Forth Valley Air Tour
May. 22nd, 2016 05:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ewein2412This was our Sunday afternoon excursion on 8 May. I was kind of charmed by the pictorial record including our flight path! I did most of the actual flying, but not the take-off or landing – or indeed, any of the radio work. We were amused by the French accent that called in to let Edinburgh know they were going to put “a wing” into their airspace. (Just one!)
We took off from Glenrothes in Fife and headed for the Forth bridges. We followed the M90 and the M9 nearly the whole way. The plane’s path tracks to the right of the motorway going out and back on the flight map! And see how nicely I can hold my altitude?
It was a very hazy day and I’ve had to touch up the photos for brightness and contrast, but you’ll get the idea.
Here are the bridges from the ground, taken on our walk across the Forth Road Bridge last January:
And here they are from the air, two weeks ago. The Queensferry Crossing is really starting to look like a bridge! It is scheduled to open to traffic later this year.
It’s not all scenic, but it’s jolly impressive even when it’s not scenic. Here’s Grangemouth, a bit further inland:
And what’s a tour of the M9 without a glimpse of the Kelpies, “the largest equine sculptures in the world”?
The water visible in the photo is where the Forth & Clyde Canal meets the River Carron, just before the Carron enters the Forth.
A couple of minutes (by air) beyond the Kelpies, the Forth & Clyde meets the Union Canal via the Falkirk Wheel – “the only rotating boatlift in the world.”
(I LOVE THE WAY SCOTLAND ALWAYS HAS THE BIGGEST OR THE ONLIEST THING IN THE WORLD OF ITS KIND: “World’s narrowest hotel” “Fastest mascot dressed as fruit” “Largest open air salt water Art Deco heated swimming pool in the world.”) (NOT MAKING IT UP.)
We headed back the way we’d come, but as we approached Fife Airfield we were informed that there was a parachute drop going on. You don’t really want to come anywhere near that in a small plane, as humans are actually very difficult to see in mid-air. So we set the GPS for Dollar and took a detour to find Castle Campbell. We’d been there in October:
And this is what it looks like from the air – it’s the shining roof in the center of the wooded valley, right in the middle of the photo. The castle was originally known as Castle Gloom, apparently from an old word meaning “chasm.”
That killed exactly the right amount of time. We flew back over Loch Leven, which is just the other side of Vane Hill from Fife Airfield, and buzzed Loch Leven Castle, where Mary Queen of Scots was held prisoner in 1567/1568, during the time she was forced to abdicate.
Last October (not quite 550 years after Mary Queen of Scots escaped dressed as a servant girl) I had my birthday picnic here with my friend Kathryn.
This could have been a Mary Queen of Scots tour if we’d thought about it, as she once stayed at Castle Campbell, and we also flew right over her birthplace at Linlithgow Palace. But we were distracted by poor visibility and Edinburgh air traffic control at that point and forgot to look down!
We took off from Glenrothes in Fife and headed for the Forth bridges. We followed the M90 and the M9 nearly the whole way. The plane’s path tracks to the right of the motorway going out and back on the flight map! And see how nicely I can hold my altitude?
It was a very hazy day and I’ve had to touch up the photos for brightness and contrast, but you’ll get the idea.
Here are the bridges from the ground, taken on our walk across the Forth Road Bridge last January:
And here they are from the air, two weeks ago. The Queensferry Crossing is really starting to look like a bridge! It is scheduled to open to traffic later this year.
It’s not all scenic, but it’s jolly impressive even when it’s not scenic. Here’s Grangemouth, a bit further inland:
And what’s a tour of the M9 without a glimpse of the Kelpies, “the largest equine sculptures in the world”?
The water visible in the photo is where the Forth & Clyde Canal meets the River Carron, just before the Carron enters the Forth.
A couple of minutes (by air) beyond the Kelpies, the Forth & Clyde meets the Union Canal via the Falkirk Wheel – “the only rotating boatlift in the world.”
(I LOVE THE WAY SCOTLAND ALWAYS HAS THE BIGGEST OR THE ONLIEST THING IN THE WORLD OF ITS KIND: “World’s narrowest hotel” “Fastest mascot dressed as fruit” “Largest open air salt water Art Deco heated swimming pool in the world.”) (NOT MAKING IT UP.)
We headed back the way we’d come, but as we approached Fife Airfield we were informed that there was a parachute drop going on. You don’t really want to come anywhere near that in a small plane, as humans are actually very difficult to see in mid-air. So we set the GPS for Dollar and took a detour to find Castle Campbell. We’d been there in October:
And this is what it looks like from the air – it’s the shining roof in the center of the wooded valley, right in the middle of the photo. The castle was originally known as Castle Gloom, apparently from an old word meaning “chasm.”
That killed exactly the right amount of time. We flew back over Loch Leven, which is just the other side of Vane Hill from Fife Airfield, and buzzed Loch Leven Castle, where Mary Queen of Scots was held prisoner in 1567/1568, during the time she was forced to abdicate.
Last October (not quite 550 years after Mary Queen of Scots escaped dressed as a servant girl) I had my birthday picnic here with my friend Kathryn.
This could have been a Mary Queen of Scots tour if we’d thought about it, as she once stayed at Castle Campbell, and we also flew right over her birthplace at Linlithgow Palace. But we were distracted by poor visibility and Edinburgh air traffic control at that point and forgot to look down!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
...fastest mascot dressed as fruit.
Date: 2016-05-23 09:26 am (UTC)Thanks much for the lovely pictures of the Wheel. That was our first wee field trip when we lived in Scotland, Tech Boy was DYING to go and experience the thing, and one of his someday trips is to take a wee boat all the way from Glasgow up the Clyde to the Wheel and onwards to Edinburgh, but I'm just fine leaving that a dream. (I hear the neds are fairly thick along the way, and getting out of Glasgow would be... well, we'd likely be chucked in the head with Buckfast bottles.)
Looks like it was a lovely day!
Re: ...fastest mascot dressed as fruit.
Date: 2016-05-23 10:18 am (UTC)The pool I had in mind is at Stonehaven, where we have been on a number of occasions, but there is a runner-up not far from Glasgow at Gourock that is also fun:
https://www.visitscotland.com/info/see-do/gourock-outdoor-pool-p608461
no subject
Date: 2016-05-24 05:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-05-24 05:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-05-24 06:09 pm (UTC)I can't read this page without laughing!
Forth Bridges
Also, it is the only place in the world (or the one with the biggest collection of examples, I can't remember which) where there will be a cantilever bridge, a suspension bridge, and a cable-stayed bridge all in the same place.
*scurries away to dig up more highway nerdery*