New service links marina with Audlem

Overwater Marina, which has just opened for business, is pleased to announce a new service to help marina users to travel more easily to Audlem and also reach other attractions in the area.

The Marina has acquired a single-engined Pesce D'Aprile sea plane, an Italian-built craft used widely in Canada and other countries blessed with large expanses of water. The new aircraft will soon be a familiar sight over Audlem and the surrounding countryside.

Janet Maughan, from the Overwater Marina said: "Concerned by the state of the towpath into Audlem, we felt an easier way for marina users to reach the local shops, pubs and food outlets was needed. When a sea-plane was suggested to us, we thought they meant those massive Catalinas that were used in the 1950's. It was only when we were told to think smaller, the idea all clicked into place.

Floats and Wheels"We've found that the Pesce, fitted with with floats, can take off and land in the marina's central section with plenty of room to spare. It's a multi-purpose aircraft, however, and also has wheels which will allow it to land on the football pitch in Audlem, handy for the fish & chip shop and the village centre shops."

Janet adds that the aircraft will also allow marina users to fly to Combermere, Ellesmere and Nantwich, all of them local attractions with sufficiently large areas of open water.

"Test flights will also establish whether the aircraft can land safely on the canal outside the Shroppie Fly to provide an even more convenient service for pubgoers from the marina. In keeping with Overwater's ethos of using local skills, Audlem's very own pilot, Geoff Farr, will be at the controls for the first test flights."

Discussions with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) have confirmed that the sea-plane service will not impact unduly on commercial flights from the nearby Coxbank International Airport.

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