… at least for a few days! 
Most people don’t know that a few parts of Southern England boast some of the best sandy beaches you could imagine. It even boasts some extremely good restaurants. OK, let’s forget about the hotels…
And the climate is what it is, of course. But as pilots, at least, we can time our trips to match a decent weather window.
The available weather window at the end of August wasn’t particularly great, but not all too bad either, so it was a “go”. Destination: the Poole Harbour area in Dorset. We used Bourmemouth EGHH, which is quite expensive, but really the only choice in that area. I have been there previously in 2016, and this was essentially a repetition of a wonderful little stay. For who doesn’t know where Poole Harbour is, see here:
But first, the flying pics. We departed bright and early from Lübeck (EDHL). The weather was good, but it was a bit murky enroute, so I didn’t take many photos until reaching Old Blighty.
Lübeck airport.
There were strong westerly winds all over the place, so we decided to stay at FL60 initially, where the wind was not quite that bad.
Here is Midden-Zeeland (EHMZ). I told you it was murky.
We coasted out near Knokke-Heist and coasted in at Lydd, proceeding via KONAN. This was at FL70, so from KONAN on, we were in uncontrolled airspace. FL70 kept us within glide distance pretty much the whole way.
Upon reaching England, the visibility increased dramatically. On the flip side, there were some clouds between about 1500 and 2500 feet, which obscured some of the sights. The pics still turned out not so bad. Eastbourne:
Beachy Head / Seven Sisters. We briefly considered descending down to a few hundred to scoot past the cliffs, but then decided to stay above the clouds at about 3000 feet, for the benefit of a much smoother ride.
Brighton. 
Crossing overhead Sandown airfield, Isle of Wight.
Approaching, and eventually passing The Needles.
We then proceeded for a visual join at Bournemouth, EGHH.
The service of Bliss Aviation was impeccable. Marshaller/handling staff, fuel truck and Border Force were all awaiting us, so in no time, we were off to pick up our rental car (unfortunately, no rental cars at the airport any more, so need to take a taxi/Uber to some rental car place in town).
Initially, we made just a brief stop at Bournemouth Beach. Always relatively crowded in summer, but still a lovely sandy beach with shallow water.
Then we took the chain ferry that crosses the entrance to Poole Harbour between Sandbanks and Shell Bay / Isle of Purbeck. Sandbanks is supposedly one of the very most expensive residential areas of the UK.
Here is a satellite view of the area.
The beach over at Shell Bay is wonderful.
Here is an airborne pic taken two years ago, when passing by.
But the best of it all is the Shell Bay Restaurant. Doesn’t look like much from outside, and is actually a fairly basic place even inside, but the food is amazing, whatever you choose…
In the afternoon, we took the ferry back towards Bournemouth and spent some more time (and had a swim) at Branksome Beach.
Again, if you haven’t been there, you wouldn’t believe how fine and clean the sand is. Also, zero stones and a nicely shallow slope into the water.
For dinner, we drove to Sandbanks again, to eat at the Rick Stein’s Restaurant. This place is famous for its view from the tables across Poole Bay. It didn’t disappoint. The food was good, but it is rather expensive, mind.
The next morning, we visited two amazing golf courses. The first one, still on the Bournemouth side, is Parkstone Golf Club (you can see it on the satellite image above), right in the midst of posh residential areas.
The other one, on the other side of the ferry, is the Isle of Purbeck Golf Club, with amazing views across Poole Harbour.
We did not do the walk to the famous Old Harry Rocks, although that is certainly a must-do for first-time visitors in this area…. unless you are a pilot and can just as well see them from the air…. here is a pic taken two years ago…
After touring the Isle of Purbeck at bit more, and seeing Corfe Castle… we went to the coastal town of Swanage. Not only have I passed a few pleasant weeks of summer school there when I was fifteen… last time I visited, I had an amazing plate of mussels there, in a simple beach shack called “Gee Whites”. It was without a doubt we would do the same this time, and the mussels didn’t disappoint.
The second evening we spent in Bournemouth, walking the Gardens a bit and later having some (great) spare ribs for a change.
The next morning, we returned our rental car and took an Uber back to Bournemouth airport. All went exceptionally smoothly, such that five minutes past nine, we were able to start up for our short flight over to Cherbourg in France. The weather wasn’t great by that time, so I have just a few more pics from that flight.
In summary:
-yes, the formalities are dreadful
-yes, the weather is unstable
-yes, the hotels are mostly crap
-yes, the UK has become expensive
…but it can still be pretty nice, if you know where to go.
Nice trip.
The Bournemouth area is nice. High property prices. Full of dementia care homes.
EGHH is a good airport which provides a radar service for a large area.
Which formalities were hard? There is the GAR form which is great because almost every runway in the UK is a C+I airport. Compare that with the police work avoidance practices elsewhere…
BTW the wx is pretty much the same in the UK as in N France, Belgium, etc.
boscomantico wrote:
I passed a few pleasant weeks of summer school there when I was fifteen
LOL, I did the same in Eastbourne. Several summers. So those pics bring back fond memories.
Lovely report, thanks.
None of the formalities are hard, but they are dreadful. But to be honest, the worst bit about a flight to the UK is nowadays on the French side, if that’s involved. Cherbourg has a pdf form for PPR. So, I had to do all that (request the form via email, receive it, print it, fill-in with my best possible handwriting, scan it and send it back to them) before departing from home. In my case, I was lucky, as there has not been any change of plans whilst in the UK. Otherwise, say if I had decided to fly to Caen instead, I would have had to get their form, get someone to print their for me, etc. And that would have worked only if I had still been within the prescribed PN periods. And L2K does not really help those who go further to the west of the UK, or the west of France…
Best is to avoid France when flying to the UK alltogether, but obviously, someone flying all the way from Germany will likely want to combine a stay in the UK with a stay in France.
SGAR (at least for non-ZZZZ aerodromes) does seem to do the job, and the 2-hour requirement is a non-issue. I would have no problem creating one from scratch on the iphone whilst I have my breakfast.
Few UK pilots go to Cherbourg now. 50 for a taxi each way. Caen is strict PPR so likewise. From your direction, use LFAT. Or with the SR22 you don’t need a stop and same with the TB20 whose range is wonderful for avoiding European hassle.
Not only have I passed a few pleasant weeks of summer school there when I was fifteen
Reading that in this thread is déjà vu… Once upon a time a long time ago, if you were a teenager whose house was being bombed periodically you might have ended up living with people you didn’t know on Poole Harbour. Apparently it was a very nice place at the time and appears still to be so. I don’t recall if I’ve ever been there but I’ve heard periodically about the mischief/fun you could find on Poole Harbour 80 years ago for my whole life. Lots of flying boats to watch apparently
Yes it was one of the areas my dad was based during the 1940’s when he worked on Sunderland flying boats.
Great write-up of an area very familiar to me. The description and photos of the destinations bring it to life.
I’d agree that the sGAR process is comparatively straightforward and enabling – access to almost any airstrip with 2 hours notice prior departure. Whereas the lengthy PPR and wide variety of forms for France is really quite restrictive.
Looks like a really good trip. Dorset is nice. It has a lot of limestone which with the chalk makes for dramatic scenery, and it’s also Thomas Hardy country.
boscomantico wrote:
Best is to avoid France when flying to the UK alltogether, but obviously, someone flying all the way from Germany will likely want to combine a stay in the UK with a stay in France.
Should also not be a problem for most airplanes. If I recall, Oostende used to be a popular jump-off point for the UK before, is that still viable?
But going into elsewhere outside France in the EU or vice versa, you still will need a port of entry in the EU coming from UK. So what are viable alternatives which are better than the French ones? That would be the question in this case.
