Scilly Trip

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Member for

19 years 9 months

Posts: 108

(Border-line post between GA, Commercial and GD forums)

Hello,

I thought I'd share these few pics I took this week-end, during a fantastic trip to the Scilly Isles... I had planned to fly myself there but it was too risky with the weather and, to be fair we probably would have missed the wedding at which we were invited.

Those who were in the area this week probably didn't fly much until Saturday, as the wind was blowing like I had never seen... It made the confetti throwing more fun but I would not have liked to land in this weather.

Still, we flew from Newquay to Saint-Mary with Skybus, in a DHC6 Twin Otter, which is an 18-seater. The great thing was that there were only four of us on the way there, which allowed a good chat with the pilots. Though significantly bigger than the C172 I'm used to, I was surprised to discover a relatively "easy" and nicely laid out cockpit, in which I could imagine myself very much at ease. This twin prop seems to have amazing STOL capabilities and is primarily used in Canada, I gathered, for short hops on country and moutain strips.

There is only one NDB on Saint-Mary and we flew VFR all the way, first at 2000 feet and then 1000 feet... nice and low over the violently shaken sea.

30 minutes and dramatic views of the coast later, we touched down on Saint-Mary's airfield on a strange runway: first of all it is half tarmac, half grass and it is shaped like a bow, going uphill at first and then downhill from midpoint. Since it ends just over the cliffs, you do not really want to overshoot there!

Anyway, I long to fly the C172 there as we had the most friendly and enjoyable stay on the Isles (Saint-Agnes in particular, with 70 inhabitants only!).

Cheers,
Steph

PS there doesn't seem to be any floatplane business there... Did anybody ever though of starting something up to provide a fast-hopping transport between the Isles?

1. The DHC6 from the side
2. The twin otter
3. Just after take off
4. Saint-Mary's island
5. Saint-Yves bay
6. Wind mills around Newquay

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Member for

20 years 1 month

Posts: 731

Fantastic pictures, my parents were on the Scillies over the weekend, your pictures prove that the weather was indeed much brighter down there!

I love the picture of St Ives, Cornwall looks very small from up there, you can see all the way to the Lizard peninsular, lovely :)

(I guess if you look hard you can make out Culdrose and Predannack....)