Although it seems as if we left Melbourne about a month ago, it has been only one and a half weeks. Upon our arriving in Shannon, we have already completed over 20% of the flights. Amazing!
The service operator at Reykjavik is quite efficient. He had a weather report prepared for us, filed our flight plan and had our aircraft ready to go very quickly. This was the prelude to another great day.
There are 8 complex departure routes printed for Reykjavik and I tried to guess which one we would receive. Of course, you never know until you receive your clearance. When they simply said "Climb on course," I almost couldn't believe it.
We had to penetrate two separate lines of weather on the flight today. There was a substantial amount of rain in the first one but the ride was smooth. The second had very little rain but was a little bumpy. Over all, it was not too bad. Flying around Florida is not all that different so there were no surprises. There was a headwind almost all of the way because the heading was southeast. If we had been proceeding east, it would have been a nice tailwind. However, it was worth it to get to Ireland.
The landscape looked like a patchwork quilt below us as stone walls outlined each farmer's field. As we descended below 3,000', we could see sheep grazing in their pastures. This is truly a country of peacefulness and serenity. We will stay here four days to drive around and do some sightseeing at ground level.
The Red Bearon is enjoying the trip so far. He sits on the instrument panel just behind the windshield and has a great view. On several occasions, he has asked if he could put his head out the window so the wind could blow through his scarf as he did in the old days. However, I have informed him that we don't do that in this type of aircraft. He hasn't screamed yet so I guess we haven't scared him too badly.
