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.

Steamship company now saying that flights WILL go ahead on Monday. All very confusing.

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.

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

That'll learn 'em.

Hope the pilot has more room!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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

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?

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.....

I reckon an Uber flying car penzance to Tresco is the way ahead!

Lands End ops permanently canned:

https://www.businesscornwall.co.uk/n...ase-operation/

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