mutley 4,487 Posted October 12, 2018 Report Share Posted October 12, 2018 I arrived in Libreville at 17:30 after a 34 hour, 30 minute trek from Southampton. "you can't fly from Southamption to Gabon" I hear you cry? Well, not directly, but you can via AMS on a KLM Embraer RJ-175 (with an overnight stay), then AMS to CDG via KLM on a B738 (with a 5 hour layover at CDG) Then onto Libreville with Air France on a T7. Simples. I had received a message from JG worried we had forgotten about him from the last flight, and he was getting fed up with the lack of aircon at the hotel, I sent a telegram back.. I had a contact in ATC which guaranteed safe transport around Libreville for my various meetings and then on to the Le Meridien Re-Ndama Hotel, (Sorry JG, didn't I mention that?). First place I went to was the bar, but he was nowhere to be seen. Ah! they must have an IT problem and called on his services, well if they didn't have a problem before, before they will have now! I summoned the manager and asked if he had seen JG, I showed him the only picture I had of JG at 9 months old, but it did the trick. Ah! oui! I recoiled as his breath started to burn my eyes, he iszin ze pool playing ze Moby Dick. Sure enough, JG was practising his snorkelling skills with the baton. Obviously the crate of Champers I sent him was no more. I took the soggy baton from him, rinsed the spit out of it, and reassembled it. The baton was in remarkably good order! and ready to take on the final sector back to dear old Blighty. So on with the ATWC! In one of my many meetings another favour was called in, this time from Vuyani, the CEO of South African Airways, who had a 788 he needed ferrying down to Joburg and would be happy for me to take it and skeleton crew to guard the baton. I had to bluff my way through the ATC and file my flight plans, we couldn't go direct direct to FAFA, we had to go around the DRC for fears that the baton would be a reason for the military to target Vuyani's Dreamliner. I love this cockpit, it's a flight simmers dream with screens everywhere without the problems of virtual memory and SimConnect issues! We were given clearance to line up for 34, and when completing our checks a cheeky bugger rolls onto the runway in radio silence and takes off. Bye JG! We rise majestically and head for the clouds: Making the first turn, this will be the last time we see land clearly for the next 5 hours or so. Hope you have something interesting to do during the flight. There's a stack of movies to watch and Steph will be around with her world famous lemon drizzle cake later! At last we are in the cruise, time to get the movies on. Great selection of scary movies to choose from! No one is in the office, we're all in first class. Included this one as it had the moon in Just checking everything is OK. With the the sun still quite low in the sky the blind is a blessing. Our turn at VNA the highlight of the past 2 hours! Safely over Botswana, we are approaching our top of descent. Now we're descending into some quite bumpy weather. Belts on, fags out. We carefully pick our way through. Now under instruction we are following vectors given by ATC. So it's a right turn.. Followed by a left turn onto final. And here we are, the crew are busy cleaning up the crisp bags and sweet wrappers. Obligatory approach shot. Not much input required, that HUD confirms we are good to land. A greaser! always left of centre though. Everything deployed, we're quite light so roll out is an uneventful process. Not the widest or longest of runways, but it's great to be on terra firma after a bumpy descent. Switched off and plugged in, I wonder where Steph is? Thanks for watching. Link to post Share on other sites
brett 2,283 Posted October 12, 2018 Report Share Posted October 12, 2018 Nicely done Joe, classic PIREP and love the addon pics. JG as a baby I don't have it so I never realized how much the graphical interface of PFPX looks like PlanG, did Tim work on PFPX? Link to post Share on other sites
mutley 4,487 Posted October 13, 2018 Author Report Share Posted October 13, 2018 11 hours ago, brett said: I don't have it so I never realized how much the graphical interface of PFPX looks like PlanG, did Tim work on PFPX? No this is made by an Austrian company, FlightSimSoft. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
hlminx 301 Posted October 13, 2018 Report Share Posted October 13, 2018 14 hours ago, brett said: Nicely done Joe, classic PIREP and love the addon pics. JG as a baby I spat my coffee out when I saw the baby pic Brilliant PIREP Joe. That did give me a good giggle.. Enjoy a bit more time in the First Class Cabin, stick your feet up, enjoy some free champers, and I'll be there in a tick.. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
mutley 4,487 Posted October 13, 2018 Author Report Share Posted October 13, 2018 No worries Steph, the Champers is on ice. Link to post Share on other sites
hurricanemk1c 195 Posted October 16, 2018 Report Share Posted October 16, 2018 A bit bigger than your usual method of transport! Link to post Share on other sites
J G 927 Posted October 16, 2018 Report Share Posted October 16, 2018 (edited) Where did you get that photo from! Have you been hacking my PC? Are you in league with Temperance? Great Pirep Boss, but don't expect forgiveness. I would like to say I am sorry for cutting in front of you on the runway there Joe, but I am not, so I wont. Edited October 16, 2018 by J G 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Captain Coffee 2,030 Posted October 18, 2018 Report Share Posted October 18, 2018 I had no idea J.G. has aged so well...or was aged so well before uncorked...whichever, terrific laugh. Classic PIREP Joe. What a Mammoth baton hauler and a Very impressive ride. Baton hauling like a Boss. Link to post Share on other sites
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