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Shetland's airports (and parking)


breeksy
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  • 2 weeks later...

Just thought I would post as I'm an offshore worker.

 

When I tell guys on the rig that I'm from Unst they tend to say very little about the airport but more about the two hotels they had to stay in when they got bumped due to fog. The normal comment is that it was a s***hole but what a night we had!

 

Unst Airport will probably never open again but as an offshore worker the nearer the rig the better. Tiger Helicopters are not the most comfortable things to travel in and the less time spent in one the better!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Mr Mitchells letter in the times today made me chuckle, he basically said that the reporter didn't know what he was talking about whilst in the very same letter either made errors or delibrately stated mistruths to support his rather biased opinion. What's his problem? Sumburgh isn't closing, the scottish exec quietly (in secret) took the decision to ignore the plans for scatsta and invest a lot of money at sumburgh - so, no harm, no foul.

 

The shetland times piece was a report about a report which had been written and paid for, then ignore and buried by the scottish exec. End of story really, why is it necessary to jump up and down and say the reporter was wrong?

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When I read Gordon Mitchell's letter, the first thought that came into my head was why hadn't he expressed these feelings before the election?

 

Had he done so, he would probably have gained a few extra votes from 'da ness'. He is now saying that it is terrible and it is too late because he can't do anything about it. Why did he not do anything about it at the time?

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The fact that he didn't raise it on the doorsteps of voters in the run-up to the election may have something to do with the fact that he was away on a council jaunt to Portugal only two weeks before the election. In fairness to him he's been an excellent councillor for Dunrossness. He has experience in the airline industry and held important transport roles in the last council and managed to make sure that the Scottish Executive's call for a debate on the best long-term location for Shetland's main airport (Scaststa, Tingwall or Sumburgh) was stifled at an early stage. As you say, though, he's clearly biased.

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^^^ Mitchell maybe was a good Councillor as regards his aviation input, that much I'm not about to debate, but there's a great deal more to the Ness than the airport, and in that rest is where he seemed, to me at least, conspicious by his absence and/or lack of knowledge/interest.

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^^^

 

I think anybody that was as fiercely pro-sumburgh as him could have done just as good a job as councillor. His aviation expertise, seems to just be assumed. That letter in the paper this week made me wonder if he does actually know what he is talking about? I get the impression, nobody challenges what he says because he sounds like he's correct, but he certainly isn't.

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^^^ It's difficult for people who only have minimal knowledge/experience of aviation, which makes up the vast majority of Shetlanders, to challenge someone like Mitchell who's had an entire career in the industry, in both military and civil fields, including a lengthy period as chief pilot and search and rescue pilot locally.

 

He states it as he sees it, and there are certainly people with knowledge in aviation who disagree with him, although maybe not often publically. Whether one has greater "expertise" than the other, or whether it is simply a matter of opinion, of which there are as many varying ones on aviation matters as there are on other subjects, is very much open to debate.

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As has been said before in this thread, people in the know quite often can't speak due to fear of losing jobs etc. This also applies to councillors who speak out of turn -lose the support of other councillors and perhaps lose every other cause they fight for... If Mr Mitchell had published this letter before the election he undoubtedly would have had more votes - but I presume he was unable to do so due to parhaps perceived constraints of office.

The civil servants who run our airports at Inverness and Edinburgh are neither experts nor in my humble opinion playing fair and never have. Probably better if the highlands airports were in the hands of private business then at least market forces might help sense prevail instead of the childish reactions we have witnessed in the last 20 or so years. The real truth seems beyond the grasp of a humble newspaper hack, as they have never been close to the truth. The whole aviation business has been full of compromise and concession. I have yet to meet an aviation expert of any consequence who can figure it all out.

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  • 1 month later...
Where are Bristows going to keep their new S92? are they going to keep it with the sixth AS332L at Sumburgh?

 

I would of thought dat yuns aa sumburgh is wort fir noo adays !! Afteraa, its no lik dere is muckle else doon yunder t keep da place gain!!

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