While on the Isle of Man... more specifically in the pub in the hotel I was staying at, I met a few locals including some pilots. A short chat later [more specifically, several hours...:-)] and with an instructor from the flying school there, I was offered a change to go for a flight around the Isle of Man with one of the local pilots!
Awesome! I have driven most of the island the previous day, so a couple of days later I headed out to Ronaldsway Airport for a ride with a local PPL holder. It was, of course, a lot of fun. The aircraft was a Reims/ Cessna F150H, G-UFLY.
Fun times! I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. All I'll add is that the Isle of Man is a really nice place, the locals are friendly, and, as always, flying is the best way to see the countryside! BTW - we were airborne just over 35 minutes, so it didn't need to take long either :-)
Contact details are:
facebook and
website.
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| Reims/ Cessna F150H, G-UFLY,, operated by Isle of Man Flight Training |
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| Town of Douglas, the largest town on the Isle of Man |
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| Town of Ramsey |
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| Andreas airfield. Used as a glider base - not sure about other GA flying |
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| Jurby airfield - apparently not used as an airfield now |
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| Town of Peel |
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| Town of Port Erin |
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| Calf of Man |
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| Town called Castletown. This is where I stayed. Awesome place! |
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| Short final runway 08 for Ronaldsway Airport, Isle of Man |
1 comment:
Hi Rodney. Fascinating post, thanks. Looks like a really interesting flight.
You can see from their shapes that both Andreas and Jurby airfields are ex-RAF bases.
There's info on Andreas here http://www.forgottenairfields.com/united-kingdom/man/andreas-s961.html
and Jurby here http://www.forgottenairfields.com/united-kingdom/man/jurby-s960.html
Andreas is still used for microlight flying as well as gliding.
Jurby was a diversion field for Ronaldsway in the 1960s and 1970s, with the main runway extended over the road. I guess you had to be sure to signal in advance that you wanted to use it, so the road could be blocked off. The new structure at 2 o'clock from the runway intersection is a prison. Check out the link above to Jurby; there's a very cool shot of a LOW pass by a Vampire at an airshow.
Cheers,
Andrew
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