Aran Islands

With the weeks loverly weather, booked an aircraft for monday, and decided that we'd take a trip off to the Aran Islands. I fancied doing some island hopping, and Marc was dead keen to fly along/below the Cliffs of Moher. Left Weston about 3, with Marc flying down past Tullamore, and squeezed between Shannon and Galway's control zones, north of Ennis. Got an amazing view of the burreness, before passing Ennistimon and Lehinch, as we crossed the coast. One side of the country to the other in less then an hour and a half - pretty impressive!!

Flying out across the sea, and round the southern end of the cliffs, we announced on the radio that we were in the area and what our intentions were. We got a reply from the Aer Aran shuttle service from the mainland telling us that he was on his way over to Inishmore, trying to find out who would get to land first. We decided that we didnt mind hanging around the cliffs for a while and so told him we'd wait until he had landed before making our approach. As we passed along the cliffs we both suddenly realised that what we were doing was pretty special, and how amazing it was to see the cliffs from the other side. After a couple of passes and a look at the new visitor centre, we headed over to the islands. The plan was for Marc to do a touch and go on the first island, land on the second where we'd change over. I'd then take off, and touch on the last island before heading home again.

Approaching the first Island we did whats called the father ted approach as you pass the boat wreck thats in the titles of Father Ted. Lined up for the runway, it suddenly looked very short and with a nasty crosswind marc decided that it was a smarter move to forget about the touch and go around for the other island. So over to the biggest island to land at the airport, chat to the locals for a bit and switch over.

The locals reminded us of Dun Aengus, the prehistoric fort on the side of the Island. So after taking off I crossed over the island to the South Coast, and flew west along it to the end of the island, passing both the fort and a light house situatated at the end of the islands. After this it was a climb northwards back to the Galway coast.

Climbed to 3500ft, and again were quite amazed at the views we could see of both the landscape below us and the rugged mountains far off in the distance. As wonderful as it would have been to stay there for a lot longer, time and daylight were against us, and so turned east back towards Weston via Roscommon and Mullingar. Tho we did get an enroute aerobatics display over abbeysharule on the way back....
Its fantastic days like these, with suny weather and the most amazing sights that make all the hard work (especially the days of constant study) all worth while......

Waterford

Went to Waterford this week and added another airport to my logbook. Also it was the first trip with marc, a friend from the NFC who has also got his ppl - and with who i will hopefully fly many more times.

Very frustrating start to the day tho.... woke up to wonderfully blue skies outside the window, putting a great big smile on my face. However it was very short lived, as about hlf way driving to the airport i entered a great big patch of foggy misty ribbish. After about an hour of hanging round wondering if it would rise, eventually signs of bluesness began to crop thru. So flight plan in and add some winds to the plog.

I flew the first leg down to Waterford, which went well enough and pretty much to plan until about 15 - 20 miles away from waterford when we found lower cloud and higher mountains coming together in our way.... so i decided to skirt round to the east of the range and pass by with little hassles. Called up Waterford tower and before we knew it there was the runway directly ahead of us, and we were cleared to land. Landing wasnt too bad tho, did float a little further down the runway then i had orignally envisaged.

Spent about an hour in waterford before starting up again to come home. Marc flew this leg, east over towards Rosslare, where we took a little detour out to Tusker Rock to picture the light house, before turning north and heading up the coast back to Dublin. Spotted Marc's granmothers house along the way outside Gorey, and then in over the city taking some fantastic pictures. 

This leg was a tad different, as it was the first time i had sat and flown in the right hand seat of a plane, tho i did resist the urge to take the controls

Photos are here but for some reason picasa wont let me put the pics on here properly like before.....weird???

http://picasaweb.google.com/peetsl/WaterfordWithMarc

Finals in Waterford

Tusker Rock

O'Connell Street - And the Spire

Something Completely different

As the title says this week i did something different to the norm. I gots me a ride in a helicopter!!! Met a fella called Alin at the ATPL's tother week whos doing the heli-course out of Weston. Got to talking about exams and all and whether studying together was a possibility. Also the thought of taking each other up to see how the other half live or fly. So i got the chance first on saturday, the most beautiful day in so many weeks, with loverly blue skies and warm sunshine....wow

When i got to Weston Alin was already out doing his pre-flight checks, i joined him out there and got my first proper look up close and personal with one of these beasties. Little bit different somebody put the prop on the roof instead of in the nose and made it a wee bit bigger at the time. The other shocking thing was the shear size of it- from far away they looked absolutlely tiny but gettin up close and personal, there was actually pleanty more room inside it then probs a 172, and defs way bigger then a 152.

The other interesting thing to discover was how much longer it took to get the thing up and running, checks, engine start, wait for engine to warm up a taste, start rotor, sync rotor, more checks and more checks, we (in our planes) wuda been half way to kilcock already!!

Eventually it was time, the man gently eased her off the ground a couple of feet and then headed off away from the parking area. He asked me if i wanted a slow departure or a fast one?? No contest there.. so we were away at speed and rising up as we went.

So how was it, a lot more unstable then the fixed wing but i spose thats to be expected, tho after the initial few seconds that wasnt an issue anymore. Much better view from the front, down to the lack of engine bay and prop up there, and dispite only being 20odd kts slower, it felt a lot slower.

We went out as far as kilcock, did a couple of steepish turns, and a sudden increase of speed thing, before heading back in to the field.

Lotsa fun, and really interesting to see the differences

From HELI

My Ride for the day

Inside and out

Closest i've ever been to the VOR

Token 2 person pic

The lift off captured -I cudnt resist adding the music