Richard very kindly invited me along for a flight over the Plymouth and South Devon area in one of Plymouth School of Flying's Cessna 152s; G-BHZH - the same bird that I took my first lesson in over five years ago.

The weather was a little hazy, but the views were great. Thanks again for a great trip Richard! :D

Once again the Fireworks Championship was being held in Plymouth. But, with tens of thousands of people expected on the Hoe, I decided to head for the slopes of Dartmoor instead. It was kit and miss for photography, as they were being let off approximately 14km away, certainly considering the light pollution they seemed to turn out alright.

After visiting the South West earlier in the year, Soren invited me down to Freiburg in Southern Germany to go gliding for a weekend. It's something I've always wanted to try, so we set a date which coincided with some £10 all in fares on Ryanair, flying me from Newquay to Basel via London for just £20.

23.07.2009 ... NQY-STN ... Ryanair ... B737-8AS (EI-EFK)
23.07.2009 ... STN-BSL ... Ryanair ... B737-8AS (EI-DCM)

The gliding was completely incredible - it's just about as close as you can get to being a bird... without being exposed to the elements like a paraglider. Aside of the gliding we visited the Sinsheim Technology Museum - home of a preserved Concorde and Tu-144 amongst other exhibits.

25.07.2009 ... Kirchzarten-Kirchzarten ... Brausegeier Gliding Association ... ASK 21 (D-3429)
25.07.2009 ... Kirchzarten-Kirchzarten ... Brausegeier Gliding Association ... ASK 21 (D-3429)
25.07.2009 ... Kirchzarten-Kirchzarten ... Brausegeier Gliding Association ... ASK 21 (D-3429)
25.07.2009 ... Kirchzarten-Kirchzarten ... Brausegeier Gliding Association ... ASK 13 (D-6886)
26.07.2009 ... Kirchzarten-Kirchzarten ... Brausegeier Gliding Association ... ASK 13 (D-6886)
26.07.2009 ... Kirchzarten-Kirchzarten ... Brausegeier Gliding Association ... ASK 21 (D-3429)
26.07.2009 ... Kirchzarten-Kirchzarten ... Brausegeier Gliding Association ... ASK 21 (D-3429)

For the return trip it was actually cheaper to fly via Sweden. We decided to camp out instead of shelling out for an expensive hotel, then headed into Stockholm for a few hours the next day before flying to Stansted where we again camped before I headed back to Newquay and Soren headed back to Germany.

27.07.2009 ... FKB-NYO ... Ryanair ... B737-8AS (EI-EFA)
28.07.2009 ... NYO-STN ... Ryanair ... B737-8AS (EI-DWH)
29.07.2009 ... STN-NQY ... Ryanair ... B737-8AS (EI-DYS)

First pictures from the meeting at Manchester Airport. Flights were as follows:

04.07.2009 ... PLH-BRS ... Air Southwest ... DHC8-Q311 (G-WOWB)
04.07.2009 ... BRS-MAN ... Air Southwest ... DHC8-Q311 (G-WOWA)
06.07.2009 ... BLK-IOM ... FlyBe (Logan Air) ... SAAB 340B (G-LGNB)
06.07.2009 ... IOM-LCY ... VLM Airlines ... Fokker 50 (OO-VLQ)
06.07.2009 ... LCY-PLH ... Air Southwest ... DHC9-Q311 (G-WOWA)

This trip started off simply as a means to fly on the seasonal Lufthansa service from Newquay to Dusseldorf. However, shortly after I'd booked this segment, Air France sent me an offer, whereby I'd receive 9000 airmiles should I fly three segments on them within June or July. It was too late to get a cheap flight to Paris from Dusseldorf, so instead I opted for an overnight coach.

20.06.2009 ... NQY-DUS ... Eurowings for Lufthansa Regional ... CRJ 100LR (D-ACRR)
21.06.2009 ... ORY-MLH ... BritAir for Air France ... Fokker 100 (F-GPXE)
21.06.2009 ... MLH-ORY ... Air France ... A319-100 (F-GRHJ)
22.06.2009 ... ORY-MRS ... Air France ... A320-214 (F-GKXK)

Overall, I was far from impressed with Air France... for a multitude of reasons they were ghighly disappointing. From my getoff point with them in Marseille I then stepped onto Ryanair for the rest of the trip, which in comparison were excellent. Each flight cost no more than £2.50 including all taxes, charges and fees etc... so it was a real bargain too!

22.06.2009 ... MRS-MAD ... Ryanair ... B737-8AS ( EI-CBB)
23.06.2009 ... MAD-GRO ... Ryanair ... B737-8AS (EI-DGW)
23.06.2009 ... GRO-LBC ... Ryanair ... B737-8AS (EI-DWC)
23.06.2009 ... LBC-STN ... Ryanair ... B737-8AS (EI-DYA)
24.06.2009 ... STN-NQY ... Ryanair ... B737-8AS (EI-DPB)

The announcement of flights direct from Plymouth airport to London's City Airport had been much anticipated. With fares starting at £29 each way I booked a return to London on the first day as soon as the flights were released for sale. Aside of flying another one of their inaugural services, City Airport's location provided the perfect access point for me to visit the Thames Barrier park, somewhere I've been meaning to visit for several years.

20.04.2009 ... PLH-LCY ... Air Southwest ... DHC8-Q311 (G-WOWA)
20.04.2009 ... LCY-PLH ... Air Southwest ... DHC8-Q311 (G-WOWA)

Compared with most European countries, getting to and from Chisinau is hiddeously expensive - around £300 return at best. Therefore, I started looking for better alternatives; in the end I settled on taking an overnight bus from Chisinau to Odessa in the Ukraine, then a flight up to Kiev (for a bargain $17 AND on an An-24 too!), before continueing to London Luton with WizzAir for just £18/ow - saving me literally hundreds of pounds!
From London I could have taken a coach back to Plymouth, but instead decided to try out FlyBe's new and cheap LGW-NQY service instead, although to be honest I wish I'd just taken a bus as Plymouth is a pain to get to from Newquay!

05.04.2009 ... ODS-KBP ... Lugansk Airlines ... Antonov 24RV (UR-47312)
05.04.2009 ... KBP-LTN ... WizzAir ... A320-200 (HA-LPJ)
06.04.2009 ... LGW-NQY ... FlyBe ... DHC8-Q400 (G-JECU)

The timings allowed me to watch the dawn rise over the Black Sea from Odessa, before heading to the airport for midday.

As part of the Il-18 flight, participents were also given virtually unrestricted access to photograph aircraft on the ground at Chisinau. It's almost unheard of to get this sort of permission for photography in the former Soviet Block states, especially for such a large group, so it was an opportunity not to be turned down!

For many years now the Il-18 has been top of my priority list to fly, but with it carrying out only ad-hoc or unreliable scheduled operations far from the UK, I figured it to be an impossible task. Then AirEvents announced a charter flight using the aircraft, which was to be carried out in Moldova. Without hesitation, I knew I'd have to be on it!

The trip also included a ramp tour of Chisnau airport, which in itself is very rare, plus fate lent me an extra flight on this amazing aircraft, when I got to experience a high speed and very low flypast of the runway at Balti.

04.04.2009 ... KIV-BZY ... Grixona/Tandem Aero ... Ilyushin 18D (ER-ICB)
04.04.2009 ... BZY-BZY ... Grixona/Tandem Aero ... Ilyushin 18D (ER-ICB)
04.04.2009 ... BZY-KIV ... Grixona/Tandem Aero ... Ilyushin 18D (ER-ICB)

After arriving from Bergamo I spent the day exploring Bucharest, then the following morning flew on Blue Air to Arad. Again, I had some time in the city there before going by train to Timisoara for a flight onto Cluj, so that I could then fly the A318 back down to Bucharest. The next day I flew straight back to Timisoara again, with Carpatair, taking the morning and early afternoon to explore the city before flying onwards to Chisinau in the afternoon.

02.04.2009 ... BBU-ARW ... Blue Air ... B737-400 (YR-BAD)
02.04.2009 ... TSR-CLJ ... Carpatair ... SAAB 2000 (YR-SBE)
02.04.2009 ... CLJ-OTP ... TAROM ... A318-100 (YR-ASB)
03.04.2009 ... OTP-TSR ... Carpatair ... SAAB 2000 (YR-SBJ)
03.04.2009 ... TSR-KIV ... Carpatair ... Fokker 100 (YR-FKB)

Having decided that the cheapest way of reaching Chisinau in Moldova was to travel via Romania, I set about finding a cheap way there. In the end I settled on a combination of Ryanair and MyAir from Bristol to Bucharest via Bergamo in Northern Italy, which also gave me the opportunity to visit the city during the 18 hour layover between flights.

31.03.2009 ... PLH-BRS ... Air Southwest ... DHC8-311 (G-WOWB)
31.03.2009 ... BRS-BGY ... Ryanair ... B737-8AS (EI-DLC)
01.04.2009 ... BGY-BBU ... MyAir ... CRJ900 (EI-DUY)

After negotiating various permissions, I was able to fly on a positioning flight to Hartland Point Heliport, Devon, from Castle Air's base at Trebrown Heliport, near Liskeard, in Cornwall.

To say this was an incredible experience is an understatement! The weather caused quite a bit of turbulence en route, but this didn't affect the amazing views spread out below. It was possible to sit up front, but I let a friend sit here as it was his first visit to the region. After the flight we hiked along the coast path to Hartland Quay to be picked up by my partner.

23.03.2009 ... Trebrown-Hartland ... Castle Air ... Agusta 109A II (G-TELY)

Whilst a friend was visiting from Germany I figured it would be a good opportunity for both of us to log a new aircraft type, and enjoy a sightseeing flight over Cornwall. The weather was ideal, and ATC at Newquay were very quiet, so they allowed us to overfly at 3000ft, giving a great view of the new runway improvements.

22.03.2009 ... EGTP-EGTP ... Perranporth Flying School ... C172H (G-BGIU)

It came to my attention that Aer Lingus would be operating a positioning flight from Cardiff to Dublin, having dropped off Irish Rugby fans for the Six Nations final at the Millenium Stadium. Fares throughout the aircraft were just £0 plus taxes, coming to about £18 in total, and all seats were available - including those up front in the business class cabin.

Aer Lingus took the initiative; considering most of those travelling in my group were not just enthusiasts, but those who write and work in the airline industry, they gave us a pleasant flight along with a fantastic souvenir goody bag, which included a scale model of the A330-300.

Travel to Cardiff was by Air Southwest to Bristol and train to Cardiff, returning to Plymouth by Ryanair and Air Southwest - interestingly myself and a friend were the only two passengers onboard the last NQY-PLH flight - arriving into Plymouth by personal Dash 8!

21.03.2009 ... PLH-BRS ... Air Southwest ... DHC8-311 (G-WOWB)
21.03.2009 ... CWL-DUB ... Aer Lingus ... A330-300 (EI-JFK)
21.03.2009 ... DUB-LGW ... Ryanair ... B737-8AS(W) (EI-DWA)
21.03.2009 ... LGW-NQY ... Air Southwest ... DHC8-311 (G-WOWA)
21.03.2009 ... NQY-PLH ... Air Southwest ... DHC8-311 (G-WOWA)

I had about eight hours to kill between my flight back from Iceland arriving and my Partner's, as she was travelling with her sister. The weathr was excellent for February, so I headed out to shoot the arrivals on 27R and then 27L once they swapped at 3pm.

With the Icelandic economy in turmoil, Icelandair opened up some impressive offers to get tourists back to the country - three night's accommodation and return flights from London for just £199. This wasn't to be sniffed at, so we booked straight away for a break during half term, with the entention of seeing the Northern Lights, and my partner to go pony trekking.

17.02.2009 ... LHR-KEF ... Icelandair ... B757-200(W) (TF-FIO)
20.02.2009 ... KEF-LHR ... Icelandair ... B757-200(W) (TF-FIV)

Icelandair offered a very impressive seat product in Economy with an excellent seatback IFE system, although the lack of complementory food was telling and dissapointing.

The introduction of weekly flights to Grenoble in Southern France marked Air Southwest's most far reaching destination from Plymouth and Newquay. At just £35 one way, the flight was a bargain. Initially I had planned to travel on through to Italy and possible Switzerland, but my plans changed and I instead flew back to Bristol the same day with Ryanair.

03.01.2009 ... PLH-NQY ... Air Southwest ... DHC8-311 (G-WOWE)
03.01.2009 ... NQY-GNB ... Air Southwest ... DHC8-311 (G-WOWE)
03.01.2009 ... GNB-BRS ... Ryanair ... B737-8AS(W) (EI-DCE)