Orkney Asphalt
 

I was up in Kirkwall a couple of weeks ago and got talking to the person who until recently was the airports general manager, who informed me that some of the old gravel Orcadian strips have now been tarred.
Has anyone any confirmation on this as I did not have time to visit them and pooleys and others still say gravel.
One other thing, is there still a strip on Hoy?

Gravel and Grass
 

Hi
I last flew into Sanday in September '08 and it was gravel then (also grass runways available). However, if the ex-manager said some of them had been tarred I'm sure that would be right. The AIP, Pooleys etc will not be amended over night. I dont know about Hoy. Thought it was only available for the oil termal operations though? Anyway give them a ring. Whenever I have rung for PPR, when I have eventually been put through to the correct department, (having a nice chat at each wrong department on the way), I have found the people to be exceptionally friendly and welcoming. They give very good information as to the current state of the gravel and grass. The first time I went to Sanday a man turned up on an exceptionally muddy tractor and unlocked the "terminal" so I could use the facilities, and left it unlocked for the rest of the day so that I could use it again on my return. Great place!
Cheers
SF.

Coll and Colonsay have just been redone with Tarmacadam (sp?)

Sir George Cayley

Sir George,

Wrong set of Islands but worthy of a mention. Great places to visit.

Stratus,

I will just call them,as you say the welcome and hospitality of the Orcadians is second to none.

tuscan: no strip on Hoy since the 1970s. The one usable only by oil companies is on Flotta (it's in one or two of the VFR guides). No tarmac strips on any of the other Orkney isles that I'm aware of - certainly not in current and immediate future (25 Nov) AIP.

NS

Thanks for that NS,

I will be back up there soon and will try to find out more. The source was good but circumstances didn`t allow me to discuss matters further, hopefully I can bend his ear a bit on my next visit.
I will post any findings.

We had a very memorable trip to Orkney earlier this year. Very friendly reception at Kirkwall - they found us accommodation and told us how to get to Hoy (we would have flown if the strip was still there) to visit my Uncle's war grave at Lyness Naval Cemetery.

We made a respectful fly-past before setting out for home via Oban.

Would love to visit again and see some of the other islands.