Isle of Scilly Shuttle - New Operator
IOS really are getting themselves in the mire.
Helicopter service suspended.
Mali Rose still not operational causing them to have to keep paying to lease Gry Martha.
They must be leaking money like a nationalised industry.
Helicopter service suspended.
Mali Rose still not operational causing them to have to keep paying to lease Gry Martha.
They must be leaking money like a nationalised industry.
All the boxes Not Ticked
This is really a paperwork exercise because of it being a Scheduled service, not that i see it can affect anything other than they may be restricted to making 'approaches' to the runway in use as opposed to direct to the pad.
Meanwhile the real 'Island Helicopter Battle' is being rerun at Cornwall Council planning dept with the consultation period now in play for the New Heliport at Penzance. The new application has had thousands of letters of support but will not be a smooth ride in the system as the location will have to contend with far more 'environmental' issues than the original site due to the area having been built up over the years. The ISSC Heli service to the Isles is somewhat restricted due to Tresco NOT being an option and the ISSC have certainly lost the pr battle over all this as their ship service is not really cutting it at present. The other big loser since the demise of the original service from the old heliport ceased is Penzance itself which has seen yet another supermarket drain trade away from the town centre and also the substantial spin off from the long standing Heliport operation that worked very well from its original location.
Meanwhile the real 'Island Helicopter Battle' is being rerun at Cornwall Council planning dept with the consultation period now in play for the New Heliport at Penzance. The new application has had thousands of letters of support but will not be a smooth ride in the system as the location will have to contend with far more 'environmental' issues than the original site due to the area having been built up over the years. The ISSC Heli service to the Isles is somewhat restricted due to Tresco NOT being an option and the ISSC have certainly lost the pr battle over all this as their ship service is not really cutting it at present. The other big loser since the demise of the original service from the old heliport ceased is Penzance itself which has seen yet another supermarket drain trade away from the town centre and also the substantial spin off from the long standing Heliport operation that worked very well from its original location.
The Isles of Scilly council, which operates the airport on St Mary’s, informed the steamship company last week that it would not let the new helicopter service begin because the required environmental assessments had not been carried out. Concerns had been raised over nesting birds including shags and lesser black backed gulls.
Determined that the launch should go ahead as planned, the flight on Monday was designated as a charter rather than a scheduled flight. It meant the helicopter took off a little later than planned and had to touch down on the grassy fringe of the airport rather than on asphalt.
The designation also meant passengers were ushered through a wooden farm-style gate, while luggage was handed over a wire fence. But the passengers agreed that it added to the charm of the journey.
Islanders milling around the airport had mixed views.Lady Marian Berkeley, a councillor and resident of the island of Bryher – famed as the setting for Michael Morpurgo’s Why the Whales Came – said she would turn her back whenever the steamship helicopter appeared on the horizon.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...ys-controversy
Determined that the launch should go ahead as planned, the flight on Monday was designated as a charter rather than a scheduled flight. It meant the helicopter took off a little later than planned and had to touch down on the grassy fringe of the airport rather than on asphalt.
The designation also meant passengers were ushered through a wooden farm-style gate, while luggage was handed over a wire fence. But the passengers agreed that it added to the charm of the journey.
Islanders milling around the airport had mixed views.Lady Marian Berkeley, a councillor and resident of the island of Bryher – famed as the setting for Michael Morpurgo’s Why the Whales Came – said she would turn her back whenever the steamship helicopter appeared on the horizon.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...ys-controversy
Lady Marian Berkeley, a councillor and resident of the island of Bryher – famed as the setting for Michael Morpurgo’s Why the Whales Came – said she would turn her back whenever the steamship helicopter appeared on the horizon.
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I almost lost a perfectly good cup of tea there. While I’m in support of the Penzance project, and customer choice (having been a semi-regular on the S61 and Otters), the Ladies and Lords of Tesco’s will get a shock if they think a 15 seat (ex-offshore?) AW139 is ‘quiet’ ‘spacious’ or likely to leave their tooth gold intact. I saw a 169 at Battersea the other day and mistook it for a 139. It certainly isn’t a 50% difference in cabin space.
(S'pose it's ok for those without legs)
Last edited by SARWannabe; 18th Jun 2018 at 18:07.
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Having only ever been in a 139 in exec fit, I thought seven was cosy enough.
Some routes cannot support competition, they’re a matter of relatively high-risk community service. The Scillies definitely count.
The real answer is, of course, a B-N Islander, and some special provisions, but they would require innovative thinking and regulatory capacity and competence. Neither of which can anything married to EASA deliver, even if contemplating a divorce in which the other half gets everything and still calls the shots.
Some routes cannot support competition, they’re a matter of relatively high-risk community service. The Scillies definitely count.
The real answer is, of course, a B-N Islander, and some special provisions, but they would require innovative thinking and regulatory capacity and competence. Neither of which can anything married to EASA deliver, even if contemplating a divorce in which the other half gets everything and still calls the shots.
On my TR course I was shown the video of them assessing the escape time from the cabin in the high-density configuration - it looked like one of those comedy vids where an impossible number of people emerge from a Mini, and not very quickly either!
If anybody's interested, here are the planning application documents ...
PA16/09346 | Proposed heliport comprising: a terminal building, hangar, emergency vehicle garage, helicopter landing pad and apron, operational equipment and apparatus, fuel storage facility, bunding and pipework, 269 staff and customer long-stay par
There's a submission from Sloane about the different operating sites here...
http://planning.cornwall.gov.uk/onli...17-3757059.pdf
PA16/09346 | Proposed heliport comprising: a terminal building, hangar, emergency vehicle garage, helicopter landing pad and apron, operational equipment and apparatus, fuel storage facility, bunding and pipework, 269 staff and customer long-stay par
There's a submission from Sloane about the different operating sites here...
http://planning.cornwall.gov.uk/onli...17-3757059.pdf
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It always struck me that Penzance to Scilly would be well served with a hovercraft service. Probably just over an hour outbound, and less than an hour inbound from Penzance.
Was this ever looked at as an option?
Was this ever looked at as an option?
Hovercraft are all right in a placid sea but unless you have a big one like a BHT130 which holds 120 passengers the ride in any sort of sea is very uncomfortable and noisy. I used to ride the hovercraft from Shekou to Hong Kong along the Pearl River and even the wake from a ship doing five knots was enough to make you grit your teeth.
A hovercraft in the SW Approaches
What a vomit-comet that would turn out to be.........it might get to operate for 1 or 2 days a year when the sea is flat calm.....
What a vomit-comet that would turn out to be.........it might get to operate for 1 or 2 days a year when the sea is flat calm.....
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Skybus would have been better to go for a bigger aircraft - ?
The 50 seater Dash 7 of Brymon was earmarked for the ISC route but was deemed too big back then when the island airport was still fledgling.
Today with the new longer hard runway they would have been real people movers and possibly even served a London direct service
The 50 seater Dash 7 of Brymon was earmarked for the ISC route but was deemed too big back then when the island airport was still fledgling.
Today with the new longer hard runway they would have been real people movers and possibly even served a London direct service