Nice to meet you Norman and Richard….as for the Piper…
Anthony & Sarah
I’m afraid I can’t find the restaurant….we are off I’m the morning…sorry I did not meet you Peter…
In case somebody’s still around Anila and I will be spending our last night in Calvi tonight.
Well we seem to have managed to meet up with as many as could be organised… only a few have managed to escape the free EuroGA stickers 
Dublinpilot and I are off to Corfu shortly, 0830Z EOBT, on the 1600-island scenic route down the Adriatic. Tracking link (from EuroFPL this time due to some tech issue I had).
Thank you all for making your way down to such a scenic place!
VFR UK to Calvi and return
Fog delayed our departure until the afternoon. By routing East around the Paris zone we were able to stay at FL095, staying ‘on top’ with a improving (less) cloud cover.
Route:
HANKY HAZEL SFD ALESO CMB ELVES SONUR DIKOL TRO MOU ROA MTL.
WE stayed overnight at the Best Western on Avignons airport. Next morning we departed direct to Calvi 200nm. Apart from a 20 minute spell of showers the flight was very straight forward. At Calvi, we were marshalled to the parking area but we stopped short of his requested position as we could see a very unstable sandy surface. We pulled the plane to the requested position. We asked about available fuel and were told 50L per aircraft, great that filled us up.
The planned return was via Potiers to clear customs and then direct to the UK. The Customs request was faxed to Poitiers the day before, flight planned and UK GAR sent from hotel before leaving. We had to wait a good 20 minutes at the Alpha hold behind a Piper, I asked twice if we could go via Bravo which is still four times longer than we need, but they just didn’t answer, I don’t know the problem with the piper because transmissions where in French. Checking the telemetry from the EFIS from start up to takeoff at Calvi took 39 minutes.
We messed up reading the notams, we saw there was PJ at Poitiers but missed that the airfield was closed to all but home based aircraft. On the first call to Poitiers they would not let us in, so planned to divert to Cherbourg where we could clear customs without notice. With the delay at Calvi and the extra 200nm to Cherbourg the fuel was going to be tight. This is where a good fuel analyzer proved its worth. This was beginning to build a string of incidents, Calvi delay, Poitiers notam, now fuel, so we ran one tank down to 7L (confirmed on refilling) and went into Granville for fuel, landed with 20L remaining which is a good 45 minute reserve, distributed between two tanks. Granville were very helpful and quick, the engine stoped was 19 minutes. Rennes Info where very good calling Granville to check if Avgas was available and giving me their (Rennes) number to call when on the ground to close flight plan. A long leg from Calvi to Granville 621nm, 4:29hr + 39mins at Calvi, Avg speed 139kt.
Particularly useful again was the iPhone running SD on the Radio page; the frequencies update as you move along and give many more frequencies than the printed plog. Often I hear the frequency but miss the name, a quick look at the phone and it shows the name.
Interesting that at a fairly low height FL095 I was on oxygen my SP02 was 96, co-pilot without oxygen was 86.
Pictures:
1. Route, 2.Take Off Calvi, 3. iPhone Radio Freq., 4. EFIS showing SP02.
Edit Photo missing
Just landed on Corfu
The black line is the actual route.
FL120 all the way, STAR from Calvi and a radar vectored VOR approach (done with GPS of course) to Corfu.
Very scenic but a lot of buildups covering the Adriatic islands.
My totaliser said I would need 231 litres and the bowser put in ……. 231 litres! I have never seen that before in Greece. It was always some 5% in their favour 
The refuel took maybe 2-3 minutes from bowser arrival to them doing my Air BP card. Very fast.
Everybody here is super friendly and everything happens fast, but the old paperwork remains…
Arrived and parked next to us was a Robin from N France. This was the very first French pilot I have ever met in these parts.
I’m sure there’s shorter path from Calvi to Corfu.
Yes there is but it is much less scenic. The E or W coasts of Italy are nothing like the Adriatic, normally.
Yes, Peter even complained to me that autorouter would not find a route with 126% overhead and would present one with 8% instead
I came in a bit late and therefore was not able to meet all of you flying in. Nonetheless it was nice to meet meet Jojo, Dublinpilot, Aviathor and of course our Supreme Ayatollah Peter.
Going back it was a pleasure to be guided by excellent French ATC. Things like “stand-by, I’ll probably be able to give a you a shortcut soon”, and calling me saying “are you interested in a shortcut to point xyz, if so I can try and negotiate it with Italian ATC” sounded very customer-oriented to me..
Peter gave me two EuroGA stickers. One is for sale for the highest bidder. Starting at 100 euro.
