I recently had to visit Plymouth for work, and being an eternal opportunist I started my hotel search by opening the Helipaddy app. Most weekends of flying, start like this, with the choosing of a new hotel or restaurant to visit. Kitley was different, it was quite spectacular and in fact, I had almost forgotten to book any accommodation at all. I had been groundcrew for the entirety of Glastonbury both at the site Heliport and back at the HQ, so booking a hotel for the week after had slipped my mind completely.
So when I found Kitley, (https://www.kitleyhousehotel.com/) in its own private estate, nestled away South of Yealmpton and only 15 minutes drive from where I needed to be for work, I was pleasantly surprised when the price to book was incredibly modest. A 500 year old manor house, with the look and feel of a castle with a mile long drive just felt like an experience, that really shouldn’t be surpassed.
The stay was as impeccable as it could have been, and all of the staff are a credit to the House. I was made to feel not only welcome, but as if I owned the estate, it was unrivalled hospitality from Breakfast, Afternoon Tea and Evening Service. I vowed I would return by helicopter and 4 weeks later that is what I did.
It would be a complex trip, that I wanted to combine with a visit to Henstridge to fly some colleagues whom had never flown in a helicopter before. Henstridge, is no where near Devon so the intention was to make this a long trip. I had called Kitley the evening before with my intentions and had also booked in for fuel with Devon and Somerset Flight Training at Dunkewell (EGTU). As I was flight planning the morning of the flight, I had completed the NOTAM Check, Weather and Frequency list. The line on the map was drawn and the wind noted. As I went to upload it onto SkyDemon.. the screen of the tablet had smashed and I was left with flying the journey with SkyDemon on my iPhone instead.
I lifted from Gloucester, departing to the South and tracking the M5 towards Thornbury. I contemplated a request to Bristol to enter controlled airspace and transit their zone, however an Agusta A109 heading the opposite direction inbound to Avonmouth Docks quickly deterred me from the idea, and I stuck with my original intentions. On to squawk 5077, around and under the zone boundary via Avonmouth, Portishead and Clevedon. As I approached the Portishead Marina, there was a Piper Cherokee in a crop field where it had evidently made a precautionary or emergency landing in the days previous. It was quite a sight and I had to do a double take!
I crossed the split-level part of the M5 close to Clevedon, and headed towards the Weston-super-Mare Junction. I turned towards the coast and made an orbit of the Helicopter Museum before picking up a route South West and tracking the Brean and Burnham beaches towards Cannington in Bridgwater. Somerset, simply put is a spectacular place to fly, with rolling countryside, the estuary, beaches and hills. All within a short flight of each other. I was now clear of the Bristol zone and listened out on the Dunkeswell Radio freqeency as I passed to the West of Taunton.
I was joining long finals for Runway 22, as a fixed-wing called back tracking. I aimed for the pumps and came to a hover outside of the cafe, before backtracking myself to the Helipad next to the pumps. So far, I was doing well for time. I had planned to be at Kitley House for 13h00 Local time, by the time I had the tanks re-brimmed with Avgas and paid the landing fee, I should be on my way. When I returned to the aircraft, there had appeared a Cessna C152 next to me. I gestured to the pilot, who was about to do a pleasure flight for a family that I would hover up and over the top of him and he nodded in agreement, as I lifted shortly after and flew runway heading out of the zone.
Exeter airspace comes up quickly when departing Dunkeswell, so I switched to Exeter Radar and requested a basic service. For an International Airport they were incredibly friendly and helpful, providing much more than a Basic Service. I had calculated the flight would take approximately 40 minutes from leaving Dunkeswell, and so far this was working out well. Out of courtesy I informed Exeter I would be turning South and passing through their extended centre line, to which they were content with and passed me over to Exeter Approach as I raced towards the open expanse of Dartmoor.
No wanting to rely solely on SkyDemon, I made sure to Navigate using the Map and surprisingly or unsurprisingly so, depending on how you see it, I was very close to the line I had drawn, on the correct heading and was able to accurately ascertain my position along the route from discernible ground features. As I neared the southern edge of the Dartmoor espace, Exeter called to let me know I was leaving his radar range, I let him know I was almost visual with the landing site and thanked them for their service.
Kitley sits at the most northerly edge of a fork in the river to the East of Cottlete Creek. However, directly South of the hotel grounds is an activer danger zone, extending from the Surface upto 22,000ft. So the approach had to be careful and safe. I approached from the North East, with a nice South West wind coming up through the valley. I spotted the House between the trees, and headed down through the grounds, to the South of the House and on to the coned out helipad where two of the House staff were waiting to greet me. I landed at 13h05 local, which wasn’t all that bad!
I practically skipped up the hill, absolutely famished, dying for a pee, and in need of a cup of tea and some scones. It’s a Pilots life for me. (Jokes aside, hour building is notoriously bad for your nutrition, consider packing a sandwich box on these trips).
After a perfect afternoon tea, served on the terrace under the pergola, overlooking the R22 I called up Henstridge to head over and fly some work colleagues. Aghast, Henstridge were too busy to accept any visitors above those they already had booked in! Knowing that I needed fuel before heading back to Gloucester, I had planned Compton as a possible alternative. I called them for PPR, and plotted a course for them. I hadn’t ever visited Compton before, and neither had I seen the approach plate for the field. I had asked the duty runway on the phone however, and they said it was unlikely to change for the remainder of the afternoon.
Gauging my departure from Kitley was between a rock and a hard place. I didn’t have many options in the way of EFATO options, but the wind had picked up from the South West, I was flying Solo and I knew I had plenty of power in reserve. So I back tracked up the field as far as possible and went out towards the tree line. The video of my departure makes it look considerably more dramatic than it was, but we Helicopter Pilots love that stuff. I turned to head towards Teignmouth and picked up Exeter Approach on the journey out from Kitley.
I flew defensively, on approaching the open areas of water. Passing Newton Abbot Racecourse on my left I turned right to skirt the coast and head towards Branscombe. I started a descent and brought Alpha November down so I was eye level with the cliff tops, the blue sea of the south coast below. SkyDemon alerted me to the fact of another danger area up ahead, so I squeezed another 4nm out of flying below the cliff tops before a climbing left turn up and over Branscombe, back up to 2000′, leaving Exeter Radar and onto London with a course set towards the South Eastern tip of the Yeovilton MATZ stub.
On approaching Compton, there are many areas within the zone that you have to avoid overflying. As I have been told many times during training, there is no need to fly an airlined circuit if you are a helicopter, but you also have to maintain good airmanship. I was lined up on a tight circuit downwind leg, and hadn’t yet called Downwind to the controller, when I saw a fixed wing ahead, on a wider circuit, on their downwind leg.. if I had continued my approach I would have cut in front and it would have been very poor airmanship and possibly dangerous. I decided to take a left turn, to take me out to the wider circuit, avoiding the no-overfly areas was an interesting challenge and then quickly called downwind when turning back on to the wider circuit. Now considerably more comfortable that I would in fact by number 2.
The entire time I was expecting to see a concrete strip, this is where looking at the approach plate would have been beneficial! Compton is all grass runway, with only a small hardstanding for fuel, so identifying the field on approach whilst it’s nestled on a hilltop is quite difficult if you are not looking for 50 shades of green! I headed directly to the pumps and brimmed the main tank, re-folded the map and went for a comfort break. Conscious of the time, I bought 3 pieces of cake and had nothing to eat before heading back out and setting a course for Gloucester.
It was a beautiful flight on the way home. So peaceful the whole day in fact, other than when in the zone of Dunkeswell and Compton I hadn’t seen any other traffic. On the journey back to Gloucester, London asked my routing, which took me over the Longleat Center Parcs, Castle Combe Racing Circuit and then Westerly to pick up the M5 and run back in to the field. I requested an approach around the tower to make best use of the SW wind, rather than take the little space available at Heli South. Plus.. around the tower arrivals are much cooler for those in the restaurant to watch.
4.1 hours in the seat and a great day out.
Hourbuilding Adventures 