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Algeria and Morocco

Busily planning our club euro 16 flight! Had a brainwave to drop into Morocco and then Algeria as the most southern parts of the trip. Does anyone have any help/advice they could offer that might help please? Anything along the lines of airfields we could use (4 PA28’s), avgas availability, any clearances we need etc etc. Many thanks

Has been ten years since I’ve flown there (Morocco only), but here are some recommendations/ideas

- I flew to Morocco from Malaga, Spain, which was easy
- First stop for refueling was Fez. Uncomplicated, cheap fuel, low fees, they did take credit cards, I remember
- From Fez we flew to Er Rachidia at the border of the Sahara. There’s a super hotel there, called Xalucca Inn (with a pool and great food) and we did tours into the Sahara from the hotel, which were great, especially at midnight – if you like stars!
- From er Rachidia I flew to Quarzazzate, which is a great and very scenic city with a great and uncomplicated airport. Highly recommended.
- From Q. which is very close to the Atlas Mountain Range we had to make a two or three wide circles to get over the mountains (C-172RG)
- Next stop was Marrakech, a place I will go back to one day. A crazy place, but one of a kind. I landed and on the rollout ON THE RUNWAY there was a moped with a guy under my wing who was yelling “50 dollars handling fee” :-)… I ignored him and he disappeared … that was so funny! To me Marrakech is a MUST. We stayed at “Riad Noga” in the Center, a beautiful (but expensive) place in the center

If you have any specific questions, maybe I can find the information …, but that’s analogue stuff deep down in some closets …

Last Edited by Flyer59 at 06 Aug 20:26

Does one need overflight/landing permits? Some GA pilots who have been there say you don’t (or it is transparently arranged inside some payment) but they all went there (Morocco only, not Algeria) years ago, and a bizjet pilot I know well who goes there says you definitely do. I have the details of some agents on my website.

I know of pilots on EuroGA who have been there recently; maybe they can post some detail. Check out this thread

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

I’ve been to Morocco in 2013 and am almost certain you don’t need an overflight permit. At least we didn’t have one, nobody asked for it, and the guy from the training outfit where we rented the plane went there several times a year. He did the briefing with us and didn’t mention anything about an overflight permit. What you do need to do is to notify customs of your arrival at least 24h in advance (IIRC).

Algeria is a different thing, I’ve never been there but I think you need a permit.

A classic first stop is Tanger, we did stop there on the way in and out and they are very accustomed to it and professional (to Moroccan standards). We didn’t stay the night in Tanger though.

When flying in Morocco, they want you to follow the VFR routes, which you can now find as a PDF on the website of the DAC. If the king decides to travel, be prepared to be flying nowhere on that day.

Don’t underestimate the height of the mountains in the south. And if you happened to have an engine failure over the desert, the advice was given to us to aim for a road and not let yourself be fooled by the apparent smooth looks of the desert – it’s not smooth and full of rocks. And there is very little traffic to be seen on the desert roads.

We paid our fuel in Dirham cash. If you take it from an ATM, keep the receipt! There’s some law that you need to give them this ticket (or your bank’s receipt if you changed at home), otherwise they won’t accept your cash at the airport. Landing fees are cheap, even in Marrakech we paid around 20 Euros or so for landing and one day parking. You don’t need any handling.

I recommend Fès and Ouarzazate as well, and also liked Essaouira. Marrakech is special, but easily reached with Ryanair and the likes these days. If you don’t have much time, don’t miss the south – it’s very scenic. We flew from Fès to Errachidia for a quick stop and on to Ouarzazate, stayed the night, and then flew to Essaouira via Agadir (no landing there). The “direct route” over the Atlas is supposed to be very scenic, but didn’t get to fly it due to weather – it can be socked in.

For weather information, there will be someone at each airport to give you a briefing, but I preferred using Topmeteo. They cover Morocco.

Last Edited by Rwy20 at 06 Aug 20:43

I’ve flown there several times, but the last time was also about 6-7 years ago. Morocco only, never been to Algeria (if I can still find them, I had the contact details of French pilot who used to fly there a lot, will try to dig them up and send to you via PM).

Anyway, here goes re Morocco:

You need to exit and enter the EU via a port of entry. The most practical for that is Granada (LEGR), as it’s much cheaper than Malaga (LEMG) or Jerez (LEJR).

You enter and exit the Casablanca FIR via one of the intersections, be sure to have a low-level IFR chart handy, even if flying VFR. From memory, I mostly used GALTO. In theory you are not allowed to enter until comms have been established, BUT Casablanca will often not hear you because you’re too low. In this case either ask some CAT to relay or call up Tetuan or Tangiers tower who will relay for you. I would avoid Tetuan as a stop, btw., Tangiers on the other hand is quite nice, although nothing special.

Once in Morocco, you have to fly VFR routes. While easy, it’s a bit tricky to get the Morocco VFR chart. In my days it was not available online, this may well have changed, Google is your friend (I was based in Malaga, so I had one). What you can do is land at Tangiers and copy the routes off the map they have in the AIS office. You will be in radar contact pretty much all the time north of the Atlas and ATC is definitely watching you. Straying from the VFR route elicits a comment almost immediately! AFAIK there is no radar coverage (at least not civilian) south of the Atlas.

On thing to remember is that overflying any royal palace is a big no-no, so don’t overfly Fez or Marrakesh or any other city with a palace. ATC usually warn you anyway.

Marrakesh is a very touristy but also fascinating place. Fez is perhaps more authentic and definitely worth a visit, the ‘souk’ is amazing. I went across the Atlas mountains a couple of times, be aware that you need to get to something like 11k ft. Ouarzazate is a sleepy little place unless there’s a movie being shot. It’s used a lot by the French film industry. Definitely go to Er-Rashidia. Along the road from Er-Rashidia (which itself is a dusty outpost on the fringe of the desert) to the dunes of Erg Chebbi there are several luxury ‘riads’ for overnight stays. Not cheap, however! It’s definitely worth doing a sunrise flight over the dunes, but you need(ed) permission for that, so ask the tower controller at Er-Rashidia afer you land there. IIRC he has to advise Casablance of your intentions. Reason being that Erg Chebbi is right at the Algerian border and the border in this area is disputed, so make sure you get your navigation right! AFAIK there also used to be (and perhaps still is) a little hotel with a landing strip right on the northern end of the dunes, but I have never been there and don’t know the name).

100LL was available everywhere, EXCEPT Er-Rashidia. This makes fuel planning in your case a little tricky, you may well have to backtrack to Ouarzazate. I would also call ahead to Ouarzazate to ensure you can get fuel. It’s the only fuelling point in a wide area and when I was there a truck filled up around 1000 jerrycans for some crop spraying operation further afield! I once flew Ouarzazate – Er Rachidia – Erg Chebbi – Fez on one tank, but that was a 172RG with long-range tanks, I doubt you could do that in a PA28. Btw, make sure to tell the fueller you are leaving Morocco on your last leg beck to Spain (or Algeria, more on that below), as you can then fill up tax-free.

AFAIK you cannot fly VFR Morocco-Algeria, but that may well have changed.

Lastly, here’s the website of the Moroccan AIP: http://www.sia-aviation.gov.ma/ and here is the VFR portion http://www.sia-aviation.gov.ma/guidevfr/index.html

HTH & have a great trip!

No overflight permit required for Morocco unless you want to go south on Western Saharra (Layoune TanTan…)
They do require permit for homebuilt and Ultralight

Romain

LFPT Pontoise, LFPB

I have some input from a pilot who has been there:

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

I’m going to Morocco 3-4 time per year.
Very nice place to fly.
Airport fee are cheap, around 10€ per landing(all inclusive) no handling require even in Casablanca.
Avgas is available almost everywhere. Check NOTAM. Price for Avgas is around 2,5-3€ per liter.
As said before, is you want to pay in Dihram, you need the change recipt. You can pay cash in Euro but they don’t have change…

If you are close to Fez make a little flight to Ifrane. Very Nice 1600m runway at 1600m altitude.

LFPT Pontoise, LFPB

We have been to Algeria with our Mooney in 2013. Our only srop was Algiers. You need a permit to get there and it was rather hard to get it. The Algerian AIP is online, but it’s French only. You’ll need to speak some French anyway. The contact nuber for the permit is in there, but it took countless phone calls and faxes to get it. DAAG is not the most GA friendly place. They do have AVGAS but it took hours of waiting for the fuel truck. The fuel was cheap and the cost for landing and handling was OK, 60€ IIRC. Actually visas are required to enter Algeria, but we were able to obtain a permis d’escal for our stay. No bribes were required but a lot of patience.

If you’re interested I can try to dig out the contacts. Algiers is a place well worth visiting.

All has been said about Morocco, we’ve been there a couple of times. The trip in 2013 took us on to Tunesia, which was not as easy as Morocco but not as difficult as Algeria.

Last Edited by terbang at 07 Aug 07:08
EDFM (Mannheim), Germany

I have been in Tetuan and Essaouira last summer, and a permit was required to land on both.
If the landing fees were cheap, handling was mandatory for us and they stole asked us around 200 € each time for no services at all (the guy in Tetuan had however a temsi chart for us. In Essaouira, he just had the credit card reader. Period!!)
I used flyeasy.aero for the administrative paperwork

LSGL
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