The forecast is looking good for Friday through to Monday. The bags are packed, most of the gear loaded ( tent, sleeping bag etc etc ) and the lines on the chart marked down. I plan to leave tomorrow morning at about 9:00 am for what will be quite  a long day’s flying. Here’s how the plan looks at the moment:

Day 1: Out the strip down to Perth for fuel, then on to Campbeltown for lunch. Then it will be across to Islay and Tiree, before heading into Glenforsa on the Isle of Mull for a night-stop. Looking at about 230 nm total and around 4:20 flying time for the day.

Day 2: An early start to catch the tides on Barra and Sollas. A quick hop to Oban first, to tank up and then across to Barra via Skye. Up to Sollas after that for a remote beach landing, quick stop and then away before the tide comes in. It’ll be too high for a night-stop, unfortunately, but I’m really looking forwards to this part of the trip.  From Sollas I’ll head up to Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis, for a night-stop.

Day 3: Get away early if I can sort an Out-of Hours departure ( the airport doesn’t open until 13:00 on Sundays) for a flight across the Minch and through the hills to Inverness ( I might have to route round via Oban and Perth again if the weather looks iffy ). After a lunch-stop and if the forecast is holding out, I’ll head up the Caithness coast to Orkney for a couple of days.

Day 4: A day’s playing in the Orkney Isles – into all the little island strips

Day 5: Home via Wick or Inverness again.

That’s the plan as it stands, anyway, given good weather. I’ll at least have the weather for the first couple of days and whatever I manage to do – just getting away for a little flying adventure – especially in this part of the world – is great.

Our engineer replaced two rocker-box-cover gaskets that were weeping a little and the fuel pump gasket, yesterday, which, with all the other items that have been rectified in the last few months, should leave JT in pretty good order. I’m looking forward to some great flying ahead.

I’ll be tweeting some pics as I go (@austerpilot ) and will update the blog next week, hopefully. Watch this space.