This week brought a little change of scenery. I was sent out of base to Copenhagen. As luck would have it, Alice was with her dad in Portugal, which made it much easier to jump on the plane and say yes to the adventure.
I’ve flown to Copenhagen plenty of times, but I’d never operated from there or worked with the local crew. I absolutely loved it. With just four aircraft based in CPH (compared to Stansted’s ten times that), it had that close-knit, “small base” feel, everyone seemed to know each other. The weather didn’t disappoint either: sunny skies and 30 degrees.
On the day I arrived, I hopped on the metro to the city for a bit. I’ll admit, it had me half-dreaming about a base change, Copenhagen you didn’t disappoint.
Back at Stansted on day three, I operated a flight to Madrid after my positioning flight back, It turned into a bit of a marathon day, stretching into captain’s discretion, which means the duty extends beyond the normal 12 hours, only to be used when truly necessary.
We landed on runway 18 in Madrid, which I hadn’t used before, so I took the opportunity to be pilot flying. With a bit of tailwind on approach, we opted for flaps 40. Let’s just say… it wasn’t my finest landing. Probably not as bad as it felt, but still, not one for the highlight reel.
Determined to redeem myself, I got my chance the next day in Sofia, runway 27, flaps 40 again and this time, the landing felt back to standard. That little sense of “revenge” felt good.
Today is day five of five, a long four-sector day, but then I’m off! I can’t wait for Alice to come back home and to have a friend visiting us too.
Until next time,
x
