Answer on pprune http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?threadid=125676

Indeed, the only replacement for the Islander is…er……the Islander. Many of the strips (Jura, Colonsay, Coll, Glenforsa) are really Islander only (and then you have to use short field take-off technique, which was quite entertaining – you could lift off at about 35 kts!!, almost go backwards in a strong wind!)

Originally posted by grahamskipton
This may seem sort of daft, but do the schedules and times of these flights change in relation to the tides or not here??

Indeed they do, and time to remind you of Roy Calderwood’s excellent book ‘Times Subject to Tides – The Story of Barra Airport’, from Kea Publishing, 14 Flures Crescent, Erskine, Renfrewshire, PA8 7DJ

Originally posted by Ren Frew
Moondance would you care to provide us with some insights and recollections purleaseeeeeee!!!!:D

I first went to Barra in my first week as a working pilot, and over a period of three years probably went three times a month on average. Ironic to think that in the twenty years since I’ve done nothing much to match the trip to Barra.
Barra was essentially a VFR operation. In bad weather, the Loganair procedure was to let down to the north of Tiree on a radial from the Tiree VOR (down to 500ft on the 341 radial, to be visual by 25DME TRE – why can I remember stuff like that and not my wedding anniversary?). Barra does have an NDB beacon now, so there may well be a Loganair let-down procedure based on that.
However, it was always far more fun to go out low level VFR all the way if possible…….down the Firth of Clyde to the Holy Loch (look at the American submarines), across Loch Fyne and follow the Crinan Canal to the coast…then across the Sound of Jura, having a look at the Corryvreckan whirlpool between Jura and Scarba (a wild piece of water). Then on to Mull (amazing cliffs along the south coast), have a look at Iona Abbey, or perhaps fly down Loch Scridain and see Staffa and Fingal’s Cave….(inadvertently went past the Royal Yacht Britannia at 500ft in an Islander early one morning….oops, sorry Ma’am), past Coll and on to Barra.
Landing at Barra (if you could see it) was rarely a problem – just like a big grass airfield (if damper), so no crosswind problems. Somewhere like Tingwall/Lerwick was far more demanding than Barra, with a short, narrow concrete runway in a N-S valley, totally out of the prevailing westerly Shetland gales.
It was just like flying into another world…the radio was operated by the Loganair lady (“We’ve got some of that high cauliflower type cloud”, spoken in a glorious Hebridean accent), firemen loaded/unloaded the baggage and knew you by first name….as far removed from flying big jets from a busy airport as you could possibly imagine…pure magic, maybe I’ll go do it again after I retire.
Now if I could only scan in some of my ancient slides….got some taken on the beach with a polarising filter fitted, making the sand whiter, the sky bluer, looks like the Caribbean, not the west of Scotland!

Originally posted by wysiwyg
Watch out everyone, Moondance is going to get sentimental! 😀

Not half!! Brilliant pix,ta for posting Ren. I’ve just been scrabbling in dusty logbooks to see my last visit to Barra was in February 1986 in Islander GBFCX, callsign ‘Ambulance 099’
If only I could be doing that sort of flying with the lifestyle and cash of the current one. Sadly, the two are usually mutually exclusive in aviation!

Well, the forecast suggests 15 to be the favourite for tomorrow.
As for CHASE, it features on the charts, but with the standard radar vectors from the south, don’t think I’ve ever been anywhere near it for real!
If you really want to find out where these places are, go to http://www.ais.org.uk (you will need to register) follow the links to the UK AIP, and all the CAA UK airport charts are there.
You will find CHASE to be N52 36.48 W001 55.02, or slightly easier, 315 Radial from DTY at 39DME.
And finally, if you want find what waypoints are named after, try http://www.reportingpoints.info which says its named after Cannock Chase.

TAF EGBB 021025Z 021812 17008KT 9999 SCT030 PROB30 TEMPO 1820 6000 SHRA BKN020CB TEMPO 0209 8000 BKN008 BECMG 0811 17015G25KT 7000 RA BKN008=

Max altitude for 757 is FL420 & for the 767 FL430, but you need to be pretty lightweight to get up there (like the first week in May, beginning of the charter summer season when many of the return sectors to the UK are empty).
As Skycruiser says, cosmic radiation is a real concern – it increases exponentially (I seem to recall) at the upper levels. As a passenger, it is probably of no great concern, but for flightcrew it certainly is. We spend our careers up there, and each generation of aircraft tends to fly higher than the last (zapping you with the invisible rays). Much of the evidence is, so far, anecdotal, but flightcrew are the guinea-pigs, and if it comes to a step climb further into the radioactive zone to save a couple of hundred kilos of fuel, forget it!