Where have you been? What have you seen?
By tomtytom
#1795812
First go at writing a trip report, iv tried using my dyslexic filter :thumleft:
With the bank holiday fast approaching and my partner itching to get away for a few days as we have had holidays/our wedding and other events cancelled this summer we booked our trusty share plane for the weekend. We then had all the "big maps" out covering the top of Scotland to the south coast and set to trying to find airfields that we could camp at and make bit a tour around for the weekend. What happened next was my partner found a rather nice hotel in Belfast for the Friday/Saturday so that swayed our initial route from Blackpool over the Irish Sea to Northern Island. The Grand Central Hotel offered a weekend deal with a straight forward cancelation policy that would be perfect for our trip. We PPR'd into Belfast City with mandatory handling and Steve at AV Flight took care of all the paperwork.
Friday
North Coast of Isle Of Man on our way over.
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Approach into Belfast city routing over the city centre, ATC did a great job slotting us in between some commercial Air Lingus Airbuses. The last 600ft to the threshold was "sporty" but in limits and we touched down 1hr 15min from leaving Blackpool.
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The realisation then set in that we had actually achieved the goal of at arriving at our intended destination and after having my first real experience of concierge service i was happily sipping the most expensive pint of ale ever purchased but was no issue as we had the best view at the hotels cocktail bar 23 floors up over looking the city of Belfast. We had tea out at a place called flame a few streets down along with a good pint of Guinness.
Saturday
The breakfast served was first class. The hotel arranged a black cab taxi tour of the city and Jim the cabbie took us for a 2hr history tour of Belfast. What an incredible place, being born in 92 I had no real knowledge of the troubles. Jim took us round the Peace walls and murals on both sides delving into the history of what had happened. We finished at Crumlin Road Gaol (jail) which was a EX HMP establishment now a visitor attraction.
Sunday
Quick blast round a local city market we picked up some local art and belfast brewed coffee. Weather checked for the remainder of the weekend we taxi'd back to belfast city ready for the onward leg to Islay. Belfast tower let us carry out 1 climbing orbit over on departure allowing us to snap this
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We routed up the north east coast of Northern Ireland and over the water to Islay
Trading in the 5 star luxury city hotel for a 5000 star 3 man tent we snapped the campsite on the way in
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Islay, what a beautiful airfield and place. In our spare time we run a explorer scout section and help a Duke of Edinburgh group so feel very much at home in the wilderness and the scenery was just incredible. Our local taxi driver collected us and took us across to Port Charlotte and we pitched the tent and took a hike down to the beach. Flight time 40min
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Monday
0500 we got up, down to the beach and just sat in silence as the sun rose through the clouds and over the distant mountains. The wind was so calm the water looked like you could walk on it across the bay.
We enjoyed a more simpler breakfast then what the grand central had spoilt us with consisting of Lorne Sausages and freshly baked rolls.
Our local taxi driver collected us from the campsite and had squared us a bottle of whiskey from one of the nearby distilleries. His nephew works at one and secured a mates rates priced bottle. Back at Islay airport we took some fuel on and departed to the east over Arran. My partner and I have had some great adventures on Arran with our Duke of Edinburgh especially that time we found a tick in her left breast and after half the camp site offering to help we had to nip to A & E to have it removed :lol: anyway... Arran
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Into Prestwick which was a hive of activity for a bank holiday Monday. Loads of GA in the circuit mixing with some 4 engine Russian beast ATC did well keeping everyone together. Flight time 40min. We brimmed out tanks at the Prestwick Flight Centre then headed out for our last leg. Heading to the top of the lakes, London information was busy with aircraft all other capitalising on the decent weather we cross the Soloway Firth and it felt like passing the Welcome to Lancashire sign on the M6 which I was really glad we didn't as the traffic down there was at a standstill.
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There is definitely something very satisfying cruising over traffic and our bank holiday choice of transport had been golden.
The winds had picked up by Monday and with a headwind we clocked up 1hr 30 ish back to our home base Blackpool. We unpacked, cleaned the plane down and for the first time all weekend my partner offered to drive :D
Overall
What a cracking weekend having a contrast from full handling, swish hotel and fine dining to camping its been worth every penny and been great to visit 3 new airfields.
Pictures taken: 300+
Everyone we met and came across was friendly and lovely to meet. From the staff at all 3 airfields to the hotel, campsite and taxi drivers. Belfast is full of culture and history and we will definitely plan to go back in the new year.
My lessons learnt:
1. Its hard to switch off in between legs and not get obsessed with the upcoming forecasts.
2. Leaving Prestwick I found myself a little tonged twisted on the ground which I put down to it being a long weekend and capacity to process my words in a busy and new environment.
3. Sky demon/ADBS out I need a new method for holding my phone and keeping the charging cables for said phone and the sky echo thing all tidy in the plane. Being left handed my hand always clashes with my phone which is usually clipped onto a kneeboard.
4. With so much to see and do at both places we would spend more time at each location.
Mr and Mrs Tomtytom
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UncleT, MachFlyer, Kittyhawk and 5 others liked this
By tomtytom
#1795823
Cheers Rob

Something id like to add is there are a few people in our share group who have mentored me over my early hours flying and their support and advice has been excellent. I'm sure a few of them felt very proud when on my return to base knowing what a great weekend we had.
By tomtytom
#1796095
phijip wrote:Thanks a lot. May I ask how much you had to pay at Belfast City airport?

Yeah sure, we used AV flight and found Stephen there brilliant.
We weigh in at 1000kg
Landing Fee = £16.15
Handling Fee = £25.00
Parking Fee = £7.75 per 24 hours, so £15.50 total.
All prices are applicable of 20% VAT.
Our bill came to 68 Quid
Notes for others would be Air traffic put us on a 6mile final, you will need to clear "standard commercial airport security" to return airside - they didn't mind that we had multiple bags etc. ATC at Belfast where very helpful and accommodating. They only have chocks on the apron for "big planes" Steve did offer us use of chocs that would of fitted a 737 but we had taken our own wooden door stops that fitted better. Also there is no Avgas there so we planned our fuel around that.
A taxi from the airport to our hotel in the centre of Belfast was around 6-7quid.