Where have you been? What have you seen?
By peterh337
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#1574073
This was a EuroGA fly-in to Astypalea LGPL in Greece. We do a few of these each year and this was a rare extra long one. Greece has become quite difficult and much more expensive following the Fraport (a German based airport operator) takeover of nearly all its money-making airports...

http://peter2000.co.uk/aviation/astypalea/
Antair, James Chan, Horbach and 1 others liked this
#1574223
A great report, as usual. It's such a shame, though, to read how hard people seem to be working across Europe to kill GA what with absurd opening hours, pointless restrictions, and exhorbitant fees. The small-mindedness is beyond belief.
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By MichaelP
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1582287
As ever an excellent report. It’s a form of flight I am not experienced in myself, being a primarily a VFR pilot, and though rated, an out of practice IR pilot.
Certainly your aeroplane is technologically equiped better than anything I have flown, though individually I have seen and even used the equipment you have.
It’s a whole different financial category, somewhere between where I have been and the bizjet crowd.

‘Still can’t get around the idea of filing even altitudes eastbound.

Cannes Mandelieu has become more complicated?
I believe it has been seventeen years since I went in there last, on a VFR flight from La Mole and back in a Sundowner.

And if you and I ever have lunch together, you can pass that cheese over to me :D
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By James Chan
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1582328
I really enjoy the videos! :thumleft:
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By Rob L
#1582648
peterh337, that's an astounding trip :D But I would never do it now. Too much Euro Beuracracy and expense :!: My last trip to Europe included a landing/handling fee of circa E200 at Girona (for a little sub-700kg aeroplane). That spoiled it for me.

I'd never fly that high AGL in a single; what if the donkey stopped; there'd be too much time to worry! :?

But thanks for posting, as ever :thumleft: . I do enjoy reading your reports, (although I might be late in saying so).

Two of my aeroclub members flew our Club 172 to Greece in 1989, just as I was starting to learn to fly, and their trip report helped to enthuse me to fly my little jalopy around Europe quite extensively for several decades.

Rob
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By MichaelP
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1582776
I did Switzerland in the Condor... I borrowed a Nipper Radio with twenty five channels... You could even change the crystals to get other channels if you had them! Only two frequencies were of any use, and one was the Gonio at Le Touquet.

So nordo, no transponder, no directional gyro, but it did have a compass which was mandatory.

All the way across France to Bern for customs... I’ll have to look it up in my logbook.
Arrived 2 minutes after the airfield closed at Birrfeld, ‘had to write a report, and visit the commandant in the morning, he wished me a good trip, wasn’t bothered by two minutes!

It seems this is a different World: IFR, and 200€ handling fees... Geared for the bizjets, and loaded onto the little aeroplanes too.
In the future we’ll all have to queue on the motorway to go to the weigh station like the commercial lorries... Highway robbery.
By peterh337
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#1582857
I have been flying to Greece since 2004 but it has certainly become more difficult in 2017. Not so much because the 200-300 euros kills the proposition (relative to the cost of avgas flying all the way down there) but because nobody likes a totally in-your-face ripoff. It started by Germany's FRAPORT taking over most of their money-making airports, and then the local handlers thought "the Germans are ripping everybody off; we may as well have a slice of the action". So the problem is at least 50% locally generated.

It is still a wonderful country to visit but it will be by airline for a bit...

However Sitia LGST (eastern Crete) is still accessible and still fairly cheap and laid back... and open 2hrs a day :) With a decent range aircraft like the TB20 it is reachable from anywhere in Croatia i.e. just one stop from the UK. It has avgas and customs. It is a great location in itself and a good base for other Greek islands. I plan to do Kastalarisa at some point - underneath Turkey and Greece's most eastern end - which has no fuel or customs.

The trick is to avoid the pricey airports but the only one with avgas and customs which has not yet been shafted is Sitia.

IFR is a wonderful way to fly.