Where have you been? What have you seen?
#1555705
Flying's got to be the way to travel to Cornwall on a Bank Holiday weekend and over water surely.
For St Mary's Isle of Scilly the weather looked settled and cloud free for Sunday/Monday however St Mary's closed Sundays plus no fuel and Lands End closed on Sundays too; Also very little accommodation available down by there BH at short notice even at Trenwith.
Bodmin seemed a reasonable hop from Dunstable and good place for an overnighter nearly there; good runway options, open on Sundays late, fuel with a short bike ride to a town of character, and a reasonable hotel was available with one room left.
Red Arrows were a concern planning; with a criss-cross route hard to avoid; I settled for overflying the path at 3000ft talking to Brize and watching them pass 2000ft below. "terrain clearance their responsibility" Brize told them, and also informed them of targets ahead "height unknown", thankfully not me.
I found Bodmin three dimensional but very pleasant; Graham Newby (Ex LAA chairman) kindly helped me with Fuel.
We trundled back up the A30 dual in the morning working off the full English to depart around 9:30, thankfully weather was nearly as forecast except some low cloud around to the north of the peninsula. We followed the south coast around low over the sea and beaches (beautiful) with a LARs from Newquay, went through the Cudrose MATZ and then to Landsend discussing crossing height and ETAs. I had sent the PPR form and phoned the day before. Some way out there was a layer of cloud around 800 to 1800. There were maybe 6 targets in vicinity going to or from at various heights including the skybuses. Not wanting to descend into a skybus coming up I stayed above until past the overhead and let down to the west. I was busy exploring the fantastic magical scenery but St Mary's called me in when clear for a left hand base on 31. First time flying UP a runway. Parked opposite side from terminal and cycled round perimeter to pay the £15 landing fee in the tower and off to the first of many pretty beaches.
A coffee at Speros Porthmellon beach watching the ferry arrive, a swim at Portcressa, a pastie at Hugh Town waiting for the Red Arrow display; Red10 talking us through it on a microphone at the street party (rather them than me doing tight formation flights through banks of low cloud - I noted the lifeboat put out to sea just in case).
Everything about the place was delightful. We departed 31 after an interesting steep taxi towards the cliff, and took off just after Red10 and co in two RAF choppers and followed them toward land. I have to say in not great vis with my SD PAW beeping at me due to their proximity.
Climbing above and overtaking them we followed the north coast beaches all the way to Cleaveland talking to Lands end, Newquay, London Info, Cardiff, Bristol (unhelpful) and back to Brize. So many beaches and so many people on them! Amazing scenery. I planned for us to land half-way at Bellevue for a break but surprisingly Mrs B was happy to continue(longest stretch for her EVER 2:20 293miles).

ImageImage2 by Graeme Bird, on Flickr


ImageDSC00571 (1) by Graeme Bird, on Flickr

ImageDSC00580 (1) by Graeme Bird, on Flickr

ImageDSC00589 (1) by Graeme Bird, on Flickr

ImageDSC00594 (1) by Graeme Bird, on Flickr
Action shot

ImageDSC00606 (1) by Graeme Bird, on Flickr
Approach 31

ImageDSC00619 by Graeme Bird, on Flickr

ImageDSC00609 (2) by Graeme Bird, on Flickr

ImageDSC00652 by Graeme Bird, on Flickr
Hugh Town

ImageDSC00660 by Graeme Bird, on Flickr

ImageDSC00669 by Graeme Bird, on Flickr

ImageDSC00676 by Graeme Bird, on Flickr

ImageDSC00625 by Graeme Bird, on Flickr

ImageDSC00639 by Graeme Bird, on Flickr

ImageDSC00663 by Graeme Bird, on Flickr

ImageDSC00450 (1) by Graeme Bird, on Flickr
Stop over at Bodmin; very pleasant too.

ImageDSC00360 by Graeme Bird, on Flickr
Bodmin

ImageDSC00432 by Graeme Bird, on Flickr
Bodmin Moor

ImageDSC00434 by Graeme Bird, on Flickr
Bodmin random pointy thing
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