Another day in paradise (aka Kirkwall Airport)

An eclectic mix of pics

First of all thanks to Ingemar for his comments, always makes this task worthwhile.  Not a lot out of the ordinary has happened, that is until today, pics later.  In the meantime we have had a mjor change in Kirkwall in that Britains favourite airline is no more.  British Airways have left the building with Loganair now operating under the Flybe banner.

I thought for the records it may be worth posting a few pics of the final day(s).  I will start off with some of the ground team on the friday before the change.

Left to right:  Tant, Skip, Calum and Mark

Next we have the last crew in as BA who flew out the next morning as Flybe

Left to right:  Dave Kirkland, Ist Officer and ex islander pilot.  Lynne Mackinnon, Cabin Crew and Ronan Milne, Captain.  And finally, a screen unlikely to be seen again.

This event was requested by the crew to be named as "end of an aira"!

Just after the pictures were taken, Skip and Calum disappeared for a few weks and flew 12000 miles to Australia.  Calum kindly donated the next two pictures, so thanks to him.  First we have the aircraft they flew to LA in.  An A380 named Nancy Bird Walton.  I asked how they found it to which Skip replied "shaky"  They were shocked at how much swinging was felt as the sat near the rear of the aircraft.

Calum is such a keen photographer, he climbed out on the tail to take this picture:

Yes, of course I am kidding but apparently this camera streams a live feed to the TV screens inside the aircraft.

At the tail end of last week our friend Christian Lange flew in from Paris Le Bourget in PH-RID.  Another new Cessna Citation Sovereign.  I did take pictures previously but cannot find them so here is one for the library.

I mentioned at the beginning, nothing out of the ordinary was happening until today.  I got a call from Nick Bentley in the tower telling me there would be military flypasts tomorrow (Tuesday) so to remember my camera.  As I was near the hold baggage end of the building, Julian told me that there was about to be a low pass from a military aircraft.  I nipped for my camera, expecting a C130, and this is what I saw:

And I had time for another

The light was terrible but my jaw dropped as the silhouette of such a large aircraft approached.  It is certainly by far the biggest aircraft I have seen do an approach at Kirkwall.  I can just make out on the picture that this is ZZ172, A C17 from 99 squadron Royal Air Force.  Many thanks to the crew who decided to do an impromptu approach.

Children in Need 2008 is now resigned to history and thanks go to staff and passengers who between them smashed last years amount and today Skip confirmed that £610 had been collected for this worthwhile cause.  Well done and here is Skip today with a well deserved smile on her face.

Thats it for now, thanks for reading.  Until next time.

Neil