Departed 10:40 Zulu
Arrived 15:00 Zulu
Total Time: 4hr 20min
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With tanks filled to the brim, Mike Lima was loaded up with essentials (namely beer!) and made ready for the 413nm trip from Sumburgh to Manchester. With a seven knot breeze from the west, the forecast for the trip was pretty good, once through the 1500' cloud base. Lining up on 27, power checks completed, it was full throttle, and Mike Lima's last contact with Shetland for several months. My routing was direct to Scotstownhead, using airway W4D over a 140nm of North Sea - not a good place for engine trouble! By the time I reached Perth there was a fairly stiff south westerly at 6000', so I decided to drop down to 2000' where it was only 10kts. Things were pretty much the same all the way to the border, climbing to stay clear of cloud, or descending for better winds. |
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The last leg of the journey had northerly winds giving me a ground speed approaching 130kts, arriving at Barton to torrential rain! All in all a good start to the journey, with no real hitches. Landing Mike Lima at Barton gave me the first taste of her performance on grass runways - something I will need to get used to over the next few months! |
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The Route
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