"Blackpool" - DTV Movements Trip Reports

Blackpool (by Chris Smith)

There are several airports around the UK & Europe of all shapes and sizes that I visited as a child before I was taking numbers or photographing and I often feel a sense of frustration when thinking about what I must have seen back then but will never be able to claim in my logbook. Very slowly, I'm making a point of visiting all of these airports and despite in most cases the traffic that can be found there nowadays is nothing on what I probably saw back in the day, I do feel a sense of closure when I tick these airports off my list. As you've probably gathered by this point, Blackpool is one of these airports.

Whilst under the influence of a Chinese take-away, myself and two friends made a rash, spur-of-the-moment decision to have a daft two-day break in Blackpool, so a couple of days later we were on the road and on our way! The official plan was to visit a few bars, go up the tower, maybe visit a casino etc, but I'd seen my opportunity and had other ideas!! Having said that I did want to focus on the more social side of things so the airport was the first port-of-call and it was a case of get in, log & photograph, get out again.

I was even more pleased to get the opportunity to visit Blackpool since just three weeks prior Colin, Dave & Claire from FoDTVA had flown there in G-BRDO and I'd had to turn down a seat due to work commitments!

I'd heard hangar access was possible at Blackpool without having to endure the hassle of passing through security, despite it being a busier commercial airport than our own. This turned out to be true and of the ten hangars on-site, I got into three by prior arrangement, successfully tried my luck with a further two (although one was a case of peer through a window, they couldn't allow me into the hangar itself) and of the five remaining, two are no longer used for aircraft and thus empty, another was empty due to the company going out of business, one I didn't try as Internet research made it quite clear they would refuse (although on hindsight I should probably have tried anyway) and the final one, embarrassingly, I didn't discover until after the trip whilst looking on Google Earth!! All in all, I had an exceptional result as had I not got any hangar access, a mere eight aircraft would have been logged! Definitely one of the friendliest airports out there by quite some distance and providing you seek hangar access, I think it would be impossible to come here and not have a fruitful visit, despite the small size of the airport.

There's also several aircraft here that visit us on a fairly regular basis, in most cases for crew training, and they've done a good job of evading me, so it was nice to finally nail these aircraft.

Blackpool International Airport (BLK / EGNH)
08-04-2013 ~ 1100 - 1300

MOVEMENTS

REG	A/C TYPE	OPERATOR	NOTES
G-ATRR*	Piper PA-28-140 Cherokee	Blue Sky Investments Ltd
G-BAKH*	Piper PA-28-140 Cherokee	FlyBPL.com

NORTH EAST APRON

G-GCDD*	Cirrus SR20	Stamp Aviation Ltd
G-OWFS*	Cessna A152 Aerobat	Westair Flying Services Ltd
G-REDE*	Eurocopter AS365N3 Dauphin II	Bond Offshore Helicopters Ltd
G-VKGO	Embraer EMB-500 Phenom 100	M-KICK LP