Island hop, Tank stop and Cliff top – Day One of our epic UK Tour 2021

Despite our pre-tour briefing via zoom on Sunday we met at the flying school early as there was plenty of prep and safety checks to get through before we could depart… not least of which a final weight and balance for our pilots plus luggage. It was of course important to check the weather and check in with our scheduled food and fuel stops. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t very kind to us that Monday morning; low cloud and poor vis, but the TAFs and METARs were looking promising at the south coast as was the LIVE webcam at Sandown but getting to the south coast was always going to be tricky. so we delayed our departure for an hour or so until we got a break in the weather somewhere around 11am.

A wonderful range of experience, abilities and ages in the team this year, time for a quick roll call; Capt White and student Rebecca in the R22 aka Team HIZZ, Capt Fordy and Capt Langdon in the Cabri G2 Team RJVH and last but by no means least Capt Elling-Hwang and Capt Glynn (and most of the luggage) in the R44 CGGG.

We headed Eastbound from Elstree and then south through the city zone past the O2 etc. it was a little murky but well within limits, so we pushed on with the knowledge there were brighter skies ahead. By the time we got to Shoreham the cloud cover gave way to glorious sunshine and made for a smooth crossing to the Isle of Wight and our first planned stop Sandown EGHN. It’s about 125 miles from Elstree so a good time to fuel and stretch our legs.

The Solent is a fantastic introduction to flying over water. Just a short hop taking approximately 5 mins with stunning views of the coast and the marine traffic below and always a treat to see Spinnaker Tower from 1900ft. The Isle of Wight has plenty to offer pilots in the way of landing spots but Sandown is our go to as is has not only is the only fuelling location on the island but does a superb lunch and has a Black Arrow replica which makes for a great selfie.

After Sandown our next destination was Dunkerswell, East Devon and day one’s lunch stop but not before a sightseeing trip around the island; St. Katherine’s Point, Alum bay and of course the famous Needles. No significant weather and no restricted airspace until we reached the mainland. Bournemouth ATC were very friendly and gave us permission to fly along the southern edge of their CTR meaning we could route along the Jurassic coastline. Capt. Langdon had made a request to fly by The Tank Museum at Bovington which meant a short detour inland at Poole, managed to get a couple of great pictures as we went over and on to Dunkeswell. Due to our delayed start we just missed our lunch slot, a huge thanks to the catering staff there who kindly rustled up some sandwiches while we fuelled the helis.

Out of Dunkeswell and back to the coastline joining it just south of Exeter. This our third and final leg of day one terminated at The Carlyon Bay Hotel which was on Cornwall’s south coast. We flew in relatively close formation right to the UK’s most southerly point – Land’s End taking stock of the landing site on route. Bit of cloud cover was there to greet us but we got quite lucky… In the UK you usually find that the temperature differs between coast and slightly more inland and so does the humidity meaning the cloud doesn’t always form so easily which gave us broken/scattered clouds and WOW moment of the day a Pilot’s Halo – A 360 rainbow with the shadow of the R22 right at the centre! At Lands End it was a hairpin almost back on ourselves as we explored Cornwall’s  North West coast; St Ives, Newquay up to Rock and Padstow. At Padstow we cut across country to make our approach into Carlyon Bay hotel flying over The Eden Project.

On arrival we performed a low fly by circling round to be sure the landing was clear, safe and of course the Terrain which is hard to allow for until you see the site. We had preorganised our landing order leaving R22 until last in case there wasn’t enough space. It’s important to note that the space required for 3 helicopters is greatly increased when an allowance has been made for 1.5x the width of the rotor disc. With plenty of communication with a super chap on the ground and the other pilots we were able to, in turn make a safe approach. A bit of a treat for all the other hotel guests as well as us!

Another thing to bear in mind when landing at private sites is fuel planning. I mean whilst the helicopters can all do at least three hours on full fuel you must allow for complications for routeing, speed etc. alters the amount of fuel burn. This means three hours should be treated as the optimum. On trips like this we plan for each sortie to be ideally no more than two hours to give us that extra one hour of fuel if we have to make diversions, fly slower and any other contingencies which gives us in essence more fuel than required. It’s useful to know that often private sites are effectively like landing/lifting from a confined area. We need a lot of spare power in the helicopters so the last thing you want to do is land with TOO MUCH fuel on board. So, how did we make the calculation for this trip? We made our last fuel stop at Dunkeswell that when we land at the Carlyon bay hotel we were getting light on fuel so we had plenty of power but not so light that we couldn’t re route during the last leg or find fuel after our departure in good time on Day Two. If you need any advice or help with fuel calculations please get in touch.

Back to Carlyon Bay… A wonderful, welcoming hotel built in a rather dramatic setting, on a clifftop with breath-taking views. Once landed, shut down and locked up it was straight to the piano bar followed by a very pleasant evening regaling tales of our first days adventure and finding out it wasn’t just the violin Rebecca played…

Have a look below at our video montage of Day One. If you have any questions or would like to know more about our trips and tours then please get in touch.

Day Two next Monday…