London to the Shetland Isles - route/airfield recommendations?

[rmdr2]

Ladies and gentlemen

Tapping the vast knowledge base out there...

I am toying with the idea of flying up from London to Shetland Isles around May/June time. I am allowing about 5-6hrs each way in a C172 with a bit of sightseeing en-route.

Have any of you guys flown that route. I am looking for advice on where to fly for the best scenery, and where to land for the best fuel rates and landing/overnight fees...

Would appreciate some advice on the destination as well... i.e. best airfield to use as a base/car hire/local attractions etc.

I was even thinking of flying to the more remote areas of the islands and camping under the wing - if there's a suitable airfield to do so???

I am planning on making a couple of stops between London and the Shetlands to stretch the legs and pick up fuel. One of them near Shipley/Leeds/Bradford to pick up a friend. The other somewhere in Scotland... Again, advice gratefully received...

Thanks guys!

rmdr2

[gasax]

Depending on the weather you'll route east or west (pretty rare you get to fly straight up the middle!)

West coast Cumbernauld then the Great Glen, Inverness or Wick (both HIAL) and with basic catering & fuel) then to Tingwall which is the obvious base.

HIAL operate most of the 'municipal' type airports. They are an inefficient generally worthless bunch who consume close to £20M per year. But on the plus side landing fees are usually less than £20. Fuel - check on hours of availablity. They are big on beaurocracy so apply for the 'out of hours exemption' Which as you may guess allows you to use their airfields out of hours!

On the East coast - Fife has fuel and good food, Perth is pleasant with fuel but food is pretty limited.

The expertise for the out islands comes from the Direct Flight chaps at Tingwall - they will sell you Avgas but brace yourself 'elf and safety' amongst other things makes fuel pretty pricey.

Whilst you are flying past don't neglect Orkney - probably more tourist value (ducks!) and a good bolthole so long as there is no fog around (Grimsetter is pretty notorious).

Onve you get clear of the central belt the world cheers up, controlled airspace where present is easily transited and the scenery (but also unfortunately also the weather) gets a whole lot bigger. So take your time and enjoy the view (and always have a plan B!)

[IFollowRoads]

I don't know that you will be getting a great deal of sightseeing in - a quick plot with NavBox and a 172 reckons 4:20 for Biggn-Sumburgh at FL050 for nil wind with a few beacons thrown in, and some quite long over water legs. A couple of stops and avoiding long over water is going to put you at around 5 hours.

Never been to the Shetlands, but can recommend Orkney!

[Oldpilot55]

You should have done the trip last Friday..I flew to Kirkwall and it was a stunning day..well until the haar rolled in.

[Tinstaafl]

Best way to get to Shetland while minimising the overwater segments is to island hop through Orkney to Fair Isle then Sumburgh. Don't land at Sumburgh though. It's miles from the main town of Lerwick and they charge fees. But on the other hand it has cross runways with instrument approaches so it's about the only reasonable alternate to the other Shetland strips.

It also has a bus service that *mostly* ties in with the RPT flights. 2.10 quid five years ago & ~ 40-60 mins. ATC are very friendly & great to go drinking with.

Tingwall: 750m
Closest airstrip to Lerwick. There is (or was) a mini-bus service that ties in with the scheduled DirectFlight flights. It was 1 quid to or from town (must book a day in advance for the 'from Lerwick' part), otherwise it's about 10 quid by taxi. Takes about 10 mins each way.

Avgas is usually available during Tingwall opening hours.

If the vis. is poor watch out for 5 wind turbines ~500 to the east of (longish) final Rwy 02. They're about 800' amsl. There's also an obstacle lit hill to the left of final for Rwy 20.

Fair Isle: 06/24 x 450m (480m?)
Airstrip is unuseable if the wind is >20kts from the W-clockwise-NE, and also a small arc from approx. South (actually from a large pillar of rock. It causes a strong vortex to wash over the airstrip). Even at that strength it 'challenging'... Watch out for sheep.

Accommodation availabe at a couple of B&Bs on the island or at the bird observatory.

Foula:
18/36 x 450m. Steep upslope at threshold Rwy36.
Unuseable if the wind is above 15kts from SSW-clockwise-NNW & also the E. Increasing limit as the wind moves from E'ish-clockwise-S. High, steep terrain & sheer cliffs cause vortices that make the airstrip *very* dangerous if the wind is as mentioned. Watch out for sheep.

Wonderful sheer cliff views on the W. side of the island. ~1200' high. Very spectacular. B&B accommodation, guided walks along cliff routes only the locals know.

Out Skerries: 09/27 x 380m
Watch out if the wind is from S or N. Airstrip lies between two close lying hills (~100m from the one to the S.) with a fence along each side of the runway. Rwy 09 has a ridge ~50m before the threshold that protrudes into the normal approach gradient. Rwy 27 has a lighthouse at ~200 or 300 m that protrudes into the gradient AND an island halfway between the threshold & the lighthouse that does as well. No undershoot area in either direction and no side run-off areas.

Papa Stour: 18/36ish x ~450m (can't remember)
Muddy& slippery if any rain recently ie all the time except mid summer. Rwy 18 has rising ground with an electricty line across the ridge. Hard to see the power line. Rwy 36 has a ridge crossing just prior to the threshold. If the wind is really howling then an oblique final is best to stay a little further away from the 36 approach ridge. Watch out for sheep.

Whalsay: 02/20 x 450 or so
No worries. No windsock either. It regularly gets blown away in the gales more frequently than it gets replaced.
It does have sheep & ponies though.

Fetlar: North/South-ish x 450ish.
Only used for ambulance flights. No windsock & is in a bowl between higher ground. Not much in the way of runway markings - it mostly merges into the surrounding sheep paddock. Oh, that reminds me: Watch out for the sheep.

Unst: Formerly licenced. Sealed. Sometimes used for drag racing (with permission, of course. It's an organised event).


None of the outer isle strips have fuel or maintenance. Some have no facilities at all apart from a hut to keep the flarepots or generators in for night ambo. flights. Some don't have any parking areas apart from the strip so you'll have to push the a/c off the runway & stake the tie downs. Never, ever leave the aircraft parked for any length of time without tie downs.

Strong winds are the norm there. It was considered nothing unusual to operate with 40 kt crosswind components.

[Pooks]

As has already been said. Good Luck. Shetland has its own micro-climate which guarantees that you will encounter the worst weather just when you don't need it.

If you do decide to pop by Sumburgh then this might give you a better idea of what to expect:-

Gallery (http://www.crcshetland.co.uk/)

[mad_jock]

Don't believe that gallery those pictures must have been taken on the 3 days a year that its isn't blowing a gale and slashing it down with rain.

There is only one tree on the island for a very good reason.

I would stop in Orkney as well. There are a raft of things to see and do there compared to shetland. The tower used to do fixed period landing and parking cards for all the Orkney airfields for an extremely reasonable rate. There is a private field in Orkney just to the south of Kirkwall. The owner is a star and very friendly and folk have camped there before.

I would phone first to find out the price of AVGAS in Wick before you start planning to uplift there you may get a bit of a shock if you don't.

My route would be up the east to St abb's, wx dependent east coast or through the hills via the A9 to INV uplift fuel there. Then up past Dornoch (worth a land there and a walk on the beach) Past Wick to Orkney and up to Fair Isles then personally I would go back to Orkney.

On the way back fill up in Kirkwall then down the west coast maybe western isles and Barra beach landing as your in C172 then over to Oban to get the plane washed and refueled by the famous Paul. Then down past Cambelltown, PIK and where ever you like after that personally I would head to the west of wales cause I like snowdonia.

[Hyperborean]

Don' be put off by Mad Jock. After 30 odd years of living in both Orkney and Shetland I can assure you that the weather is not as dreadful as it is often painted. IMO the biggest problem is haar (sea fog) it can sock in for days and it can be difficult to forecast when it will clear. Wind is a problem but you can, usually, get a better forecast. It used to be that haar was most prevalent late spring early summer but climate change seems to be changing that. In any event Scotland and the Islands both West and North are well worth the effort to visit. I would heartily recommend checking out Lamb Holm, small strip just south of Kirkwall. No fuel but the owner is a genuine enthusiast and I am sure he would give the benefit of his lifetime's experience of flying in Orkney.

[Capt Whisky Whisky]

Isle of Mull. The Glenforsa Hotel (http://www.glenforsa.com)

[mad_jock]

H'mm as the occassional newspaper delivery boy getting your sunday sport to you I will agree to disagree with you.

PS if a local says its flat calm it can be anything up to 15knts. If they say its a wee bit breezy your looking at 15-35knts. Aye its windy today 35-50knts and its blowing today 50-100knts.

I must admit I prefer Orkney and if you do go there is a brilliant curry house in the high street in Kirkwall the Lamb Buna is top.

If you do go to unst the big dirty white pile on the harbour side is not drugs. Its talcum powder in raw form, don't be tempted to slide down it at 2am after skinny dipping in the harbour. It fecking hurts.

[Droopystop]

Be very wary of a south easterly - if it's not foggy it soon will be, regardless of wind speed. In fact that goes for the whole of the North East coast of Scotland and you might end up in Norway for a decent alternate. Check tafs and in particular metars carefully - metars are often worse than the tafs.

Shetland when the weather is nice is lovely and you'll be in time to see the puffins close up at Sumburgh Head.

[Tinstaafl]

I've had to include Norway in my considerations for an alternate for Tingwall & Sumburgh a few times doing ambulance flights in the Islander. Wind was waaaay too strong for me to be able to return to Aberdeen. Even Inverness was iffy. Fortunately Orkney weather was good enough for me to use there instead.

More than a few times I've used asymmetric power reduction to cope with the crosswind component while landing. Just not enough yaw response available to cope with the wind using rudder alone. :ooh:

I did more go arounds in the 2 or 3 years I was based there than in the previous 19 years of my flying career. On the other hand, it's not often that you can have a groundspeed of 230kts at 1000' in an Islander.


------------------------------
"What's that, Skippy?"
"Tscwc, tscwc"
"Tell some *what* who cares?"

[Genghis the Engineer]

Isle of Mull. The Glenforsa Hotel (http://www.glenforsa.com)

Last I looked, that was in the inner Hebrides, which isn't exactly on a direct route between London and Shetland!


Personally I think I'd go east until I saw blue (well, sort of greyish green), turn left and keep going until I see Orkney, then route over Orkney northwards and DR to Shetland. There are loads of airfields to stop at for fuel along the East Coast, most worth visiting.

I also agree with others - go to Orkney, it's gorgeous.

G

[L18C]

I did it in a C172N a few years ago - see my article in Pilot magazine's Oct 2006 issue 'Beating the Bounds'.

I flew from Stapleford to Carlisle more or less in a straight line, then across to Campletown, up the west coast and Great Glen to Inverness to avoid bad weather on the east coast. On day 2, I flew up to the northern tip of the Shetlands and back to Sumburgh for fuel. Then it was back to Dundee via Wick and overhead Aberdeen.

With hindsight, I would have spend more time flying around the islands but I was worried about being weathered in for days. On a previous trip to the Orkneys, I met some pilots who had to leave their microlights up there and come back for them weeks later when the weather improved.