Flying from Bodmin Airfield

Monday, April 18th 2022 at Bodmin Airfield.

There is a freeware update for Bodmin airfield. I took the Edgely Optica up to see it from the air. Looking northeast gives a view right across Bodmin Moor. The Optica affords a helicopter-like vista.

Come up and see.

Local Landmarks

The A30, about a mile to the North of the airfield makes navigation relatively easy, marking a path through Bodmin North East over the moor towards London.

Bodmin Moor is often associated with the Legends of King Arthur and it is said that Dozmary Pool (close to the town of Bolventor and the real Jamaica Inn) was the location of the legendary Lady of the Lake.

Since the early 1980s there have been stories of people seeing a large cat on the moor, subsequently referred to as the Beast of Bodmin.

Colliford Lake is clearly visible from a few hundred feet up. In between are the twin ponds of Temple Trout Fisheries.

Lanhydrock, a National Trust Victorian county estate nestles to the South West.

The Airfield

Bodmin Airfield was the birthplace of the Trago SAH-1. The design was sold on to FLS Aerospace and known as the Sprint. Three aircraft were completed before the design was sold again to The British Light Aircraft Company Ltd who subsequently had to sell the design (along with the Edgley Optica surveillance aircraft). Both designs were bought by John Edgely in 2007.

In 1972, the airfield was bought by the Cornwall Flying Club and it is operated by the club to this day. The club has a bar and restaurant, four aircraft, and five instructors.

Get the free upgrade for this airfield here.

The Aircraft

It seems weird that I should have picked the Edgely Optica for a Bodmin flight. I knew none of this story when I made the video!

The Optica project began in 1974 with a company, Edgley Aircraft Limited, formed by John Edgley who, with a small team, designed and built the original prototype. In 1982, institutional investors bought into the project and set up a production line at Old Sarum Airfield in Wiltshire.

General characteristics

• Crew: 3
• Length: 8.15 m (26 ft 9 in)
• Wingspan: 12.00 m (39 ft 4 in)
• Height: 2.31 m (7 ft 7 in)
• Empty weight: 948 kg (2,090 lb)
• Max takeoff weight: 1,315 kg (2,899 lb)
• Fuel capacity: 250 L (66 US gal; 55 imp gal) useful capacity
• Powerplant: 1 × Textron Lycoming IO-540-V4A5D air-cooled flat-six engine, 190 kW (260 hp)
• Propellers: 5-bladed fixed-pitch ducted fan

Performance

• Maximum speed: 213 km/h (132 mph, 115 kn)
• Cruise speed: 130 km/h (81 mph, 70 kn) (loiter speed, 40% power)
• Stall speed: 108 km/h (67 mph, 58 kn) outboard flaps up
• Never exceed speed: 259 km/h (161 mph, 140 kn)
• Range: 1,056 km (656 mi, 570 nmi) at 130 km/h (81 mph; 70 kn) (45-minute reserves)
• Endurance: 8 h (at loiter speed)
• Service ceiling: 4,275 m (14,026 ft)
• Rate of climb: 4.1 m/s (810 ft/min)

Get the freeware Edgely Optica, adapted for MSFS by Jonx, based on the FSX aircraft by Craig Richardson, here.

Do you have narrated YouTube videos of simulator flights from Cornwall airfields? Send me a link or post it in the comments. I'll add those I like to this site.