Fly-out on 27/12/2008

Great day today, SMS out last evening with a call to arms of the flying squadron. 4 Letterkenny based aircraft accompanied by Martin from Carrickmore and Damien who is based in Granard.
About 10:30am Letterkenny skies was awakened by Damien who duly arrived with his passenger John, then Martin arrived from Carrickmore and in total 6 aircraft departed LFC for a "Tour of the North"... 3xC42's, 2x X-Air Hawks, and a Skyranger. We flew up the Innishowen peninsula in Donegal and routed east-ward towards Co.Antrim to our first stop, this is a lovely little un-used airstrip near Portrush called Castlerock, we all landed, had a toilet break ! and after a look at the chart we decided to route up the north coast to "The Giants Causway". The weather was very clear and we could see right up to Islay and the Mull of Kintyre in Scotland without a problem, we though we would give it a miss today as none of us came equipped with lifejacket's or PRB's!!. We routed in over Portrush town and followed the coast up to the Causway, this northern coastline is spectacular in every way, with coves,cliffs and ancient ruins. The Causway itself is lovely viewed from our platform, we followed the coast right up to Ballycastle and inland down to another strip at Draperstown. Landed there, talked to the lads at the strip and airbourne again, this time routing south east for one of the best airfields in Ireland, Kernan Valley. We passed over an old abandoned WW2 airfield just west of Lough Neagh and down around the southern edge of the lough avoiding Aldrogrove airspace and overhead "Coney Island", you know the one, from Van Morrisons song !! and onward to Kernan valley (Video is landing at Kernan Valley). After a talk to all the folk there once again we became airbourne and we headed westward for yet another airstrip, the new airstrip at Carrickmore to the east of Omagh in Co.Tyrone. At this point we said our goodbye's to Damien and John as they routed south back towards Granard. A bit over half an hour later we landed at Carrickmore for yet more tea and biscuits/scones/buns/bars e.t.c..... This is a lovely airstrip, 450mts of tarmac with a beautiful clubhouse.... it is a credit to its designer/owner and is well worth a visit... you will be made very welcome. It has the newest flying school in Northern Ireland based there. Our stop here would be brief, about 20 minutes and again airbourne once more to get back to our home base, Letterkenny. Martin was home at this point as he is based in Carricmore. We landed in Letterkenny around 15:45 where it was still very bright and the circuit very active with other planes.
This was one hell of a great flying day, we flew a great route, met some old friends and had a great time.. Thanks to Damien,John,Mack,Robin,Paul,Raymond,Johnnie,Martin and Kevin. It is days like this that makes us realise why we participate in this hobby, it was absolutely fantastic.

Pictures and video below.
Regards,
Jon.

Yeah, a great days flying and even though it was my sixth day in a row ( 12 hrs ) to get up this week it was a milestone fo me. It's the first trip I wasn't able to take any photos for the club on account of being so busy flying solo. That strip in Castlerock is a must next summer especially when you consider there is a very good restaurant within walking distance of it. So today gave me 2 new strips for the logbook and plenty of time to work off any rustiness after the lean period and this year isn't over yet. Good weather, good friends, good airmanship with 6 planes in a group, what could be better.

Hawk, I hear your on your 12th flying day in a row, well done. I am going to hopefully spent a full day at it tomorrow. Last week seems like ages ago. Spoke to Ollie Farrell today whom was making a flight this afternoon. Looking forward to it already, cant wait to get back into the air again.

Damien.