Islay

Caernarfon-Carlisle-Islay-Caernarfon. (17 August 2009)

After a week's delay due to maintenance issues G-CCTT was ready to fly. I had been planning a week flying out of Caernarfon with good friend and CAA examiner Andy Reay for some time, but the day had finally arrived. I'd set off from Wakefield at 0430 and arrived at the gates of Caernarfon Airport at 0735 after a drive totally unimpeded by traffic.

At 0830 Andy arrived and declared that he wasn't going anywhere without a coffee. Whilst he was sorting that out I began the planning: Caernarfon to Carlisle via the Manchester low level route, Blackpool airport and Dean Cross VOR. A meticulous plan was produced in about 15 minutes, including navigational data, weather brief, airfield brief and en-route frequencies. No significant NOTAMs were found, the en-route weather brief showed some scattered cloud and both airfields were in good order. The diversion airfields were Blackpool and Walney Island and these were also clear of any restrictions.

At 1025 on a sunny Monday morning we taxied to the hold at Caernarfon. This was more of a challenge in the C172 than I had remembered because the nose wheel steering is not as responsive on the Cessna as on the Pipers I am more used to. After a few deliberate(!) left and right turns to get used to the differential brakes I was back up to speed. At the hold prior to checking the engine we had a long wait for the oil temperature to rise into the green band: it's important to make sure this happens before commencing the power check to prevent engine damage before the oil is at the correct temperature. Power checks are also slightly different on the C172 with the maximum revs being 1700 not 2000 as on the Piper 28 I normally fly. One more thing to get used to!!

We took off into a lovely morning at 1035 and levelled at 1500 feet to transit the Menai Strait towards Great Ormes Head. As usual, RAF Valley instructed us to squawk 3727. After turning on time at Great Orme Valley asked us to contact Hawarden approach. We asked Hawarden for a basic service and overhead transit which were immediately forthcoming. Overhead Hawarden exactly on time we took the Manchester ATIS to find the QNH of 1014 and descended to 1000 feet to transit the low level route on the Manchester QNH. Ashcroft farm marks the entry to the low level route at the south and having found this we took up a heading of 350 degrees as a wind corrected northerly track. By this time Andy had established contact with Manchester Approach and had obtained a basic service. Thankfully the transit of the low level route was uneventful, although I did spot the house I used to live in as we passed over the canal at Warrington!

Leaving the low level route to the north we turned on track for Blackpool and were handed on to Warton Radar. Because we'd be transiting the Blackpool overhead at 3500 feet we asked Warton to coordinate this with Blackpool. A few moments later Warton advised us that we were clear to transit Blackpool and that we should remain with Warton: there was no need to contact Blackpool as Warton would coordinate us against Blackpool traffic. This is one of the many reasons that I love flying-the teamwork between ourselves, the Warton controller and the Blackpool controller made the Blackpool transit simplicity itself. For teamwork however, the best was yet to come! By this time we were overhead Warton and could see a few aircraft on the Apron and one on approach. I looked out to the right and could see the house I'd lived in when I was working in Preston some years ago: was this just a tour of all my old houses!?!

Overhead Blackpool just a minute behind the planned time we selected, identified and then displayed the Dean Cross VOR and began our track. This took us close to Walney Island, but again Warton were coordinating the traffic. About this time, Warton were unable to raise a PA28 that had departed Blackpool not long after we had passed overhead. We were able to hear the controller and the pilot getting very frustrated with this situation and at this point Andy decided to relay transmissions between the two. We apportioned responsibility: I would continue with all routine calls for our flight, and Andy would listen and relay between the aircraft and controller. After ten minutes of trying all manner of things the pilot, whose radio technique was far from the best, finally managed to make himself heard by the Warton controller. Andy confirmed with both stations that his relay was no longer needed and we continued on route. By now we only had 10 miles to run to Dean Cross and Warton, having thanked us for our assistance, handed us to Carlisle approach.

Turning at Dean Cross for Carlisle we quickly found Carlisle town itself and having written down the ATIS-information Foxtrot, we contacted Carlisle approach and were instructed to join downwind runway 25. We were also informed that information Golf was now current and the only change from Foxtrot was the QNH: now 1010 not 1011. We landed at Carlisle and taxied straight for fuel. Shutting down at 1240 gave us an en-route time of 2 hours 15 against a planned time 2 hours 17. Not only had we made up the minute we were late at Blackpool, but we'd saved two minutes on the plan as well!

We decided we'd have lunch at Carlisle and we both opted for the all day breakfast. This turned out to be a monster breakfast with a lovely Cumberland sausage! Highly recommended for anyone flying to Carlisle in the future! We departed Carlisle to the west at 1400 local time and were handed on to Scottish information quickly. As Andy was busy with the chart and setting up radials on the Turnberry (TRN) VOR I put in the initial call to Scottish. "Scottish Information good afternoon G-CCTT; basic service" The reply as expected was "G-TT hello Scottish, basic service pass your details" and I gave them "G-TT; C172; Carlisle to Islay; 10 miles south abeam Dumfries; 2500 feet climbing FL45; direct Turnberry and basic service". Scottish replied "G-TT thank you nothing known to affect your climb report with ten miles to run to Turnberry". We did a little head scratching as to why he'd asked us to report with 10 to run and then we realised. At Turnberry the Prestwick control area comes down to 3500 feet and we'd be inside if we stayed at that level.

The Solway Firth was stunning with the odd cloud blocking the view and from FL45 we could see for miles. Abeam Loch Doon, which we saw to the right, we reported to Scottish we had about 10 miles to Turnberry and he asked us to contact Prestwick Radar on frequency 120.55 for further service.

Prestwick had our details so we quickly asked to transit the CTA via Turnberry. The controller immediately issued a clearance for the class D, and asked that we report turning at Turnberry for Macrahanish. Having reported clear of controlled airspace at Turnberry we adjusted track for the Macrahanish VOR and were already visual with the Mull of Kintyre. Having checked back in with Scottish information, they coordinated our overlfight of Campbeltown airport, and again no frequency change was needed. On the controller's request Andy estimated the time overhead as 1430 UTC which he reported as "Estimate overhead Campbeltown minute three-zero".

At exactly half past the hour we were overhead and now turning on the final leg of the flight into Islay. The Port Ellen VRP was quite obvious, as was Andy's interest in the various distilleries that we could see! Islay airport took a little more work to find, but because we had been descending on a three degree glide based on the distance to go, when we did finally see the airport we were exactly at the right height to carry out a straight in approach onto runway 31. Straight in approaches and direct joins are always favoured on the Commercial Pilot's Licence courses (which I will be taking shortly) because it is "commercially expeditious", and doesn't waste time, fuel and therefore money descending in the overhead.

We shut down at 1555 local with a total flight time so far of 4 hours and 10 minutes. Having paid the fees, which were very reasonable, and gone into the terminal building, which looked very new, Andy was disturbed to find that the whisky on show in the various cabinets was not for sale! The carrot cake however, was available for a small sum of money so we had to settle for that and a cup of tea. We phoned Caernarfon to find out if the weather had changed significantly since we'd left. If is has we were told, it's only got better. With less than an hour on this beautiful island, Andy and I had already vowed to come back again. On this occasion however, we departed at 1645 local time for Caernarfon, and said goodbye to the beautiful island that really had grabbed our full attention as a destination for a future flight, which will include a stop-over. The return route was fairly simple: back to Turnberry, direct to Blackpool, then on to Wallasey and direct Caernarfon.

As it turned out this leg, although the longest at 2 hours and 40 minutes was also the simplest. The only slight wrinkle occurred as we were handed on to Blackpool from Scottish (Warton had now closed for the day). We were given the wrong frequency by the Scottish controller and having made several attempts to contact Blackpool Approach we tried the tower controller instead. He informed us that radar was closed for the day and that Scottish should have passed us to the tower frequency. From Blackpool we were passed to Liverpool Approach on a squawk of 0021, and Liverpool asked us our intentions after passing Woodvale. We decided that we could remain outside controlled airspace, which seemed to please the approach controller who was very busy providing radar vectors to several airliners. Approaching Great Orme the radio reception from Liverpool is usually poor, so we asked to freecall Caernarfon before reaching this point. In actual fact, there was no point as the time was now 1900 and Caernarfon radio would be unmanned as the airfield was unlicenced after 1800.

For the final part of this flight we'd be on our own. That was fine by us because the views into the setting sun were spectacular. We could easily make out the Isle of Man and just beyond that the fuzzy outline of Ireland. We continued down the Menai strait at high level ready to descend abeam Caernarfon town for the airfield.

We took a guess that because we'd taken off on runway 26 in the morning, the wind would now have backed as it was evening to favour runway 20. It proved to be a good guess because the wind was straight down runway 20. We had shut down at 1925, exactly nine hours after we had departed. We'd been past Blackpool twice, landed at Carlisle and Islay and covered no less than 544 track miles. It had been a record setting day for us both having recorded our longest time in the air at 6 hours and 50 minutes loggable time. What a truly fantastic day out which had left us with only one question: when are we going back to Islay?