St Lucia 17 - 27 March 2023

[deke]

Arrived back yesterday from a long planned family holiday in lovely St Lucia.
A no spotting trip but as ever with eyes to the sky whenever weather and wifi permitted.
I didn't buy local data and therefore missed out on a few whilst out and about but maybe the family were relieved as it can become an irritating distraction for them.

Observing radar apps it became clear that St Lucia is one of the least active of the islands for air traffic, in spite of having two airports.
We were staying in the very north of the island, too far to be able to observe any comings and goings unless the aircraft came our way.
Also notable was a complete absence of trails, so many flights within 30 - 40,000ft altitude range which I might hope to see eluded me.
As ever, I'm grateful for those pots which I managed to pick up and hope I didn't p**s the family off too much in doing so.

The island is beautiful as expected although it does suffer from poor road infrastructure with most routes on viable roads for a hire car having to go through Castries which becomes almost gridlocked at peak times.
The international airport at Vieux-Fort (Hewanorra) is a throw back. It has a runway that can cope of wide bodies such as the B777s but clearly lacks passenger handling capacity and modern technology.
A large wall mural inside shows the vision for a planned modern terminal but the 80s cars in the graphic give away how long ago that was created!


Flew out from Gatwick on 17th on the needed BA B777 G-VIIO

Fri 17th - at Hewanorra Airport

N435AN Airbus A321 – 253NX, American Airlines
N380DA Boeing 737 – 832, Delta Air Lines
N305KN Gulfstream GVI, Bank of Utah Trustee
N566CL Piper PA 28-180 Cherokee, Cherokee Holdings Llc
(reg N566CL is cnx on FAA, airframe looks in decent nick but the grass is growing underneath it so it hasn't moved for a while. Presume awaiting a St Lucia reg, or destined for the scrap man)

Sat 18th

N33475 Piper PA 34 – 200T Seneca II, Excelsior Solutions Inc
C-FAXO Vans RV14A, R Gilbrecht

Sun 19th

C-FYJP Airbus A319 – 114, Air Canada Rouge

Mon 20th

J6-AAR Aerospatiale AS350 B2 Ecureuil, St Lucia Helicopters
N8369L Cessna 172L Skyhawk, International Air Services Inc
F-OIXO ATR 42 – 600, Air Antilles Express

Tues 21st

N962HL Cessna 208B Grand Caravan, Caravan International Leasing (operated by DHL Air)
N339SU Boeing 737 – 8 MAX, American Airlines

Thurs 23rd

J6-AAM Aerospatiale AS350 B2 Ecureuil, St Lucia Helicopters

Fri 24th

N248DH Swearingen SA227-AT Metroliner IV C, UAS Transervices Ltd (operated by Ameriflight)
N881FE Cessna 208B Grand Caravan, FedEx Feeder
N726MJ Learjet 45, Med Air Llc

Sat 25th

N17719 Boeing 737 – 724, United Airlines
PP-MBX Hawker Beechcraft 4000, Private

Sun 26th

VQ-TBC Embraer EMB – 120T Brasilia, InterCaribbean Airways
F-OIXE ATR 42 – 500, Air Antilles Express
EC-MIG Boeing 787 – 9 Dreamliner, Air Europa

Mon 27th

N906FX ATR 42 – 320(F), FedEx Feeder

N88GD Dassault Falcon 2000, NBFTM Llc (at Hewanorra Airport)
One of only two biz jets on the ramp. I was suprised to see the other one being BHX based BD700 M-CVGL. Nice to see but I'd have preferred something I haven't seen dozens of times near home!

Returned to Gatwick on G-VIIX

[graham]

Thanks for the log Deke, always appreciated to see logs posted from not-that-often-visited places on the planet.

[michael]

Ironically Deke,I have done & family trips to the Caribbean-St Lucia.Antigua and Grenada etc and still never got an Air Antilles Express ATR-42 (or Air Caribes ATR-72) and you got 2 !!.. so still jealous

I did once see one when snorkelling, but they didnt track then

[deke]

Mar 31, 2023 13:55:42 GMT michael said:

Ironically Deke,I have done & family trips to the Caribbean-St Lucia.Antigua and Grenada etc and still never got an Air Antilles Express ATR-42 (or Air Caribes ATR-72) and you got 2 !!.. so still jealous

I did once see one when snorkelling, but they didnt track then

Haha Michael, I feel for you!
So, I checked back from my log from Antigua in 2019 and whilst I logged a handful of LIAT ATRs, I saw no Air Antilles or Air Caribes, so I'll count my blessings!
Looking at radar whilst in St Lucia it seems the French islands would more likely to yield those, I'll see if I can encourage the family to make holiday plans and brush up on my non existent French.