A little overnight trip and a EuroGA meetup with a few others 
Outbound routes were a bit of a problem with the Autorouter so I filed one which goes into Class G. This is OK when leaving the UK because you don’t need to “negotiate” an IFR clearance (which you might not get, although mostly you do)
EGKA N0152F100 GWC DCT PEPIS DCT KENET DCT UGBUD DCT MORAG DCT LUSAT/N0149F100 DCT WST/N0144F100 EIWT
I used the Autorouter → Foreflight function to transfer the route to FF and found the 1st problem: WST is still used by Eurocontrol for route generation but no longer exists in Jepp databases, but FF found a WST in Australia! So it plotted the route, with a dogleg to Australia. This was fixed easily by deleting WST which is a VOR at EIWT and since EIWT no longer has instrument approaches, it was irrelevant. But for the return route I got the same plus LIFFY which is both in the Irish Sea and in Australia; that was manually edited. Really FF should present both although better still would be to disregard the one which cannot be flown by any aircraft ever made.
Curiously, Eurocontrol tracking worked the whole way, even in UK Class G
This route is fairly scenic although it was a bit hazy
Great service from Western Radar when OCAS. An incredibly polite ATCO.
Lunchtime
Ireland. Dublin wanted me below 2000ft for their zone, which took a bit of doing to get down to from FL100 in 20 miles
The Pigeon House chimneys VRP
Weston ATC were extremely “on edge”; very nervous. Overhead join for 07, but must not go above 1500ft. If the circuit is LH then positioning for an OHJ gets you very close to a “military base” (a bit of a joke, surely). They sent me to one roundabout VRP which of course can be found only on GPS, so I was aiming for that, then they got really excited that I was going to bust some airspace, and eventually I got the left downwind for 07 which was what I originally asked for.
Off to get lunch
Dublin is a busy town
especially with some consumption of this stuff
I don’t think this lot (could have been British, given how p1ssed they were) was drinking Guiness
Mandatory props for a “genuine Irish pub” in Spain
Back over England
Return flight was filed mostly in CAS, to avoid any uncertainty with the UK end not giving me an IFR clearance. Last time I tried that (a more or less DCT EIWT-EGKA) it worked but only with constant harrassment by me.
EIWT N0151F090 WST DCT LIFFY DCT MALUD L975 WAL L10 HON N859 CPT DCT MID EGKA
I got a detour after “CEG” (no idea what that is) due to military activity but Foreflight showed nothing. In Class A, too… It did however show active mil areas on the way to EIWT, over the Irish Sea, which W. Radar told me were inactive. Clearly this “satnav with notams” stuff doesn’t actually work properly, which is a bit worrying because the UK CAA treats DAs and RAs as CAS when it comes to busting people. All the more reason for avoiding UK flying except high level in CAS (needs an IR) or very low levels and having checked notams on some other site (I use this). Of course I recorded the sound track… FF also showed a huge area covering a chunk of the coast including EGKA, which was there allright but didn’t seem to relate to anything real
The Eurocontrol tracking failed completely on this one. It shows only the bit which was VFR Great service again from Western Radar who seem to be well connected to London Control.
It was great to see you all and I look forward to the next one After a while, the social side of flying is really important.
A couple of us were going to fly to Oban but there wasn’t really enough time to get back to the south and have much time there, plus I had only a phone and didn’t fancy doing the new GAR form on that.
Thanks Peter. Great to see you and meet the others :)
I flew in VFR (no IR, UK IR(R) only), which was very easy. Practically a straight line from my home base of Fairoaks EGTF. Once clear of the London TMA I climbed to FL100 for a light tailwind. The UK is looking very brown after weeks of high temperatures and little rain – this was the day that hosepipe bans came into force. Initially with Brize Radar for a traffic service, and then handed over to Western Radar for a traffic service all the way to the FIR boundary. As Peter says, Western Radar are very friendly. It seems principally to be used to provide a service to IFR OCAS, particularly for commercial traffic into Newquay and Exeter (who get a deconfliction service). But the unit also provides a service to VFR / non-‘Eurocontrol’ IFR flights above FL100 – see paras 4.2 and 4.4 of ENR 1.6 of the UK AIP for details, including their address for flight planning purposes). They coordinated my entry into the Holyhead CTA (while in the London FIR, this airspace is delegated to Dublin) at FL100, with a handover to Dublin Information.
As Peter says, Dublin Info (same frequency as Dublin Control working arrivals into Dublin International EIDW) wanted a pretty steep (but not immediate) descent to 2,000 ft or below for entry to the Dublin CTR – required a 1,100 fpm descent. Handed over to Dublin Tower for the CTR entry, but it had been co-ordinated between the controllers first so there was no delay. The published VFR arrival for Weston can be found on the visual approach chart for Dublin International – it is via Killiney Hill VRP (where the KLY NDB is sited), Pigeon House Chimneys VRP and then turning East towards Palmerston Roundabout VRP (also as detailed in the Weston AIP). Great view of the city coming in this way.
Weston Tower were a little jumpy for me too, initially asking for a right downwind at 1,500 ft and then a left downwind. They’re clearly very conscious of the mil restricted area just to the south. Friendly on the ground; Avgas arrived immediately. 1 hour 47 minutes flight time.
35-40 min taxi into town.
Departure was the reverse of the above. Weston Tower co-ordinated entry into the Dublin CTR, and Dublin Info cleared me for a climb to FL100 after Killiney (initially 2,000, then FL060, but in practice it was one continuous climb). No handover to Western Radar but as I addressed my flight plan to them they gave me a traffic service right away without the whole ‘pass your message’ spiel (unlike London Info who must have access to them). I think it was just me and Peter on the frequency for a while, before he was handed off to Scottish Control somewhere near the HON VOR. Much shallower descent this time to cross the Heathrow zone (the London CTR, to use its proper name) back to Fairoaks. Very bumpy down low, it was over 30° OAT by this point.
Oban next time!
Peter, the routing is contextual. WST is not in the Jeppesen Navdata. If you remove WST from the route, the correct LIFFY will be selected. If you enter LIFFY into the search window, two will show up and you can choose.
So I will put my five cents on it as well, because we have been the next crew coming in for this nice meetup at Dublin. You can see the 3 planes of us above on one of the photos of @Peter parked in a row. Our Bonanza is the last one. ;-)
As we came directly from Kilkenny we followed the advice of @dublinpilot (who organized the meeting and a delicious diner as well) for a low level sight seeing flight vom Kilkenny to Weston. Most of the time at about 1000 ft AGL.
Kilkenny Castle and Cathedral in the background
Abbey south of Kilkenny.
Ruin on the Way to Weston
Race circuit
Labyrinth
And now @dublinpilot knows, that we have followed all of his advices regarding the landmarks on this 40 minutes flight. :-)
It was really a pleasure to meet the other guys at Dublin, especially because we haven’t seen them for a long time due of covid and to meet @Indochine as a “new” one was great as well. Hope we will meet again.
Here some impressions of Dublin.
You will find these bronze guys everywhere.
On the way how, we decided to go VFR but finally it was like the IFR Routing when going to Ireland a few day around. One waypoint STU and all the rest direct. Only when leaving the Dublin CTR we had to stay below 2000 until BRAY and then we could start our climb to FL 75.
Interesting route, because most time over the water. When crossing between Ireland and UK, we had an interesting moment. Jane was the PC, switching tanks and the Bonanza got a heavy hick-up. Fuel flow stopped immediately. While Jane was switching back to the original tank the problem was solved immediately. Her decision tow wait before giving it another try until we do have an airfield in gliding distance was wise. So she did, but finally no further issues and we continued as planed.
At the coastline before our climb.
Lundy island – there is as airstrip on it EGZV, but we couldn’t find it.
Bridge near Brest
Back home in Brittany at LFRQ
Glad to see everyone made it home safely.
It was wonderful to see everything. Thanks to Peter EDDS for sparking this one off (and for bringing the glorious sunshine with him)!
The sights on his flight between EIKK and EIWT were :
Kilkenny Castle
Jerpoint Abbey
Mondelo Park
The Kildare Maze (Note the Celtic Cross layout of the maze.)
Funny coincidence that we are in Weston right now.
Landed yesterday around 1 pm LOC and will leave the Plane until wednesday for a tour around Ireland (by car).
Approach was from the north and ATC also wanted an overhead join for the RH downwind for 07. Same 1500ft altitude requirement.
When was the meetup? I didn’t see any of the planes yesterday.
It was Friday 12th to Saturday 13th.
An OHJ for RH downwind is dumb, when a direct left downwind join for 07 keeps you well away from the mil area and a left turn is safer anyway.
I used to be a regular at Weston and was acquainted with the then owner, Capt. Darby Kennedy. In his office he had a cup for some flying boat exploit awarded to him personally by – wait for it – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Having him show it to me was like being touched on the shoulder by God. Very glad Weston (we called it “Wild Weston”) is still going strong.
Edited to say that the RH downwind 07 is probably to keep noise away from the housing estate to the N. Weston’s subsequent owner Jim Mansfield got into planning trouble which is why the new runway Is disused.
