DTVMovements Trip Reports

By Matt Falcus
12 March 2019

With my wife sitting an exam in Edinburgh and me agreeing to come up and meet her for a few days sightseeing and shopping in the city once she'd finished, I decided to take the opportunity to use the free day beforehand to try and bag an item on many aviation enthusiast's bucket lists - the beach runway at Barra.

I booked the trip back in January. As a tip, if you want to do this don't just book a return trip on their normal booking engine. Instead, call them up directly and ask for a Barra Beach Landing Experience (see https://www.loganair.co.uk/barra-beach-landing-experience/). This costs £77 and in my case saved me about £10 on booking normal seats on the flights.

So, with an early departure time I decided to get the train up and stay at the Premier Inn at Glasgow Airport the night before. However, it looked like I might be beaten by the weather as Storm Gareth was battering Scotland. Loganair had already sent an email warning of possible cancellation of the flights (they offer free re-booking within 7 days, or simply take your chances, which I did). In fact, the day I travelled up both Barra flights had been cancelled, and as I sat in my hotel room that night with winds lashing the windows and lightning flashing all around, I didn't hold out much hope.

Nevertheless, as morning broke there were partial blue skies and no further emails from Loganair, so I checked out of the hotel and wandered over to the terminal where the check-in agent confirmed there were no planned cancellations. Looking at the airport weather reports, it was still pretty windy and I was slightly concerned about making it out to Barra but the return flight then being cancelled!

After a decent breakfast in the departure lounge, eventually the gate was announced. Loganair operates this service with DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft, and at present have one of the older -300 models, and two newer Viking -400 models operated by Highlands & Islands Airports Ltd on their behalf. I was hoping for a flight on each variant as I hadn't flown a 'Twotter' before, and as I got to the gate I saw the older -300 G-BVVK sat there, but its props were spinning which I thought ominious as it had landed an hour earlier.

As we sat there, the departure time came and went, and eventually the gate agent told us there was an aircraft change due to a technical problem, so we had to up sticks and move to another gate, where -400 G-HIAL was waiting.

We eventually boarded through the door at the back into the sparse and narrow cabin, which has a 1-2 configuration. The first officer came back to give us a safety demonstration and details of the flight, commenting "Wind at Barra is only 27kts now - merely a breeze". These guys must be pro's to fly in the Scottish weather!

Now around 50 minutes late, the engines started up and the pilots used reverse pitch to back us up off the stand. We taxied to runway 23 for a very brief takeoff run.

There is no cockpit door in these aircraft, so you can see everything that goes on. The GPS map in the centre of the console was really useful for checking progress, and it was interesting to see the deviations the pilots had to take to avoid some thunderstorm cells along the way.

Our route took us out over the west cost, over the island of Mull, then across the strait to Barra. The beach airport has three designated runways, which is useful in windy conditions as the pilots have plenty of options. Our landing today was pretty much straight-in on the shorter of the runways, with a gentle return to earth as sea shells and sand sprayed past the window. This runway direction meant a simple deceleration to park immediately in front of the terminal building.

There were nine passengers on this flight, and five of which (myself included) were daytrippers along for the experience. Others were locals returning home.

Once deplaned, we were made aware that there would be a delay on our return flight later that afternoon, so it was a case of filling the time. I walked outside the terminal and watched as G-HIAL taxied out and took off again back to Glasgow, then decided to brave the howling wind and walk along the road for some views of the island. Another option would be to take a bus or taxi to Castlebay, the only sizeable village on Barra, but it is 8 miles south and I didn't want to risk missing my return flight!

After an hour or so I returned to the tiny terminal and had some lunch. The weather had really closed in and as time passed, other passengers started muttering comments about whether we'd make it back, and what do we do if it's cancelled? I kept an eye on Flightradar24 for the aircraft heading back to us, which it eventually did. But then it disappered from view as coverage dropped and it seemed like an eternity before anything happened. An airport worker said they often make a few attempts when weather is bad before diverting back to Glasgow, which didn't fill us with confidence!

Eventually, someone spotted lights in the mist and G-HIAL once again landed on the beach, which was by now under an inch or so of water. Everyone was keen to board, taking a few rain-soaked selfies before clambering up to the cabin.

The crew made a very quick turnaround as we were now two hours late. They taxied out along the beach, then performed a takeoff run into wind that couldn't have been more than 7 or 8 seconds long. We were immediately in cloud, which lasted all the way back to Glasgow, landing again on runway 23 an hour later, around 5pm.

This was a great experience, despite the extra stress. The weather definitely made it more interesting and shows what a versatile workhorse the Twin Otter is. I'd definitely recommend giving it a go, and at £38.50 each way you can't go wrong! Just maybe wait for the summer!