Originally Posted by
Pax Mancunia
Hi, hope you don't mind me posting here as a non pilot. This afternoon I saw a light aircraft land, and shortly thereafter take off, from a beach in NW England. Is this normal/allowed or is it likely to have been precautionary and unscheduled?
No such thing as a bad question....!
Pilling Sands has long been a favourite, and - indeed - there were special exemptions made in the NW to allow people to use the beach near the nuclear power station (use of which would, otherwise, have been banned with the post 9/11 restrictions).
In Scotland, we even have the world's only beach airport - Barra - used for scheduled operations.
So, to answer your question, it's normal, it's allowed and - while it may have been someone practising for an engine failure - it is unlikely to have been a real emergency. If it had, they wouldn't have gone around!