Scotland Tigers-9: UK-Scotland-Shetland Islands: Sumburgh (EGPB) to Unst (EGPW)

Shetland Coat of arms:

Background:

This is our final Scotland trip and upon conclusion we will have covered the entire county of Scotland that being: the country on the mainline island of the UK, to the Inner and Outer Hebrides Isles in the west, to the Orkney Islands in the North and finally in this trip we discover the northernmost part of Scotland, (and of the entire UK), Shetland.

Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands, is an archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands, and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom.

The islands lie about 50 miles (80 kilometres) to the northeast of Orkney, 110 mi (170 km) from mainland Scotland and 140 mi (220 km) west of Norway. They form part of the border between the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the North Sea to the east. Their total area is 566 sq mi), and the population totaled 23,020 in 2022. The islands comprise the Shetland constituency of the Scottish Parliament. The local authority, the Shetland Islands Council, is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. The islands' administrative centre, largest settlement and only burgh and the capital of Shetland is Lerwick.

The archipelago has an oceanic climate, complex geology, rugged coastline, and many low, rolling hills. The largest island, known as "the Mainland", has an area of 373 sq mi and is the fifth-largest island in the British Isles. It is one of 16 inhabited islands in Shetland.

Humans have lived in Shetland since the Mesolithic period. Picts are known to have been the original inhabitants of the islands, before the Norse conquest and subsequent colonization in the Early Middle Ages. During the 10th to 15th centuries, the islands formed part of the Kingdom of Norway until they were annexed into the Kingdom of Scotland due to a royal dispute involving the payment of a dowry.

The discovery of North Sea oil in the 1970s significantly boosted Shetland's economy, employment and public-sector revenues. Fishing has always been an important part of the islands' economy.

The local way of life reflects the Norse heritage of the isles, including the Up Helly Aa fire festivals and a strong musical tradition, especially the traditional fiddle style. Almost all place names in the islands have Norse origin.

The islands have produced a variety of prose writers and poets, who have often written in the distinctive Shetland dialect of the Scots language. Many areas on the islands have been set aside to protect the local fauna and flora, including a number of important seabird nesting sites. The Shetland pony and Shetland Sheepdog are two well-known Shetland animal breeds.

In this final trip we won’t exactly fly from where we concluded last trip: We ended last trip at North Ronaldsay which is the northernmost Island in the Orkney Islands but now we skip the large water expanse of the North Sea called The Fair Isle Channel or The Fair Isle Gap which separates the Orkney Islands from the Shetland Islands. This will save our bi-planes 59 nm flying over open water so we’ll skip Fair Island and start our flight at Sumburgh airport EGPB and we’ll continue to head northward “to the top” of Scotland and the UK in the Northern Isles.  Again, in this trip, we will explore some of the various points of interest and ancient locations.

Our Excursion:

Welcome to the Shetland Islands!  We depart Sumburgh and take flight weaving around Sumburgh Head, which is the southern tip of the mainland of Shetland.  After the WU17 UK update, Sumburgh is a handcrafted MSFS default airport. (1.4gb). Beside the airport is “Old Scatness” which is an archeological site in the parish of Dunrossness in the south end of Mainland, Shetland, near Sumburgh Airport and consists of medieval, Viking, Pictish, and Iron Age remains. After takeoff Sumburgh we head northwest and start our zig zap through some of the various islands and their attractions, from lighthouses to marina’s, piers, ferry wharfs, local businesses and perhaps some different broch* locations as well as other points of interest before landing at Tingwall Airport (EGET).

By the way, before we continue, you might ask “what is a broch?” Well, a broch (Scottish roots) are prehistoric circular stone towers found on the Orkney and Shetland Islands and the Scottish mainland and usually consisting of double walls enclosing small apartments about a central court. Hopefully we can see a couple during the trip.

Ok, moving on... we depart Tingwall and head due west to the Island of Foula. Just a small island but it has an airfield (EGZR). Departing Foula, we head 15 nm north over the Foula Sheland Ferry Terminal and Huxter Ancient Water Mills before landing on another small island: Papa Stour Island which also has an airport (EGZT).

From Papa Stour we zig zag to see the poi in the area and northeast to Scatsta (EGPM) which is a private airport on the island of Unst. This airport serves the offshore oil and gas industry. It is 8.0 km southwest of Sullom Voe Oil Terminal and 39 km north-northwest of Lerwick which we will visit. 

From Scatsta (EGPM) we’ll head due east visiting a very small island airport: halsay (EDEH) and on the way we’ll hopefully see the very ancient Standing Stones of Yoxie which were excavated in 1954/1955 and now thought to me similar in layout to stone sites in Malta and Gozo. 

From Whalsay we head northeast to a small cluster of islands referred to as the Out Skerries. An airport exists here (EG78) and this location is the easternmost point of Scotland. In WU17, (Asobo created a handcrafted airport and surroundings for Out Skerries EG78 airport.)

From Out Skerries we head westward to the west side of the Shetlands then zig zag again to visit many poi’s from lighthouses to the Sullom Voe Oil/Gas Terminal then finally landing on Fetlar Island at Fetlar Airport (FEA). From Fetlar Airport we head northward to the top!: to the northernmost point of Scotland and of the entire UK: that is the northern tip of Unst Island: the top of the Shetland Islands, then we turn south and flyby Saxa Vord Radar Station, (RRH Saxa Vord), Shetland Space Centre (SaxaVord Spaceport), Valhalla Brewery and crossing the Balta Sound before we land at our final airport Unst (EGPW).  We have made it: The entire county of Scotland covered! 

This trip is 211nm with eight stopovers and our destination stop at Unst. This is another “low and slow expedition” but not quite. We have  211 nm to cover with 8 stops so we will have to keep up our pace and we won’t have too much time for doddling if we want to reach our destination on-time! This is the last Scotland trip and there is a lot to cover.

Flight Plan/Itinerary LINK:  HERE

 

Aircraft:

The Tiger Moth, Bucker, Fairey-Swordfish, Stearman or similar type of aircraft, (or other), that can maintain 90-120 kts will fit the requirements. Will plan to use the Tiger Moth dh.82 or the Bucker in a stock livery for this trip but as always please feel free to use your choice of aircraft. 

Add-on Scenery: Flightsim.to: Freeware: 

NOTAM1:  Orbx EU Great Britain North (Landmarks scenery) (Payware): Please feel free to use if you have but it is not necessary to go out and purchase this add-on for this trip. (LINK: HERE)

NOTAM2:  Handcrafted airports: There are some options for Sumburgh Airport EGPB as well as Out Skerries (EG78)   BUT Asobo added Sumburgh Airport (EGPB) and Out Skerries (EG78) as official handcrafted airports. (Sumburgh 1.4 gb, and Outskerries 190 mb) so let’s test their wares in this excursion!)

 

*NOTAM3: There are two separate pre-assembled scenery packages for this Shetland Islands excursion: one is for use with MSFS default scenery and the other is for better compatibility with the Orbx EU Great Britain North Landmark Package. Download the compatible package for your scenery:

1.       Scenery package for use with MSFS default scenery: (zip: 55.1 mb, expands to 93.3 mb):  LINK: HERE

2.       Scenery package for use with the Orbx EU Great Britain North Landmark Package: (zip: 47.3 mb, Expands to 86.6 mb):  LINK: HERE

(Scenery Packages: Contents/Detail for your reference:  

 

The prepared scenery packages, (Links above): Scenery packages for use with either 1. MSFS default scenery or 2. for use with the Orbx EU Great Britain North Landmark Package contain the following freeware sceneries (flightsim.to) but if you prefer to download *and setup your own scenery pieces: here are the links to the scenery, scenery creators and following notam since both of these scenery additions contain  variations of scenery to be used that is: for use with or without the Orbx EU Great Britain North Landmark Package:

https://flightsim.to/file/79659/shetland-islands-compatibility-fix by Snoopy7412-v1.0 (two different variations):  * *NOTAM: Includes two versions of the Shetland Islands-"compatibility-fix" inside the main folder. One is for use with default MSFS scenery and the other is compatible for use with Orbx UK Great Britain North. Use only the one version that matches your scenery.

https://flightsim.to/file/1067/shetland-islands-complete-overhaul by superspud-v2.2 (airports common but two versions of scenery): *NOTAM: Includes two versions of the Shetland "scenery" folder inside the main folder. One is for use with default MSFS scenery and the other is compatible for use with Orbx UK Great Britain North. Use only the one version of superspud’s scenery that matches your scenery.

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Required libs: (NOT included in pre-assembled package)

https://flightsim.to/file/23692/superspud-airport-asset-library by superspud-v1.1

https://flightsim.to/file/27908/moving-boats-3d-model-library by superspud-v1.3

https://flightsim.to/file/33166/animated-humans-library by superspud v1,3

https://flightsim.to/file/2605/we-love-vfr-region-1 by puffinflight

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Time and Weather

In Europe, the time changes back to standard time effective 0200 Sunday October 27^th. Since North America does not return to standard time until 0200 Sunday November 3^rd, we will maintain European time consistency so this flight will commence in Europe local standard time (1800UTC) after their time change but one hour later in North America (1900UTC) still being on daylight savings time.  (Local Time Equivalent for North America would equate to 1200 Pacific, 1400 Central, 1500  Eastern). (If I got my UTC's right!). If not, well, someone will eventually figure it out!

Prefer to fly real weather if possible but if not, the few clouds Jeff 1, Jeff 2 or Josh preset. OR the stock few clouds or high clouds preset might also make a nice choice but it would be best if we are on the same weather preset. For takeoff: set the simulator time to @1300 local. 

Hope you enjoy this last scenic flight in this Scotland series.

Town of Lerwick, Shetlands

Multiplayer Particulars
Date and time: Wednesday, October 30, 2024 - 1800 UTC (Europe in Standard Time,  1900 UTC in North America Still on Daylight Savings Time)
AVSIM Discord Server: https://discord.gg/K5Vy6UxWNm  - AVSIM GROUP EVENTS-WED. COM1
Microsoft Flight Simulator Multiplayer: EAST-USA Server

If you want to help others enjoy the multiplayer experience, don't forget to enter your aircraft details on the multiplayer spreadsheet (linked here). Your courtesy will save others a lot of time and effort. Thanks!

Edited October 25, 20241 yr by nbrich1

Hi Norm, thanks for the flight. However, I cannot download any sceneries with your links, I get a 403 error.

works now...

Sorry about that... Scenery links at flightsim.to should should be:

 

https://flightsim.to/file/79659/shetland-islands-compatibility-fix

(*By Snoopy)

 

and

 

https://flightsim.to/file/1067/shetland-islands-complete-overhaul

(*By Superspud)

Edited October 30, 20241 yr by nbrich1