From the sea and sand to Snowdon’s summit – Day Two of our epic UK Tour 2021
After breakfast, it was time to pack our bags and head down to the helicopters still beautifully lined up on the golf course (great snap taken of the Caution sign with the helicopters in the background). All the usual checks before departure. We put in place a position order to depart i.e. those nearest the cliff first which meant either the R44 or the R22 would go first with the G2 holding until we were away. We caused quite a bit of excitement as we made for one of the course holes before dropping off the cliff edge like something out of Airwolf or at least that is how it looked to those still eating breakfast and we were out over the sea. Absolutely stunning, was one of my trip highlights.
First stop Bodmin, inland northbound for fuel, only a short hop (12 miles) away. Bodmin airfield sits on top of a hill, a pretty little airfield and makes an interesting watch seeing the planes landing as is on a bit of a slope. Clearly they are all well versed as they all seemed to manage okay. The ‘pumps’ are in the car park and is the fuelling area for all aircraft, so you literally hover and land down into a car park with little taxiing which meant it was helis down, wheels on to reposition for fuel.
Away from Bodmin, we headed North West bound straight over to the north Cornwall coast, aiming for Tintagel Castle and then following the coastline surfer spotting; Bude, Barnstable, Ilfracombe then across the northern tip of Exmoor, sticking close to the sea right the way through past the new Power Station that’s being built at Bridgewater to the west of Burnham-on-Sea. There is a restricted area there but its up to 2000ft so as it was so clear we were able to climb above the restriction see what there up to. Needless to say we took a minor detour slightly inland at Weston-super-Mare to give the Heli Museum (one of our most popular student trip destinations) a buzz on the way through… Well it would be rude not to.
Changing frequency to Bristol airspace and they were very friendly, no problems at all giving Chris and Mat got clearance to fly through their CTA which is very nice of them. Otherwise we just stayed beneath it as we were just doing a bit of sightseeing, more or less following along the M5 and then up past the NEW Severn bridge then turning eastbound at the old Severn bridge into Oxfordshire, because it just south of Kemble, right over the top of High Grove House, famously Prince Charles country residence and into a rather recent addition to our recommended fuel stops – Oaksey Park.
Oaksey Park is a beautifully kept airfield with a long grass runway. Very nice people and extremely reasonable fuel prices! Great club house, perfect for a break, a cup of tea and bite to eat and talk over our final sortie of the day to Plas Dinas via Mach Loop and Mt. Snowdon
The airfield has all sorts including some maintenance facilities. This is where on the way back to the helis I saw (never seen this before) a helicopter in maintenance was being run with no rotor blades. It was quite a bizarre sight, a turbine, think it was a Hughes 500 or 369 being run.
Back in the cockpit it was time to head for the lush green landscape of Wales so westbound back over High Grove, straight back over The Severn bridge (no toll for us) and we were in Wales. We all had a similar route planned with a few tweaks left or right depending on our pilots personal interests be it take a closer look at a castle or railway line. We all turned around about the Newport area before Cardiff and then heading up to Abergavenny, which is just to the east of the Brecon Beacons, then following along a very picturesque river through the northern part of the Brecon Beacons through the black mountains and looping around into Carmarthen, which is not to be confused Caernarfon. So Carmarthen is in the south of Wales and Caernarfon is right up in the north. So, from Carmarthen we then took a slightly more northbound route, eventually getting ourselves out on the coastline at Aberystwyth and then heading eastbound into part of the Mach Loop. The Mach Loop is a set of valleys situated between Machynlleth and Dolgellau and is used regularly for low level flight training some as low as 250ft and in some areas down to 100ft! Great for hover practice but for jets…. Wow! hich is where a lot of the fast jets do their training. We did talk to London info and there didn’t seem to be any activity which was quite useful as otherwise it would have been interesting. The views are quite simply awe-inspiring through the loop and should be added to your ‘places to fly’ for sure.
Rebecca & I, we decided to take a slight detour as we left the loop to Lake Vyrnwy which has long been a student trip destination unfortunately is no longer as no suitable landing. Lake Vyrnwy is a reservoir in Powys and is most certainly a photo opportunity no to be missed. Fingers crossed we will be able to land for lunch again soon.
After a trip down memory lane it was time to go climb a mountain! So westbound to Snowdon… The weather continued to be kind to us and allowed us to reach the summit with just a few broken clouds. Can I describe flying over Snowdon? Incredible, amazing, fantastic and super cool! We were lucky enough to fly right over the highest point such an odd feeling to be so high yet so near to the ground. Once we’d caught our breath we ‘dropped’ down the other side of the mountain, just over 3,500 ft and made our approach into Plas Dinas Country House Hotel just to the east of Caernarfon Airport.
All 3 helis landed within minutes of one another, with myself and Rebecca last to land in HIZZ. Approximately 400nm total around 200 from Oaksey Park all taking slightly different routes some slower some faster and there we all were landing together.
A heroes welcome awaited at Plas Dinas and we were certainly ready for some R&R in The Gunroom Restaurant and shared tales of Wales into the evening….
Look out for Day Three next week…
