Or Albenga LIMG.
Thanks for the tips so far.
I'm trying to get to a hotel ~15 miles north of Grosseto (near Cinigiano), but Grosseto's not available.
I'll be flying my normally-aspirated A36. RocketRoute suggests one route over the Alps (FL140) and another over Nice and out to sea.
Coming over Nice, LIMG looks like a sensible place to clear Customs, from the North, not sure.
So primarily looking for somewhere to land and park for four nights, hire a car, as close to Cinigiano as possible. Happy to work with 700m.
For EGLD-LIMG and max FL150, the best RocketRoute gives is 22% overhead. Here's a better routing with 15% overhead:
LON DCT OCK/N0154F150 DCT SRH DCT SITET A34 ETRAT A34 DVL A34 LISEU A34 LGL A34 BOBSA A34 BENAR A34 KOVAK H20 DOMOD A3 GILUX A3 MOTAL A3 SANCE A3 KOTIS A3 NEV R161 LEMIN R161 RIVEK DCT VZ DCT NIGLO DCT REPSI DCT ETREK DCT LUKUM DCT LASUR DCT GA DCT BODRU DCT AMIRO DCT NIZ DCT MIKRU Y15 USANO
It gets a bit better if you can go FL180 or higher. Note that the routing appears longer because it lists all waypoints on an airway, which is practical for the GNS series that don't know airways.
Chris,
as I mentioned before, for your final destination, this is going to be a challenge (and certainly a bit of hassle). There are just no public GA airfields in that part of Tuscany.
There are a handful of Aviosuperfici (the italian equivalent of "unlicensed airstrips") that you could use, but nevertheless, they are all quite far away from Cinigiano (at least an hour's drive). Also, in most of the below cases, we are the airstrip's operator(s) will likely not speak sufficient English to allow you to sort out PPR, airfield briefings, hangarage, let alone help you hire a car from there. Anywhere, I'll mention your alternatives within reasonable distance here. (You might want to google these towns' names in order to get an idea of where they are). They are all grass.
Aliscarlino airfield (located in Scarlino) is 650 metres of good grass and no appreciable obstacles, IIRC. It is west of Cinigiano, near the Sea.
Castiglione della Pescaia airfield is just a little bit south of Scarlino, and the runway is 800 metres long, but due to obstacles, slope and condition, this is a very challenging strip. I wouldn't recommend it to you, even though I have previously landed the Cirrus there.
Even further away from Cinigiano, but probably your best bet would be Mensanello airstrip, which is north of your destination. It's 700 metres long. The advantage: the operator (a nice man by the name of Filippo Roncucci, an aerobatic pilot) speaks good English, so therefore your comms will be easier. He might even have a hangar space for you and he might also help you with a rental car. You can find his contact details here.
Avioclub Chiusdino is to the north, too, but a bit closer to your destination than Mensanello, but I have no info re english speaking contacts, hangarage, rental cars, etc. It is 650 metres long and, IIRC, has some obstacles.
Roughly east of Cinigiano is Alfina airfield, in Castel Viscardo (near Orvieto). It is 700 metres long. No other info there.
Roughly south of Cinigiano, there is Costa d'Argento airfield, in Orbetello. It should be something like 750 metres long, but I haven't used it yet. No hangarage, I am afraid.
Finally, if you prefer a "proper airport", Viterbo (LIRV) might still be within acceptable distance for you. As an advantage, you will have a long hard runway, rental cars on site, etc. However, this place, like most bigger airports, is not too fond of visiting GA, so you will definitely have some sort of (bureaucratic) PPR procedure to follow. It is mostly a military airport with some limited civilian use (there is an aeroclub there). I have no direct experience, but I guess that AfricanEagle can add a bit of practical advice for LIRV.
Achimha and boscomantico - thanks for all your help. I'll do some more research this week.
Calais losing Customs?
A rumour going around…
I also read on PPL I/R that there will be an audit of the number of pilots using Calais for Customs and this will
take place from the 12th to the 18th May.
I urge everyone to try to make a trip there during that period to be counted so that Customs may be preserved.
There are so many things to do around this area, I cant see why everyone goes to Le Touquet?
Saw this and re-posting here:
Calais is offering the first full stop landing FREE for a/c less than 1.5 tonnes from UK until 18th May.
“Apparently the customs and immigration facilities at Calais are “under review” for which read “threat”. The decision will be taken shortly and will probably be based on the traffic levels. This is presumably part of the French Govt. “cost reduction” programme. The loss of Calais as an ILS practice opportunity for southern UK based pilots would be very unfortunate."
Ah, I just saw it, you saved me the trouble of re-posting. I would gladly fly there myself, the field has long been on my wish-list. But I am not from UK so no real advantage, and, worse, my transponder is U/S so I can’t fly there anyway right now. Too bad…
Do you need Customs for IR training if you don’t touch down?
