Mountain Flying in the Scottish Highlands and Cairngorms
PostPosted:Wed Sep 26, 2018 11:11 pm
During a recent holiday to the Scottish Highlands I booked onto a "Beach Landing" course through Highland Aviation, based at Inverness Airport. This was to be flying though the mountains, and landing at Barra, the only commercial beach airport in the world. Sadly, as is often the way with my flying, the weather precluded this, with winds on the Western Isles forecast to be gusting 50kts! We delayed until later in the week...
Later in the week came, and unfortunately the weather was still naff at Barra. Plans B and C (fly to Kirkwall, or to Oban) were also out due to bad weather. Highland Aviation also offer a 'Mountain Flying' course, so we went to Plan D, which was to go on an abridged Mountain Flying course (this is usually 3+ hours). Due to the incoming weather, and suspected turbulence due to high winds over the mountains, we played it by ear with the flying.
A quick trip out to nearby Dornoch airfield for a couple of touch & go's at somewhere new (and also my first ever clearance to enter a Danger Area!). Tain Range were active, but not dropping any bombs so more than happy to let us use Dornoch for a bit. After that, it was up Dornoch Firth and into the hills!
Having grown up in the flatlands of East Anglia, and the most mountainous terrain flown over to date being the southern part of the Peak District, it was quite hard to override my in-built GPWS, telling me to constantly pull up! Sometimes cloudbase prohibited this, with a few mountaintops being in the cloud.
We flew down Loch Ness, although didn't spot any monsters, and then over the Cairngorm mountains, and down the stunning Strath Nethy valley. The scenery up there cannot be described, and even the video doesn't do it justice. At times the ground seemed very close, although I never saw the shadow of the plane!
Having never experienced anything like this before, it was a great experience. Despite the weather, the flight was very smooth, with only one rough spot. It was certainly a worthwhile experience to do a completely different type of flying. Luckily, Highland Aviation have a Cessna 172, so I didn't have to worry about flying a type I'm not used to, or have the wing blocking the view (although sometimes with the terrain being above the wing this was the case!).
I have to thank Highland Aviation and the instructor, Simon, who were very friendly and accommodating, despite the weather trying its best to stop me flying!
Enjoy the video. Filmed on a GoPro Hero4, and I've added the GPS trace from my Skydemon log onto the video to show where we were going.
Later in the week came, and unfortunately the weather was still naff at Barra. Plans B and C (fly to Kirkwall, or to Oban) were also out due to bad weather. Highland Aviation also offer a 'Mountain Flying' course, so we went to Plan D, which was to go on an abridged Mountain Flying course (this is usually 3+ hours). Due to the incoming weather, and suspected turbulence due to high winds over the mountains, we played it by ear with the flying.
A quick trip out to nearby Dornoch airfield for a couple of touch & go's at somewhere new (and also my first ever clearance to enter a Danger Area!). Tain Range were active, but not dropping any bombs so more than happy to let us use Dornoch for a bit. After that, it was up Dornoch Firth and into the hills!
Having grown up in the flatlands of East Anglia, and the most mountainous terrain flown over to date being the southern part of the Peak District, it was quite hard to override my in-built GPWS, telling me to constantly pull up! Sometimes cloudbase prohibited this, with a few mountaintops being in the cloud.
We flew down Loch Ness, although didn't spot any monsters, and then over the Cairngorm mountains, and down the stunning Strath Nethy valley. The scenery up there cannot be described, and even the video doesn't do it justice. At times the ground seemed very close, although I never saw the shadow of the plane!
Having never experienced anything like this before, it was a great experience. Despite the weather, the flight was very smooth, with only one rough spot. It was certainly a worthwhile experience to do a completely different type of flying. Luckily, Highland Aviation have a Cessna 172, so I didn't have to worry about flying a type I'm not used to, or have the wing blocking the view (although sometimes with the terrain being above the wing this was the case!).
I have to thank Highland Aviation and the instructor, Simon, who were very friendly and accommodating, despite the weather trying its best to stop me flying!
Enjoy the video. Filmed on a GoPro Hero4, and I've added the GPS trace from my Skydemon log onto the video to show where we were going.
