Where have you been? What have you seen?
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By Iceman
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1603270
Other flying plans for the Easter weekend having fallen apart due to the forecast weather, I found myself at a loose end. Brendan of the Glenforsa Hotel had posted a webcam picture on Facebook asking what was missing from the scene - aircraft of course ! I didn't need much persuading. A quick call to the hotel for PPR and room booking and I departed Blackbushe in my Robin HR100-200B, G-CBFN, affectionately known as Foxy, at 13:40Z with a 9.5 hour endurance. I took my normal route to Glenforsa via CPT, WAL, TRN and BRUCE, which is pretty well a straight line. Initial solid IMC at 3000 ft gave way to good VMC around Birmingham, zone transits of Brize, Hawarden and Liverpool being taken before the long crossing of the Irish Sea to Turnberry, climbing to F045 and working London Info (northern frequency) followed by Scottish Info. Danger areas D405 and D406 were cold. Cleared through Prestwick airspace via TRN and routing towards BRUCE, the cloud became solid again and a few miles south of BRUCE I started to pick up quite a bit of ice, losing about 15 knots. A descent to 2000 ft soon cleared the ice and a change to the low-level Scottish Info frequency for the west coast saw me two-way again, having lost contact with the higher level Scottish Info frequency.

Just east of BRUCE, looking west.
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Two hours 55 minutes flight time from Blackbushe saw me on the ground at Glenforsa. An autogyro from Eddsfield arrived not long after me.
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Foxy parked up at Glenforsa on a pleasant Easter Friday evening.
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Flying's always thirsty work and Brendan had been busy over the winter moving and enlarging the bar so a few pints went down well :thumright: :cheers:.
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Over dinner, a large stag, nicknamed Luis, nonchalantly walked up the front lawn, nibbling at the undergrowth in front of the restaurant. He seemed to have become quite tame as this wasn’t his last visit to the hotel lawn that weekend.

Saturday morning saw more fine weather so I set off for Plockton for lunch.

The town of Mallaig, heading up towards Skye.
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Routing was low level around the Kyle of Loch Alsh over the Kyleakin Skye Bridge and in to Plockton.
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Having deposited my £10 landing fee in the box, it's a pleasant walk down the hill into Plockton village, and a lunch at the Plockton Hotel on the seafront.
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With the good weather persisting, a tour of the western isles is too good to miss so it was a two hour flight the long way back from Plockton back to Glenforsa, routing over Broadford, up the east coast of Skye, over to the Sollas overhead, south over Benbecula and Barra, and then back via the Tiree and Coll overheads before a tour of the west and south coasts of Mull.

East coast of Skye
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Sollas beach airport from the overhead (I have landed here once before for the annual BBQ fly-in)
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Benbecula airport
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Barra beach airport from the overhead (I have landed here a couple of times before but they weren't answering the radio on this occasion).
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Some fine dining in the Glenforsa restaurant again on the Saturday night (W&B is always challenged on these trips :D ) and Luis the stag :rendeer: put in another appearance. As is tradition, the top shelf malts took a bashing and a Highland Park was taken on Keef's bench at 2330; I didn't stay long as it was clear skies and the temperature was 0C :shaking:.
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Sunday morning saw a frosty start (I had to scrape the ice off Foxy) but with gin-clear skies. This sort of weather normally alludes me in Scotland, my previous track record having been to bring the Carp weather with me :roll:.


Miscellaneous (of this parish) had recently moved from Fort Augustus in the Great Glen to the west coast of Skye so an invitation to Easter Sunday lunch on Skye beckoned.

Sunday Glenforsa departure
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Heading north again towards Skye Broadford airport, this was the view of Mull's main town, Tobermory.
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Most of the high ground in Scotland was covered in snow, this being the Cuillin Mountains of Skye. One can see that travelling around this part of the world in IMC must be done with care, cumulo granitus, icing conditions and high winds being potential problems (but not today) !
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Arriving at Skye Broadford, I was followed in by a C172 who had arrived for lunch from Donegal. A Cambridge-based SR22 was already parked up, and with a registration of G-DRDR, it will come as no surprise to learn that the aircraft is owned by a couple of doctors :D. Miscellaneous, together with a security guard were waiting for me. You don't normally see anyone at Skye Broadford but the reason for the security guard will be explained later. Aircraft details deposited in the box (they send you a landing fee invoice by post later), and the Irish couple having availed themselves of the new (nice apparently) toilet facilities, Misc. offered them a lift to a local restaurant. We carried on for a pleasant scenic tour of Skye that I hadn't done since I was 8 years old (before there was a bridge to Skye) and ended up in the popular Uig Hotel for a nice Sunday roast beef lunch. Any perception that you eat your way around Scotland on such weekends is entirely justified :D (there are two or three Michelin star restaurants on Skye alone).

Driving back south again towards Portree and Broadford, we came across an S92 Coastguard helicopter parked by the side of the road. He was having some fun flying around at speed and practicing some winch recoveries with some local mountain rescue bods. Misc. did offer our services as willing victims but the pilot declined for some reason :shock:.


Thanks to Misc. for the tour of Skye. The reason for the security guard at Broadford was that he was guarding loads of wind generator towers destined for the Great Glen. I don't know why anyone would think that it would be easy to do a runner with one of these :lol:.
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On arrival back at Glenforsa, there was a gaggle of microlights and a Peterborough based D-reg Twin Commanche parked up. The microlights departed, probably quite sensibly, as the forecast for the Easter Monday didn't look too special further south. However, the Monday morning weather at Glenforsa was gorgeous and with a quick call to Oban for PPR, I departed there for fuel. I still had 2.5 hours of fuel on board from when I left Blackbushe but with the forecasts down south looking sh@te, a refill of two of Foxy's four tanks gave me the 5+ hours endurance that I needed for Blackbushe and any IFR contingencies.

Arriving left base for 01 at Oban with a pretty stiff easterly crosswind.
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The weather in Oban was still fine.


Paul Keegan of Total Logistics Concepts wasn't there for a good gossip catch-up but his young lad was quick with the fuel once he had serviced the inter-island Islander.
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I declined the normal offer of tea and Jammie Dodgers as I wanted to get south past Glasgow and Prestwick before the threatened rain and snow showers took hold. I routed south into a strong headwind and became solid IMC at 3500 ft west of Glasgow. I wouldn't become visual again until arrival at Blackbushe. With the prospect of icing conditions, I took the safer coastal route via the Castle Kennedy overhead rather than take the direct route via TRN. Monitoring the Volmet broadcasts (Scottish, Northern and then Southern / Main) all the way and keeping an eye on the OAT, the route south at 105 knots was long and tiring (Foxy has no autopilot). Having crossed the Irish Sea, I got an IFR clearance through Liverpool and Hawarden and then the OAT rose sharply. Monitoring Birmingham and then a Brize zone transit to CPT saw me back at Blackbushe 3 hours 25 after I had departed Oban. I had been listening to the Farnborough ATIS from north of Brize and was prepared for a divert into Oxford, but with a visibility of 9999, the 550 ft cloud base arrival at Blackbushe wasn't too challenging in the end.

Ten and a half hours of flying around the Western Isles in stunning weather certainly beat being 'down south' this weekend ! Where were you @Morten :roll: ?

Iceman 8)
Last edited by Iceman on Sun Apr 08, 2018 8:54 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Charliesixtysix, GolfHotel, G-BLEW and 13 others liked this
#1603304
Great write up Iceman, not only did I also enjoy your photographs, they brought back the scenery over the Outer Hebrides, particularly over North Uist where there appears to be more water than landmass. It all leaves me wishing you had also called me Saturday morning to join you on your bimble! :lol: Glad you did on the Sunday though. :thumleft:

As said previously, had you brought your boots and with a little more planning we could have got out the car and off the beaten track to explore what you had flown over on foot. That not only adds a different perspective when walking, it also does so when flying over it next time.
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By Morten
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1603336
Iceman wrote: Where were you @Morten :roll: ?

:)
It appears you had the trip I wanted to have but chickened out of!
Having said that, we did have a lovely trip down to Cornwall and greatly enjoyed it - from the ground only. Which did prove to have been the right decision as we would not have been able to get home in the air.
Still, the Scottish plans are all there and can be dusted off any time - and your pictorial certainly adds impetus...

Morten
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By Chipmunk Carol
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1603384
Did someone say "Sollas" [ears. prick up]

Super write up Iceman. Horribly jealous. I'll get there some day.

Did you by any chance on that trip, or in the past few years, happen to get a photo of Brendan and Sparky? I haven't seen them since their North Weald days in the 90s. I'd love to know what they look like now and how they are.
Last edited by Chipmunk Carol on Sun Apr 08, 2018 7:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
#1603385
Lovely write up. My kind of trip. :D

I did a trip last month in the 172 and picked up icing at night. Unlike the 235, the 172 does not enjoy icing. Added to this the the bloody window blew open. Great excitement was had trying to close a window, deal with the icing and keep the aircraft going where it was supposed to go the right way up................might add it was freezing cold the wind blast was otherwise I might have just left the window open.... :wink: ............. an autopilot would have been most welcome. :lol: :lol:
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By Iceman
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1603391
Chipmunk Carol wrote:Did you by any chance on that trip, or in the past few years, happen to get a photo of Brendan and Sparky


Of all the times that I've been there, I've never got a decent picture of either of them. If you search for Brendan Walsh on FB (Rudeboy on here), and scroll a little way down his page, you'll see a picture of him as of 2nd April 2015, much as he looks now. This is the best that I have of Sparky, taken last weekend ...

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Iceman 8)
Last edited by Iceman on Sun Apr 08, 2018 8:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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