Leg 43 St Maarten - Bequilla.

[fighterpilot 0]

Okay, sorry to put it up so early, but my sister is graduating from school today and tomorrow I need to pack my bags and so as we are going to Rhodes on sunday, so here you go.

I thought I would add a little "Swedish power" to this leg :biggrin:

My navigator isen't any of you in the forum, it is actually my best friend Nicklas.

Anyway, let's get the baton on it's way!

Cold & Dark.....But in a few minutes it will be so hot noone can go near it!

Okay, cleared for takeoff....This is going to be rought....

Had a little hurry so I diden't taxi to the start :blush:

In matter of seconds we are airborne, making a sharp right turn after the wheels leave the ground.

Gear in, what a boost!

Climbing with raw power!

Okay, flying in crise at around FL280, supersonic.

Nicklas is holding the baton the hardest he can when we fly away from St. Maarten in mach 1.80.

Let's have some fun....

Getting back up in cruise, it would eat to much fuel down there.

Okay, right above Bequilla. Now this is a "fast decent".

Pulling her up and making a fly-by over the runway at 741 knots, I bet that yatch heard of that ATWC II is coming to Bequilla...

Preparing to land, Nicklas have passed out from all the Gs.

Hm, I think Im doing some sort of Kai Tak approach.

I make better landing in a 767...

Incredible! The STOL on this thing is amazing, in Sweden, sometimes they practise landing on regular roads. (Wich is closed).

We landed where the red mark is.

I bet Axel is waiting in that lobby.

So, that's the end of another ATWC II route, good luck with the flight Axel and you too Rob, as you fly the baton home again

[rob16584 42]

Great flight and approach.

The short landing makes me think your face would have ended up being moulded into your oxygen mask ala Charlie Sheen in Hot Shots!

[Axel 0]

:biggrin: Wow it's my turn already! I better get packing

[mutley 4,498]

Thanks for a great flight Marcus, I must admit I was worried as I knew were going on holiday for a while,

Super post, love the SAAB, please excuse my ignorance but is that the Gripen? A true credit to your country. Whenever I think about a canard type wing I think SAAB!

So I bet you are enjoying the sun in the Caribbean, give our regards to Axel and keep that baton safe :biggrin:

Cheers

[hurricanemk1c 195]

Great shots Marcus!

I had trouble keeping up with you in my chase plane (You couldn't see me, but I was at 85000ft in a Blackbird!)

[fighterpilot 0]

Thanks everyone!

It is indeed the Gripen, or Gryphoon on english. I can get a flight in today, not ATWC just by my own. Before I start packing my stuff. The plane is leaving 06:00 (english time) and I will be out of bed about 03:00 as it takes about 45min to landvetter from here, we are flying in a Thomas Cook Scandinavia A321 :biggrin:

[wisemanp 0]

Great flight Marcus, I felt as if I was going supersonic too, here in my chair!!

[stu7708 244]

Great shots of a great aircraft marcus.

I still remember the crash with a gripen in stockholm back when it was still in development..

For those that havn't seen it you can find a short clip here

I was standing about 1,5 Km away from the crash site thinking "Wow, that's a cool manouver. Can you really do that!" only to realise when the pilot ejected that he couldn't....

One has to feel a bit sorry for the pilot too. AFIK the plane had two crashes during testing, both due to problem with the controll software, and he was the pilot on both of them...