Sligo, Ireland

Last year I wrote about visiting Galway in Southern Ireland but, due to weather factors, the trip was not completed. I also wrote about visits to Waterford, both last year and earlier this year in May, that went well and were very enjoyable. Galway still waits, but this trip is a description of my visit to Sligo, on the Atlantic West coast of Ireland.

It was just over a year ago that my friend Alan last flew with me on the trip to Waterford, and he was pleased to be on his way back to the Emerald Isle with me again. A business contact of Alan’s, Liam, who is learning to fly, was unable to join us this time but is lined up for a future trip. Our aim was to stay overnight in Sligo on Saturday night and return to Blackpool the following day.

Friday afternoon and evening was spent planning the trip. For this task I used Sky Demon software as it comprehensively presents you with all the information that is required for the flight. A log with details of waypoints, safe altitudes, headings, timings and frequencies of air traffic units and navigational aids, complete with morse code identifiers, is produced for the pilot. The latest weather and Notams are included as are airfield diagrams, showing runways and other details. This information was then printed and stored in my flight case. As the weather looked to be suitable for the trip, I filed a flight plan via AFPEX, on my laptop. A GAR (general aviation report) was also completed in readiness for sending on the Saturday morning.

Alan picked me up at 8:30am and just over an hour later we were at Blackpool Airport, ready to go. This trip was in the Piper Seneca twin engine “old generation” PA34. All was well with the aircraft but we needed to add some fuel. The Seneca uses around 92 litres per hour in cruise and after our refuel we had around 430 litres on board. With a flight time out and back of around 75 minutes this would mean no fuel would be required at Sligo, saving us time to enjoy the day.

With our two engines running and the flight plan entered into the GNS430 GPS Navigator we were ready to taxi for departure. I tuned a VOR (navigation instrument) to a beacon on the Isle of Man as this would give us bearings and ranges to confirm the accuracy of the GPS. Ten minutes later we departed from Blackpool’s runway 28 and climbed to 3000 feet, heading for our first way-point of CASEL, out in the Irish Sea. Our altitude would penetrate controlled airspace so I spoke to Ronaldsway controllers on the Isle of Man, who cleared us through, on track to NIMAT which is where Irish Airspace starts. So far, so good. The weather was as forecast but there looked to be a lot of cloud over the Irish coast, some at low levels.



Approaching the Irish Coast near Dundalk

Some weather challenges heading for Sligo


We made contact with Dublin as we flew under their control zone which starts at 4500 feet. The lady on duty was very busy and apart from telling us to remain outside controlled airspace, we heard nothing more from her. I heard a jet asking for weather avoidance and was looking at threading our way through the clouds to remain in visual conditions. A few turns and a descent to 2500 feet saw us through the weather, which only extended around 20 miles inland. Our final waypoint before destination was SUROX and we then had fairly good conditions all the way on our track to Sligo.

There is a large hill shaped a little like Ayres Rock, in Australia, just a mile or two from the Sligo runway, and it’s over 1000 feet above sea level. We ran downwind right hand for runway 11 and did a curving approach to establish on final. Not my best effort as we went through the centre line! I must get used to a wider circuit in the Seneca as you can’t fly it like a single or the Twinstar. The landing was OK in the gentle southerly crosswind. We taxied in and parked next to a Cessna single, opened our door and were met by a very nice day.

Turning right base leg runway 11 at Sligo



Short final runway 11 Sligo


There only appear to be two commercial flights a day into Sligo, both from Dublin. The airfield was very quiet and in the arrivals/departures area there was only a lady on the information desk and a girl on the car hire desk. We walked the short distance to Strandhill, a small collection of shops, restaurants, houses and wet suit hire places for surfers. There were plenty of people in the water and the place was busy, very pleasant and clean. We had fish and chips with beautiful white fish between the batter. Alan and I were looking for a B&B for the night but the very nice looking premises we tried only had one room left. Another place we knocked at did not answer the door so after walking around in the sunshine we caught the bus to Sligo, in search of a bed for the night.

After walking many miles (literally!), we eventually found a place fifteen minutes out of town. After a shower we were off again for a spot of food and a pint of Guiness. There is a really nice river walk area with bars that we settled on for an evening of people watching and some live music. I had to make do with coca cola for most of the evening, but Alan took full advantage of the Guiness, working his way through quite a few glasses. We got back to the B&B around 1am after a very good night out.

After a substantial Irish breakfast we walked into town again before picking up the bus back to Strandhill and the airport. Alan wanted to check out the caravan and camping site so we picked up some information there before walking back to the airport. For the first time ever, I had filed our return flight plan from my room in the B&B, using EuroFpl, a free web-based application. This works on GPRS and 3G but as we had WiFi at the B&B it went through quickly and I soon received an acknowledgement via e- mail. The iphone proves its worth again! I also used it to brief myself on the return weather.


Preparing The Seneca for Departure




G-GFEY has some nice lines!




Engines running, time to enter the flightpan


There was a weak cold front over Sligo and this was producing some low cloud and light rain/drizzle. The forecast and actual weather to the East showed better conditions for the flight home. If we could get into the air and around the high terrain we should be ok. As we were taxiing to the threshold of runway 11 for our checks  light rain was falling. A few minutes later we were in the air at the start of our journey to retrace yesterdays route in reverse. We remained below 3000 feet as we passed the many lakes in the area and although the cloud base and visibility were improving, the turbulence was increasing. It was quite rough until we headed out over the ocean near Dundalk.




Alan took this video of our take off from Sligo.

Ronaldsway cleared us through their Class D airspace as we maintained 3500 feet all the way home. Descending towards Blackpool at 175 knots it was soon time to slow the beast down as I reduced power and allowed the speed to fall to 130 knots before dropping the undercarriage as we positioned downwind right hand for runway 28. Landings in the Seneca are not as refined as in the Twinstar, mainly due to an inability to hold the nose wheel off the runway. You can do this easily in the Twinstar, but the Seneca does not allow super smooth landings, at least not for me. Still, it was perfectly safe and as we taxied in the sun was shining down keeping our spirits high.

Once the paperwork was complete we headed off home to Manchester. This is what general aviation is all about: going places and doing things on your own schedule. We both liked Sligo and Strandhill and would happily return.

But I STILL haven’t been to Galway!