Flying to (and landing at) Barra
 

I have a flying tour of the Scottish Highlands and Islands booked for next week and have been recommended Barra as an interesting destination. Whilst I would love the entry in my logbook of a true beach landing I am slightly nervous of making a landing on this type of surface with my retractable undercarriage Mooney 231. Can anyone who has been there offer me any advice? Apart from the novelty value, is there any other reason to visit Barra?

Deano

I did it once in a PA28-161 and still regard it as one of the best days flying I've ever done.

152 Group - Popham

It is morally challenging - there's a 50nm sea crossing to get there, the large hill to one side challenges you, as does getting a mental picture of where the runway is. Approaching at a typical 5 degree angle, the runway just looks like a chunk of Atlantic. The landing is in a spray of seawater and seaweed that will take some hosing off later and is rather disconcerting.

In terms of actual flying difficulty, no, that was straightforward. It just took a bit of nerve.

And having taxied to the top of the beach and parked, after a gorgeous flight, you find yourself in one of the most beautiful places on earth. A short walk crosses the island to the most astoundingly clean, enormous and empty beach you've ever seen. I also remember a damned find soup and a roll from the cafe by the control tower, and a bit of interesting wildlife.

Is there much else to do there? No, not really - great landing, take photos, walk and admire the scenery. For me, that was enough, and I very much want to go back again another day.

I then flew to Islay, where I parked up for 3 days and did several distillery visits!

G

Well all that was certainly enough to put me off....

Get your plane hosed down as soon as possible afterwards. A visit to Oban straght afterwards used to be normal and an up lift of fuel and they would sort you out.

G your ment to land when the water is out (bloody boffins!)


The only special is not to stay still with the engine on because the vortex off the prop will dig a hole for you wheel to go into.

The sand has a fair amount of suction when you rotate so give it some back pressure then quickly lower the nose a tad to get the speed back.

Its well worth walking over the back of the dune to see the atlantic and the served not bad soup and fresh home made bread rolls last time i was there.

Thanks, Genghis: but will my undercarriage dig into the sand - a Mooney is renowned for having thin aspect nose and main wheels?

Deano

Jock - "out" on a kilometre long beach does leave some rather large puddles which just look like deep water at 5 degrees.

Deano - no idea - all I can say is that a standard Warrior not far off MTOW didn't have a problem.

G

I wouldn't have thought so as long as you don't land immediately once the tide is out or on its way in.

I have landed there in a C172 and tommy and no probs but they have chunky tyres.

The sand is actually alot harder than you expect to be honest.

I suppose you could check what the numbers are for the twin otter and see how they compare to the mooney.

Landed at Barra about 3 weeks ago. Obviously you need to contact them to find opening times as it's only available at low tide.
The "runways" are quite difficult to spot, but if you fly towards the terminal you can see some marker boards for the runways.
The sand seems very firm when the tide is out and you don't leave much in the way of wheel tracks so your Mooney should be OK. Certainly no worse than if you use it on grass.

Remember, when the tower's in operation it's a licensed airfield with a landing fee. At other times it's a public beach and free at your own risk.

Check the tides first.

A great experience and a better landing surface than a lot of real airfields I know.

A good wheels eye view here of the beach surface...

Not so I'm afraid. Movements outside the published hours are not allowed and HIAL's out of hours indemnity scheme does not cover Barra.
NS

I wonder just how effective a hose down is after, I'd imagine that spray would get up inside the belly and rot the hell out of the plane over time

You could cross over Skye-Benbecula, reducing the sea distance, then fly south to Barra.
I've only flown there in a wood/fabric - deliberately. I agree with this quote, especially for a retractable. I've only the wheels to hose down - and then taxi/fly to dry off, otherwise the water lies in the brakes.
PS Solas (beach) is 14-18 June. Going there tomorrow.

I see in the AIP:
It's been some time since I was there, but Paul at Oban said you could land at any public beach subject to the usual rules of the ANO. Maybe there's an exception here.

I'm planing on heading up that direction shortly (was hoping for this weekend, but the weather isn't looking too hopefull).

But as much as I would like to, I wouldn't land at Barra because I'll be in a retractable. My concern is not so much the wheels digging in, which is probably a low risk, but rather the water and sand that may get into the gear switches.

Even after a good clean down, I could well imagine plenty of gear indication problems. Maybe my fears are unfounded, but I don't intend on finding out! I'll be sticking to the land based airports ;)

I suspect you will be correct dublin.

My fear exactly, Dublin. I'm giving Barra a miss.

Deano

Loganair once tried operating a retractable undercarriage aeroplane to/from Barra. It wasn't a success. Being a retractable was, I am told, part of the problem. BEA, back in the 1950s, took a special version of the dH Heron (1B) with fixed gear too for beach work. Of course these commercial aeroplanes would be going repeatedly rather than on one-off visits, but beaches was the main reason for choosing fixed-gear.

Landed at Barra in a retractable 182 a couple of years ago.



According to ATC/Fire bloke the sand is like concrete and could support a 40 ton artic.IIRC best time to land is about 3 hours either side of low tide. When we landed there was still a fair amount of standing water which looked much deeper than it actually was.

Biggest challenge was identifying the notional runways which are marked at either ends with orange posts. However I suspect you could probably land pretty much any direction.

Suggest you give them a couple of days in advance to check tide times which dictate opening hours.

To minimise time over water you can route via Tiree or Coll which gives 37nm sea crossing. Alternatively you could route via Skye/Benbecula which cuts it to about 14nm but adds a fair bit to the overall route.

Firemen at Oban should oblige with washdown. They wouldnt accept payment but I gave them a donation for their charity collection tin.

Yes there is. When not in licensed hours it's used by cockle-pickers and HIAL are not prepared to allow unrestricted aircraft movements.
NS