Aviators Guide to Ireland

aviatorsguide · Post by **aviatorsguide** » Mon May 09, 2011 11:36 am

Airmen,
We are pleased to inform you that our advertised project, Aviators Guide to Ireland is complete. This is a clean sheet design flight guide covering 211 different fixed wing landing sites all over Ireland. The flight guide provides accurate information, in a user friendly format that has been professionally designed for Aviators Guide. Each destination listed has 2 pages, as shown below and as a result the guide is 420 pages in total. The spec of the book is as follows:

420 Page 115gm Gloss Finish 2880Dpi Print
Laminated 300gm Cover
32mm Wiro Bound with 2:1 Punch Pitch

The book is priced at €30 plus P&P for online orders before Thursday 19th May, the book will be shipped on that day and be available for sale at the Tibohine Fly In 21/22nd May. The retail price of the book is €40 which reflects the costs in the flying/design/print costs of a low volume specialist publication. The book will be available at a number of airfields around the country, and through flying sales representatives north and south. The end product is a result of a combined 25 years flying experience between William Flood and Lorcan Parker, with Joe McDermott assisting in photography. Moreover, it is the experiences and assimilation of our interaction with all the high time experienced aviators from all over Ireland, from whom we sought advices and listened - so this book really is the "collective intelligence" of the GA/Mircolight/Farm Strip/Vintage community.

Sample Airfield Spread

Detail Expanded

Order online at http://www.FlightGuide.me" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; or ask any questions to aviatorsguide@gmail.com
Find us on Facebook. Search Aviators Guide

Kind Regards,

William Flood
Lorcan Parker

Pearse1983 · Post by **Pearse1983** » Tue May 10, 2011 11:57 pm

Looks great, can't wait to get my hands on a copy!

fugly · Post by **fugly** » Thu May 19, 2011 12:20 am

Cant wait to get it

When will you guys start shipping copies ? I dont know how much longer I can wait

aviatorsguide · Post by **aviatorsguide** » Thu May 19, 2011 3:20 pm

Updates:
Given that the Tibohine fly in is postponed, we are going to post out the pre launch copies to those who ordered them as of tomorrow afternoon 20th May. A limited number of books are going to be collected tomorrow in BindRite. These books are for those who bought at the pre launch discount price of €30, and that offer has now expired. The next larger consignment will ship Tuesday 31st May and is available at the normal retail price of €39.99

Availbability at Fly Ins
All main Irish flyin's

Retail Copies
Will be available at Weston, Enniskillen, Limerick, Birr, Abbeyshrule and Newtonards (Ulster Microlights/Ken Gay)

Online
http://www.FlightGuide.me" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

High Res Sample pages to follow on seperate post.....

JFH · Post by **JFH** » Tue May 24, 2011 2:53 pm

inverted · Post by **inverted** » Tue May 24, 2011 5:06 pm

I got my copy today too !!!

I can't begin to describe how good this guide is !!!

The qualities of the photographs are outstanding and I can’t get over the accuracy of the information contained within.

It really is a credit to the authors that such a publication is has been made available to the general aviation community in Ireland.

Being a regular visitor to the UK, I'm constantly disappointed at the lack of good consistent information available to people involved in general aviation, if you lads ever decide to do a UK version of the Aviators Guide, Please put my name on the mailing list.

A truly fantastic publication and a "must have" for anyone involved in general aviation in Ireland.

hugoj_air · Post by **hugoj_air** » Wed May 25, 2011 10:50 pm

Didn't get looking at my copy until 7pm this evening. I had expected an interesting flight guide, but WOW what I got is a fantastic publication that puts you on finals to the vast majority of active aviation sites in the country. A brillient piece of dedicated work which everyone using it will definately appreciate. Well done lads.
Kevin Glynn brought us the concept of site aerial photographs in his innovative 2006 VFR Guide. The lads have taken that on board and upgraded the idea. I'm now awaiting my ordered copy of Kevins 2011 update to his guide, not to compare, but to view the same sites from a different perspective. I sincerely believe both flight guides should be part of any kit used for visiting the many active locations around Ireland.

Hugo.

aviatorsguide · Post by **aviatorsguide** » Thu May 26, 2011 10:12 am

Thanks for the positive feedback JFH, inverted & Hugo. The book required lots energy, fuel and airtime to get this far. The copies you received are from the initial print run, and a larger run is being delivered next week. Only some minor tweaks, a few of the photos changed and some "school teacher" proof reading corrected use of tenses, punctuation and the odd spelling. Perfection may not be achievable, but we'll give it a go. The methodology behind the book was quite simple. Take the Pooleys/AFE/AIP/KG VFR Guide 2006 and see what destinations;

a) Were open to visitors
b) Did not mind having their details shared in a new guide

That ruled out about 30 places. Then we added in the historical sites that Hugo and others knew of. This really opened up a great treasure trove of places. Going to sites that were unused for years and getting them going again was the biggest thrill of all. Before the idea of doing the book came about, we were generally landing in one new field a week, so we had quite a few of our own to add to the pot.

We continue to land new places, and we give an open offer to anyone with a field that may be usable for fixed wing flying - new or old - to get in touch with us and we will come and walk it first, assess the hazards and then with permission land it in either the flexwing or the C180. Even if the site falls into the group of the 50+ sites that we know of, but don't publish, we still enjoy the barnstorming experience.

Clear Prop,

Aviators Guide Team

hum · Post by **hum** » Tue May 31, 2011 8:21 pm

Got a copy today - simply wonderful... This has to be seen to be believed... it has set the standard for flight guides everywhere

aviatorsguide · Post by **aviatorsguide** » Fri Jun 03, 2011 11:38 am

Someone famous once said "If you have no critics you'll likely have no success" so we have taken the edition 1 copies and implemented improvements as suggested by;

Alan Dwyer - High time proof reader
Gerry Hum - Map idea ala Lockyears
Bryan Sheane - Map idea again, and mark in strips in more photos for those with bad peepers
Hugo Wilhare - Naming typo for Devlinmore
Trevor Kellett - Two t's in his name
Several school teachers....

Few others also, but this these are the joys of micro publishing. The first books went out on time and we have gotten great feedback from those who purchased. The Garmin/Google file went out as promised and no complaints heard there.

I've had to delay selling copies of Edition 2, due to an oversea's printer who let us down. The book is now being printed by Davis Printers in Limerick. The Edition 1 books were digitally printed, and the results were excellent, but we are going to be able to up the number of lines of print per inch from 174 to 512 with the new edition which should yield a Rolls Royce product.

Printing issues aside, the improvements as suggested have to be implemented. It was always the stated intention that this book would be the product of the "Collective Intelligence" from the flying community. We expect the above issues to hold us back by a week, so this weekends fly-ins at NewtoWnards/Ballyboy will have Joe McDermott of FII & Follow Me Marshall's with a copy on hand for those wishing to preview the book.

Anyone wishing to order and get them hot off the press, go to http://www.FlightGuide.me" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and order one. Those who have doubts can wait and see. Kind thanks to those who bought and helped produce the guide. The price of a good Pitts S1 has gone into it, but I think getting it right will give me a better kick!

Best

William Flood

Pilot · Post by **Pilot** » Fri Jun 03, 2011 12:33 pm

William,

Congrats again on the book. It is really first rate.

In relation to the map, is this a map of the country, showing the location of the strips?

If so, can you make a digital copy of it available to those who bought the first edition so that we can print it off and put it inside.

It would really make finding the airfield near a particular destination much easier!

P

hugoj_air · Post by **hugoj_air** » Sat Jun 04, 2011 2:04 am

William,

A few of errors in the "Index by County" list.

Belfast City (55) is within the Belfast City boundry but closer to Co Down than Antrim.
Castlerock (53) is in Derry not Antrim
Causeway-Ree (97) -ditto-
Lough Gowna (267) in Longford not Cavan
Lough Sheelin (270) is one unusal site. 200m of the 300m strip is in Longford/Leinster and 100m in Cavan Ulster as the boundry crosses the strip, yea I know what does it matter.
Co Kilkenny does not have a seperate heading.

That was just a short scan of one section. If I had time I would check each listing. One big problem I have come across on my datalist is site names. For one location in the midlands I have no less than six different titles. Only remedy was to cross reference every name, but to do that on the AGI would have added at least ten more pages and a couple of weeks to the publication date. Not to mention the additional cost.

I think the idea of a map is good.

Hugo.

Joe McDermott · Post by **Joe McDermott** » Sat Jun 04, 2011 1:32 pm

Good man Hugo, you're a mine of info. Will you be visiting Ballyboy ?

Joe

hugoj_air · Post by **hugoj_air** » Sat Jun 04, 2011 7:18 pm

At this stage looks doubtful Joe, but we live in hope.

Hugo.

hibby · Post by **hibby** » Wed Jun 08, 2011 12:22 am

Just placed my order now - waiting impatiently for my copy to arrive...

In the meantime I used the "sample" page reproduced in this thread to get PPR and fly in to Cooley on Thursday evening - didn't even know it existed until I saw it here. Excellent information, can't wait to see all the other airfields I never knew existed!

FlyingInIreland