Many thanks!
E
Yes; plenty long enough. It’s just the condition, especially after rain. A prop strike at a place like that would be a 100% nightmare and the only way would be to dismantle the plane and cart it back to the UK. A pilot who got a prop strike in a TB20 in Turkey did that recently (I don’t think he ever spoke about it openly, but it was widely known) on the instruction of his insurance company. You get ~ 4 months of downtime and a plane which will never fly quite straight ever again.
LIPZ has no avgas, AFAIK. A diversion would have to be Trieste, Padova, Portoroz, Pula or (hey) Mali Losinj
How sure is everyone about doing San Nicolo? The only positive things I hear thus far is that the approach is scenic
But what if the place itself is a dump? We will then need a “partner programme”, like certain other forum fly-ins do, where you book a bus to cart all the women off to the town for shopping I try damn hard to avoid that sort of thing. It’s 1000% more fun when everybody can enjoy it, and I mean without talking about planes.
Venice itself is very crowded. You need a 2m selfie stick to get even half decent photos, and I don’t mean photos of yourself
Peter wrote:
Venice itself is very crowded.
Probably not too much in September … It’s incredible what difference there is in number of tourists in last day of August and first days of September in Italy.
Peter wrote:
How sure is everyone about doing San Nicolo?
When I was last there (~1 year ago), the grass was pretty good, the restaurant nice, the island also pretty scenic, and there are frequent and short boat runs to the main city. Definitely “partner compatible” in my book.
The only downside IMO is that border police feels very self important. And the fuel is pretty expensive.
Peter,
I really don´t know of anyone who´s had a problem down there, apparently they have a lot of traffic.
I´ve done some rather hairy grass rundways (Speck Fehraltdorf is one I do regularly as my maintenance is there) but San Nicolo does not really look that bad. Also the comments on eddh.de basically say that while the grass is a tad high sometimes, the runway is even enough.
I don´t know how critical the TB20 is for prop strikes, it can´t be much less than the Mooney who has a very low ground clearance. Yet, most pilots I know here have been there once or twice and nobody ever reported a problem.
And of course, there is Venice International if you absolutely don´t want grass. If you can manage to get there with fuel to continue to Portoroz afterwards for fuelling, that should be a valid alternative destination then.
As for tourism, of course Venice is a tourist spot, but one which plenty to do. We were there last fall and it was great, with a hotel direct at the San Marco Square for a very attractive price as well as quite managable crowds. We used the water bus to get from/to LIPZ (we used airline to get there)
For those who have been there, what is the usual inbound route you´d plan when coming from VIC VOR? I can see that it is the usual 1500 ft AGL or below, then what is to be expected? Detour via Choggia to Malamocco or more direct?
Will have to see if I can make it from a time point of view, but I would think it would be a nice place to go to. Even if the Alps would preclude VFR, I could jump on the airline and get there easy enough. September will be quite tight on time though. It is still the 1st weekend of September which is the plan, right? 4th to 7th?
Choggia to Malamocco
Choggia Malamocco rings a bell…
But what if the place itself is a dump?
It is pretty much one of the most fantastic places to be. Beautiful architecture and gardens, less crowded and more autentic than Venice itself, huge beach, good restaurants…
what is the usual inbound route you´d plan when coming from VIC VOR?
Most people coming from the northwest make the “mistake” to fly Chioggia – Malamocco, which is indeed a bit of a detour, low level (due to approaching airliners above). Most do so because it looks “easier”.
I always prefer the shortest and possibly more “challenging” (read: interesting) option, which in this case is to fly via overhead Tessera.
Just make sure you are ready for a very late handover to Lido AFIS.
I am going to do a mailing to registered members about this, and will mention the possibility of flying to Greece afterwards to see if there is any interest in that.