Papa Westray (Day 1923)

A different sort of a day today. The plan was to fly across to Papa Westray to survey a house for a possible biomass boiler installation. The weather looked to be having different ideas, and it was foggy at the airport in Kirkwall. Apparently the fog was much worse on Papa Westray. I sat around waiting for news, and eventually the other passengers and I were summoned to squeeze ourselves onto the tiny plane.
The safety announcement consisted of the pilot turning round in his seat and asking if we all had our seatbelts on. He pointed at the doors and said those were the emergency exits, before taxiing out to the runway. I had a great view over the pilot's shoulder as he did the driving and we left the ground at around 70 knots (extra). I was a little concerned that one of the oil temperature gauges was way off the top of the scale, but I guess it must have been broken.
A nice flight, about 15 minutes or so, at around 700 feet. My customer collected me from the airstrip at Papa Westray and took me to his quirky house, where I spent several hours doing the survey and answering a bunch of questions.
I was taken for a quick tour of the island then dropped off so I could have a wander back to the air strip, stopping along the way to take a few pics.
The flight home wasn't direct, which meant I got to experience the world's shortest commercial flight - Papa Westray to Westray in around 90 seconds flying time. The flight to Kirkwall was a fair bit longer.
Back home for dinner and a catch up with my beautiful wife.

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