Waterford  

Date of Visit = August 2000

Pilot: = Peter J Robinson

e-mail =

Field Report = In August 2000 my wife and I flew to Waterford from Hawarden in Commander G-NATT. Our direct route took us through the Aberporth Range Danger Area, which was 'hot' on the day. I had phoned Aberporth ATC the day before, so they were expecting us, and passed us through at FL80 without delay.

Waterford is a very quiet aerodrome (one commercial flight per day!). We hired a car and drove along the coast a bit before stopping 'on spec' at the seaside town of East Dunmore, in a B&B called Ocean View. This was smart and friendly, and adjacent to a superb and renowned sea-food restaurant the Ship Inn.

The next day we flew on to Kerry airport, after an extended wait while lined up, because the grass-cutting tractor had broken down at the side of the runway! Kerry is a bit busier - they open between 5.30 and 6.30 a.m. for their first flight, then close again until 10.00am. We were parked at the end of the disused runway and taken to the apron on the pickup they use for unloading 737s - us in the front with the driver and our single hold-all bag on the back.

Our route took us all round the southwest coast of Ireland, which was pure magic. It was Cork Sailing Week, and there were 7-8-- yachts in Cork Bay.

At Kerry we hired a car and had a couple of days round the peninsula, staying at a lovely B&B (Blackstones House) in the Kerry hills.

On the last day we finally flew to Cork to pick up a friend who had been sailing in Cork Week. We took the scenic route over the Kerry mountains, again quite enchanting. Cork is relatively busy, and an arriving 737 which had just landed on 17 had to hold its backtrack while we landed on the into-wind runway 07.

We finally flew home to Hawarden on Saturday. We didn't expect Aberport to be active, but when we called them as we coasted out, we were a bit surprised to find that they were working. However, they again passed us through without delay, this time at FL95.

This was my first serious flight across the FIR boundary, with flight plan, customs, and Special Branch to learn about, but it all worked fine. Everyone in Ireland was friendly and helpful - ATC would often sign off with a 'good luck' or even 'God bless you'! . One difference was the need to file a flight plan for internal VFR flights (except possibly if operating from very minor aerodromes). This was actually quite useful, because we were allocated a single squawk for the whole of each flight. There was no difficulty making a change of plan en-route if necessary. Shannon Control seem to have obverall control of the Southern Irish area, but would pass us on to another unit if it semeed appropriate. As already noted, Aberporth on this side were also very helpful.

One point to watch is that the Irish will cheerfully take English money, but in most cases "at face value", which means they take an English pound and call it an Irish pound, whereas it is actually worth something like £1.25 in Irish. What was that myth about them being simple? There is no difficulty changing cash or travellers cheques at banks or some post offices, and it is definitely worth doing.

We even got good weather. Perhaps I should avoid going again, so as not to break the illusion!