Talking of airmanship and flying skills....
Maybe the Scottish runways have a bend inthe middle?
Perhaps they do, but a strip south of the Liwa Oasis in Abu Dhabi was made on two adjoining pieces of flat plain, with a small gap between them. The problem was that one was 15 degrees different alignment than the other.
Only the DC3s could do it, so long as you got the tail up in the first half, kicked through the 15% bend on the rudder and then used the second half to lift off and avoid the dune at the far end with a 45 degree turn at 50ft.
It only got really exciting when the oil company (customer, always right) lied about the weight of core samples they had put on board.
Landing was a matter of touching down good and early, not doing wheelies, and checking the brakes carefully before the flight....
I bet the B777 isn't half as much fun.