I had spent the previous day in London, riding the underground, seeing Big Ben, London Bridge, Parliment, etc etc....
I awoke refeshed on the 17th in my hotel room. Looking out the window it wasn't a bad day for a flight, broken clouds at 2,000 feet, good visiblity, and light winds.
I went down stairs for some coffee and breakfast. A good old American breakfast of bacon, eggs, and sausages! Not an English breakfast of beans on toast. I didn't want to be stinking up the cockpit later in the day...
After breakfast I grapped a cab to Heathrow. I was ready to get airborne and to Paris. Upon arrival I asked at the information desk where I might rent a plane, and was sent to the same place I was two days ago.
I managed to find my way to the "rent-a-plane" office. An Englishman in his mid-fifties, with thinning white hair, a large brown handlebar mustache, round reading glasses low on his long nose, and encredibly bad teeth, wearing a green sweater vest and black slacks stood behind the counter.
"Can I help you?" he kindly asked.
"Yeah, I need to rent a plane," I told him.
"Well;" he said, "you've come to the right place!" He flipped through an old invantory book, mumbling to himself. "Are you certified for twins?" I nodded my head yes, "Good, because we only have an Aero Commander 680S left." He smiled and pointed out the window.
Out on the tarmac sat a solitary airplane, an AC-680S. It was just in it's bare metal, gleaming in the sun. On the side of her fuselage in bright red was the winged horse Pegasus.
I smiled and said, "I'll take it."
"Good. Not as though you had a choice," he chuckled to himself and said, "May I see your licence?" I handed it to him and after looking it over and writing something down in his book, he handed it back with a pair of keys, "Bring it back in one piece."
"Don't worry I will."
I walked to my awaiting plane, put my suitcase in the back, and started the pre-flight. While looking her over, I thought fitting to name her. I came up with Peggy, short for Pegasus.
I got in and fired up Peggy's two powerful engines, and taxied to the active, got permission to take off and rolled her out onto the runway. I pushed the throttle forward and Peggy roared into the air.
I flew over London to say goodbye and turned south towards France.
I hoped everything would go well, wouldn't want to go down in the channel. The clouds opened up a little over the water and it was a beautiful sight looking up at the white clouds against a very blue backdrop.
Everything went well and I felt better when I reached the French coast.
I followed the Seine River south to Paris. Along the river I passed forest, fields, towns, and cities. I even got to see some of the famous French hedgerows form 1,500 feet.
Paris loomed in distance...
I figured I'd give Paris the regular SimV weclome! I dropped down to tree top level, buzzed two bridges;
a main street, and flew under the Effiel Tower.
Pulling back up to altitute, no one seemed to cared. Must happen offen (Thanks to Ozzy of course ;D ). I tuned to De Gaulle tower, got permission to land and lined myself up with runway 9R.
I chopped back the throttle and dropped the flaps and landing gear.
Peggy floated down to the runway and touched down gentilly.
I taxied to parking and shut her down, grapped my stuff from the back and tied Peggy down for the night.
Then it was time to eat snails and frog legs, and drink wine!
But there was one problem, I don't know how to speak French! :oTune in next time when I fly farther south to the Mediterranian coast of France!
Heres the last two legs if you missed them:
Leg II: http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=screen;action=display;num=1077031914;start=0
Leg I: http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=screen;action=display;num=1076950993
Hope you all enjoyed.
