stu7708

Part II - Picking up the VIPI (That's Very Important Private Investigator) After a lunch with Al I headed back out to the tarmac only to find the rain pouring down and the thunderstorms closing in. But plane was there waiting for me as promised, and that sight made me forget about the water dripping down my neck. Look at that paintjob. Al must have done som research on ATWC last night. Even if the cabin did look tempting I decided to fly this beauty myself. After telling Al about the past attempts to steal the baton he had agreed to send a security guard along for ride to keep a watchful

Thanks everybody.. Yes, it's the wilco version of the A400M, and yes the VC isn't the best I've seen... part 2 and 3 will be posted as soon as i'm done with this post.

Wow, I actually managed to make it a cliffhanger for someone... wow... many thanks for the kind comments everyone. I'll keep you waiting until tomorrow morning for part 2 & 3. Any guesses on what plane I'll follow up with.. I guess it could almost fit into the hull of the A400M :biggrin:

Part I - Port Elizabeth into the unknown. Life was good. There I was in Port Elizabeth ready to bring the challenge and baton further along its journey. The freight business had been slow the past couple of months, so flying hadn't happened as often as I wished. Most of my time had been spent managing the company. This would actually be the first airtime I'd gotten since New Year. To top it off I could leave the cold and snowy Stockholm to get some warmth and sun down in South Africa. Life was good, but things were about to take a turn for the worse. After picking up the baton in the bar a

Great job Kieran. Never been much for the low level flying myself, but it's nice to look at :biggrin:

A United airlines Boeing 777-200 was close to a midair collision with a small private plane after departing KSFO for Beijing. http://cbs5.com/local/Near.Mid.Air.2.1600727.html There seems to be abit of a confusion as to what other plane was involved too... might be a intresting story in the future.

See you in Port Elizabeth Kieran.. I'm waiting in the bar for the baton.. first round is on me

Great set of shots TRB... and a nice mix of planes too.

Great shots TRB... Your landings remind me of mine You'll see what I mean in a few days...

Great shots Josh.. The sea did look wonderful.. almost felt like taking a swim in it

Thanks Jack.. I took the lazy way out and skipped cropping of the menu bar :baton:

Even if I already gave up on this I'll throw one in just for fun... This image might turn up again in another post on this forum in the near future

By the looks of those shots, what you do you do good :nea: Welcome to this friendly place, i'm sure you're gonna fit right in.

2133 ft was to short for this guy... :nea:

Check the properties for the image :nea:

Found this in a swedish newspaper, but managed to find an english article for you guys.. http://www.universetoday.com/2010/03/22/first-flight-of-virgin-galactics-spaceshiptwo/ That's one strange looking aircraft, and it must look even stranger if landing without the "space ship" hangning underneat.

Great shots Simi... I just wish I was in Italy, or anywhere warmer right now... The snow has been coming down hard here in Stockholm the last few days... about 10 cm on sunday, and more of it today Good thing I have to get down to south africa for a leg soon :nea:

I think Dai gave you both name and ICAO in his post.. you just have to look a bit closer..

A close vote, but the A400M it will be...

Guessing it has to do with Flash.. only available in 32-bit version, and if you run the 64-bit version of IE, the 32-bit flash plug in won't work... have the same problem in Vista 64-bit... but there I have the option to run a 32-bit IE where flash works. Don't know if that's an option or not in Windows 7.

we have a winner. Over to you Jack.

No guesses so far.. A few clues. All according to Wikipedia.. Opened for traffic in 1936. Then with 4 runways, the longest was 900 meters. The first european airport with tarmac runways.

Very nice shots, even if it was "only" FSX default... Think I went to Samedan once for an AH delivery.. you did a much better job of the landing than I did... Smashed my Lear so hard in to the ground that the landing gear gave up on me...

I had a narrow approach somewhere in switzerland during an AirHauler job... But after looking at the shots in needles PIREP I think we already stopped at that airport... I'll do a check in my AH logs at home, but i looked very familiar...

Didn't give away much at first.. but when I found you could browse Airliners.net by photographer it was a nice give away I have to go back to using google earth for the next one.. at work and no FSX on that machine.... Just a quick checklist... coordinates removed; check.... no writing on the roofs that gives it away; check.. on we go. No clues for now, but I'll give you one before I go home from work today...