What chaos. Isle of Wight is happening as planned, but when it came to Isles of Scilly, we found a definite reluctance to let rooms for 2 nights during high season, when they could get people staying for a week.

So we gave that up and looked at Anglesey instead. Seems there’s a sailing festival happening that weekend and the recommendation of the woman at the B&B we chose was to stay well away until it was over.

Meanwhile, Cliff was looking into Lundy, an island with an airstrip that wasn’t on our original list. It has a 400m runway, “rough ground, rabbit holes.” Not the most heartening of descriptions. He managed to prove that the Saratoga was capable of landing there, not so definitely capable of taking off again. Possibly with an ace pilot. I’m not.

I’m meeting up with my ex-instructor to mess around with some more difficult flying and short-field landings, so we can do a fly-over and take a look at it, but I’m not holding my breath.

Next on the list? Walney Island. Closed weekends. *sigh*

So we decided to give it up for next week, we’ll do Isle of Wight and then drop the plane in Wycombe to get maintenance sorted out and look at options again next week. Perfect flying weather, it’s just the bit on the land that’s a pain. :)

The first stage of this has been quite a learning process. As I’ve worked through the Channel Islands, I’ve realised that I’m trying to do a final draft which is effectively doubling the time spent per section. Now there are big benefits to this, including being able to show people the work in progress, but realistically it’s not the best use of time. The weather right now is good and the likelihood of being able to fly into small airfields is at it’s highest. In the dark days of winter, there will be little or no chance of planning flights, especially to the northern islands, but plenty of time for writing.

So I’ve been struggling quite a bit with tone of voice, tense, transitions and markers and I think that’s the wrong thing to be focusing on right now. I need to do a basic write-up while it’s fresh, locations, history, people, what happened and how it felt. But it doesn’t need to flow, in fact it doesn’t even need to link up. As long as all the pieces are there. I can make sense out of the jigsaw later at my leisure.
Planning for the Isle of Wight and Scilly Isles has put this into sharp relief. Sensible would be to write down now my expectations and worries (600 meter runway!) in preparation for the trip rather than re-writing the previous prose over and over again. I have 16,000 words which means I have enough to cut liberally, always a dream, and I am not relying on hazy memories or scribbled notes, I’ve written the detail.

I do need to work out technical writing issues and the sooner I’m happier with the “house style” for this particular project, the easier it will be. But I need to prioritise the the content over the technique.

I’m quietly ignoring the fact that I stupidly have not booked a hotel and as it’s Cowes week the entire trip may get a rapid cancellation. Wish me luck whilst phoning around frantically this afternoon!

Assuming it goes ahead, I’m planning on doing the following:

• Whitecliff Bay
• Dimbola Lodge
• Osborne House
• The Needles (chair lift?)
• Isle of Wight Sweet Manufactory
• Barrows near Freshwater Bay / Mottistone / Brook Down
• Newtown
• Cowes High Street shopping
• Carisbrooke Castle
• Cream tea at the Old Smithy
• Steam railway trip

Anything I’ve missed?

…plans are afoot for the Isle of Wight and the Scilly Isles for the first week of August. Time to dive into those guide books again. As always, any must-see recommendations are greatly appreciated.