If you've never flown on a light aircraft before, it can be an exciting (or daunting) prospect.
If it's your first time and you're nervous, tell your pilot beforehand. It'll help with the flight planning, and we'll let you know of any windy weather in advance so you've got the opportunity to reschedule if you'd like. But be rest assured, we wouldn't allow the flight to take place if it wasn't safe to do so.
Learn more about the aircraft or our safety practices because that might help as well.
Before your flight has even been booked, you can contact us for any questions or special requests you might have.
When you submit a booking request, your request will be routed to an available pilot that operates that route. They will check their own availability and the availability of the aircraft, then confirm your booking if available. From that point, you'll have 48 hours to pay online using a link sent to you in an email, otherwise the slot will be released for somebody else to book.
After a booking has been confirmed and paid for, if we don't hear from you, we'll assume that everything's OK and the next time you'll hear from us is a day or two before your scheduled flight time, when we'll send out a briefing email. At this stage, the weather forecast can be considered reasonably accurate, so if it's not looking very good we'll probably look to reschedule then.
Ensure you save your pilot's phone number (sent to you in the briefing email) so that you can text them when you arrive at the airfield.
If the weather forecast up until now has been marginal, the morning of your flight is when we'll make the final fly/no-fly decision. Alternatively, if the weather forecast was previously good but has substantially changed for the worse, this is when we'll make any final cancellations.
Please aim to arrive at the airfield 15 minutes before your scheduled departure time. This will give us time to do any necessary final checks, get you kitted out with headphones and a high-visibility jacket, and walk you to the aircraft. If you're running slightly late, we may have to cut your flight short to avoid impacting anybody who has the aircraft booked after you. If you're running more than 30 minutes late, we will have to cancel your slot completely.
Park up in the car park and text your pilot to let them know you've arrived (we may be in the air or around loud propellers, which restricts our ability to answer phone calls!).
The café may be open, in which case feel free to make yourself at home and use the facilities. If the café is shut, there is a toilet on the airfield premises which can be used prior to departure.
Meet your pilot at the yellow car park barrier when they say and make sure to listen to any safety information.
Light aircraft are impacted a lot by weather conditions, and the aircraft is much more reactive to wind. It'll feel very different to any flights you've taken on a commercial airliner in the past. Light, sporadic turbulence is what you'll encounter on 95% of sightseeing flights in the UK. You'll feel small, seemingly random movements: similar in magnitude to driving over a road with small potholes. You'd still be able to hold a cup of tea or coffee without it splashing anywhere. Moderate turbulence is more rare but may feel uncomfortable if you're not used to it - abrupt changes in altitude and speed caused by rising or falling air and/or sudden changes in wind speed and direction. Moderate turbulence can feel a bit like driving over a speed bump without slowing down. The majority of moderate turbulence occurs close to the ground, where it is caused by tall obstacles such as trees, hangars and hills 'chopping up' the wind as it passes over them. This is no cause for concern, and is a normal circumstance for your pilot.
We may need to stop for fuel; Sandtoft doesn't have a fixed fuel pump for its aircraft based there, and as a result, fuel at Sandtoft is not always available. We may need to land at another local airfield such as Sherburn-in-Elmet, Breighton or Leeds East to refill the tanks.
We try to plan fuel stops to not interfere with sightseeing flights, however, the aircraft we fly only carry up to 5 hours of fuel so sometimes with back to back bookings a stop is inevitable.
If we do need to stop for fuel, this could add up to 45 minutes onto your flight time (including time spent on the ground refuelling) so please accommodate for this in any plans you might have after your flight. Any time spent diverting from the agreed route / landing at another airport will be planned to minimise disruption and will not incur any additional charges. You will not have to pay any extra for the additional flight time.
Shortly after your flight has taken place, you'll receive an email to the email address associated with the booking. We'd love it if you clicked the link and left us a review.