Kirkwall to Stronsay, Stronsay to Sanday, Sanday to Eday, Eday to Westray, Westray to Papa Westray*, Papa Westray to North Ronaldsay, and North Ronaldsay to Kirkwall.
On a Loganair Islander aircraft.
*the shortest scheduled airline flight in the world.
I did those routes over a few days in 2008, and they are a great way of seeing the islands, aren't they??
The Britten Norman Islander is like someone's battered old estate car, but with wings, and you can get out at each 'stop' and take pictures!!
(Each flight starts at Kirkwall and visits the specific places before returning to Kirkwall). I loved it, we were never more than a few hundred feet up, and it was clear, so I saw everything. I would thoroughly recommend it!!
One thing I always remember was flying over a farm and seeing a black and white dot in the middle of the yard. It took me a second or two to realise it was a sheep dog. That is how low we were.
The aircraft were carrying a black 'Highland Park' advertising livery, and I got a miniature of the stuff and a certificate when I did the Westray to Papa Westray route. On taking off from Westray, the Pilot said
'And today's inflight entertainment will be Ben Hurr!'.
I bet he'd been waiting all day to say that too - Its the shortest flight in the Universe, innit?
Oh, and 'crabbing' due to a crosswind back into Kirkwall - I remember looking out the side window and seeing the runway in front of me!!
I love flying -but I know I haven't done it very often for business much (sidenote: I always remember flying from Boston to NYC on business, and the plane doing a beautiful bank over the then twin World Trade Center. Never dreamed I'd not see that sight again).
So why do I love flying? Well first and foremost, usually I associate flying with going to another country -so I'm always excited. And while you can now access online, I still consider flying to be the last holdout of being in a place where no one can bother you (OK flying across the atlantic with 3 small children was challenging), and you have nothing to do except.... sit back and enjoy the show (or movie). I also know you are in the hands of other people -personally, I find it somewhat liberating -I can't do anything about it... so all I can do is sit back and relax. I still think there's a certain novelty for me to see above the clouds and the land below (I can think of flying to the Isle of Man from Birmingham on an early flight and seeing the tops of a power station as it was a really foggy day, really memorable.... or the time I saw Concorde flying below when I was going into Heathrow..... or the fascination in seeing central America for the first time...or flying up the eastern coast of Australia and being amazed at how the beach seemed to stretch on.... or flying into Toronto on a sunny day with the CN tower.... or... I could go on). I'm just in a state of relaxation.
The only downside to flying for me is all the security and check in stuff, but even then I can find time to people watch and have a drink -alcoholic or not. I also appreciate some people have a fear of flying, but fortunately I don't. But I think I'm in the minority actually enjoying it!
I really do enjoy it too! I prefer the flights where you can actually see things (hence why I loved the aforementioned Inter Island Flights in the Orkneys). Once the novelty of there being a 'land' of cloud up there wears off, I find it a bit boring as, well, you don't see very much.
On the first commercial flight I ever took, it was pre 9/11, and I had just come out of hospital after having chemo, so I got into the cockpit for the landing at Heathrow (yes, really). Flying up the Thames at 8000 feet and passing over central London (you see planes do this all the time) was a sight, especially as the Pilots were pointing things out. This was 1999 and I still remember looking straight down and seeing the London Eye on its side before they errected it!
We were flying BA from Glasgow to Zurich, but we had to change at Heathrow, and all flights were on '757s.
Word got around, and so, on our flight from LHR to Zurich, I got into the cockpit for the take off and then the landing once more!!
My only regret was that I didn't think to take my camera onboard
DUR!!
The flight back was partly at night, and I remember thinking how all the lights looked like jewels and precious stones twinkling at us from below.
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I'm not frightened by it at all but I loathe the way you get treated with utter contempt at every stage of the ghastly process.
The Inter Island flights were great, Kirkwall Airport is no Heathrow, they were all really friendly!!
For 6.5 years now, I've been working as a software engineer, developing air-traffic control systems.
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