UK To Mallorca And Back In A Bell 505

We have flown from the UK to Mallorca several times in the R66, so this trip in G-LILO, the first lengthy run in our new Bell 505, was always going to be an interesting comparison.

The headline is simple enough: the 505 is faster, roomier and much more comfortable in turbulence, but it is also shorter-legged. That slightly changes the way you plan a trip like this. Fuel stops matter more because they have to be planned nearer the limit. We have the range extender, which we filled to 145 lb. At 205 lb/hr that adds another 0.7 hr and we treated this rather conservatively as emergency fuel. In fact, we brought the same fuel all the way back.

We happened to travel at the weekend, which means almost all the RAs disappear in France. However, airport opening hours matter more and weekend fuel availability matters more. When the destination is an island, we like to have generous reserves before the longer sea legs, due to potential sea fog.

The trip ended up being a useful reminder that long-distance VFR flying is not one big decision. It is a chain of small ones: fuel, weather, airspace, paperwork, daylight, and the practical question of where you would rather spend the night if the day starts slipping away.

The R66 can give you a lot of freedom on this route if you are happy sitting in it for more than three hours. Our G-PDDY R66 log books show the longest ever flight to be 3.1 hr in reality. The R66 planning numbers are roughly 88 litres an hour and 440 litres usable, so about five hours with the larger range extender. We really got used to this high range, but not to do long legs; rather, it meant we were refuelling half as often with local flights at home. We never needed a home bowser until now. We also preferred to fly a bit heavy which I know will upset Robinson owners.

To compensate somewhat for less range, the G1000 fuel range calculations are turning out to be much more accurate than the Shadin which we had installed on the R66. We made a number of long tests and found errors of up to 8% but also errors both ways ie too low and too high.

For R66 readers wondering, Shadin told us this: “When we flow our transducers on the test bench we measure how many pulses are generated at specific flows. You may find that you idle more often than you are flying and that may produce a small error.”

For the 505, our conservative working number is about 220 lb an hour from 690 lb, so about 3.2 hours. Using 25 hours of full-to-full analysis our real fuel burn is 205 lb/hr . When we look for fuel stops, we tend to ignore the aux, so our ideal strips are at around 2.5 hr. We choose to cruise the 505 around 5 to 10 percent faster than the R66 in smooth air, but that only claws back a little of the range difference. At the same 100 kt cruise, 3.37 hours is 337 nm with no headwind. At 105 or 110 kt, the speed advantage only recovers about 25 nm. In turbulence, we have found that we fly around 15 percent faster.

Put another way, the 505 has about 75 percent of the R66’s range. It is about 27 percent shorter-legged, despite being quicker. When pottering about at home that means 25 percent more refuellings, whilst on a long trip it makes little difference as we never want legs to exceed 2.5 hr anyway.

The G600H 3-axis autopilot also controls the pedals, which means some lazy flying with no need to hold any controls. When holding or taxiing, it has a GPS auto-hover and auto-taxi, too.

We are often asked what the biggest reasons are for switching from the 66 to the 505, and one of those would certainly be the cabin space. I don’t know the official figures but there is a whole load of extra room. We can pop the 3 back seats out and fit bicycles with wheels attached. Whilst the 505 hp engine is clearly thirstier than the 330 hp engine, load capacity is noticeably better and the middle rear seat is real and usable. I used to find the under-seat bays unsatisfactory in the 66. We still have a decent boot even with the aux tank there; however, it leaves luggage with a subtle Jet A-1 odour for some reason.

Our 505 was a cancelled order, so the floats decision was made for us: don’t have them. We had them before on the 66 and felt happier about it initially, I feel better with a life raft anyway so, given 80 percent of our flying is over land, it was a good decision not to have them. We are in the habit of doing very long sea crossings, such as the UK to northern Holland, and this won’t change much.

If you are interested, we researched a wide range of options specific to the UK (shipping the gas bottles makes them difficult to import). Sebastien Pooley supplied us with AVI’s Survival Life Raft 4-6 Person with Canopy, Pooleys stock code: SLR040CAN/Share. Manufacturer stock code: 1400B-3. Price £2,195. This raft fits under the seat and has a 3-year service interval. Pack Size: 6″ x 13″ x 14″. Weight: 14 lbs (6.4 kilos).

Outbound, we flew:

Return, we decided to route directly over the Massif Central in an almost straight line route, picking the easy refuel airports that happened to locate at about the right distance.

The return leg, where we effectively went home as fast as comfortably possible, was shorter and quicker than the outbound route averaging over 100 kt.

One of the advantages of flying through France at the weekend is that the restricted areas are almost all inactive. That can open up routings which are less attractive during the week.

The trade-off is fuel. Weekend fuel availability needs careful checking unless you are happy winging it from the air. Valence, for example, turned out not to be available for fuel on the way down so we used Villefranche-Tarare automation instead. This is a great option, by the way, with lots of GA activity, a buzzing café and hassle-free fuelling.

We tend to prefer automats where possible, especially at weekends, and try to avoid the large yellow-jacket airports. Darois and Villefranche both worked in that sense, but they are very different stops. Villefranche has a nice cafe. Darois has nothing, not even toilets. Come to think of it, we weren’t asked for any landing fees either.

If you have a fuel card, Helipaddy’s Air BP and Total Energies fuel card map is a useful planning tool.

Unexpectedly, London on 124.6 gave us a low-level crossing of the Channel EG098 danger areas on the way out. That mattered because going above them would not have been safely practical in the conditions.

Helipaddy has argued that the Channel should have a SUACS, (previously called a Danger Area Crossing Service or DACS), rather than leaving these crossings to be solved ad hoc. Similar services exist for other areas, for example Plymouth.

On this day 124.6 gave us ad hoc permission to cross because it was deemed inactive, and we were grateful for it. As of June 2026, for the active/current D098 complex NOTAMs, the service stated is a SUAAIS not a SUACS — Special Use Airspace Activity Information Service. So you can get activity information, but the published wording does not give you a notified crossing service/clearance mechanism. Treat active D098 segments as active TDAs to avoid unless the relevant NOTAM/AIC or ATS provider gives a specific crossing arrangement.

This is exactly the kind of route where a predictable, published service would make sense.

Travelling south through France, we do not normally take the easterly or direct routes, i.e. east of or over the Massif Central, when there is risk of high Mistral winds. However, with the 505, we feel more comfortable taking the easterly Lyon route than the lower terrain westerly Limoges route, the added bonus being a 25 knot tailwind southbound. As it turned out, the bigger problem was weather in northern France, so we had to work along the valleys around Troyes before continuing south. French ATC are onto this and require you to call in every 5 minutes in such conditions.

The other outbound constraint was journey time. On the way down we were more time constrained because of Son Bonet’s closure time, so rather than trying to force the whole trip into one day we broke it at Chateau de Raissac, a wonderful Helipaddy site, and made the final run to LESB an easy morning leg.

That was the right decision. It took pressure out of the day, gave us a proper overnight stop, and left the final sea crossing and Mallorca arrival for the morning.

Chateau de Raissac is small family-run chateau, home to an artist Christine Viennet who was well known for Majolica style of sculpture. Her husband, Jean Viennet now deceased, has covered the interior walls in murals of dizzying four-eyed beings with double eye pairs. Two hours of staring at the MFD and PFD had left us with bifurcated eyesight and viewing the double eyes on arrival was quite discombobulating.

All pilots note: Aena has introduced a local familiarisation requirement for pilots operating at Son Bonet. The April 2026 Son Bonet pilot familiarisation dossier says that, before operating at the airport, pilots must confirm to the airport that the document has been reviewed. Unfortunately, Aena has also made this an annual requirement.

The briefing is useful, but it should not be treated as a complete operating guide. It focuses heavily on local airspace, circuit discipline, arrivals, frequencies and key points around the RMZ visual corridors. It also reinforces a few important basics: Son Bonet is VFR-only, has no ATS, AFIS or ATC, and coordination with other traffic on the correct frequency is essential.

On our arrival, one aircraft entered the LESB circuit while still on the LEIS frequency used for the VFR corridor east of LESB.

If you follow the intended process when arriving from the north-east, you can be expected to use at least four frequencies in around 20 nm: LEPA APP approaching the north coast, 123.5 for Mallorca Traffic once feet-dry, LEIS Radio entering the E1-NE VFR corridor, and then LESB Radio after leaving the corridor for Son Bonet. That is a lot of frequency changing at exactly the point where clear traffic awareness matters most.

There are also important omissions. The familiarisation dossier has a dedicated arrivals section, but no equivalent departures section. Practical flight-plan handling needs particular care. The local rules state that all flights with origin, destination or alternate LESB require a flight plan and radio equipment; all departures must have the flight plan opened by Palma Operations on 130.250 before departure; and local flights must have the flight plan closed by Palma Operations after landing.

Visiting pilots should verify the current practical procedure with Balearic Helicopters before flying.

The departure routings need careful briefing too. For Runway 23, departures to the north or training areas route from the end of crosswind towards NN at 1,200 ft, climbing to 2,500 ft by N; departures to the east route from the end of downwind to abeam E at 1,200 ft. For Runway 05, departures to the north or training areas again route from the end of crosswind towards NN at 1,200 ft, climbing to 2,500 ft by N; departures to the east turn right from the end of crosswind and proceed to abeam E at 1,200 ft.

In short: complete the Aena familiarisation, keep evidence of completion, read the current LESB AIP and VAC, and do not rely on the familiarisation PDF alone for flight-plan handling or departure procedures. The familiarisation document itself says it does not replace the AIP, and as of writing it is not mentioned in the LESB AIP.

As always, Jonny at Balearic Helicopters was there to meet us on arrival and whisk G-LILO into a nice dark hangar. We had bought some easy wheels and pushing the 505 is a doddle.

The guys at BH have become part of the Mallorca routine for us: immigration tips, mainland refuelling suggestions, and good ideas for interesting stops. When we returned to Son Bonet for the flight home, the windscreen had been washed, G-LILO was refuelled, the life vests were on the seats, and the helicopter was on the pad facing the shade.

Those details matter. A long trip is much easier when the destination handling is calm, practical and already thinking about your departure.