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Trip report Shoreham EGKA to Alderney EGJA 17/4/2016

A very straightforward IFR route

As expected I got diverted a bit, to GWC initially and then to SAM but didn’t fly to SAM and got a DCT ORTAC but then the ATCO asked to insert THRED in there…

A handover from London Control to Solent Radar (curious!) then back to LC, then Jersey Control, then Alderney Approach.

This stuff was behind Alderney but one couldn’t tell from way back if it was right on top. The bases were about 4000ft so the descent took care of it

Alderney is not big!

Left base for 08

A lot of rocks sticking out of the sea – apologies for the reflections

Final 08. You would not think this place was the first in the UK to get an LPV approach. I guess the CAA reasoned that since GPS approaches are really dangerous the wreckage may as well end up out of sight of the Daily Mail

I got hard surface parking. Later it transpired I was lucky, because I arrived early. They have space for 2 or 3 only; the rest is grass, the other side of the runway

Some based planes. No hangarage available to visitors

The airport employs the whole island’s jobsworths. I came in via an open door as I was told by one person, then was not allowed to go back out and waited for half an hour for some kind of police officer (who had been out “inspecting the apron” – must take hours!) to look at me. Yellow jackets mandatory for the 20m walk from the plane. But on the whole they were very friendly – as was everyone I saw on the island. People actually smile and say Hello in the street, which is not seen in the UK except in the countryside (and even then people who live in towns tend not to).

There was another GAR to fill in on arrival. It’s the same as the UK one so if you bring one with you you save a bit of time. The landing and parking was £25.

Walking down from the airfield (I walked for 5 hours around the place, and did maybe half of it)

The city island centre, with the university (only kidding ).

The Scilly Isles are like 1960s England and this is like 1950s England.

Almost everything was shut (Sunday) but eventually I found a small French restaurant which was open for lunch. Very tasty; fresh local fish

Property is not cheap but a lot cheaper than SE England unless you are looking at the more remote parts of Kent

Midland Bank… that goes back some decades



The main street

There used to be a railway

Huge sandy beaches with real fine sand






There is a cafe at the airport which does tea and croissants (the croissants are better warmed up for 10s in a microwave)

There is a lot of these flying; maybe every hour. It’s amazing they manage to stay in the air. They look like complete wrecks, from their condition

The left one is a turboprop

Most GA parking is on the grass


This would make a fun restoration project

Departing from 26 and turning right (north)

This is France

A really nice day out Flight time 50 mins.

A pity one needs the 12 hour PNR GAR form nonsense. Clearly that is just police job preservation.

I was wrong about being out of sight of the Daily Mail – they did have one in the airport cafe

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Nice trip But why do you need police officer to check you on arrival? And GAR? Isn’t it UK also?

LDZA LDVA, Croatia

They didn’t ask to see any ID for me. The GAR is the Terrorist Act requirement. Why they want the GAR at their end too I have no idea.

It doesn’t matter – there are automated ways of filing these and the autorouter does it for example (if you set up all the pilot and passenger data on it). It is the 12hr notice which is really stupid. The only way to avoid this is to fly via Bournemouth, Biggin, Oxford I think or a few others. Or of course Cherbourg. All a big hassle.

I don’t think the Channel Islands are UK, as such… it’s a very complicated debate which I know nothing about. For example the Isle of Man is not UK but it is in the UK VAT scheme – you pay VAT there, and last I heard they were saying they make enough out of VAT to run the island and might have zero income etc taxes

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Peter wrote:

this is like 1950s England.

I hope the island can preserve this unique atmosphere.
These great pictures reminds me on our trip to EGJA in July 2015, many thanks ! Locals adviced us to try the same restaurant in the middle of the town as the oldest and the best one.

Berlin, Germany

Great photos and write up, presumably the local economy is mainly tourism?

Oxford (EGTK), United Kingdom

RobertL18C wrote:

presumably the local economy is mainly tourism?

Finance I think.

EGTK Oxford

Peter wrote:

For example the Isle of Man is not UK but it is in the UK VAT scheme – you pay VAT there, and last I heard they were saying they make enough out of VAT to run the island and might have zero income etc taxes

Unfortunately, not quite. We’ve got a sizeable deficit at the moment. There is a “common purse” agreement with the UK, and the UK gets the lion’s share of our VAT, the only VAT that stays on the island is for things that are produced solely in the island. Everything else the government gets 1% of the VAT to pay for the collection of the VAT. This was rebalanced further in the UK’s favour about 4 or 5 years ago, so they get the lion’s share + some extra. Doesn’t help that the Manx government is very wasteful and too many civil servants are overpaid and have a massive, unfunded, unsustainable pension scheme (paid for directly by the taxpayer). 10% of our government spending is just on civil service pensions.

Andreas IOM

Nice photos.

I’ve been there a couple of times, but would be up for a repeat visit later in the summer. It would be a flyin that I could actually fly myself to

EIWT Weston, Ireland

Great – let’s do that I will bring Justine.

BTW – those pics were taken with the new Samsung S7. Over-saturated, over-sharpened, the stock camera app has various bugs and has no image adjustments, and 3rd party camera apps (needed to get the colours right) are even more buggy. As they say, “technology” is what they call stuff which should work in the future

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Sounds good :) Let’s think about end of May (between Wedding and honeymoon) or end of June (after honeymoon).

EIWT Weston, Ireland
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