Day 1 Leg 2 East Anglia - Very Flat! and Holiday Caravans!!

Having left Manston ahead of our German friends for Humberside International Airport, near Grimsby, leg two of our journey unveiled the beauties of East Anglia – caravans are a feature of this coastline, the traditional British holiday lives on! Whilst tracking the coastline does simplify the navigational procedure, this exercise highlights the various ways in which the UK has used its position to make its mark in the world – off shore oil helicopters buzz backwards and forwards whilst the wind farms waltz their way into history, meanwhile the military firing ranges kept us on our toes. The third map (chart) of the day had now turned the after cabin into a receptacle for all that had gone before!The Helibeli cam together with multiple stills and video cams recording both inside and outside the helicopter kept us all very busy but still left us time to marvel at the sights and appreciate the privilege of flying with Charlie. This leg enabled us to appreciate the Aldeburgh, the Norfolk Broads, Cromer, The Wash and Skegness amongst others.
Aldeburgh Norfolk Broads

Near Cromer and the Wash
Posted by Colin Lewis at 21:18

0 comments:
Post a Comment
Newer Post Older Post Home
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)
Blog Archive
▼ 2008 (21)
▼ July (21)
Day 7 Leg 4 Lands End to Sowley, going home!
Day 7 Leg 3 To Lands End via South Wales and the N...
Day 7 Leg 2 Caernarfon to Aberporth, and Welsh hos...
Day 7 Leg 1 Anglesey to Caernarfon
Day 6, Leg 3 – Carlisle to Anglesey
Day 6, Leg 2 – Fly like the Wind – Oban to Carlisl...
Day 6, Leg 1 – “Over the Sea FROM Skye” … to Oban
Day 5 - Enforced Day of Rest
Day 4 Leg 3 – Benbecula to Skye
Day 4 Leg 2 – Stornaway to Benbecula
Day 4 – Leg 1 – Shapinsay to Stornoway
Day 3 At Balfour Castle, didn't see the OLD MAN
Day 2 – Leg 3 – Blowing in the Wind
Day 2 - Leg 2 - We Took the High Road!
Day 2 – Leg 1 – Weather we do or Weather we don’t
Day 1 Leg 2 East Anglia - Very Flat! and Holiday ...
Day 1 Leg 4 - A Hop Skip and a Jump
Day 1 Leg 3 Humberside to Newcastle - history unfo...
Day 1 Leg 1
2 days to go
Getting ready

Day 7 Leg 4 Lands End to Sowley, going home!

Polpero

The last leg, once more with strong winds but 60 mile visibility meant seeing from the Lizard to Start Point with so many familiar harbours to choose from. Falmouth, Fowey, Polperro, Looe and Salcombe were all in view and the prospect of Poole Harbour, Bournemouth Bay and the Solent was somethingth at this stage that we were all waiting for.Falmouth

Plymouth

Hurst Castle and the Solent

Day 7 Leg 3 To Lands End via South Wales and the North Coast of Devon and Cornwall

After take off it was important to fly over St David’s Head!! by St Bride’s Bay, which suddenly brought serious sunshine to the coast and to our faces. Pendine Sands (the site of past land speed records) on to Swansea, Porthcawl and then across the Bristol Channel to Minehead saw some of the best weather of our whole adventure, with Lynmouth, Ilfracombe, Tintagel, Port Isaac (home of Doc Martin, not the boots) and St Ives to mention only a few. Then it was a circle around The Longships Light House, before descending at Lands End Airport.

Longships Lighthouse Lands End

Day 7 Leg 2 Caernarfon to Aberporth, and Welsh hospitality

Rounding the Lleyn Peninsular we were now in sight of the holiday destinations of Abersoch, Pwillheli (pronounced ********) Porthmadog and then the famous village of Portmeiron (where no prisoners were taken!). The coast of Cardigan bay added further jewels to our photographic collection whilst the reception at West Wales Airport was excellent where we were given coffee, biscuits, cakes and an update on weather and air traffic conditions.

Porthmadog and Portmeiron and Barmouth

Day 7 Leg 1 Anglesey to Caernarfon

Menai Straits and Caernarfon Castle

After a promise of unbroken skies, initial rain and cloud was disappointing but taking off from the hotel Beaumaris, Bangor and the Menai Strait saw a brighter day in prospect. The instructions for landing at Caernarfon Airport stated that in the interest of noise abatement we should not fly above caravans at less than 1000ft! At the end of the runway was a holiday caravan park!! When questioned, the Air Traffic Controller ‘confirmed that they were not on the runway!!!

Day 6, Leg 3 – Carlisle to Anglesey

From Carlisle we were manoeuvring around cells of rain squalls until St Bees Head where we chose to orbit to assess the weather situation, discretion proved to be the greater part of valour and a precautionary landing was made next to the lighthouse on the headland. After 15 minutes on the ground the inevitable farmer in a 4 X 4 arrived to demand money with menaces for a landing fee. Two years ago we were told that BBC had landed and paid him £150 for the privilege … he felt that with inflation this should be a worthwhile amount for his efforts. Having been shown numerous landing receipts at fully serviced airports to the value of £16 he was crestfallen.

Amicably we left fifteen minutes later without any money changing hands!

The remainder of the journey saw us past Sellafield, Morcombe Bay, the Golden Mile at Blackpool followed by the British Open Golf at Royal Birkdale. Charlie provided our “ferry across the Mersey” and the north coast resorts of Wales prior to our landing at Anglesea.

Day 6, Leg 2 – Fly like the Wind – Oban to Carlisle

Left Oban to see the Bridge over the Atlantic and then followed the Crinnan Cannal but with a 45 knot tail wind this meant a fly past at Millport to wave at the McDavids was earlier than expected. Arrived at Carlisle as the R44 was leaving for Denham. An hour at Carlisle allowed us to assess the weather for the next leg.

Day 6, Leg 1 – “Over the Sea FROM Skye” … to Oban

Awake at 5 am, rain gradually clearing, sun at Talisker, after flights for hosts, set off in bright sun for Oban and fuel. Once again a good reception, particularly from Paul who supplied us with tea and jammy dodgers and the weather. When we arrived at Oban an R44 helicopter was departing to Carlisle

Day 5 - Enforced Day of Rest

Holed up in Skye. On waking this morning we found that bad weather had stopped play. There are worse places to be. Heavy rain, visited the invisible eagles (even the birds weren’t flying) with David Hammond before going on to the hotel. Bar billiards, sleep, dinner, sleep.

Day 4 Leg 3 – Benbecula to Skye

With the sun at our back and spectacular views of the Isle of Skye we flew the 20 mile sea crossing in perfect calm. Flying up the loch past the Classic Malts Cruise yachts who were dressed overall and on to our landing spot at the end of the loch next to the cemetery, which wrapped our day of total contrasts. We were then warmly welcomed by David and Christine, our hosts at Marsco B & B, who had gone to a lot of trouble finding us the landing site. Our evening was spent at Talisker joining up with the Classic Malts Cruise, from whom we received great hospitality as well as meeting up with fellow Club members, Bob and Elaine Hazel and Brian Verstage and Helen.

Day 4 Leg 2 – Stornaway to Benbecula

As earlier forecasted weather for the latter part of our journey was a little unstable we were planning to maybe stay in Stornoway. The air traffic controller informed us that as their International Music Festival was taking place we would not be able to find accommodation … on to Benbecula! The Isle of Lewis, South Harris, North Uist all gave us contrasting views with the moonscape around Benbecula.

Day 4 – Leg 1 – Shapinsay to Stornoway

After much investigation of weather sites, calls to Kirkwall and Stornaway we left Balfour heading for the mainland, fifteen minutes out we heavy squalls were seen to be moving through which prompted us to turn back to the hotel and enjoy a second breakfast. After an hour and a half spent visiting a seal colony and more weather calls we flew to Kirkwall to refuel and then had a fascinating trip along the top of Scotland past Thurso, Dounrey and on to Cape Wrath at the north west corner of the UK. On turning South the controller read us the Stornoway weather with an incredible 60kms of visability. A thirty mile crossing of the Minch to Stornoway took us into wall to wall sunshine.

Day 3 At Balfour Castle, didn't see the OLD MAN

A bright day but with strong winds continuing. After two flights around Shapinsay with Patricia, Angela, Emma and Alistair to view their 'homes' we flew to Kirkwell airport for fuel, intending to fly around Hoy to 'catch the eye' of the OLD MAN. Sudden low cloud and rain in that area cut short the flight. After a serious planning session for Thursday an excellent meal with good company sealed the day.

Day 2 – Leg 3 – Blowing in the Wind

Andrew of Far North Aviation proved to be a fine ambassador for the region. At the time we arrived he was entertaining two ferry pilots involved in the precarious occupation of taking light aircraft between Europe and the USA, one of these in particular had already flown from Israel on route to the worlds largest air show at Oshkosh in the USA, rather him than me. A short 30 minute flight saw us with an orbit of John O’Groats on to the Orkney Isles, (the shortest water crossing of the day), and into the sanctity of Balfour Castle on the Isle of Shapinsay where we were met by the owner Patricia Lidderdale. It was only only alighting the aircraft that we realised the full strength of the wind … good old Charlie. Balfour was introduced to us as a calendar castle, 7 turrets, 12 entrances, 52 rooms and 365 panes of glass. We were their first helicopter this year.

Day 2 - Leg 2 - We Took the High Road!

We left Kintore and because of the activity with the Aberdeen CTA we routed due north to join the coast again at Banff, past RAF Lossiemouth and Kinloss, the amazing Fort George, build in 1748 like a town enclosed with strong walls, at the mouth of the Murray Firth. It was just a short hop over the hills to Cromarty and heading north up the coast to Wick, once again mindful to avoid the many danger areas formed by the military firing ranges. We now found that as a result of the head wind that had slowed us earlier in the day this had become a tailwind pushing us over the ground at over 145 knots.

Day 2 – Leg 1 – Weather we do or Weather we don’t

Tuesday was a different day to that expected, a cold front went through followed by unstable air but with superb visibility at times, the Farne Islands and Longstone Lighthouse (Grace Darling) were a sight to see. Then on to Berwick on Tweed, St Abs Head and the Firth of Forth to Edinburgh and its bridges. At this stage we were checking fuel and a stop at Dundee was on the cards but with a following wind, carrying on to Kintore was the right decision. Aberdeen airspace with international flights and offshore activities was very busy but did not stop the controller from personalising his calls to us with a “cheery” if you can’t find it just call us. During the day the views on dozens of different quality golf courses were trumped by the famed courses of St Andrews and Carnoustie … a magnificent sight. Before arriving at Kintore we were impressed by Dunnottar castle, late 14th and 15th century castle with a horrendous history where 167 religious dissenters were locked in a dungeon for two months. At Kintore, another fairly tight landing area, we met Hugh from PDG Helicopters who refuelled the helicopter and the crew with coffee and words of encouragement.

Day 1 Leg 4 - A Hop Skip and a Jump

After lifting west bound up the Tyne and making a right turn for an overhead crossing of Newcastle International Airport, we were asked to hold whilst a 737 landed on the main runway, ten minutes later we landed for our overnight stop at the Linden Hall Hotel, a welcome respite from a long but fruitful day.

Newcastle International airport

Day 1 Leg 3 Humberside to Newcastle - history unfolding Robin Hood Bay and James Cook's Birthplace

The river Tyne from 800ft

Leaving Humberside the lighthearted traffic controller entertained us and looked after us in a similar way to Anglia Radar - these people really do earn their money and are a second pair of eyes in the sky. Whilst passing danger zone (D306) we were told that it had not been active for some years but was still being treated as a danger zone in order to deal with unexploded ordnance - why keep aircraft at bay when houses are being built so close nearby..? Our approach to Newcastle and our next refuelling stop led us on a magic carpet ride from the estuary of the Tyne to the heart of the city passing the derelect dry docks right up to the iconic bridges and the redundant docklands area. The promise of Newcastle City Airport with its published ability to accommodate up to 50 helicopters proved to be something of an education.

By the way Robin Hood's bay was really special as was Staithes, the birthplace of Captain James Cook.

Robin Hood's Bay!

Staithes, Captain James Cook's birthplace

Day 1 Leg 1

With an 8.30 start, blue skies, clouds at 2,500 feet and an 8 knot wind from the south, things were looking good for the start to an amazing trip. Taking off from Sowley foreshore, tracking along the coast past the familiar Portsmouth Spinnaker Tower, we were on our way to the first refueling stop at Manston close to Ramsgate on the Kent coast. But first we were treated to spectacular views of the south coast in all its glory. Brighton Pier and the marina led us towards the unfamiliar view of the channel tunnel, giving us a totally different perspective which immediately led us to the White Cliffs of Dover and looking to our right, France and all of the activities in the channel. Manston was interesting, the man with two table "table tennis bats" ushered us to a parking spot next to a 737, later arrivals were two military helicopters from Germany, the pilot of one was heard to be having a discussion with air traffic who informed him that he had just flown through the middle of a live firing range. ATC said he was lucky as he passed through between the rounds being fired! The first leg took an hour and fifteen minutes.