VFR to the Isle of Wight – Headcorn to Bembridge

If there is one destination that I love to visit by air, it’s the Isle of Wight. With 2 main airfields on the island, I have visited Sandown a number of times before but never been to Bembridge. With a lot of recent rain the grass runways at both Headcorn and Sandown were both quite boggy, but a longer runway at Headcorn this was less of an issue, so this was the perfect opportunity for Max and I to visit Bembridge and it has a concrete runway. 

Max flew the outbound leg, and we decided to take a relatively direct route. After departing runway 10 at Headcorn, we continued east until we were clear of the ATZ and then made a right turn onto a south westerly heading.

This took us over Bewl Water and until this point was quite quiet in terms of other traffic in the skies.

We decided to request a transit overhead the runway at Shoreham airport and it was at this point where we needed to be on the ball with other aircraft in the vicinity. As we approached Shoreham, there was another aircraft directly behind us at exactly the same level and was a little bit too close for comfort, so we decided to request a lower level for separation.

After passing Shoreham, we tracked towards Littlehampton before heading towards the coast at Selsey Bill where we coasted out in the direction of the Isle of Wight. 

As we planned our approach into Bembridge, we heard on the radio another aircraft joining from a similar direction at the same time, so while depending over the Solent, we decided to make an orbit to allow space in the circuit. This ended up working well and we joined downwind for runway 12.

We touched down smoothly on runway 12, parked on the north side of the airfield, closed down the aircraft and then make the walk across the threshold of the runway to the Propeller Inn for a brief snack and a drink and to finalise our plans for our return trip to Headcorn where I would be in the P1 seat.

View the video on my YouTube channel: