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......