It’s a real pain in Poland. I plan on flying to Bialystok (EPBK) shortly. They deny selling us some Avgas100LL, even unofficially.
Hence, I will need to make a fuel stop somewhere else in the northeast quadrant of Poland. Does anybody have a hint here? Looking for a place that officially or at least painlessly sells Avgas, but doesn’t charge outrageous handling for a short fuel stop. EPSY could work, but is not entirely cheap, either.
@boscomantico, hop over the border? Lithuania?
No, since I am coming from Germany. Therefore, anything further east would be a detour, brings possible Corona complications, etc. Also, Avgas in Lithuania is at least as rare as in Poland.
Bydgoszcz has some mixed reviews re 100LL. Gdansk is also too much of a northerly detour, and likely not a very quick turnaround. Actually, a small airfield would be fine, even grass if it is in good condition. But at most of the small club airfields, getting Avgas is difficult due to their licensing issues. EPOD will also not sell any.
There’s a list of fields with fuel prices here:
https://dlapilota.pl/wiadomosci/dlapilota/aktualizacja-ceny-paliw-lotniczych-na-polskich-lotniskach
EPGM would be closest I guess? Try to get in touch first. Contact info here:
https://lotniska.dlapilota.pl/gizycko
Thanks. EPGM (Gizycko) never had any Avgas, so that must indeed be a new development. I wasn‘t too fond of the runway when I was there some years ago. It‘s also a bit out of the way for me.
EPGR (Gryzliny) still seems to work for refuelling, so that might be an option for me. Still not 100% reliable I guess.
Have you checked Olsztyn-Mazury EPSY? They are still listed as having Avgas & Jet-A1.
I stopped there just for fuel on the way to the Olsztyn grass strip (EPOD), back in 2017. At the time it was a huge new airport funded by EU development money, so I was told, and waiting for the tourists to arrive. No traffic. Refueling is via fuel truck (and GA parking if I recall correctly) on the west side of the airport on the opposite side of the runway from the terminal and infrastructure. I didn’t test the process for transfer from parking/fueling to the terminal building and back. There was no need for just a tech stop because refueling and airport fees were both handled on the GA side.
One fellow collected the airport fees while the fuel truck man refueled my aircraft. I paid the refueling with my Air BP card which was very fast due to no other paperwork, just a signature on the receipt…. and I was off again. The whole process took less than 20’ from touch-down to lift-off.
Another option back in 2017 was Ketrzyn EPKE. I don’t know the situation today, and the linked table shows it as only having Jet-A. You might want to give them a call to check. It is a grass strip and was in good shape then. Thunderstorms with hail were forecast, so the Ops fellow opened up his massive, nearly empty hangar and we shoved some 10 planes into it. We camped overnight and the Ops fellow slept in his office to ensure that our planes were kept safe 
They rolled out a wonderful breakfast for our large group.
Thanks. Well, I mentioned EPSY in the first post. I have used it previously. It IS a safe option, though I would prefer an uncontrolled field.
EPKE of course is also possible, although I wasn‘t fond of the taxiways.
EPOD would really be my favourite, but they just don‘t sell any fuel to visitors.
I will certainly give an update once the flight has been completed.
For now, I have read the dla.pilota table (with the help of a Polish colleague). Is is certainly a bit misleading, and the devil is in the detail. In the foreword to the table, they say they have omitted (in the table) small club airfields which have licensing issues for the sale of fuels. One would therefore think that those listed are only ones where the sale of fuel is generally possible. But this not the case. The list also includes fields like Bialystok and Olsztyn-Dajtki, and even the notes column does not say that they can’t sell fuels to third parties. Which, however, is the case.
So, while the list gives some guidance of where Avgas might be available, one would still have to check one by one personally, language issues notwithstanding.
I would still say, generally: at the small uncontrolled fields, don’t expect Avgas to be available for sale. It might be, but likely will not be.
Also, an interesting note is that according to the table and its footnotes, Ketryzyn (EPKE) has, for now, stopped the sale of Avgas!
Back from Poland. Fuel-wise, everything went as expected. Bialystok (EPBK) did absolutely not give us any Avgas, which they had plenty of, for the known reasons. Not even unofficially, without any receipts or similar. A pity, since we only needed 50 litres to make it back to Germany. We briefly considered Gizycko EPGM, but as it was more directly on our route, in the end, we chose Olszytn-Mazury EPSY. Well, it works, but isn‘t brilliant. First of all, even for a short fuel stop, they rob you of 35€ for a landing/handling fee. The fuel is also rather expensive, at about 2.6 Euros a litre. Moreover, this time, the fuel guy was very slow with his paperwork and payment. Took longer than necessary.
First of all, even for a short fuel stop, they rob you of 35€ for a landing/handling fee.
That’s still super-cheap comparing to Greece or Italy.
