Menu Sign In Contact FAQ
Banner
Welcome to our forums

A little trip to the Scilly Isles EGHE, June 2015

It was a great day so we decided to do a day trip. I had been to the Scillys before, several times, but almost 10 years ago. Justine had never been.

Metar
EGKK 090550Z 03010KT 340V070 CAVOK 09/05 Q1032
EGHI 090550Z 02009KT CAVOK 07/04 Q1033
EGHQ 090550Z 07008KT 9999 FEW015 09/06 Q1033
TAF
EGKK 090459Z 0906/1012 03012KT 9999 FEW040 PROB30 0911/0918 05015G25KT
EGHI 090545Z 0906/0915 03012KT 9999 FEW045
EGHQ: no results found

Initially the cloud tops were around 4500ft, and Solent (Southampton) normally does a VFR transit at 4000ft, so I asked for one at 5000ft and got it


The south west England is very scenic from the air. Down below… a slightly different story if you have to drive anywhere, with mostly slow roads and, especially west of Exeter, a “good place for retirement” IMHO. I spent a lot of time there some years ago. i think that when Plymouth airport closed, a lot of people just had to give up flying because the nearest alternative is such a long drive…






Approaching Lands End. On a clear day you can see both the N and S coasts at the same time, for about 50 miles

Later the cloud thinned out. This is Lands End




The Scillies appear in the distance almost right away

The wind was 15kt right across runway 32 but I chose than rather than the shorter 09. Since my last visit, all runways have been tarmaced. The place has a lot of twin turboprop traffic, to Lands End and Newquay. There is no fuel of any kind but there is avgas at Lands End and Perranporth, for those who cannot make the island there and back without a refuel.

The runway (32) goes uphill and then downhill, so on short finalyou only see the first half, but usually one stops at the very top

No taxi is needed; there is a very nice 20 minute walk from the terminal building to the “town centre”. Here is a smiling passenger which means MORE FLYING IN THE FUTURE

The first shop you come to – I remember having an ice cream there years ago

Lots of really nice sandy beaches

This “Nowhere” used to be a diving and surf shop; I still have a T-shirt with their logo

The climate is mild (though a lot more wet than the south east where I live) so stuff grows well ahead of the rest of the UK

A real live British Telecom engineer

Mobile data was GPRS i.e. 20-30kbits/sec, which translates to painfully slow and almost useless internet, but for 1 day it’s OK
However most cafes have free wifi which works.

Some slightly eccentric stuff

When I was last there, the place was full of Mk 1 Ford Escorts and Mk 2 Cortinas, but it has moved upmarket since then

A good number of nice cafes


There are many boat trips which would be really good to do but then you need to stay at least overnight

There are buses – this one has a very appropriate name

It’s easy to find really nice healthy food, though one can get the “grease” too if one looks for it

Lovely beaches everywhere


We took a walk along a path to the lighthouse










Lots of weird shaped rocks









One of the commuter flights arriving. I don’t know how much they are but clearly plenty of people are paying it. Also Lands End airport is now tarmaced, so somebody has found it worthwhile to spend 6 or 7 figures on this service

Departure, again runway 32 with a 20kt crosswind




The whole airport

We asked for a clockwise flight around the islands and this was approved, 2500ft

On the way back I had to climb to FL070 to stay on top, with tops around FL067 and -2C inside the cloud (+4C above it)

There is a Class A airway, base FL065

and slightly to my surprise I got a crossing at FL070 with Exeter Radar. When asking for the IFR clearance I told them I had an IR; not sure if this makes any difference to them.



However, Southampton would absolutely not allow the IFR flight to continue at FL070, saying they were far too busy to let me do it without a Eurocontrol flight plan! So I went down to 4000ft (bases around 4500ft and a lot of turbulence). This is the Stoney Cross WW2, long disused, airfield

Transit was via SAM and this is the Southampton EGHI runway

Back home, wind 20kt, 20 deg off the runway, and pretty bumpy


Justine is into edible plants and found several

Tracks flown:

All in all, a super day trip, very relaxing and a great opportunity for taking photos. I would recommend an overnight stay at least and some boat trips. But it is well and truly “in the back of beyond” and you won’t find any night clubs there

The only negative is that the airport is extremely anal about security (clearly it is a major terrorist target ) and to get from the GA parking area to the terminal (where you pay upstairs at the tower – £18.30 and parking for up to 6hrs is free) you need to walk around a long perimeter road, totally outside the airport. This is completely unnecessary; they could provide a path. The grass parking area is not great but is acceptable with due care, with some small stones near the grass/tarmac boundary so it’s advisable to use the old trick of getting a bit of speed and crossing the boundary itself with the engine on idle. There are also some significant depressions in the grass surface, maybe 5-10cm, so (on departure) I walked the planned taxi route, accompanied by the mandatory firemen (for safety, of course) to check it out.

Upon arrival, we did get a lift to the terminal building by two kind firemen in their vehicle, after I asked ATC for some strong helpers to push-back the plane up into a better parking position (a TB20 cannot be moved on grass by 2 people, normally). We got another lift prior to our departure too, though that took a little pressure up at the tower; I got it when I told them I was going to walk the grass route to check for potholes and they decided I needed to be accompanied by firemen. I got the feeling that some people up there have a “computer says no” approach and don’t want to get into trouble. But this is all over the UK… and elsewhere in the GA scene. On the whole the airport is really nice.

All pics above were taken with a Nokia 808 and a Nokia 1020

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Great! My favourite get-away in the south of the British Isles. Always quite a trip from say Germany, though.

Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany

Looks like a lovely place for a weekend stay :)

EIWT Weston, Ireland

Lovely! On my bucket list to do.

LSZH(work) LSZF (GA base), Switzerland

We did this from our place in Lincolnshire in 2010 and made a fuel stop at Perranporth. Interesting approach at Perranporth because we were on runway 09 which starts at the cliff face, gives a somewhat odd perspective on approach. Base that day was about 900 feet with tops at about 4000 and seeing Scilly as you drop through, knowing there is a very large exspance of water ahead if you miss it, was quite comforting. The weather cleared and we returned the same day in beautiful CAVOK all the way. Well worth a visit I would suggest but do not talk about Harold Wilson or his wife Mary!

UK, United Kingdom

Hi Peter, nice little trip and beautiful pictures. Thanks for sharing!

If you’re into these kind of destinations, I can highly recommend Juist EDWJ, a German island in the Wadden Sea.
It’s car free. There’s a horse tram that goes from the airport to the rest of the island.
It has a lot of wellness hotels. The most famous one is: Kurhaus Juist

The airport has a paved runway and bicycles for rent.
VFR only, but if its not VFR you don’t want to go there :-)

Thanks Peter – your report brings back very happy memories of a two-night stay there last September – it was not long enough! What a fabulous place it is to visit, do go if you can. We plan to return again later this year….

UK, United Kingdom

Great trip & great report as always, Peter. I wish I manage to visit these islands someday in the future.

Going there this weekend! Although the weather might not be great.

EGBW, United Kingdom

Final trip writeup is here

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom
21 Posts
Sign in to add your message

Back to Top