Inishmore

53°06'25"N 009°39'14"W

runway: 14/32 - 490x18m/1,608x59ft - asphalt

Inishmore air field (Irish: Inis Mór Aerphort, ICAO: EIIM) is an airfield on the Aran Islands near the west coast of Ireland.
The airfield was built around 1970.
The airfield is a private airfield, operated by the local community (Údarás na Gaeltachta Na Forbacha).
Aer Arann operates regular services to/from the airport, using BN Islanders.


The 'head office' of Aer Arann at Inishmore, ca. 1971 (Forty Years of Aer Arann).

Michael Muldoon of Inishmore e-mailed me:
I don't have much information on airfields, but I did fly from Oranmore many times.
The first occasion was on Easter Monday 1974 and the late Bill Wallace was the pilot.
While Hayden always went through the check list at the end of the runway, Bill just roared "everybody comfortable " as he swung the Islander around and accelerated towards take off.
('Hayden', or Capt. Hayden Lawford, was the operations manager of Aer Arann - RonaldV)
I assume it was his training as a fighter pilot that triggered this, as he always seemed to be in a "scramble mode" as he left Oranmore.
The old people, who one might expect to be nervous, had absolute confidence in Bill, as any man who had survived the war and being shot down surely had God on his side.
(He) never worried too much about weight distribution and worked on the principle that if it could be fitten inside he would take it.
I suppose he regarded such minor concerns as trivial, and if he was not intercepted by the Luftwaffe over Barna and didn't come under fire from anti aircraft guns over Spiddal, he was doing well.
Inishmore airfield featured in the 1997 movie The Matchmaker.

UPDATE: On 11 June 2012 Michael Muldoon informed me that on Thursday 7th June Capt. Hayden Lawford suddenly passed away in his UK home.
His jovial, pleasant personality will be missed by many, not only in Irish aviation, but whoever had the pleasure to come in contact with this 'gentle giant'.


Inishmore airfield as seen from the air in 2006 (Flying in Ireland).


BN Islander of Aer Arann at the airport in 2012 (irishislands.info).