Flying to Iran - a good idea?

(I know that they got the STC, but I was sure that NO airplane is flying …)

Philipp, your post on your 2011 trip really makes me want to go east :-) But the cost is just terribly prohibitive!
Just one comment, it seems that Batumi in Georgia has avgas.

That would indeed be exciting. Perfectly in the right spot. However the AIP (just looked) doesn’t bear this out. But it is always a possibility that they have something, even though it is not published.

From some planning I did c. 2007 (Odessa UKOO) the most easterly place which had Avgas, Customs, IFR and GA parking was Constanta. Nothing in the Ukraine at all at the time, but I bet you there is avgas there locally which is not advertised.

Avgas is often shipped and kept in drums and it can be found in the most suprising places. The big question is whether you want to risk having your €500k plane stranded somewhere where they told you it would be, where there was no alternate within range, and then you have to pay lots of $$$$ to ship some drums there.

I have turned down such offers at a couple of Greek airports, where the locals definitely have avgas, because the fallback position would have been hugely problematic – possibly another Greek pilot flying in with some cans, or doing a plane-plane transfer with a hose.

Some touring pilots, who have endless time, don’t do much “fuel planning” at all. They just go and sort all fuel problems out “in situ”. Obviously, one can only do this with an airplane that accepts anything petrol.

One pilot who did this admirably was Hans Schneider, as narrated in his book “Der Weg ist das Ziel” (probably the best GA ATW travelogue out there). BTW, he did pass through Istanbul, Trabzon, Erzurum, Tabriz and Teheran with his 150. Really a fantastic story.

However, that was in 1991 or so and things have become much more difficult in the meantime.

Presumably with a Mogas STC? Some quite capable long range options with Mogas: Cessna 180/182/195, Piper PA-28-235, even that gentleman’s carriage the Piper Apache.

On the german register, most aircraft with non-turbocharged, carburetted (and even a few fuel-injected) engines with less than 250 hp can be legally run on Mogas.

However, I would say people like Hans Schneider don’t worry much about “STCs”…

I am OK with a middle ground between Peter’s meticulous planning

I wouldn’t call mine particularly meticulous. I just think it is completely pointless to fly to an airport which has no fuel or is not open when you get there. That’s OK if one is a “perpetually retired” person (as many indeed are in GA, whose demographic fits that sort of flying in many ways) but I normally fly to some kind of schedule where I have a few days to play with, plus or minus, but no more. So I say to everybody who wants to fly around Europe to call/contact the airport and make sure all is OK and get it straight from them, not from the AIP or some airport directory (those are good for one thing: the contact numbers… if they even work). This is all very easy and if I had to fly to say Greece tomorrow morning I would have it planned in about 30 minutes (IFR). I spend very little time on preflight planning. But one thing I won’t do is fly to an airport which is uncertain about fuel or opening hours because that is just asking for hassle. That also means not flying to an airport which is not responding (unless it is some big well known well organised place like say Prague LKPR); not all pilots would agree with that policy.

Many years (decades) ago a lot more was possible in areas where we would not venture today, and the trips resulted in many great books. But times have changed. Much of the world today is at war, on and off, or is just too violent and with zero value attached to a human life as a result of the locals having been exposed to brutal behaviour by others, and this wasn’t necessarily the case decades ago. Another factor is that a lot of the “old explorers” got away with a lot of stuff because wherever they went the locals though they were just plain mad and laughed at them instead of doing something worse like they might do today. Still, I know a guy who used to fly cargo in Africa in 707s and they would only fly below 200ft or above 20000ft. He said the pilots loved it.

Then you get flights done with a massive logistic support. I personally know a guy who about 10 years ago flew a turbine heli (MD500?) around the world; he went through Russia and spent $60k on bribes to cross the country. But he also had a man back home who made the phone calls ahead, booking hotels and sorting stuff out, so the pilot would land, shagged as one would be after flying a heli for a number of hours (with a ferry tank) and just dived into the hotel bed. He had an Iridium satphone installed in the heli so was in touch with base the whole time. I think most of the “sponsored” high profile flights are done like that. A lot is possible but you might not hear the details when you read about it in the glossy mags. Especially the mags, which do not like detailed accounts of anything (it’s “boring”).

Iran should be OK if you sort out the fuel and permits situation. When I was an university (1975-78) I knew many Iranians and they were great friends. Some stayed in the west post-78 but some returned to Iran and were never heard from again.

The most important thing, I have found ever since my earliest trips down to say Greece 10 years ago, is to have local contacts. If it wasn’t for great friends like Petakas (on here) and others, I would not have known where to start. I have some Turkish contacts and that is where I would start if I wanted to fly to or via Turkey. I went to Turkey in 2009 and they organised the N-reg permit without any hassle.

From some planning I did c. 2007 (Odessa UKOO) the most easterly place which had Avgas, Customs, IFR and GA parking was Constanta. Nothing in the Ukraine at all at the time, but I bet you there is avgas there locally which is not advertised.

I have always wondered about that given the large number of Yak-52s, AN2s etc that were once in operation. Wikipedia says that in 2013 there were still 1,500 AN2s operating in Russia, 294 in Kazakhstan and 54 in Ukraine. Perhaps boscomantico’s mention of “B-91” fuel explains it, meaning they still use their own fuel specification instead of 100LL. I’m thinking the AN2’s supercharged 1000 HP Wright 1820-derived engine would need quality fuel, and the 360 HP supercharged M14P likewise. It must be ‘out there’ somewhere.

Lots of Iranians here in the US that have immigrated in a continuous stream over 35 years.

Tbilisi sure looks like a interesting place.