In this thread I will post AARs of my flights through Great Britain. I haven’t been there in a while, in any sim or real life, so I thought I’d just fire up a fast prop plane and see how the area looks, and visit a few places.
This might also be the thread that will finally get me banned from Mudspike, you will see why in a minute.
Those of you who live in the UK or have been there, feel free to comment with anything you know about the area or about places I should visit.
So here’s my first flight, from Tempest Airstrip (EGRJ) in Cornwall to Bournemouth (EGHH):
Landed. That was a fun flight. Some of those place names are hilarious.
Be prepared for more of that.
Btw, the ground crew member there looks almost out of scale with the plane. The P-38 may be a single seat fighter, but it is HUGE. Those props have a diameter of 11ft (3.3m)
Great flight! My Grandfather lived in Exmouth for about 30 years.
On the shot where you head up the coast towards Bridport, you can see a small harbour. That is the Cobb at Lyme Regis. It was a filming location for the old film “The French Lieutenant’s Woman”. I went to school there during my teens.
On the Dorchester shot, you can see the massive Roman fortification called Maiden Castle, just off the right wingtip.
Here we go, my next flight. I think we need some lighthearted posts right now so here I am.
I continue in Bournemouth where I ended last time. I also just noticed that I misspelled it as “Bournemoth” above but I’ll leave it for comedic purposes.
Ready to go! Again I didn’t use real weather because I wasn’t too keen on flying during a storm.
Southampton. The Titanic started her first (and last) journey here.
By now you have probably noticed that I am flying a convertible with an open roof. That’s because I wanted to click outside the main window to pan the map in LittleNavMap, instead I clicked on the canopy handle and POP, off it was.
Portsmouth. I once met a guy from the UK and I totally could not tell what city he meant when he said something that sounded like Powtsmth to me. Until then I thought that the pronunciation would probably make sense and sound like “Ports’ Mouth”.
That was too weird for me so I once more headed toward the coast. I looked at the map though and had no wish to see Rottingdean (what the…?!) so I turned northeast somewhere near Beggar’s Bush and overflew Ashurst. (Please tell me it is pronounced Ash-urst and not Ass-hurst)
East Grinstead. I turned 340° here. Could have turned earlier but I didn’t want to overfly Gatwick. Lots of traffic there. So I had to make a sharp turn over Sharpthorne.
More tourist stuff, like the London Eye and the Houses of Parliament.
Keep in mind that I have no addons or something installed, this is what stock scenery in flight sims looks like in 2022. Magnificient.
Over the Isle of Dogs. I didn’t see any dogs but perhaps they meant all the financial guys down there. I hope they don’t mind the sound of 3200 horse powers of freedom.
I worked in the tower at Northolt for a few months back in 97 or 98. While working there I remember seeing the Gulfstream V for the first time when it landed after flying a record breaking, non-stop flight from (IIRC) Los Angeles. I thought it was a beautiful airplane (and still do). I was flying motor-gliders and Cessna 152’s at the time. The notion of flying a sleek, ultra-long range business jet someday was pure (and very improbable) fantasy that I quickly dismissed at the time. Never say never I guess…
After my London flight I felt the urge to also see what is in the southeast of England before I continue with my flight north, so here’s my little detour to Dover.
I took off at Rochester and flew almost straight south.
I climbed a bit, This is live weather and it did block the view at the ground a bit, but the clouds in this sim just look so nice. The lake in the left part of the picture is the Darwell Reservoir I think.
And because flying over this reminds me of it: The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer are an interesting look into the medieval period, they were written in the 14th century. I admit I only read small parts though.
Almost there. This is Southend-on-sea. Not sure while so many of those towns and cities have names like that. Yeah, we get it, you’re super important because you are on the sea. Good for you.
On final for EGMC. I think it is kind of a stretch to call this “London Southend Airport”. I mean: this is 60km from London, that’s like building an airport near Kiel and calling it “Hamburg airport”.
I headed northeast, crossed the river Crouch, and then flew toward West Mersea. In the next picture you can see the River Blackwater and both Northey Island and Osea island.
Here I am flying over the Fingringhoe Ranges (I swear I am not making those names up). Beautiful nature down there, marshes with lots of insects and birds. @Derbysieger should definitely bring his camera.
Further along the coast in the background you can see Clacton-on-sea and Frinton-on-sea (even more on the sea, yay!).
After flying past Colchester I continued toward Ipswich, which you can see in the next picture.
The rivers Stour (at my tail) and Orwell share a mound here (actually called an estuary within that coast type). Fun fact: An author called Eric Blair liked this area so much, he chose to use it as a part for his pen name, George Orwell.
Again I was happy that the P-38 is such a fast plane, it allows me to cover a lot of ground quickly.
Norwich off my left wing. The little airstrip is Seething (EGSJ).
The Norfolk Broads, a huge recreation area. Originally the lakes were formed by the flooding of peat workings. There are over 200km of waterways down there. Great for boating.
Sadly the RAF Air Defense Radar Museum looks a bit boring in the sim. In real life I would pay it a visit if I was in the area. https://www.radarmuseum.co.uk/
The …on-sea place name thing isn’t limited to “on-sea”…
E.g.
Newcastle upon Tyne
Stoke upon Trent
Kingston upon Thames
Berwick upon Tweed
It’s quite common with place names across the UK. A lot will then get shortened to just “on”… e.g. Stoke on Trent… then just Stoke
Not sure why they built two bases that close to each other.
During WW2, a lot of RAF bases were built. The South and East of England was like an aircraft carrier. Prime ground which was flat was requisitioned. If you look at Westhampnett and Tangmere bases, they were very close.
It was the same in the East with bomber bases. Lincolnshire is littered with them, a lot still visible in satellite photos but now industrial storage sites.
RAF Mareham
I once went there with work to fix a software problem on their telephone exchange. I spent the day in the equipment room hearing Tornado’s taking off and landing, getting itchy teeth wanting to go out and look.
I didn’t get outside as I was head down in the code, but knew I’d be back the next day to test the fix and would get plenty of time to see them.
On arrival at the base the next morning, my mate was in bits, I was gutted. It was the foggiest day you have ever seen and all flying was off.
Bastards. Nothing sacred anymore. I feel im running out of reasons to like history anymore. Took my son on a very special last ever cold war jets taxi day and saw this beauty taxi and had q tour of it. Gutted.
I assume they are chopping up the victor k2 and the prototype comet as well but i havent got in me to look and upset myself anymore. Sucks.
