Last Sunday we had a nice day at the beach at Bembridge.
We had originally planned to go Saturday to visit Dinosaur Isle in Sandown by bus (my son loves dinosaurs), but the cloudbase didn’t improve until well after lunchtime so we abandoned until the next day. Sunday it cleared by about 1000 local, but the museum is closed Sundays and Mondays, so we decided on the beach instead.
Ryde on the Isle of Wight, under the haze
The flight there was uneventful, other than a scattered layer and haze over the Isle of Wight, which made it hard to see the runway.
The Propeller Inn didn’t look too busy for a Sunday.
We walked to the beach along our usual footpath, but it was so overgrown and muddy in places as to render it almost impassable. We were bent double in a couple of places, the kids had to keep weaving around stinging nettles, and I wasn’t happy in flipflops in the mud. I was trying to find details of the appropriate council or authority to report a hanging tree, but used the Ramblers website interactive map instead. In future we’ll probably go through the holiday park.
The path at the eastern end. Mid way was very bad.
“My shoes!”
We had sandwiches on the beach in Whitecliff Bay, and spent a couple of hours there. The kids loved it, but didn’t swim this time (they did last year, in March!). The wind was cold, so glad we had jumpers despite the sunshine. The Wonky Café was open for tea and hot chocolate; it was very quiet and the people were keen for a chat. Apparently in the winter the weather can get very bad, and the sea came through the windward wall. No toilets in the café or anywhere on the beach though.
The view from the top and the walk down to the beach
We walked up to the Yarborough monument along the coast path, a climb of 300 feet, with steep cliffs on one side. We definitely weren’t cold after that, and had ice creams at the top; there’s a pub, small café, and sometimes an ice cream van.
The path up was a lot better
Some very steep bits; we had to hold the children’s hands
Nearly there
The airfield is roughly in the middle with the Britten Norman hangars to the right
Ice cream time
We went back down to the airfield by the direct route, which was pretty steep too, past the chalk pit. Luckily no cows in the field this time 
The signs are from the Culver Down trail or http://www.visitbembridge.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/CulverTrail.pdf
Our route, highlighted in pink. About 3 miles, not counting running around on the beach
Returning to the plane, I found I’d forgotten my ipad on top of the instrument panel. It had been cooked in the sun and turned itself off due to the temperature, and the black cover was bubbled and deformed. I won’t be doing that again, and will replace the cover with a lighter colour.
The flight back was uneventful. We didn’t get any decent photos, but got reasonable views of Winchester Cathedral, the folly at Farley Mount, and the Chilbolton Observatory.
Southampton were accommodating for transits in both directions, but took 3-4 minutes to call me back each time. The only restriction was ‘not above 3,000 feet’ so once cleared I don’t think my actual routing mattered. There was almost no other traffic on frequency.
UK airspace. Not a very straight route
Landing
A simple trip, but overall a good day out and everyone enjoyed themselves.
Looks like a nice trip @Capitaine. Bembridge harbour is worth the walk in the summer.
Nice trip report, no flip-flop from now on, except on COM1/COM2
“My shoes!” We had sandwiches on the beach in Whitecliff Bay, and spent a couple of hours there. The kids loved it, but didn’t swim this time (they did last year, in March!). The wind was cold, so glad we had jumpers despite the sunshine. The Wonky Café was open for tea and hot chocolate; it was very quiet and the people were keen for a chat. Apparently in the winter the weather can get very bad, and the sea came through the windward wall. No toilets in the café or anywhere on the beach though.
I don’t expect it to be muddy end of May but those overgrown trees & vegetation would spoil the walk…the last time I did the walk from Bembridge was with 1st baby during 2020 lockdown, fully self-sufficient including “portable WC”, not a single soul around to contaminate us 
Looks like a lovely family day out.
Shortly after I got my PPL, I left my kneeboard on the panel when I went to lunch. It had a plastic ruler in it. When I came back it was all melted and deformed. I learnt that lesson early!
I hope it was only the iPad cover and the the iPad itself that got damaged!
Lovely A nice easy high value destination.
Some more photos from a previous trip to Bembridge in March 2022.
It was very windy that day and quite bumpy for the family in the lower levels. Sunny, but cold.
We took the bus which runs hourly from outside the airfield to Sandown seafront. It’s a bit stressful trying to arrange arrival in time to catch a bus without having to wait too long either, but it was ok waiting outside the Propeller Inn in the sunshine. Not helped by Papa forgetting the headsets (I now leave all of them in the plane). When travelling with a pushchair, the bus works well.
The Wildheart Sanctuary, which used to be the Isle of Wight Zoo, houses mainly big cats rescued from circuses, zoos, private owners, or customs, plus some primates and other animals. Entry was £12.80 for adults and £5.50 for children. We all really enjoyed it.
The lion was really impressive in real life
An escaped goat
Sadly, one tiger had a pronounced limp from a broken leg that had never properly healed.
Lots of Madagascan animals, including lemurs
The children had a challenge to stamp various animals and answer some questions to get a badge or a sticker, which kept them involved. The adults did some stamping too, on the back of the receipt.
The play area was good
We had lunch in the café, which from memory was quite nice but not amazing.
One of the buildings is an old Palmerstone fort, which housed the WW2 PLUTO (fuel pipelines under the ocean to Cherbourg post D-Day) and still has some equipment and information boards. Each of the 16 pipes pumped 160,000 litres per day.
The kids loved it, and one of my favourite days out flying.
