EuroGA Summer 2014 Fly-In - Corsica 5-8 September

Have decided that Corsica is now a ‘Go’

TB20, 2POB ; arriving Friday, leaving Sunday; booked into Les Arbousiers

With regret N2136E will have to cancel.
My posting from #106

“I have one ‘Twin’ AND one ‘Double’ booked and paid for (they took the money) at Hotel Les Arbousiers for three nights Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Our aircraft is in engineering and although hopeful, feel sure it will not be ready in time for Calvi !!!
The total for the two rooms (three night each) was €510, breakfast extra at €11. Cancellation is €85 per room.
I’m keeping the rooms at the moment, but feel sure they could be transferred to another name if required.
Should you like ‘first refusal’ I think there is a way of e-mailing me direct from this EuroGA site."

I will either have to ‘cancel’ and pay the cancellation charge or does anybody want them?
They have been paid for, so guess payment direct to myself.

I’m going to phone Hotel Les Arbousiers to see if they will except a ‘no charge cancellation’, but think unlikely unless they are full and get others wanting to book.

Anybody in another hotel may like to move to Les Arbousiers?

Click on my name to the right to contact me.

Yep, I’ll take a spare seat.

Any spare seat ‘going begging’ in resonable driving distance from Yorkshire.

Weight 185 lbs approx.

Peter,
We are hoping to be there, have a couple of minor issues with the plane to sort out first so all
being well….see you there

As predicted I will have to work that weekend…

I have one ‘Twin’ AND one ‘Double’ booked and paid for (they took the money) at Hotel Les Arbousiers for three nights Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Our aircraft is in engineering and will not be ready in time for Calvi !!!
The total for the two rooms (three night each) was €510, breakfast extra at €11. Cancellation is €85 per room.

These rooms available for ‘sale’.

Click on my name to the right to ‘contact’.

Correction to #127
I have rung Hotel Les Arbousiers +33 495 650447 – good understanding of English.
They have ONLY charged my card ATPIT €170 for my two rooms @ 0.8155. This (somehow) includes a Non Sterling Trans. Fee of £4.02. Total total £138.63.
They say this covers the first night for the two rooms and is, in effect, the cancellation fee if ‘no show’.
The very pleasant and understanding lady said she would speak to her Manager about re-funding this charge, but was not very hopeful as it was part of the ‘contract’.
She said it was ‘high season’ and they were nearly full, so I pointed out that the rooms would therefore likely ‘re-sell’, not to mention any late EuroGA bookings.
She asked me to ‘ring back’ tomorrow Sat 30th.

Since I have briefly been at Calvi last weekend (fuel, lunch and swim stop), here is some “latest info” for those going at the end of next week.

First of all, the weather is brilliant down there these days and it looks like this very good weather situation in the central Med will persist for at least another 7 days or so. Expect around 27 degrees C in the daytime. In the nights, it pleasantly cools off. In the evenings, it gets dark rather soon now.

Re the flying: no PPR required (in fact, like most French airports, they don’t seem to particularly like being called “for PPR”, etc.).

People flying IFR from the north will likely cross the Alps via N850 (TRA – ODINA) at a minimum of FL140; always very spectacular. Further routing will be SRN, VOG, GEN. This can be flown at FL110. Attention: in the Genoa area, you will be handed off to a Milan Radar sector which uses an 8.33KHz frequency, so better be prepared. Then, it is on to LIGUR, which is also the start of the STAR. Then the straight-in LOC 18 approach.
VFR, the routing choices are obviously almost endless.

Now re the parking: the amount of available parking on the hard is rather reduced. Also, as in most southerly countries, they seem to reserve these spaces for the big iron, or for people “they know”. So even if there is lots of space left on the hard when you arrive, the person who manages the apron (with a high vis jacket…) will tell the usual story about them “expecting several big twins very shortly” and thus not being able to offer any hard parking.

The “other” GA parking areas look rather intimidating…it is soil; a mixture of sand and small stones. I will post a picture when I can. People like Peter will definitely want to try to “reserve” a parking spot on the hard.

On the other hand, upon closer inspection, the surface isn’t too bad. I saw many high value singles parking there and taxying there.

Re the fuel: when we were on final, we kindly asked the tower if he could call the refueller to be ready once we would taxy in. That seemed to work fine, so there was no delay at all. The price is very good currently (2,08€).
The refueller is friendly but a bit fussy. He wants to open and close the fuel caps. No refuelling with pax on board. And, most ridicoulously: no photos allowed during the refuelling process.

The news is that there is now a GAT in operation (this wasn’t the case two years ago when GA still had to go through the main terminal). The new GAT is just south of the GA parking area and can’t be missed. One can walk there. The GAT personnel will call a taxi if requested. Taxis will now come directly to the GAT. One still has to go through security gates when leaving the airport (plus security checks when entering it) and the handling is, well, a bit unfriendly. The taxi fare for going to the town centre is slightly steep and varies between 20 and 25 Euros.
Landing fee for a 1.6 ton aircraft (without overnight parking) is 35 Euros, which again isn’t cheap, but within limits.

BTW, when one is departing from Calvi, the ower will – with the prevailing southerly winds – ask crews which runway they want. Most use runway 36, even in a moderate tailwind, since it avoids departing towards the terrain. I would recommend runway 36 anytime. It is long enough.

Re Calvi: as ever. The high season is now coming to an end and it will be less crowded than in mid-August.
Some buildings in the town centre are unfortunately a bit run down. The restaurants along the marina aren’t the very best; at least I never managed to find a really good one. Also, the countless boats in the marina tend to block the nice views. As an alternative, I suggest to have lunch at one of the beach restaurants. The views are great and the beach atmosphere is superb. The best one seems to be Chez Marco Plage (less than 1000 meters to walk from the marina).

Enjoy the flying and the stay!

Thanks for this great briefing. Looking at plates I was quite suprised that no ILS is available (Peter? ). So it’s localizer without GP … strange. What’s suggested alternate?