Landable Beaches UK & Ireland

[Martinburney]

Hi All

Someone has come up with a query, of any known landable beaches, in the UK & Ireland.

Any ( serious ) suggestions.

Regards Martin Burney

[Tiger_mate]

In my aeroplane (a helicopter) I can land on most of them!

Had to get one in, seriously though: Southport beach was used for many years for pleasure flying (Puss Moth?) and if anything is safer now then then for aviation. Barra still has an air service onto the beach. As a rule of thumb, the English west coast has good flat beaches and the east coast has erosion and rocks. There are of course exceptions to every rule, but even the east coast beaches usually have the beach defence "fences" to protect against said erosion. Saw a Bulldog land on a beach once to aid another Bulldog crew that had baled out from a spinning aircraft. Bulldog landed, put the nosewheel into soft sand and nosed completely over. [2 bent aircraft!]

One has to ask the question why? Especially as salt corrosion will (should) influence any decision.

[Mr_Grubby]

Martin.

In 1978 I did a Fam. Flight with Loganair in a Trilander to Barra in the Outer Hebrides. We landed on the beach. Departure times from Glasgow vary depending on the tides.

Regards,
C.

[Martinburney]

Hi All

Having received some good response to the question of flyable beaches where
flying had taken place. I also looked at my database and came up with the
following.

Askernish ( Isle Of South Uist ), Berneray Beach ( Isle Of North Uist ),
Bridgend ( Isle Of Islay ), Blundell Sands ( Merseyside ), Brynmill Sands ( West
Glamorgan ), Camber Sands ( East Sussex ), Breachacha Sands ( Isle Of Coll ),
Etterick Bay ( Isle Of Bute ), Foryd ( Clwyd ), Freshfield ( Merseyside ),
Ganavan Sands ( Argyll ), Hesketh Park Sands ( Merseyside ), Maplin Sands ( Essex
), Middleton Sands ( Lancs ), New Brighton ( Clwyd ), Saltburn ( Cleveland ),
Slapton Sands ( Devon ), St Andrews ( Fife ), Wallasey Beach ( Merseyside ),
Weston Super Mare ( Avon ).

As far as I can see these have not been mentioned. The ones that were are :

Barra, Birkdale Sands ( Southport ), Brandon Bay ( Ireland ), Cleethorpes
Beach, Filey Sands, Morecambe Sands, Pendine Beach ( Pembrey ), Pilling Sands,
RAF Sollas


Regards Martin

[foxmoth]

Southport Southport aircraft was a Foxmoth, Puss only seats 2 so would not be very good for pleasure flying.

[Hen Ddraig]

Martin you seem to have an error in your database.
New Brighton Clwyd is 500ft amsl, the only sand there was delivered by a builders merchant.

I think you have confused it with New Brighton Merseyside.
Also a number of your sites are duplicate names for the same area.


Time to spare. Go by air

HD

[Spiney Norman]

Hi Martin.
Is your site at Berneray, North Uist, the same as Sollas. (N5739.51 W00719.33)? If not, there's another one. By the way, this is not the same site as used for a short time in the 1930's. I believe that was not actually on the beach.

Spiney

[MightyGem]

A Cessna still occasionally does pleasure trips from Southport beach.

[simon niceguy]

I seem to remember a Trilander landed on a beach in Jersey a few years back when it ran out of fuel. Can't remember the details though.

Simon.