Sky is the limit at Sheelin airfield

Sean McMahon

If you are lucky enough to fly over this majestic county you will never cease to be amazed by its beautiful rolling splendour. As you pass over Mountnugent and look down on Lough Sheelin you may notice on its shoreline a smooth strip of grass over 300 meters long; this is Sheelin Airfield where the light aircraft enthusiasts of Cavan have a perfect facility for training new pilots. 
It can be a busy spot at times; recently there were 20 planes on the airfield. The hub of the facility is a quaint cottage that has been transformed into a meeting room and departure lounge area, where visitors can view planes landing and taking off, while relaxing with the impressive views of Lough Sheelin in the foreground.

Michael McCabe, developed the strip 30 years ago along with Norbert Reilly, a pilot from Ballyjamesduff and Sammy Bruton, a pilot from Abbeyshrule Airfield. The site was purchased from the Guinness family, who were living in Ross at that time.
“Norbert Reilly and myself and a good few others spent a lot of time developing the strip on the land and levelling the ground. You could not pick a better location for a landing strip,” said Michael, who recently celebrated his 90th birthday.
Currently it has approximately 30 club members aged between 18 and 65 years, and includes commercial pilots, helicopter pilots, aircraft mechanics and flying enthusiasts.
“It's great for Cavan to have an air strip facility,” says Michael's son Declan, the current chairman of Sheelin Airfield Club. “A Spanish plane came in and landed on the strip last year, via Abbeyshrule. People fly in from all over Ireland at weekends and there can be up to 19 planes here on a good day. The grass strip is very suitable for the small light planes flying in and out and coming in to land over the lake affords one of the finest views in the country.”
He said that there are a lot aviation people living in the greater Mountnugent Oldcastle area.
“A number of young people who went up in small planes years ago at the strip are now commercial pilots flying with major airlines all over the world.”
Part of the motivation was to facilitate pilots coming into Crover House Hotel, however, over the years it has also been used to save lives by facilitating the swift ferrying of seriously ill people to hospital by air.
James McEnroe is a helicopter pilot and secretary of the Sheelin Airfield Club. James is a part of a dynamic working committee that spearheaded the upgrading of the facility three years ago.
“We have nine airline pilots as members here in the club, two helicopter pilots and there are four aeroplanes in hangars here all the time,” James told the Celt. “It gives young people in the area access to flying. It can be a real stepping stone to a career as a pilot. Training is available at the airfield for people of all ages who wish to attain their private pilot's licence. Our aim is to promote aviation in the area and afford young people of Cavan and surrounding counties an opportunity to become familiar with flying and opportunities to become pilots. They can start training at 16 years of age.” Chief flight instructor at the airfield is Brendan Tierney who tests trainee pilots, working towards getting their private pilot's licence. The Dubliner works for the Irish airline ASL and says there is great enthusiasm amongst young people about learning to fly.
“The cradle of aviation all over the world are the small flying clubs like this one. Young guys go in and get captivated at a young age and their parents are probably involved. Every club in Ireland has people in the airlines, because of the magic aviation creates.
“They can use this airstrip as the first step up the ladder and work all the way up to becoming a commercial airline pilot. It becomes a passion with people, and when the weather is not good, you will find them up in the clubhouse/departure lounge talking about planes.”
 

Career

Professional pilot Gerry Lynch flew a return trip to Barcelona the day before the Celt met him at the airfield. The next day he was flying to France in the new 737. He has been flying Ryanair planes for 12 years. “I started off as an aircraft mechanic at the strip and then progressed to being a flight engineer. My interest in becoming a commercial pilot stemmed from that,” he said.
The Castlerahan man enjoys going down to the airfield, and said that flying is a great career.
“I fly 800 to 900 hours every year for Ryanair. It is a good career and there are hundreds of jobs on offer at present. If you really apply yourself to the training, you should be a fully fledged pilot within 18 months.”