Dear Forum,
We are planning a long trip with our Piper Turbo Arrow III from Lille (north France) to Greece and Egypt (Cairo). Same style as last year: http://www.abeam.be/back-to-africa-full-8-day-trip-report/
What is the latest on the fuel & PPR situation on Greece airports? What would be a nice stop-over destination in Greece onwards to Egypt?
For Egypt, I have contacted GASE. How & where do we find VFR charts? Our destination is Cairo. Any suggestions on port of entry ? Any other suggestions?
My commitment is to keep you up to date on our progress here and on my blog.
Thanks!
The best source of information is GASE.
If you can manage with the nonsensical opening hours, Sitia LGST is a convenient last stop, not expensive and no PPR hassle. If you do not need AVGAS, the most convenient immigration stop is Borg El Arab HEBA. From there on you continue to October HEOC which has AVGAS and the lowest price in Egypt (similar to Greece now, around €3/l).
In Egypt, there is little to no difference between VFR and IFR, you get handled the same way. There are no VFR maps so to speak, you can have a look at online maps such as this one This also means that you will always fly on airways which means that there can be considerable overheads depending on the city pair. This is why Borg El Arab is convenient — a straight line from Sitia and then an almost straight line into Cairo/October. Marsa Matruh HEMM has AVGAS but the routing s*cks.
HEOC is often blocked on short notice due to the military (who rule Egypt) playing war games. This can be a bit annoying and requires flexibility. And of course getting to A to B in Cairo takes 3hours, no matter where A and B are. All in all, flying Eypt is very easy and enjoyable and there is less hassle than in Greece. I have flown there numerous times in my Cessna.
https://www.you-fly.com/airport/lggg/HellenicFir#list
https://www.aopa.gr/en/flying-in-greece
Good luck and do not forget your headache pills.
Thanks guys.
I agree about Sitia (LGST). Alexandria (HEBA) has AVGAS (Cash only – USD) but you can get a quick turnaround and customs etc. Eddie and Ahmed at GASE are the experts.
I don’t think Alexandria Borg el Arab (HEBA) has AVGAS, not even if you have cash… In Egypt you get AVGAS at Marsa Matruh (HEMM), October (HEOC), Hurghada (HEGN) and Aswan (HESN). All of those but October are ports of entry. If you can do with Mogas, there are other options.
Well, I guess I didn’t fill a PA31 with AVGAS at HEBA on 17 March this year.
If you want to fly low level in Egypt then you should make your permit request via the Egyptian Aero Club…
or you can join us on www.egyptianairrally.org
and we will manage everything from permits, fuel all the way to your site seeing and food and drinks
for your VFR charts you can look at
www.skyvector.com
and for air port charts
use this link
http://fltops.egyptair.com/Documents/Nav/AIP/HEOC_AD.HTM
Just change the airport code at the end and you will get the charts for it, the one above is October
For example Mersa Matrouh will be
http://fltops.egyptair.com/Documents/Nav/AIP/HEMM_AD.HTM
and so on
Generally speaking there is no VFR in Egypt, you will fly published air routes at published altitudes
Good luck
Have a look at our site
www.egyptianairrally.org
and good luck
