NOTAM for Viking Pilots..

[DaveB]

Hi Guy's..

The 'off station' Vikings now comprise AKBH (having replaced AJJN at Gibraltar), AHPB (still at Nicosia) and AJCD (currently at Malta). Routing in the Mediterranean has been increased to take in the 'Med Air' flights (Trooping on behalf of the Ministry) which is why we now have 2 aircraft (historically correct) on station in this area. Designated bases are not currently shown but these are Malta and Nicosia.
Routing from Nicosia includes..
LCNC - HECA (current)
Cairo/HECA - Tobruk/HL0L (new)
Tobruk/HL0L - Benghazi/HLLB (new)
Benghazi/HLLB - Tripoli/HLLT (new)
Tripoli/HLLT - Malta/LMML (current)
In addition, all of these locations can be flown direct from/to both Malta and Nicosia including Malta - Nicosia/Nicosia - Malta.

The West African routes from Gibraltar have been added to slightly. Lagos/DNMM is no longer the furthest destination.. this now extends to Kaduna/DNKA. Return routing now includes St Etienne/GQPP and Gran Canaria/Las Palmas-GCLP.

In addition to the above, LHR is now added as a home base for all Vikings.

By all means, fly Vikings from their home bases in the UK to fly these new routes if you wish but make sure you bring the aircraft you take with you back to the UK again.. not one of the off-station aircraft ;-)

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[fighterpilot]

Thanks for this Dave, looking forward to flying some of the new routes although I'm not sure I fancy trekking all the way down West Africa again I know there are not many of us who fly the vikings but I find them great fun. On another note I thought I would go for a quick hop, managed to book the flight but 30 seconds later when i open the client fsairlines has gone down, :@ typical isn't it.

Edit: well it wasn't down for long, just hope it stays whilst I fly my flight.

Richard

[DaveB]

Hi Richard

Yes mate.. it's a L O N G way down on the African routes isn't it. :o On the outbound, there are a couple of differences. Eagle list one airfield as being Morocco (Cisnerios) and I couldn't find it so substituted a-n-other. John had already filed Villa Cisneros (Mauritania) and a cross-check of it's history wasn't conclusive. This should have been so easy! Right at the end of the run, Kaduna is now in place but it's a darned long way to go just to do that leg. The route back differs from the route down so for a bit of variation.. you could go down as far as Bathurst (Banjul) then head north again.. this time to St Etienne and from there to Las Palmas. I don't know why Eagle went this way but they did! I'd hoped for a Viscount to be based there (Las Palmas) but it's not. However, it's only a short ticket purchase away (still in Gran Canaria) and from there, you get to do the Canaries shorthauls for another change of aircraft and scenery ;-)
The 'Med Air' routes add another dimension and are a lot shorter (though every flight in the Viking is a long one!) ;-) Any point in the route structure can be accessed from either Malta or Nicosia and all points inbetween. The scenery is much like the African routes.. sand and sea but it's something different from the norm.. especially if you shoot down to Nicosia or Malta by jet after an extended period in Europe ;-) With 2 aircraft on station, you should never be in a situation where you're too short on airframe life and a single flight can get you to the other aircraft. Eagle ended up with 3 on station down there but I've kept it earlier in the 'Med-Air' era when they had 2 I searched and searched for a link between Malta and Gib as this would've opened up the entire Med but Eagle have no such flights mentioned.

I've not finished down there yet but this'll do for now ;-)

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[simondix]

Thanks Dave,

I have now returned JJN to LHR after my faux pas.

Didn't know I was a poet before this post.

[fighterpilot]

Just doing a bit of Viking flying and found a slight oddity in one of the route and rather than start a new thread thought I would put this in here.

Having arrived at Templehof I checked the onward flight to Hamburg (CBF1102) and the times don't quite match up. Departure at 17:00 but not arriving until 08:05 the following morning. That is a long time to complete 140 miles, even in a Viking

Richard

[DaveB]

Hi Richard

Considering how many routes we have, it's hardly surprising that one of these pop's up every now and again I'll change the arrival to 1805

Thks for highlighting it

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[RAF_Quantum]

Thanks Dave.

[DaveB]

No problemo John. I very nearly changed the departure to 0700 instead but checked the outbound first

ATB

DaveB :tab: