Now I want to do the world's shortest scheduled flight - in Orkney. The scheduled time is 1 minute 30 seconds I think - but it's done it in 56 seconds. I'd planned to do it this year but Mr Covid put paid to that. However - watch this space!
For all the years i lived up there , l never gave this flight any thought, now having left there l would love to do the shortest flight, one of the facts banded about was that distance wise its shorter than Heathrows main runway.
Iv been lucky to fly in the Islander a number of times once when l was very young it was a charter flight taking Hydro men out and back to one of the outer Orkney isles to sort a fault , Dad was the local hydro man on the island and the boss said when he landed oh its going back to kirkwal for some equipment and right back here, does your son want a quick flight , well naturally l jumped and had the co pilots seat, take off was impressive , it was a very windy windy day the aircraft was maneuvered into position, the pilot said through the head phone watch this for a take off and opened her up we hardly moved (granted its a Short take off/landing design) and we lifted up very quickly ..its wasnt a long flight, but l was mesmirised by it all, and more so when he switched the fuel pumps off, Gravity he said takes care of that in the air, then asked did l want to fly it, so he said put your hands on the joystick and push very slowly down, the nose went down, pull it back slowly and we climbed then turn it and we banked either side .
A number of years ago Highland Park sponsored the colourscheme and gave all those on the short flight a miniature of The HP Whisky, l told some visiting Americans, from the parent company of Highland Park who were going upto Orkney to watch for the HP aircraft, i found out later they were blown away by her and indeed did that short flight. Its an incredibly noisy aircraft and when your sitting next the props they are pretty close. There was a brief time they were painted in the BA colours along with the rest of the Loganair fleet.
My sister, in 74 was born onboard the Loganair Islander aircraft when they performed Ambulance flights, mum went into labor and rather than being flown from Stronsay to Kirkwall, which was fog bound, they ended up diverting to Aberdeen. she has the rare CAA Birth certificate showing place of birth 2,000 feet above Kirkwall. and her daughter now works as Cabin crew for Norwegian Air.
Thomas Hypher mentioned "other aircraft" and then went on to mention the A380 on which I have flown many times.
They are indeed big beautiful birds, l was lucky to fly to LA on G-XLEA, The first into the BA fleet , just a few months after she entered service. seeing her parked up at T5 you do wonder how these beasts manage to get up in the air. Boarding was a bit chaotic but sitting on the top it's very hard to imagine there's another deck full of passengers below you. The take off was first of all very quiet and as we lumbered down the runway, take off was very quick, the wings flexing like no mans business in the wind. I was very lucky in that l had an upgrade onboard, but with the mood lighting , its really amazing how quiet it is onboard. On the return flight l was sitting next to a passenger he to was slightly panicked by the very quick lift of at what seemed a very slow speed. And for the size of the aircraft, the joy stick is no bigger than one used for a game console
