Manchester/Barton/Blackpool and Isle of Man 22-25 August 2008 Craig Mcorriston/Ian Ellington
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I’ve been looking at Manx2 flights and having a weekend away in the Isle of Man now for a couple of years, so with the chance of flying on a Turbolet and manx2 knocking out £30 rtn Inc taxes from Blackpool! I thought id open the wallet and see what’s its like for shooting some commuters!!
Unfortunately not long after booking the flights, Euro Manx went bust and flybe took on most of the routes!! As with most regional Airports now, flybe DHC8-400s are a common sight and Isle of Man is no exception! “ 3 being based!” On the plus side is Manx2! Who’s fleet seems to change like the English weather!! Nice array of aircraft from Turbolets/Dornier 228 and Metros and most in odd ball colors!! We didn’t see any Dornier’s as one blew a tyre on landing at IoM a couple of weeks ago and has been away on maintenance since!. I believe they have 2 so not to sure where the other one was??
Anyway after hard mornings work on Fri 22/08 it was straight down to Manchester for the rest of the afternoon/evening in the viewing park!
Manchester Fri 22/08/2008 3pm – 8.30pm
Of interest
TC-OAG/ONU A300’s Onur Air
OH-AFJ B757 Air Finland
G-CDFS ERJ135 bmi-regional (Still Basic Magic Colors)
G-CEAH B737-200 European Aircharter
G-FLTK MD83 Flightline
D-AHXD B737-700 Tuifly
AP-BJA A321 Air Blue
LZ-BHB A320 BH Air/Balkan
G-XLAP/XLAR B737-900’s XL Airways
D-AHFE B737-800 Tuifly
G-UYGB BD100 Challenger 300
CS-DXW Ce560XLS (New NetJet Colors!)
G-JANV/RWGW Learjet 45’s
G-CDLT Hawker 800XP
CS-DLE Falcon 2000
After waiting for the Air Blue A321 to arrive and with the evening sun disappearing fast it was off to my digs for the night!!
Manchester Sat 23/08/2008 7am- 17.30pm
After a brief visit in a local pubs car park getting landing shots I headed off to terminal 3 where one of the lads “Craig Mcorriston” was arriving on a flybe flight from Edinburgh!! So after picking up Scotland’s richest man we then headed round to the south side for departures on runway 24L. With the sun getting better by the hour we stayed until the runway closed at mid day, then headed back to the local pub where we had a few beers and got some landing shots! Once the sun got round we then headed to the viewing park for the remainder of the afternoon!
Of Interest
F-GRSQ A330-200 XL Airways
G-OCSF Challenger 605
VP-CFT Challenger 601-3A
TS-IEG B737-300 Kathagoo Airlines
TC-OAO A300 Onur Air
EC-GNZ B737-400 Futura
YL-LCD A320 Lat Charter (Operating for Air Malta)
LZ-BHD A320 BH Air/Balkan
5B-DBR B737-800 Eurocypria
OY-VKF A330-200 My Travel Denmark!
G-XLAR B737-900 XL Airways
S5-AAM B737-500 Adria
B-2476 B747-400F Air China Cargo
The weather was fast changing into a gloomy afternoon so about 5ish we’d had enough and headed up Preston to our digs via Barton!!
Barton Sat 23/08/2008 6pm
To be honest ive not visited Barton for a long time and it was roughly on our way so we popped in! Barton is still friendly to spotters as long as you sign in at the tower and sign out! Would help if you’ve got a green vest as well if you’re thinking of visiting!!! We wondered round for half an hour then left as the cloud turned to rain!! “As expected” nothing real of interest
G-TAXI PA27 Aztec plus a couple of Yak 52s and 70+ tins helicopters etc
Blackpool Sun 24/08/2008 9.30am-12pm
One of the main reasons for flying from Blackpool was to shoot all the ex Emerald Airways HS748s/ATP’s that are stored their! To be honest though it was a bit of a gamble as neither of us had tried to mail anyone their with regards to getting out on the ramp!!! The trump card was that Craig’s got his pilots license and seems to know a few characters in flying clubs etc around the country!! it payed off as a guy from one of the flying clubs was on hand to take us out, so we managed to shoot all the HS748s but the ATP’s were all locked up in the hanger!! We also gained access to a couple of hangers, so after a very successful visit it was then off to check in for the short hop across the Irish Sea to IoM
HS748s
G-OTBA Royal Tongan Basic Colors!
G-OPFW Parcel Force Colors
G-BVOV Old Emerald Airways Colors
G-BEJD Reed Aviation Colors
G-BVOU Lynx Colors
G-ORAL Reed Aviation Colors
G-SOEI Mount Cook Airlines Colors
G-ATMJ Old Emerald Airways Colors
G-BPNJ All White and no rag
G-OSOE All White and no rag
G-AZDR Ce402
N400UK Extra 500
G-GJTM Eurocopter EC120
M-GINZ TB-20
M-YAIR Raytheon Premier
M-GLAS Be90 King Air
N401JN Ce401
G-UILT Ce303
G-BLUM AS365 Dauphin CHC
OK-RDA Turbolet Mnx2
Also the Red Arrows Hawks
Isle of Man Sun 24/08/2008 12.35pm – 1900pm
On arrival at the airport and after a very smooth flight on Turbolet OK-RDA we headed round to the flying club at 27 end of the main runway!! Real good for shots as the sun is behind you up until mid afternoon!! So we stayed their and had few pints and Sunday lunch!! After speaking to a couple of guys in the flying club, we were then driven round by the terminal where we entered one of the maintenance hangers! A couple of tins/twins and a couple of manx2 aircraft on maintenance were in their!! As I mentioned the Airport probably isn’t as good now with flybe picking up Euro Manx ex routes, but I think still worth a visit! A bit quiet at times but Im sure it would have been a bit busier with light aircraft had the wind not been so blustery?? The Terminal area is really good for shots to “which is where we went once the sun got round!” You can shoot either side of the terminal “through the fence” of aircraft coming onto stand or on push back! I only got asked once by Security but then was left alone to take shots!!! TAKE NOTE DADS ARMY!!!!!!!
One thing of note that we seen while walking from the flying school to the terminal was a Thomas Cook B757 G-FCLI flying overhead with the gear/flaps down dropping fuel at about 3.000ft!!!!!! Never heard what the problem was????
OK-RDA/UBA Turbolet’s Manx2
EC-ITP Basic Topfly Colours/D-CNAG/D-CSAL/9H-AEU All Metro’s
G-JECR/JECP/JEDR DHC-8s flybe
OO-ROB RC690
M-RAVA Let 200
N375SA PA34 Seneca
N918Y/M-ALAN PA39 Twin Comanche’s
G-MAJI/MAJY Jetstream 41’s Eastern Airways
EI-REL ATR,72 Aer Arann
G-EMBU ERJ145 flybe
After several hours at the airport we headed for our Airport hotel and then off down Castletown for a bit to eat and a couple of pints!!
Isle of Man Mon 25/08/2008 9.30am – 18.30pm
After looking out of the hotel window on the morning i couldn’t believe that another bank holiday was a wash out!!!! Really dull and raining!!!! So we headed up to the airport after breakfast!
It wasn’t long before Craig had enough and he headed into town!! He was flying home earlier on the 3pm flight but I had opted for the 6.30pm one! So after a couple of hours I tried in vain to change my flight but it was going to cost me £117 to change! And with me paying only £15 for the flight “I was stuck for another 3 hours!!” So I had a look around the airport museum “and then when the rain had stopped” headed round to the hangers see if I could get in any! No luck as everywhere was locked up!
M-NOEL BD100 Challenger 300
M-OORE Be350 Super King Air
G-BYHG Do328 Blue Islands
EI-BYO ATR,42 Aer Arann
G-MAJG Jetstream 41 Eastern Airways
G-LGNG/LGNM Saab SF340’s Loganair/flybe
G-CALL PA23Aztec
OO-VLR Fokker FK50 VLM
EI-REB ATR,72 Aer Arann
G-ECOC DHC,8-400 flybe
And at the museum outside is
G-BGYT EMB110 Bandierante (ex flykeen)
“Well” 18.30pm couldn’t come soon enough as the weather was terrible!! Rain,gales!! Typical bank holiday!! Must admit I wasn’t looking forward to my flight back to Blackpool! The flight back was on a Metro EC-ITP! Great smooth flight “oddly enough” in cloud all the way until on approach to Blackpool where I thought we where on the big one!!! Nice landing though all the same!! Nothing at Blackpool on arrival so it was in the car and home!!
“In a nut shell” Isle of Man is worth a visit if you want to get some close up shots of commuters etc! but no good if you’re after filling a log book!
I was told by one of the locals that a she devil “like we have here at DTV” has taken over and is planning big changes!!!! 7ft perimiter fence and a runway extension out into the sea???? She’s expecting wide body aircraft to be operating in 5 years??????? INTERESTING!!!!!!!
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