SFH in Liverpool Area
 

RMK

You should also consider Heli NorthWest at Manchester Barton. The CFI, Gary Cooper, is a good guy and certainly worth giving him a call.

JJ
(No professional affiliation to HNW)

Jelicopter & Heli7, thanks for both of those alternatives. I'll be staying in Formby which is on the coast between the two I noted. I'll have a look at both of these.

I've never flown in NW England, so any good finds re places to land for lunch are welcome. I'll also go through the old thread "hotels & helipad recommendations" to see if there's anything good.

Hi

I concur with JJ regarding NorthWest Helicopters and I can also recommend Helicentre Liverpool too. I know both of the owners/operators very well.

Good luck,


Joel :ok:

RMK

Try the Swan Hotel at Newby Bridge on the southern end of Lake Windermere. Large landing area, great food, riverside tables (if it's sunny) and stunning flying scenery nearby.

Or you could try the Devonshire Arms near Skipton. Similar to the Swan but without the riverside stuff. Arguably equally stunning scenery of the Yorkshire Dales to fly through and the Wharfe Valley is a low-level route back west if the weather turns iffy whilst you're out and about.

JJ

Try the Inn at Whitewell near Clitheroe, or if you don't want to travel far, The Barn near Chester. or the Fox and Barrel a mile from the WHI ndb. All serve great food and are heli friendly.

I’m going with The Swan Hotel at Newby Bridge as my lunch location (thanks for all replies & PMs).

One short query re the hotel (located N54° 16.178 W002° 58.081), Google Earth lists the elevation at 145msl whereas my Garmin/Jepessen lists it as 577msl. I haven’t seen this much discrepancy before. Does anyone know the actual elevation?

google earth is correct:ok:

And please post a report of

Lunch.....
Scenery.....(photos would be nice!)
How pleasant management are......
etc...etc....

John

John R81

I've been to the Swan at Newby Bridge and it gets a gold star on all counts.
However I believe it has been completely refurbished after the recent floods.

Joel :ok:

I did a lunch flight on Sunday and had a great day out. I did a SFH of a R44 Raven2 from Phil Durkin at EGNH (Blackpool) who was referred by HeliBlackpool. Phil was one of the easiest guys I’ve dealt with and the machines were very clean and well maintained – I’d definitely use him again when flying up north.

We flew from Blackpool to Lake Windermere and landed at the Swan Hotel at Newby Bridge. As noted the hotel was flooded last year and has had a full renovation and is quite stylish. There is a formal restaurant, but you may also use the bar restaurant which had excellent food, service and serves from 12:00-21:00, so there is no rush to arrive before a 2 or 2:30 before they stop serving (such as with most of the heli lunch haunts around London). We had lunch indoors and then puddings/coffees at the tables riverside (where you may also have lunch/dinner). They also have a spa which my wife plans to make use of next time. Hotel info at www.swanhotel.com and some of my photos below:

http://picasaweb.google.com/RMKPhotoFile/SwanHotel?authkey=Gv1sRgCMyZ39bSiO74bw#

The landing is straight forward, but note that the Google Map view doesn’t really show that the landing area (east side of hotel) is separated into 4 areas by fences. They prefer you to land in the gated area closest to wind sock. Hotel was very heli friendly and required no more than a simple PPR phone call.

Thanks again for the recommendations above.

RMK

Glad you enjoyed the Swan...... I'll be contacting the owner now for my commission:ok:

JJ

Jellycopter
 

I hope you are referring to to owner of The Swan Hotel

PD

if you dont ask you dont get... and you got the best machine, the best owner and the best lunch stop. dont forget to post details of your next jolly!!!