- We have just been called for boarding but then we've actually been told to hold back
because the fog's rolling in really fast.
The situation is not good.
- Yeah, we see that, yeah.
- [Sam] What's the latest situation, captain?
So right now, the fog is around 200 feet.
I need a miracle now.
Aviation and weather - nothing is predictable.
Good morning from Aberdeen, Scotland.
Are you surprised that I'm here?
Even I am surprised that I'm here.
Today I am on my way to a Scottish isle called Kirkwall.
Once I get there, tomorrow, I'm going to fly on the world's shortest flight between Westray
and Papa Westray.
Whiskies anyone?
The waiting lounge at that gate is like a hospital waiting bench.
- [Sam] Hello, hi. - Hi there!
- How are you?
- Lovely.
Timmy!
- Oh yeah. - Ooh.
I was booked on the Saab 340 but now, I don't know - maybe it's an upgrade - this plane
has changed to a Saab 2000.
The Saab 2000 is the world's fastest turboprop.
- Okay, I'm Adrian Baxter and I'm captain of this Loganair Saab 2000 today up to Kirkwall in Orkney.
Joining me today is my colleague on the right, Stephen.
- Hi.
- He's going to fly us up on our flight today and we'll be cruising at 14000 feet (mumbles)
for those who are more aviation minded.
It should take us about 25 minutes on the flight - it's really quick.
It's got noise cancelling in the back so hopefully we'll keep the sound down and the two Rolls
Royce engines will kick out about, just over 4000 shaft horse power each.
- Stephen... - Yep.
- ...I'm going to ask you - what's the difference in performance between the Saab 340 and the Saab 2000?
- Yeah, pretty massive, so the Saab 340 has about 1750 horsepower per side and this has 4100 per side.
- Oh, much, much more powerful.
- It's a much quieter, more comfortable aircraft as well.
- Awesome.
Thanks so much for the information.
Who's taking off and landing today?
- Stephen's going to be doing it all today.
- So Stephen will be doing the landing.
Alright, no pressure.
- Over-wing exits in the center of the aircraft.
Please familiarise yourself with your nearest exit bearing in mind that it may be behind you.
Your seatbelts should be fastened.
We wish you a pleasant flight.
- You know, the irony is that every seat on this plane has better leg room than a 737 or A320.
Well done Loganair!
- Welcome to Kirkwall!
Our glorious sunshine island!
- [Sam] Is it always sunny here?
- Always!
- Oh, right. - Every day!
Every day!
How long are you here for?
- Well, I'm here to go on the shortest flight tomorrow, so I'm here for two nights in Kirkwall.
- You'll absolutely love it.
The islander is such a gorgeous little plane and if you ask very nicely, they'll probably
give you a headset and you can listen to things going on.
- Oh yeah! Looking forward to it!
Very friendly airline - thank you Loganair!
- Oh thank you!
- It's so windy, the wind is pushing me...
I just arrived at Kirkwall and I got a really warm welcome from senior pilot Collin Mcalister.
- Mcalister, yeah.
- Colin Mcalister.
He and I will be flying later in the afternoon.
He's going to give us a little briefing about the geography in this region.
- We are going to be flying to North Ronaldsay.
It's 25 nautical miles, a 15 minute flight.
So that's the equivalent of our long haul flight.
And then from North Ronaldsay, we'll be across to Papa Westray.
- Okay.
- That'll be about 8 minutes and then back from Papa to Kirkwall will be about 12 minutes.
So the shortest scheduled service between Westray and Papa Westray takes two minutes
and the reason the flight exists isn't to take passengers from Westray to Papa Westray
or back.
It's because people on Westray want to fly to Kirkwall and folk from Papa Westray also
want to fly to Kirkwall.
So we fly it as a round trip like this and it just happens that you get this very short
flight in the middle as a piece of good fortune.
- Sam, what I'm going to ask you to do is put your legs right in front of you with your
feet underneath the pedals.
- Yep.
- That's it - just so that I can get fully...
So what we'll do is, I would normally probably take off on the long runway but we're going to
take off on the short runway.
It's bang in to wind and then we'll make a right turn and we'll head out over the top of Kirkwall.
We have seven minutes to turn around when we get to the islands.
Take off runway one, four.
719 and coming up and (mumbles).
Let's go!
Right, there we go, that's Papa Westray.
I'll just go out and make sure your pie remains upright in the back.
- We have six passengers - so three have gotten off - with their precious pie on board hopefully
not damaged.
- We brought tonight's dinner.
- Oh, you brought tonight's dinner.
- One night, we're staying two nights.
- To go there to eat there, yes.
- And so we brought a pie just to eat and we've got some vegetables left.
Self catering to make the rest of dinner!
- Make sure your food is on board.
- [Pilot] For the short flight between Westray and Papa Westray the paperwork actually takes
as long as the flight itself.
- [Sam] Captain, how many people live in Papa Westray here?
- About 55.
- 55 people live here?
- 55, yeah.
- How many live in Westray?
- In Westray, about, ooh, I'd say it's more like 500.
All strapped in at the back?
- [From Back] Yep. - Yep.
Okay, let's go.
It's going to take us about eight minutes to get to (mumbles).
- That's long.
- Welcome to (mumbles).
So, are you here for..?
- Just a couple of nights.
- Just a couple of nights, right, okay.
I think that the weather is not looking too bad over the weekend is it?
- Yeah, it's supposed to be improving a bit.
- You're welcome and enjoy your stay.
- Thank you.
- It's a pleasure.
Bye for now.
Whoever's taller, stick him behind me because...
- There's more room. -... Yeah.
And then it's going to be, let me see, and then we've got another...
And then it'll be, say one in the middle. - Yep.
- And have the rest in the back.
- Okay.
- Yep, that's perfect. Thank you.
We've got six, six coming on and two coming off.
You may see yourself on YouTube if you're happy enough.
- A lot of people in China will see you as well.
- Okay, let me run you through the safety card with you.
You'll find it in the seat pocket in front.
I'm going to assume that you've flown in many aircraft before and you're familiar with the
life jacket drill - you pay close attention to that I'm sure, so it's all there on this
side of the card.
The other side's a bit different and that's the emergency exit.
If the door's got a pull in window access with a red handle - so there's two in the
front and then the back door also has the pull in window.
Right, there we go, welcome back to Kirkwall.
Let me just come and get the doors for you.
- It's hop on and off.
It's almost like an island bus.
- Just check that you're all strapped in.
Good, so, first off it's going to be Sanday and then from Sanday it's on to Stronsay.
That's Sanday.
You all strapped in at the back, yeah? - [From back] Yeah.
- Perfect.
Okay Sam, so we're now about to set off from Sanday to Stronsay.
It's going to take us about three or four minutes, making it quite possibly the world's
second shortest scheduled airline service.
Welcome to Stronsay.
We'll be with you in just one moment to get the doors for you.
I hope my addition was correct because if it isn't correct, someone's going to notice that on the...
- Collin, thank you so much for flying me today.
Whilst I was flying and enjoying myself, at the same time, I was looking at...
It was almost like an island hopping bus operation.
It's a vital link to all of the islanders.
- It's subsidised by the government.
It's seen as being a lifeline service that...
- A lifeline service for all these islands.
- That's right because North Ronaldsay for example has one in the summer, has one ferry,
one boat a week, so if that boat doesn't go because of weather, it can be two weeks, maybe
three weeks, between a boat getting to the island so that it relies entirely on the service
that we provide.
And yeah, we fly all sorts of people - school teachers, electricity repair men, bankers,
school children, vets, everything.
And then in the summer, lots of tourists as well.
- Whatever work you do, please, you're doing great work for the community here.
Please keep it up guys.
What a sunny, beautiful day here in Kirkwall.
Before I came I was thinking that this place was going to be really gloomy and cold.
It is pretty cold - 11 degrees in June - but at least it's sunny and feeling a bit warm
when the sun comes out.
Beautiful.
I am at Kirkwall airport.
This is Pram - he's in charge.
You're the lone master today.
- I am, yes.
- You're a reservationist, you're a check-in agent, you're a bit of everything, an all
rounder man and today I am delighted to fly on the world's shortest flight between Westray and Papa Westray.
First, we're going to fly to Westray.
Or are we going to fly to Papa?
- First; Westray.
- Westray first.
First, we're going to fly to Westray and then Papa Westray, that's the shortest one, and
then come back to Kirkwall.
A little tip here: This airport has no security checks for inter-island services.
- That's right, yeah.
- Right, and what's the baggage limit on the plane?
- The baggage limit is 15 kilos per passenger.
- So, I was invited to come backstage here with Captain Alex Rendall today flying us.
- I'm just calculating the mass and balance.
Bascially, we've got the mass of the people that we're taking and the luggage.
- How many passengers do we have today?
- We drop six and pick up another six.
- The fog is dropping in.
We will hold off and wait and see what the weather does because it was kind of flyable
five minutes ago.
It's not any more.
- We had just been called for boarding but then we've actually been told to hold back
because the fog's rolling in really fast.
- Yeah, it's come in pretty quick just in the last ten minutes or so.
- Yeah.
Do you think that we will still be able to take off later on?
- Hopefully, yeah.
Hopefully, yes, as the temperature goes up during the morning it will burn off and...
- So, the situation's not good.
The fog's getting heavier and denser.
There might be a very big chance that the flight might get cancelled.
That is terrible but such is aviation in life - unpredictable.
- We don't know, no. - No, no.
Yeah, we'll see then, yeah.
- What's the latest situation, captain?
- It's okay, it's improving so that's good. - Improving? - Yeah.
- Yeah.
- I think it's going to go up and down all day but hopefully it reduces enough.
- Alright, fingers crossed.
- Yeah.
- The latest weather update coming in says that, from Papa Westray, they can't even see Westray.
That's 1.5 kilometres away.
We need a minimum of a 350 feet ceiling to be able to take off and maintain visual flight routes.
Right now, the fog is at around 200 feet.
So that's why we can't take off right now.
I need a miracle now to have this fog lift over 350 feet so that we can take off.
- It looks like it will soon come to the point that the passengers who wanted to fly from Westray
to Papa Westray will probably just get fed up with waiting and come in and cancel their booking.
- There's one behind you right now.
- Oh, hey.
- The isles were foggy at that point and then they became good and we've become foggy and
we've kind of reached the point now where we're going to have to cancel the flight I'm
afraid, so... it's not our lucky morning.
- Such is life and, you know, aviation and weather.
Nothing is predictable.
It looks like I'm going to come back here again, doing this one more time.
I couldn't make it on this trip but I learnt a lot.
I appreciate that the island operation is such a vital link to all of the communities
out there and I am determined to get that certificate I showed you guys earlier.
- Right Sam, so since the flight has been cancelled now for Westray and Papa Westray, I will cancel
your booking and send you a refund so that you don't come out short.
- Well, very disappointing obviously after four hours waiting.
As you can see, the weather outside is still very foggy.
I guess that the best way is to wait until next time and I will fly again.