Absolutely!
An amazing trip via Salzburg, Mali Losinj, Dubrovnik and Sitia – then an Aegean tour VFR low level to Kithira. The Dubrovnik – Sitia leg was stunning, IFR at FL100, with tremendous views of Albania and Greece, despite losing all comms somewhere over Macedonia until an Emirates captain with a very plummy English accent came to our rescue and relayed messages to Macedonia Radar. We also had a little drama on the approach to Sitia just as dusk was falling when my seat stuck in the fully forward position hard against the instrument panel and it took a few slightly anxious moments to free it! (The rubber mat had rucked underneath.)
The run to Kithira was extraordinary despite a ludicrously poorly notammed Greek military exercise which created some issues for our flight planned route (via Santorini, Paris, Naxos etc). I asked Santorini if there was any chance of finding a way through and between the exercises, since I’d flown almost 1800 nm to make this aerial tour of the Aegean…five minutes later she came back with good news and Athens gave us a path which enabled us to see everything we wanted!
At every airport we were the only GA light plane on the apron. In over 1200nm of flying in Greece we never saw or heard another light aircraft. A combination of recession, excessive bureaucracy, high airport (and often mandatory handling) fees (and crazily so in the case of Fraport-owned airports), complex and limited opening times, lack of AVGAS and essentially only two ports of entry/exit (Ioannina & Sitia) make this a distinctly challenging place to visit, involving flight planning on Rubik-cube levels.
But the experience was wholly worth it. Crossing the Aegean at IFR levels and then subsequently VFR was fabulous, as was the beautiful island of Kithira (thanks for Justine’s very helpful tips btw!), not to mention the pure gem that is Ioannina, a jewel on a lake with its rather exciting RNAV R32 involving some Stuka-like descents!
Will get some photos uploaded asap…
Peter – did you use customs at LGST?
All helpful thanks and esp to Peter for that invoice. We hope to depart Sitia for Kithira or Naxos tomorrow or Sunday!
Peter wrote:
A final note: in Greece, use the phone!
And this: https://nllapps.com/apps/acr/
Probably the most worth I ever got out of an Android app purchase.
I think people get rather sensitive to Greek airport pricing, after the fraport takeover of so many airports and the 5x to 10x price hikes there. This is understandable.
The non-fraported airports are creeping up too, presumably because some of the locals are seeing an opportunity to fleece people “since fraport are doing it so it must be ok”. This happened mainly at the fraported airports but seems to be happening elsewhere too.
On my recent trip to Kastelorizo I had only a few problems. None with unexpected pricing, but a fair number of really frustrating ones with contacting these handlers, and even the CAA offices. I spent hours sending emails to every damn email address I could find, plus some old ones (my laptop has emails back to 1995, and Greek airport ones back to 2004). This is really inexcusable and is much worse than paying an extra €50 – because you might get a fine for non-PNR etc. Thankfully nobody I came across, when I actually landed somewhere and saw them face to face, gave a damn, either…
A final note: in Greece, use the phone! Greeks speak good English. This is very different from much of “old” southern Europe. That is how I solved the Karpathos “no email response whatsoever” issue. I just phoned the CAA number.
boscomantico wrote:
Stodge, your post comes across as funny. You are flying a C182 all across Europe! So, anyway you “calculate” it, it is going to cost you many thousand Euros. How can 50 Euros more or less on airport fees make any any significant difference?
petakas wrote:
Is a 50 Euro difference in handling services THAT important to ask for HELP ?!
I see that often. It’s mostly about landing fees and hotel/meal prices, where differences are in the range of 10-20 EUR. We are also offering our digital logbook product to pilots for less than 5 EUR a month and it is considered expensive, despite the thousands invested in flying each month. It is interesting how people subjectively consider something cheap and something else expensive.
EXE is the basic handling cost pre VAT.
I fully agree on @boscomantico comments. Too many factors affect the final bill.
Flying from UK to southeast Greece and back must be some 2.000 Euro worth for fuel.
Is a 50 Euro difference in handling services THAT important to ask for HELP ?!
@Stodge enjoy your vacations
Well, from looking at the other items on the invoice, this must be their handling fee.
Peter wrote:
The file suffix of an executable file; this started with MS-DOS, so this is about the right level of technology
I was just going to say “except a hung application” but decided there should be something more to it if you have to pay 40 EUR.
