Holmbeck Farm – Turweston EGBT – Blackpool EGNH – Carlisle EGNC – Oban
EGEO – Stornoway EGPO – Glenforsa – Oban EGEO – Blackpool EGNH –
Cranfield EGTC
Logbook time 13 hours 35 minutes (brakes to brakes)
Airborne time 12 hours 50 minutes (SkyDemon time)
Engine time 13 hours 10 minutes (tacho time 13.17)
Fuel added 470 litres.
Preamble
A trip planned since January was jeopardised with less than a week to go
when our group AA5 became seriously unserviceable. A plea on the Flyer
forum immediately found someone who would lend me (for a suitable hourly
rate) his AA5B. Big thanks to that forumite for saving our holiday.
Mixed weather and work pressures almost led us to postpone our start
from Friday evening to Saturday morning. However, with everything
unexpectedly ready after all, we decided to go on Friday.
Friday 19th May
The strip where the AA5B lives is not long so I decided to fly out solo
then collect Lynda and the luggage from nearby Turweston. I left the car
at the strip for the week while Lynda took a taxi to Turweston.
Refuelled and about to leave the tower at Turweston, I realised that I
had not brought Lynda’s headset. One of the nice people in the tower
lent us his and we were away for Blackpool. I had already decided that
the path of some heavy rain meant that we were going west of Birmingham
rather than my originally planned east. Between Banbury and Warwick, we
had some lovely views of heavy rain showers as we wove between them.
North of Warwick, the sky was ever darker to the east so we flew west
and even a little south. Monitoring Birmingham Radar I could hear the
airliners telling ATC that they were dodging storms. Eventually, our
route took us over Shobdon and Welshpool then past Hawarden by which
time the weather was lovely. Liverpool gave us a transit low level up
the Mersey which rather made our evening. It was then a short run up the
coast for a left base join at Blackpool to land, fuel and park for the
night. While Lynda communed with the large and friendly airport cat, I
started calling hotels. It was a very quick task since our first choice
hotel (One South Beach) had a room. Once booked in there, and after
brief walk on the front we headed for some restaurants suggested by the
hotel. We arrived at Montagues as the kitchen was closing but they were
very happy to remain open and produced some excellent food.
Blackpool airport was all very friendly and easy. Landing fee for a 1090
kg AA5B was about £16. Parking £7.50 for the night. One South Beach
hotel was very good except for the Wi-Fi which was only workable around
reception and wanted far too many personal details but it happily
accepted a completely fake set of details. Taxi to and from the airport
was c.£3.50 (01 253 401 000).
Saturday 20th May
After a good breakfast and a short walk along the front it was back to
the airport. The original plan for the day had been for a lot of flying
involving wandering around The Lakes, lunch at Cumbernauld with an old
friend then over the north side of the Glasgow zone down to Islay for
the night. Unfortunately, the weather put a stop to The Lakes and
Cumbernauld while the lack of an out-of-hours permit cancelled Islay
(open for just an hour a day at weekends). I had an OOH for the other
aeroplane but there had not been time to get one for the substitute. In
fact it was all academic, as what we managed was a low level coastal run
to Carlisle (Kirkbride was closed for motor racing) where the weather
caused us to scrub for the day.
We were glad we went to Carlisle which proved to be very friendly and
helpful. At one point, one airport person was helping me use his PC to
find a hotel while another was on the landline booking me a taxi. They
even reserved some of the, temporarily, dwindling stock of avgas for me.
Landing £19. Parking £8 a night. After considering the town centre, we
took advice and booked The Crown at Wetheral to stay. Apparently the
Stobart bosses all stay there when visiting. It provided reasonable
accommodation with excellent dinner and breakfast. Journey was £15 each
way in a local taxi 01 697 73386. The airport has a pleasant waiting
room with easy Wi-Fi, TV and the invitation to “use our kitchen as much
as you like to make a brew”. In an adjoining building there is an
acceptable cafe with view over the runways and outside tables available.
I had a very decent scone there, the fat breakfast at the
above-mentioned hotel precluded trying anything more substantial.
Sunday 21st May
We made an early take-off for Oban but turned back ten minutes out when
the cloud and visibility made it less than safe to continue (going IMC
would have rather defeated the point of the trip and would have had
risks with the cloud base being very much below the MSA). We had hoped
to continue to Plockton after refueling at Oban but there was no room at
the inn nor at any other accommodation near Plockton so Oban it was.
Anyway, after three hours at Carlisle we set-off again. The weather had
lifted but not enough for a direct route over land so another very
scenic low-level coastal run it was. The weather became quite nice north
of Stanraer so we were able to complete our planned circuits of Arran
and The Mull of Kintyre before approaching Oban from the south-west. It
was around Stranraer that we heard on Scottish Info a friend also flying
up from Bedfordshire in another AA5. He landed just behind us at Oban
having flown direct from Cranfield, much of it in IMC. I reckon we had
the nicer trip. Tie down the aeroplane then a taxi to our hotel and my
first beer since Wednesday.
Oban is a very nice airfield with helpful staff. I nearly flew past it
arriving from the west, look for the bridge and turn well before it.
There is a slightly intimidating approach onto runway 19 with the big
hill looming to the north. Final turn is over a caravan park. There is a
very helpful refuelling team at Oban. I was even offered tea and shelter
in their cabin. Landing fee £20. Parking £7.50 a night.
We stayed at the Wide Mouthed Frog which is between the airport and the
town. Nice rooms, good beer and acceptable food. Castle and marine
research centre (with cafe and visitor centre) a short walk away. Four
miles out of Oban town so needs a bus or taxi. On departure, Wide
Mouthed Frog drove us to the airport for no extra charge and would have
collected us on arrival if there had been no taxis.
If you were just doing a quick night-stop it might be worth looking at
hotels in Connel (see note below about Falls of Lora hotel). Staying
longer it is probably worth looking in Oban town.
Monday 22nd May
A wet day in Oban town. We went on a boat trip, bought some art, got
very wet from the rain and had a very good fish dinner at Ee-usk on the
waterfront with the fellow forumite.
Tuesday 23rd May
A restful day. We walked the mile or so to Dunstaffnage Castle and the
nearby marine research centre where we really enjoyed both the small but
interesting visitor centre and the rather good café (which we used
twice, either side of our visit to the castle). After that, the walk
back to the hotel followed by an afternoon watching it rain.
Wednesday 24th May
The weather was forecast to clear so I booked a room for two nights in
Stornoway. We checked out of the Frog and were given a lift to the
airfield. There we sat for four hours watching the cloud and mist not
quite lift then come down again. It never lifted far enough to make a
safe departure and climb above the MSA. We gave up, cancelled the room
in Stornoway (I still feel guilty) and found a room at The Falls of Lora
in nearby Connel. Taking only a small amount of luggage, we were able to
walk there. The hotel is an odd time-warp of a place. Our room had a
circular bed with a black fur bed-spread plus an ornate bathroom with
two tone grey sanitary ware and green lighting. The plentiful and
helpful staff appeared to be in a state of fear of doing anything
slightly off-script, such as allocating a table in the empty restaurant
or swapping cream to custard. I don’t say any of this to put-off anyone
from staying there, it was a good hotel with lovely waterside gardens
just across the road and decent food, but it was a faintly surreal
experience.
Thursday 25th May
After another couple of hours watching the mist off Oban, it was safe to
depart just after 1100. We held for departure just as Peter landed
having flown up from Shoreham. Sorry Peter but after a day and a bit of
delays, waiting any longer for a social hour would have been an
unpopular decision! We headed south-west to BRUCE, climbing hard. I had
expected a significant climb through IMC but in fact it was only a
minute or so in cloud I think. From BRUCE it was a straight run north
via TOBMO to Stornoway at 6000 feet. Initially, pretty much VMC on top
but the cloud became ever more broken as we progressed such that we
could see the Stornoway runway from ten miles out. We made a gentle
continuous descent onto downwind, landed then sat at a hold for ten
minutes while two small airliners taxied.
Stornoway is a full facility regional airport with sensible pricing for
light aeroplanes (£27 for a landing and one night parking on a 1090 kg
AA5B). As one would expect, high viz and security are required but are
not badly done. There is Avgas. Approaching from the south, and I’m not
sure that the likes of us would be approaching from other directions, it
is possible to be feet dry all the way if you are above 5-6000 feet
although some of the little islands I had in mind for any forced landing
look pretty steep and rocky.
Finally parked, booked in and refuelled (pay the refueller), it was a
short walk to the small and very pleasant commercial terminal for tea
and a bite before getting a taxi into town to search for a place to
stay. My three pre-selections were all full so we went to the tourist
office for help. After much searching they found what appeared to be the
last room for two in Stornoway. It was in the Thorlee B&B which we had
walked past and dismissed because it looked so scruffy. However, it was
very nice indeed on the inside. We should have just gone straight there.
After a wander round the shops and the harbour, we had an excellent
dinner at the Royal Hotel which was marred only by being charged £6.60
for two large glasses of soda water from the machine.
Friday 26th and Saturday 27th May
Breakfast then taxi back to the airport. Escorted back to the aeroplane
by security but otherwise no problem. I now discovered why the fuel
consumption had been so high. The staff at Stornoway had seen so much
fuel dripping from the left wing root that they had spread absorbent
granules and when I did the daily inspection I saw that the small blue
stain on the lower left wing had become a very large blue stain. Hence I
decided to fly that tank to empty and reduce my range – endurance
expectations. Airborne on a glorious sunny morning we turned north to
start a circuit of the islands as far to the south as Barra. I had
promised the owner of the aeroplane that I would not land it on a beach.
Passing around the Butt of Lewis we turned south and flew a sort of S
shape down to Benbecula. This took about an hour and was all very lovely
to look at. The sky to the south was starting to look distinctly murky
so I decided to cancel the run down to Barra and turned west to make the
shortest crossing to Skye. Having climbed to 5000 feet we were feet dry
for that crossing. Once across, it was back down to sight-seeing heights
for the west coast of Skye, Rum (rather turbulent on the downwind side
of this tall conical island) and Eigg then past Tobermory (Balamory to a
generation of Miles Jupp fans) and along the Sound of Mull to Glenforsa.
A slightly sporty approach onto 07 but a nice touchdown then marshalled
to parking by Brendan. Fairly directly to the bar where sadly the ale
was just past its best and I had to resort to bottled ale.
As many people already know, if there was such a thing as heaven
Glenforsa would be a good candidate for a pilots’ heaven! A rather good
hotel operated by aviation enthusiasts (Brendan and Alison’s Stearman
lives on site) in a very beautiful spot. There is a B&B on the same site
(well a hundred yards down the lane) to try if the hotel is full. It is
called Tigh An Solas. The village of Salen is about a mile and half
(maximum) to walk, you can go along either the shoreline or the road (we
did both on Saturday), neither to be attempted after dark I suggest.
Salen is a positive metropolis with a number of places to stay and eat.
There is a bus stop outside the Glenforsa hotel which I think will get
you to Salen and Tobermory but not very frequently.
Over the weekend, I realised from news reports that the aeroplane that
had departed Oban just behind us had crashed near the Mull of Kintyre
killing both occupants.
Sunday 28th May
With storms forecast for southern England on Sunday evening and Monday,
we decided to skip a planned night in Liverpool and go straight home on
Sunday. I had already agreed with the owner that I would leave the
aeroplane with his maintainer at Cranfield so that was now our target
(subject to when the storms arrived – in fact they didn’t). The cloud /
mist cleared in time for us to arrive at Oban just after it opened to
refuel, full in the good tank, just an hour in the leaky one. After a
weather chat with a Cub pilot who was heading to Glenforsa (Arthur
Williams of Channel 4), I telephoned Glasgow ATC to ask about a
high-level zone transit which would save some miles and a lot of
low-level faffing. They made positive noises and took my details so off
we went. Heading south-west for BRUCE I had expected to climb through
cloud but here was a big gap so we were able to stay VMC to 5000 feet.
By BRUCE and most of the way to and from Glasgow there was a mostly
solid cloud layer below us. We were about 1000 above it at around 5500
on a clearance of not above 6000. About twenty miles south of Glasgow we
were asked to descend below 5000 feet which I had to decline for a few
miles to remain within the new Class D rules. They didn’t seem to mind
and I was able to comply soon as the cloud broke below me. This was
actually very convenient as we wanted to make a sight-seeing trip over
The Lakes. However, down to 1500 over the Solway Firth (and handed over
to London Information) all we could see was clouds with hills poking
through them so yet again it was low level around the Cumbrian coast.
All very nice but we had wanted The Lakes. Anyway, down the coast and a
right base join to land at Blackpool. After the same partial refuel, a
quick lunch at the pub by the Premier Inn just behind the GA office. Not
our usual choice of eatery but the bean-burger was rather good and they
had the decency not to charge for soda water. We decided that there was
not time to deliver the borrowed headset back to Turweston before
Cranfield closed so direct to Cranfield it was to be. Routeing via
Wallasey we had a very brief Liverpool transit not above 1500 feet,
hardly worth the radio calls really. Frequency change to Hawarden and
follow the ship canal through their overhead. There was a murky
inversion so up to 4000 for some clean air and the trip south and east
past Birmingham, Coventry and Northampton to Cranfield. We landed just
before 1700, my worst touchdown of the trip. Human factors, I have come
to dislike Cranfield so much I can’t even land properly there! Our
generous owner was waiting to run us back to the strip and our third
excellent flying holiday was done. (The borrowed headset I returned by
car the next day).
Lessons
The usual long trip one of flexibility, plan a lot but once started take
the attitude “aeroplane, credit card, clean pants; go”
New lesson for me, when flying in hostile territory (relative to
southern England!) and borderline weather, have at every moment of the
flight not one plan not two plans but three plans i.e. “I want to go
that way but if that doesn’t work I know that I can go that way and if
that doesn’t work I know can go that way”. Keep revising that plan every
moment. Obvious to the more experienced perhaps but now I get it!
Excellent job and report.
