Scilly Isles Route

[Dooby]

Phileas,
"unless in and out of short strip airfield(s) where nothing faster could operate" So, an airfield like St Marys then?

Yes the speed may be only around 200kts, but what is the Twin Otter? around 100-150? OK, only marginally faster, but faster all the same.

I realise it may be a stretch to fill the aircraft to capacity dawn till dusk 6 days a week, but the passenger numbers aren't that small at present, and if the S61 route was to go there is certainly scope.


PlymouthPixie,
My first impressions of the extension in the report were that it looked like the report was written by someone wanting to make the idea of an extension seem utterly ridiculous and put in the most extreme example to make it look laughable. The aircraft used in the example still couldn't land (or rather take off) on the 1000m runway. I would have hoped to have seen examples of what *could* land and take off at 700m, 800m 900m as examples, and not be restricted to aircraft currently flown by operators in the region, why not do something that would allow Skybus (or even BIH) to operate larger or more efficient aircraft?
The point about it being a bit 'closed shop' is very true, there is no space for a 'rentable' check-in desk etc for a third operator, so the best we could hope for would be some sort of sharing of resources between an operator wanting to come in from further afield on one of the existing ones (as used to happen with Brymon and the helicopter service iirc)

The runway is most definitely in need of a resurface, that much is very clear, you don't need to walk the runway to realise that, you can feel it. I am not sure if the grass runway will get replaced with asphalt or whether they will just renew the 'hardening' grid they have currently.

One of the other interesting parts for me is the potential instrumentation, fairly sure full-on ILS is out of the question, but hopefully they will be able to introduce some form of GPS landing (I am not sure what they are looking at, but I have seen reports of systems used in similar situations where you have a 'known location' GPS station on the airfield which relays corrections via VHF (basically DGPS) and that can be used for a form of ILS approach with the advantage it covers about 30miles with increased accuracy, hopefully something would allow flying in more borderline conditions and reduce the number of days when there is no flying at all (which has happened pretty frequently over the last month or so)

It is interesting you mention the Let410, according to the report that can already use the main runway - I am not sure the council would be the problem, but rather pressure from the other operators not to 'cannibalise' their trade.

I haven't looked in detail at the hangar, but my understanding is it would replace the existing fire shed over the far side of the airfield which is kind of tucked away, and also starts to disappear below the 'hump' in the airfield when viewed from the quay.