Where have you been? What have you seen?
By tomtytom
#1856531
My 2nd trip report here on the forums, gather round children......

From about the Monday onwards my attention was basically fixed on the ever changing forecast for the weekend. We had been looking forward to visiting Sandown and after following their Facebook feed with regular pictures of some amazing food the weekend couldn't come quick enough. This would be my first grass land away and in preparation I had done some grass circuits a few weeks earlier at Shobdon with our CRI and flying friend Steve.
Friday arrives and the forecast is kind of bleak. It looks do-able in the morning so we wait for the next set of Tafs on which being published we decided the forecast for Saturday was much more favourable.
Saturday, we arrive and pack the Robin and get underway. The route down takes us from Blackpool through Liverpool's zone and they always provide a superb service. Onto Shawbury then past Skydemons HQ, Sailsbury Plain then transit the Solent into Sandown.
Liverpool transit
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We arrived, bagged our first grass landing and took directions onto the camping field. Landing and camping fees paid we grabbed a beer each from the bar and got the tent pitched.
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Then we took a short walk down the road and met John who runs south wight rentals car hire. He sorted us with a Passat for a few days and we got back to Sandown in time to sample 2 of their famous pizzas then squeeze a beach trip in before the evening entertainment started.
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Lovely evening all round, we met and chatted with Dan and his brilliant team made us feel like family for the weekend. Chilled out, live band, relaxed, good camping facilities Sandown for us is a complete gem and we will definitely be heading back sometime soon we hope.
Sunday, we took the Passat out for a spin around the Island visiting the Needles, Corf Campsite (I had previously camped there several years ago when our scout district had 10 nights camping with 200+ scouts) and some of the beautiful scenic views dotted around the island.
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Our Sunday finished with this....
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Monday morning we nipped up to the Arreton Barns home to a farm shop and some vintage type boutiques. Mrs Tomtytom treated herself to a bottle of the island distilled Mermaid Gin, some local honey and a new hand crafted leather dog collar for our Labrador who was on his holidays at my parents. We returned the trusty Passat to John and packed all the camping gear back into the Robin, brimmed the tank and prepared for our journey home. The weather was bit of a mixed bag so we departed and carefully routed back up north to gods county.
OE on the grass ready to return
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On the way back
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Bad weather Diversion.
This was a genuine first for me, passing Shawbury the weather started to close, rain patches become more frequent and intense so I made the call to divert into Sleap. The Met and Tafs on departing Sandown had been promising but as we aviate in the UK it could always go either way. The lads based at Sleap are a sterling team and helped us find accommodation for the evening and recommended a good pub for tea.
The Old Rectory in Wem
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Tuesday - Sunny start to the day and after a scrummy breakfast we made our way back to the airfield and made the last 30min hop back to our home base.

It was a great weekend and we met some great people along the way. Whilst Mrs Tomtytom and myself have been flying and camping for some time now this is the first weekend we have truly mixed our two hobbies together and had a cracking weekend.

We had no pressure to return home as we can both work from home and this is a big plus when going slightly further afield to what we are used to. I did have the regularly changing forecast in the back of my mind whilst there and its something I really struggle to switch off from.
Anyone who has yet to have a go at flamping Sandown has excellent facilities available 24hrs, good food and the Morrisons a short walk is handy to pick up some supplies if your out of hours for the Bistro.

Thanks to Dan for being a fabulous host and the team at Sleap for fixing us up for the night.
Dave W, UncleT, Flying_john and 9 others liked this