My first flight in a Viscount was later in 1972. In September I passed my operational training at Glasgow at about 4 pm on the monday and was handed an Air Travel Warrant and told to report to the ATCO Manager at Sumburgh that wednesday.
When I boarded, I was 'asked to report to the flight deck' where I found there were only 2 seats ie no jump seat. The captain told me to stand behind his seat for every takeoff and landing, the flight being multi sector Glasgow - Inverness - Wick - Kirkwall - Sumburgh.
After departing Wick, we stayed at about 1000ft amsl until we approached the ring of islands forming Scapa Flow, where we descended to 'XXXft' (I'm not telling) for a superb view of the sunken ships in the anchorage.
We landed on the 'short' runway at Sumburgh, about 900m (now extended to 1500m), and as we did a 180 at the end of the runway, I looked down to see seals in the water below us looking up at us.
There was an 'offset' approach to runway 33 at Sumburgh with a line of sodium lights as a 'lead in' to indicate to the crew the correct path to follow to avoiding the high ground forming Sumburgh Head.
Last edited by chevvron; 9th Jan 2023 at 15:52.