Where have you been? What have you seen?
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By Iceman
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#1603826
Merlin83b wrote:Excellent trip, lovely pics and what fantastic weather you had! Really must make it up there one day.


Living where you do @Merlin83b, I'm surprised that you haven't made the trek north; well worth the effort I can assure you :thumright:.

Iceman 8)
By TopCat
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#1604070
I absolutely loved this account, and full marks for the excellent pictures.

Just out of interest, how feasible is this sort of trip in VMC?

By which I mean, obviously, it's possible, maybe even reasonably probable, that with say, several extra days available for waiting out the weather at fields and/or B&Bs along the way, getting there and back would be doable for a VFR pilot.

My question is (and it's a tough one to quantify, I concede), how often would the weather be ok, given say, twice the number of days available and attempts at favourable times of year? One attempt in 10, from April to August, say? 1 in 5? in 2?
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By Iceman
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#1604342
AndyR wrote:More turbines to dodge in future then Mark?

One day I’ll get the Bulldog up there. Wish it was somewhat swifter though :D


Indeed, more wind turbines to catch out the extreme scud runners @AndyR :shock:. Come to think of it, I've not been past a turbine looking up since flying alongside that other hooligan, Timothy, on the Operation Jericho reenactment 8).

I thought that you no longer had a bulldog ?

Iceman 8)
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By Iceman
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#1604345
TopCat wrote:Just out of interest, how feasible is this sort of trip in VMC?


@TopCat, I have done the west coast of Scotland many time in various aircraft from SportCruiser and Bulldog to de-iced twin. The SportCruiser and Bulldog were very much VFR aircraft. You will see many other trip reports from VFR-only aircraft. I have only ever not made it there on the day that I intended and returned on the day that I intended on one trip, both flights being in Paul Sengupta's Bulldog (I actually ended up getting the train home from Oban whilst Paul brought his aircraft back the following day, but that's another story :D). With any VFR flying, a degree of flexibility is required, but the Scottish west coast does get its fair share of Atlantic weather. Given twice the number of days available, from April to August, I reckon you'd be looking at 1 in 2 to 1 in 3.

Iceman 8)
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By Dave W
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#1604349
@Iceman's comment about the need for flexibility reminded me about this thread about a planned trip for some of us to Glenforsa last "summer" ;).

Reading from page 6 will give an idea of the near real time decision making, bail-out options and eventually the results we had.

As a VFR trip, it was definitely challenging; @Pete L and I always had a good abort available, but it was a continuous few hours of navigation and weather risk management.

It was safe, fun and good experience, but hardly relaxing!

What was notable at the time, and doesn't really come out from that thread, was how useful to each of us Pete and my pilot reports via the air traffic units we were working at the same time were, in order to enable two aircraft to make best use of the others' real-time weather experience.

It was my first successful trip to Glenforsa, and everybody else is 100% correct - it is well worth it. A gem for UK general aviation - everyone should fly to and stay there.
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By Paul_Sengupta
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#1606597
As Iceman says above, flexibility is the key. We had a nice curry out among the local wildlife in Carlisle once on the way up, and a 300ft flight from Glenforsa to Oban (low cloud, all over the sea, clear underneath) to get back to the mainland to at least get Iceman on the train on the way back! Woke up the next day to completely clear skies and sunshine so I flew back. The only cloud and rain encountered at all was around the Manchester area (!). Ducked into Barton, waited it out while having lunch, carried on.

Another time Charles Hunt came with me and we spent the night in a lovely B&B near Campbeltown after diverting there on the way back. We probably could have made it back to Carlisle but diverting and spending another night gave more fuel options and we'd have never have found that B&B otherwise.

Another time I made it up on the Saturday, back on the Sunday, to just spend one night in Glenforsa. I made the effort specially as it was to be Keef's last trip and I wanted to be there. Clear weather throughout.
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#1606657
My reply to TopCat either got lost in the ether or suffered my finger trouble :? so I summarise here:

Top Cat, I've done a few wonderful VFR trips to Scotland (I'm based in the East Midlands, so only an hour north of you) , but you either have to be lucky with the weather or be willing to be on the ground for a while if the weather is poor. One example of [almost] perfect weather all round is on this trip report: here

There are worse places in the world than a Scots pub to be stuck in when the weather is poor :) .
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