Once I have recovered enough to walk normally again I come to the next offering, a Boeing 767, this one in AirTours Colors. I have chosen this plane mainly because of the nice paint job.
Sitting in the familiar Boeing 767/757 cockpit I dial in all the coordinates for the next leg, leg number 16, which will be 1600 miles to Bursa, Turkey. I chose AirTours because of the paint job and I chose Bursa simply because "everyone" flies to Istanbul, but Bursa sits there right along the shores of The Sea of Marmara (this is in between the Black Sea and the Aegean). Sounds nice, so I'm gonna check it out. Despite the "heavy" inertia it is still a real struggle to keep this big bird on the pavement due to the crosswinds, but once in the air I climb above the gusts and then turn south. It is now about noon on Friday.
The weather along the Mediterranean and Black Seas is ideal, clear, calm, 80-90°, ahhhhh. I come in over Bandirma, Turkey and turn east, setting up for landing. This time I want to avoid any problems so I take extra care to be sure that flaps, spoilers, autobraking, etc. are all set and working well. As I get to within visual range I see that the runway looks short.
Nice scenery/topography but that runway ... just not right. At two miles out I turn auto-braking up to max. I have my seat cranked up and my speed down to "just about hanging in limbo." I plant the mains down just past the fence, right at the end of pavement ala a Princess Juliana-style landing.
Spoilers up, reverse thrust, autobrakes on and I squeal to a stop. Wow, next time I should try it in a C-5 or an An-225! After I taxi to the small terminal I disembark and catch a bus to the beach for dinner.
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