Saturday Afternoon In Wales

It's been over three years since I took Janet to Caernarfon for the day and with this great weather I thought the time was right for another visit. I told her we were going on Friday afternoon as she had hinted about going somewhere and taking a picnic.

I've been to the lovely little airfield at Caernarfon many times but only once before had I gone to the beach and spent some time there. When I fly with fellow pilots we usually just have a drink then head off somewhere else. This time I'd get to relax as well as fly.

There are two routes to take from Barton to Caernarfon, the more direct of which takes you along the M62 to Liverpool, across to Wallasey and up the coast via Llandudno and Bangor. This is the quicker but it can put you over Liverpool city centre at only 1500 feet, not many options should an engine problem develop.

The other route and the one we used was to follow the Low Level corridor down to Winsford before heading west towards Hawarden Airfield which is just southwest of Chester. We'd climbed from 1250 feet to 2400 feet to stay beneath controled airspace and Hawarden Approach gave us a flight information service and asked us to report passing overhead their airfield.

We climbed further to 2900 feet as we headed towards Denbigh looking out for gliders operating out of Lleweni Parc which was easy to spot. Didn't see any gliders though. After passing Denbigh we were clear to climb into uncontrolled airspace and made our way up to 6000 feet to ensure we were well clear of the mountains ahead which reach a peak of 3560 feet at Mount Snowden.

The air was smooth and the tail wind pushed us along at 140 kts. The views were spectacular and I was enjoying this as it was my first time over this high terrain. Then Caernarfon airfield came into view about 12 miles ahead and I made contact with them on the radio and commenced a descent to join overhead at 1300 feet for a right hand circuit to runway 26. We had to make one orbit to get the altitude off before joining as instructed and landing into the gentle westerly breeze. The wind at Barton was easterly on the surface but the see breeze switched it around to west on the coast.

After paying the landing fee we set off on the short walk to the sea, about five minutes is all it takes and you're on the beach, or you are if the sea isn't in, which is was!

No sign of sand here but further up the coast it was there if you looked hard enough. Well you can't control the tides can you?

We ate the picnic, had a sunbathe and got ourselves an ice cream before heading off back to the airfield for the journey home. We had about five hours in Wales during this trip so plenty of time to enjoy the beautiful mountains and sea.

I decided to take a slightly different route home. Departing from runway 26 we turned right and climbed to 300o feet and headed up the coast past Bangor and towards Llandudno. When we reached Colwyn Bay we turned on course for Denbigh this time coming at it from a different direction.

Caernarfon airield in front of the wing with the mountains in the distance.

Here we're approaching Llandudno at 3000 feet en route to Colwyn Bay.

There were no gliders to be seen at Denbigh again so we turned towards Hawarden going down to 2900 feet to remain clear of the airway above us. Hawarden had gone home now so we transited overhead and descended further to 2400 feet heading to Winsford. Levelling at 1250 feet we headed up the corrider again and took a straight in approach to runway 09 right at Barton, arriving at 6pm local time.

This photo shows us on final for Barton 09R with the City of Manchester behind. We left at 11am and got back at 6pm, so a pretty full day.

But more is still to come. Home for a shower and then off to my niece's 21st party. No time for a rest then?