventh flight of the UK tour. Wind direction indicates a takeoff on runway 08. Taxied down the grass beside the runway for takeoff on runway 08.
Lined up for takeoff on runway 08.
On the way to RAF St Mawgan AB (EGDG).
My routine adjustments. Set the throttle, mixture, and prop settings to conserve fuel. Throttle set to about 63%, then coarsened the prop pitch and moved the mixture back to get a RPM of 2500 with about 4 boost.
Cardiff is below.
A freighter waiting for its turn to enter Newport Docks.
Since it is nearby I could not resist heading further up the river toward Dean Forest Regional Airport (EGDF). Kit first built the airport for FS98 on the bank of the river Severn, and I have since helped him upgrade it for FS2004 and FSX. EGDF is near the town of Lydney where Kit lived for many years.
Approaching the Prince of Wales Bridge.
Squeezing through at 11 feet altitude.
Under the Severn Bridge at 40 feet altitude with plenty of room to spare.
This is the first time in a long time that I flew under both of the bridges from the South.
Continued in Part 2
Melo965
Members +
Spitfire K5054 TR9 Flight 7: MOD St. Athan AB (EGDX) to RAF St Mawgan AB (EGDG) Part 2
The EGDF Tower asked me for a fast pass down the runway and of course I obliged.
200 Knots at 26 feet altitude. Much easier to get really low in familiar territory.
Tower view of my aircraft at 25 feet altitude.
Climbing out to swing around and get back on course.
Just passed Filton (EGTG) in the distance.
The town of High Littleton is below.
Turning to fly South West near Waypoint 5 and the town Wells.
Heading West near town of Bridgwater.
Over the town of Watchet. We are enjoying this flight along the UK coastline.
Flying along the coast near Bossington. Right after this we banked left and climbed up over the cliffs to stay on course.
Passing by Chivenor (EGDC).
Continued in Part 3
The EGDF Tower asked me for a fast pass down the runway and of course I obliged.
200 Knots at 26 feet altitude. Much easier to get really low in familiar territory.
Tower view of my aircraft at 25 feet altitude.
Climbing out to swing around and get back on course.
Just passed Filton (EGTG) in the distance.
The town of High Littleton is below.
Turning to fly South West near Waypoint 5 and the town Wells.
Heading West near town of Bridgwater.
Over the town of Watchet. We are enjoying this flight along the UK coastline.
Flying along the coast near Bossington. Right after this we banked left and climbed up over the cliffs to stay on course.
Passing by Chivenor (EGDC).
Continued in Part 3
Melo965
Members +
Spitfire K5054 TR9 Flight 7: MOD St. Athan AB (EGDX) to RAF St Mawgan AB (EGDG) Part 3
Enjoying some aerobatics.
Still raining steadily as it has been the whole flight so far.
Starting to get more foggy.
Down to 700 feet altitude trying to maintain ground contact and not get swallowed up in the clouds. No chance to do a flyby or fast pass down the runway at the destination airport this time.
Weather conditions are getting much worse. Close to RAF St Mawgan AB (EGDG) now though, so have mixture full rich and prop in fine pitch for landing with full flaps, gear down, and canopies open. Hoping I can find runway 31 in this murk.
Base leg for runway 31, still searching.
On Final for runway 31. Very grateful that they had the approach lights turned on!
Moments before touchdown. Landed safely. Closed the canopies as soon as we were safely down. Did not want to have to bail out the cockpits.
Parked at RAF St Mawgan AB (EGDG).
Here is the Active Sky Weather picture after landing. Lucky that we were able to get down safely in these conditions.
We had 41% fuel left on board after engine shutdown.
The flight was 215 miles. The flight was completed in 1 hour and 10 minutes at an average speed of 160 knots.
I used 50.1 gallons of fuel on the flight. For this flight the Merlin engine used 42.9 gallons per hour.
Seven flights completed and only two more to go.
Enjoying some aerobatics.
Still raining steadily as it has been the whole flight so far.
Starting to get more foggy.
Down to 700 feet altitude trying to maintain ground contact and not get swallowed up in the clouds. No chance to do a flyby or fast pass down the runway at the destination airport this time.
Weather conditions are getting much worse. Close to RAF St Mawgan AB (EGDG) now though, so have mixture full rich and prop in fine pitch for landing with full flaps, gear down, and canopies open. Hoping I can find runway 31 in this murk.
Base leg for runway 31, still searching.
On Final for runway 31. Very grateful that they had the approach lights turned on!
Moments before touchdown. Landed safely. Closed the canopies as soon as we were safely down. Did not want to have to bail out the cockpits.
Parked at RAF St Mawgan AB (EGDG).
Here is the Active Sky Weather picture after landing. Lucky that we were able to get down safely in these conditions.
We had 41% fuel left on board after engine shutdown.
The flight was 215 miles. The flight was completed in 1 hour and 10 minutes at an average speed of 160 knots.
I used 50.1 gallons of fuel on the flight. For this flight the Merlin engine used 42.9 gallons per hour.
Seven flights completed and only two more to go.
Melo965
Members +
Spitfire K5054 90th Anniversary Circumnavigation of the UK Announcement
For everyone already flying the route: Please plan to finish your flights in June.
For anyone else who wants to join in even at this late date: Anyone who starts flying during the Month of May (today or tomorrow) is very welcome to continue and complete the Nine flights during June.
For everyone already flying the route: Please plan to finish your flights in June.
For anyone else who wants to join in even at this late date: Anyone who starts flying during the Month of May (today or tomorrow) is very welcome to continue and complete the Nine flights during June.
bosspecops
Members +
Somehow I just KNEW you'd do a fly by at EGDF Melo, nice one.
And a Bridge Flight............. And that second pic is pretty much what I'd have seen from my bedroom window in my old house too! Bizarrely I'll be there tomorrow as well.
bosspecops
Members +
Leg 04 (Part1)
I carried on flying my pseudo Mk XII for Leg 04, I needed the speed to catch up with all the rest of you!
I left the Mk XII fuelled with its existing 194 gall. load as I was pretty sure I'd make Prestwick and taxied off to the active 05 runway. As I mentioned in my Leg 03 PIREP, the station's Tornados were busy, and there were two of them parked right alongside me waiting for a fuel truck.
As Melo mentioned, the taxiways at Lossie are long and complex, specially if you're headed for 05, and by the time I got there, weaving rhythmically to see ahead over the Mk XII's long nose, one of XV Sqdn's FGR4s had got there just before me. Now you'd have thought that a young upstart like him would have waited a tad and let an oldie like me go first, but no, off he went! You can see the red & white threshold caravan right there too, a place I've spent a few happy hours in, and once had to fire a red flare to scare off a incompetent Hawk pilot, which then set fire to the grass!
On that long runway I was airborne way before I passed the Tower and turned off on course, but not on course for Prestwick, I had a small excursion to make first.....
Heading directly across the Moray Firth toward my old stamping ground when I flew with the Albion Group of Airlines VA. from our massive base which was RAF Tain until 1951.
My first landmark was Tarbert Lighthouse, which just happened to be right on the extended centre line of Tain's 26 runway, and we used it as reporting point when on approach. This time last year Hazel and I actually went there for real, all very nostalgic, in a virtual sort of way, but real too.
Looking north on the approach I could see what the real world's RAF Tain is these days, an Armament Test Range used by many air forces based in the UK & Europe.
Keeping lined up on 26 the whole grandeur of the Albion base came into view, the main terminal to port, the heavy maintenance area over on the far right, and the red arrowed area is my own Special Operations Area, thus my email address etc. We didn't do things by halves in Albion, oh no!
Getting back onto the Tour route meant a slight turn to port to head for Inverness EGPE, which took me across the east end of the Cromarty Firth, a sea loch leading off the Moray Firth, and which is distinguished by having some oil rigs right there in the Firth itself! Some are still there too, we saw them last year.
Quickly crossing the Moray, and at 350 kits it IS quick too, I was soon turning over Inverness airport and heading for the city itself.
Inverness is where Hazel and stayed last year, and our hotel is located just to the left of my port wingtip in this pic as I turned down Loch Ness.
What can I say about Loch Ness that's not been said before? It's AWESOME, and very deep, the second deepest piece of water in the whole UK actually, 755 ft. It's also the second largest Loch there is, being 23 miles long, and I drove all round it last year, quite some piece of water even with out its monster! Hmm, what's that underneath me? I better invert and take a close look.............
Continued in part 2
I carried on flying my pseudo Mk XII for Leg 04, I needed the speed to catch up with all the rest of you!
I left the Mk XII fuelled with its existing 194 gall. load as I was pretty sure I'd make Prestwick and taxied off to the active 05 runway. As I mentioned in my Leg 03 PIREP, the station's Tornados were busy, and there were two of them parked right alongside me waiting for a fuel truck.
As Melo mentioned, the taxiways at Lossie are long and complex, specially if you're headed for 05, and by the time I got there, weaving rhythmically to see ahead over the Mk XII's long nose, one of XV Sqdn's FGR4s had got there just before me. Now you'd have thought that a young upstart like him would have waited a tad and let an oldie like me go first, but no, off he went! You can see the red & white threshold caravan right there too, a place I've spent a few happy hours in, and once had to fire a red flare to scare off a incompetent Hawk pilot, which then set fire to the grass!
On that long runway I was airborne way before I passed the Tower and turned off on course, but not on course for Prestwick, I had a small excursion to make first.....
Heading directly across the Moray Firth toward my old stamping ground when I flew with the Albion Group of Airlines VA. from our massive base which was RAF Tain until 1951.
My first landmark was Tarbert Lighthouse, which just happened to be right on the extended centre line of Tain's 26 runway, and we used it as reporting point when on approach. This time last year Hazel and I actually went there for real, all very nostalgic, in a virtual sort of way, but real too.
Looking north on the approach I could see what the real world's RAF Tain is these days, an Armament Test Range used by many air forces based in the UK & Europe.
Keeping lined up on 26 the whole grandeur of the Albion base came into view, the main terminal to port, the heavy maintenance area over on the far right, and the red arrowed area is my own Special Operations Area, thus my email address etc. We didn't do things by halves in Albion, oh no!
Getting back onto the Tour route meant a slight turn to port to head for Inverness EGPE, which took me across the east end of the Cromarty Firth, a sea loch leading off the Moray Firth, and which is distinguished by having some oil rigs right there in the Firth itself! Some are still there too, we saw them last year.
Quickly crossing the Moray, and at 350 kits it IS quick too, I was soon turning over Inverness airport and heading for the city itself.
Inverness is where Hazel and stayed last year, and our hotel is located just to the left of my port wingtip in this pic as I turned down Loch Ness.
What can I say about Loch Ness that's not been said before? It's AWESOME, and very deep, the second deepest piece of water in the whole UK actually, 755 ft. It's also the second largest Loch there is, being 23 miles long, and I drove all round it last year, quite some piece of water even with out its monster! Hmm, what's that underneath me? I better invert and take a close look.............
Continued in part 2
bosspecops
Members +
Leg o4 (Part 2)
At the south west end of Loch Ness the Tour route makes a sharp turn to port to cross over the Highlands en route to Glasgow and Prestwick, and the safety height for this leg was 4000 ft so I'd planned a climb from here on. That big Griffon made short work of it and I was able to climb at 275 kts quite easily. The scenery from here on is rugged, to say the least, and I'd NOT like to make a forced landing in these parts!
I crossed numerous Lochs heading south, and was able to identify a few of them, this one being Loch Laggan.
Approaching Glasgow and descending again SHOULD have brought me in sight of Loch Lomond, the largest Loch there is, but by now it had started raining and I was scudding in and out of the cloud layer.
I passed over Glasgow without a glimpse of Scotland's largest city, and also missed sight of its airport, EGPF, but its VOR aerial enabled me to turn onto track for Prestwick EGPK. Heading further west some more of Scotland's ever present golf courses hove into view, and I expect a keen golfer could navigate by them, there are so many!
As the active at Prestwick was 12 I had to head out to sea for a distance before starting my approach, and so went feet wet passing o'head Ardrossan.
Not having an ILS set aboard I had to use the PAPI lights on 12, =and they were pretty good. Not only that, there WASN'T a tree on the runway centre line for a change!
I didn't make too god a job of the landing though, I was on the centre line, and also on the numbers, but I bounced the Mk XII a couple of times. Not too impressive really, but they do say that thing about 'any landing you can walk away from....' etc.
Turning off the runway at it's far end, and it's LONG one too, I came across a situation that ATC hadn't warned me about! I came face to face with the LARGEST freighter ever, the Antonov An-225 Mrya! I'd heard the Russians had wrecked it at Kiev, but here it was parked up in Scotland!
Luckily I was low enough to creep under its port wing tip, and head for what passes for an FBO in these parts, where I shut down and checked my fuel figures etc. Don't count the prop blades, a Mk XII only has four................
The 210 nm flight had taken me 40 mins, an average speed of 307 kts, not too bad with that climb in the middle, and I'd burnt another 81 gals of fuel.
I think I'll use another Spitfire mark for the next leg or two, but I really enjoyed flying the Mk XII, right down there in the weeds where it was intended to fly.
At the south west end of Loch Ness the Tour route makes a sharp turn to port to cross over the Highlands en route to Glasgow and Prestwick, and the safety height for this leg was 4000 ft so I'd planned a climb from here on. That big Griffon made short work of it and I was able to climb at 275 kts quite easily. The scenery from here on is rugged, to say the least, and I'd NOT like to make a forced landing in these parts!
I crossed numerous Lochs heading south, and was able to identify a few of them, this one being Loch Laggan.
Approaching Glasgow and descending again SHOULD have brought me in sight of Loch Lomond, the largest Loch there is, but by now it had started raining and I was scudding in and out of the cloud layer.
I passed over Glasgow without a glimpse of Scotland's largest city, and also missed sight of its airport, EGPF, but its VOR aerial enabled me to turn onto track for Prestwick EGPK. Heading further west some more of Scotland's ever present golf courses hove into view, and I expect a keen golfer could navigate by them, there are so many!
As the active at Prestwick was 12 I had to head out to sea for a distance before starting my approach, and so went feet wet passing o'head Ardrossan.
Not having an ILS set aboard I had to use the PAPI lights on 12, =and they were pretty good. Not only that, there WASN'T a tree on the runway centre line for a change!
I didn't make too god a job of the landing though, I was on the centre line, and also on the numbers, but I bounced the Mk XII a couple of times. Not too impressive really, but they do say that thing about 'any landing you can walk away from....' etc.
Turning off the runway at it's far end, and it's LONG one too, I came across a situation that ATC hadn't warned me about! I came face to face with the LARGEST freighter ever, the Antonov An-225 Mrya! I'd heard the Russians had wrecked it at Kiev, but here it was parked up in Scotland!
Luckily I was low enough to creep under its port wing tip, and head for what passes for an FBO in these parts, where I shut down and checked my fuel figures etc. Don't count the prop blades, a Mk XII only has four................
The 210 nm flight had taken me 40 mins, an average speed of 307 kts, not too bad with that climb in the middle, and I'd burnt another 81 gals of fuel.
I think I'll use another Spitfire mark for the next leg or two, but I really enjoyed flying the Mk XII, right down there in the weeds where it was intended to fly.