Where have you been? What have you seen?
User avatar
By Ian Nayler
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#984641
We are now back from 12 days flying from Redhill to Venice and on to Cannes in our C172 and much wiser. Overall was a great success and flying VFR in Italy was really no problem once the basics were understood - thanks forum-ites for your advice. Here are our findings.

OUR ROUTING
Left Redhill between fronts and made it to Troyes to clear customs and then Nuits St George (staying onsite at Chateaux La Berchere), then Dole and through the Jura to Lausanne. Fortunately the GAFOR routes were improving so just made it over Sion and Brigg and through the Simplon Pass (very turbulent) at 8000’ to Locarno.
Next day was Italy - so over mountains and lakes Lugano, Como, Lecco and d’Iseo at over FL090 on instruction from Milan Info, then into Breschia for customs. Note that no customs required France to Switzerland but still in place between Switz. and Italy - and involved inspection of all aircraft papers.

AIRFIELDS
Italy has official aeroporto (comparable to Heathrow down to Headcorn) and virtually unregulated aviosuperficie (comparable in facilities to Waltham down to a farmer’s paddock). There are also ULM airfields which are not open to GA. We visited -
Breschia is very large aeroporto, taxied 9km, no fuel and very expensive (c€50).
Bedizzole a quiet grass aviosuperficie by Lake Garda was our base (no charges or avgas).
Padua a large deserted aeroporto used for IR training but necessary to get fuel (c€40)
Verona-Boscomatinco small friendly aeroporto with active aero club, restaurant, parachuting and wide variety of international visiting aircraft (c.f. Headcorn). Allegedly avgas if can persuade the club to sell. Good city to visit. Recommend but landing fee was still €32!
Bagnoli aviosuperficie 15 minutes SW of Venice. Now a 1200M smooth grass strip in a field on a very large historic agricultural estate but owner - Dr Lorenzo Borletti has great ambitions for a full aero-village soon. Watch.
Cremona aeroporto with small friendly, club house, restaurant, avgas. No landing fees.
Rivanazzano-Voghera LILH aeroporto quiet, easy to find long tarmac and avgas, inexpensive but nothing there worth visiting.
Castelnuovo Don Bosco - aviosuperficie near Asti/ Turin. Very friendly aero club with avgas, hangarage and ground arrangements, no charge. Excellent agriturismo B&B on wine estate in village. Modern factory makes Savannah microlights. Challenging runway - 650 metres grass BUT UPHILL out of a river valley and high trees on the other side of the valley. Worth the challenge.
Cuneo aeroporto - fuel but too big and overwhelmed by commercial traffic when we arrived. Avoid as no reason to stay there (€50)

The onward flight to Cannes was unbelievably scenic. Initially low-level (max 1000ft agl) up the rising valley through the mountains arriving over the Mediterranean at 5000’ at the Savona VRP. Then descent to 1000’ for the coastal route via Albenga ATZ, passing numerous resorts until Monaco and the Nice Echo VRP; and sea route through the Nice zone not above 500’.
Cannes busy with biz jets and helis, easy refuelling, fees €20. No longer the quiet flying club with terrace restaurant I had visited in 1983!
A co-owner brought the a/c back to UK in next 24 hrs. via Troyes (a real favourite).

HINTS
Links
Weather briefings by Simon Keeling www.weatherweb.net
Weather superb easily understandable data options www.weatheronline.co.uk
Select TAFS and METARS of a map http://en.allmetsat.com/metar-taf/europe.php
Official aviation information (Met, Notams, airfields)
- France (including AZBA planned military activity) http://www.sia.aviation-civile.gouv.fr/default_uk.htm
- Swiss (including GAFOR) www.homebriefing.com
- Italian info (aeroporto only) www.enav.it
- Information on aviosuperficie http://195.103.234.163/Applicazioni/avioeli/avio_01.asp

Maps & Guides
- Jeppesen VFR Guide (aeroportos) www.jeppesen.com but accurate and easy to read
- AvioPortalano http://www.aerotouring.eu/ complete but overcrowded by ULM details and not that accurate (especially tel. nos and avgas details).

Flight plans
Required for cross borders, and advisable in hostile terrain, but a nuisance elsewhere as they get lost and usually required to cancel with a FIS when airborne.
I prefer to use Olivia for flight plans as easy (especially Delays & Changes) from mobile phones http://olivia.aviation-civile.gouv.fr

Airspace and R/T
This was a worry to me but in practice Italy is no more swathed in CAS than UK.
The Jeppesen VFR maps are very clear and contain all you need. The Jepp database in the GNS430 was also very useful but did not have many aviosuperficie. VORs exist in strategic locations but were all switched off “for maintenance” on some days!

Italy has large FIS regions (e.g. Milan Info, Padova Info) who give an excellent service, issue squawks and monitor position/altitudes on radar (c.f. Farnborough Radar). They will expect you to route via published VRPs around CTRs but will usually accept requests for alternatives and coordinate transit with the local commercial or military ATC (e.g. Breschia or Villafranca). Major aeroporto all have ATC/AFIS. All this in English but it is best to use absolutely correct radio terminology as this is what they know and expect.

Smaller fields may have radio, some not, but all rely on air to air calls on frequency (default is 130.00, like French 123.5).

Position calls are standard, usually in Italian (see above post for a translation sheet) although the times I used English the other pilots also switched to English. Just stick to proper circuit disciplines and no one will bother you.

Avgas
Avgas is expensive - 20% up on UK - and supply chain is erratic so this is a real problem to be managed carefully. The AvioPortalano guide gives fuelling information but in practice the position changes daily. Avgas exists at some major airports, often in the aero clubs, but they are not willing to share! Most Cessna owners I spoke to use mogas which is readily available at most aviosuperficie ………….???

If anyone wants more info - or can offer advice/corrections - please contact me.
User avatar
By stevelup
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#986760
Ian Nayler wrote:If anyone wants more info - or can offer advice/corrections - please contact me.


Brilliant stuff - thanks for posting it all.

You've missed the most important thing though... Photos!