Well,although the weather is very nice in Germany,I needed a change of environment. I decided to grab a flight to Puerto Rico where I spent a few days with lying on the beach and other stuff that you do when you're on holiday (....trying out the local bars.
).
Anyways,the last night before I flew home was the worst one,because I was so "dead" the next day that I missed my flight home. I was totally screwed...I would have had to wait one week before I could catch another direct flight to Germany. But fortunately, there was a flight from the nearby St Maarten (~170nm east) to Frankfurt. I just needed to get there.....
I could find a nice little airline which serves the Carribbean airlines. Their fleet consits of some modern turboprops and one lended YS-11. And this YS-11 was my aircraft to St. Maarten.
I still needed to recover from the last night,so I took a nap in the terminal. I was woken up quite violently by a nice looking female flight attendant who told me that the aircraft will depart in two minutes. I jumped on my feet,grabbed my bags and ran to the door to the apron. Unfortunately, I completely forgot to ask the nice looking girl for her e-mail address or phone number or whatever.....life's a bitch...
The YS-11 was a quite inviting sight on the apron:
As soon as I was on board,the pilot fired up the Rolls-Royce Darts and we began taxiing to the runway.
Only seconds later we were airborne and I had the feeling that the pilot really was in a hurry...
We were climbing to cruising altitude and we headed east,leaving Puerto Rico behind.
The pilot was a really nice guy,since he invited the passengers to visit the cockpit. I had a small-talk with him about aircraft and so and he even let me take his seat and let me look at his "bureau" more closely.
Those clouds were not looking very friendly,and as we descended for the approach to TNCM, the ride got a little bumpy...
We joined the approach pattern and now it was hell....everything was grey,windgusts everywhere and since alcohol and flying ain't a good combination, I just needed to use one of those little paper bags...
The first try for a landing was a disaster. Crosswinds,bad visibility,no ILS,too high....the pilot needed to go around. He gave full power to the Darts and tried to avoid the mountains of the island.
By the way,I was still a guest in the cockpit,so I was able to take the picture of the pea soup outside. The co-pilot needed to go to the toilet (those small airlines have a very low discipline...), so his seat is empty i this pic.
On the second try,we tried to come in a little lower and with a bit more attention for the crosswinds.
We made it without any bigger problems.
As the pilot was shutting down the engines, I invited him and his co-pilot to a drink,although I actually should have had enough of alcoholic stuff.
But that carribbean rum is such a great stuff that you just can't stop. Nonetheless,I could catch my flight home....
Hope you enjoyed (in spite of those tons of text.
)
DS
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