This years spring gave us some really nice flights. First three weeks from eastern to May. There we startet from EDDS (Stuttgart) to Carcassone. It was a nice VFR flight on the direct routing.
At LFMK we only took a lunch and refueled the planes, before we departed to Granada. Normally we would have visited Carcassone, but we have been there befor and so we were more interested to reach Granada as early as possible. We continued VFR passing the Pyrenäen and again took the direct routing to LEGR.
Two days later we continued to Fes at Morocco. We feared much of bureaucracy, but there it was okay. Several sheets of paper, but easy going, refuelling with Avgas without delay. Nice and the two days in the souks of Fes were great.
Then we passed the Atlas. Again VFR, but with poor visibility. It was very windy at this time and we had much of sand up to FL 110. But we had the intention to visit the dessert, so sand is a must. :-) We reached Ouarzazate, made some nice excursions i.e. to the places where “The gladiator” was filmed and prepared for the Sahara trip.
This was done after the next flight. We flew to Zagora and there we took a 4-wheel-car to drive into the Sahra. After changing from the car to the dromedars we reached our biwak for the night.
Being back we decided to go to the atlantic coast at Essaouira. The fish was perfekt and we were pleased by the taste of the sea after the sand.
Then we had two other stops, we didn’t like to much. Marakesh because here the airport guys had no idea what to do with private pilots without handling agents at all. It took us hours. And as much more people there started to hate black dogs (like our labrador) also the town avoided to give us a warm welcome.
The last stop at Morocco was Rabat. And it means this is not realy the orient any more. It looks like many big cities in Europe beside the fact, that the sea at the beaches is completely poluted. But we had one of our best diners there. At the airport it was nearly like in Marakesh. No one needs a GenDec but like there colleagues of Marakesh they insisted a long time to get one.
As the weather was bad over Spain (you may have read here about the accident of german aircraft near Malaga on this day) but the tail wind was great, we decided to go without stop IR to Pau in France. Great flight, some ice and after landing trapped by the french immigration. 2 hours in a closed and overheated room to check our papers. BTW: We had adviced our arrival by phone in french, in english by mail and landed 2 before ETA. And really to closed the room with thir keys and let us wait there, unbelievable! Finally we were freed without any further control after we complained about the threatment of europeans in this way. Then they started to very friendly and offered their help to get a taxi to the twon. Not to easy because of – our dog. Then we discovered Pau. A realy nice town with good view to the mountains.
Finally we ended our trip with one week to relax at LFRQ, Quimper, our second home befor we flew back to EDDS.
Two weeks later we departed again for for days to England. Great weather there and the hope spontaneously to meet some of the british guys on this forum we took of to Lee-on-the-Solent. Nice airfild and the direct access to the beach made it perfect for a lunch stop.
Then we took of to the Scilly Islands. Fantastic. I like the runways there and also the islands. Great place to visit. And easy to get a place to stay for a night without dog. This time I was flying with a friend, so the dog could stay with my wife at home.
As from the west bad weather was approaching, we decided to go to Norwich. The Airfield is great, the handling worth it fees. So again a good place to stay. It was a little pitty, that Duxford airfield was closed for us, becquse they were training for the Flying Legenda Airshow. We would have liked to visit the museum there.
After Norwich – again avoiding the weather, we hopped over to Ostende, EBOS, to visit “Oostende voor Anker” and then contiued to Nancy at France. Both was worth the stop, Oostende due of the sailboats Nancy because of the beautiful vivid town and the not minor beautiful lady driving our taxi who was at Morocco at the same time we have been there. Good link to the first trip, isn’t it? ;-)
tri
After that back to Stuttgart.
And then the last trip of the last long weekend. Because we have been in the west instead in the east, as my friend and I had planed the week before, now my wife and me decided to go to the east, croatia, Brač, LDSB, because the weather was good there. We took of IR to cross the alps and then we got in climp to FL150 a partial engine failure over the mountains just short before leaving IMC. When in steeper climp the engine stopped. When leveling of restart and evrything was okay. I did it twice the check for the possible reason, but I still have no clue nor has our maintenance shop. I will do some checks next time when I have the possibility to climb high in good weather with reachable airports nearby. Does anybody has an idea about it? Finally we reached Brač, the airport with the best handling I have ever seen. It was a pleasure to arrive there and also Bol was a great little place to relax. Thank you @Peter for your advice where to eat.
Then to avoid another IR flight over the alps we took of to Bratislav. A nice airport, good handling service, a sympathetic town to spend a day or two and a horibble slowakian AIS. They didn’t accept the VFR flight plan, filed via Garmin Pilot. We had to stop the engine again, adviced by the tower, to contact them. Thn the lady said the flightplan was completely wrong, she would write down the new one. I gave here exactly the one I had filed before, she complained about the long VFR reporting points and mentioned then now it would last half an hour for here to type it in. Next time we will file IR qnd cancel immediately after departure to avoid that hassle.
Back to EDDS we had now made arround 40 hours in a few weeks just for vacations. Great.
Wonderful flights! You really managed a lot of lovely trips!
It’s also nice to see an experienced IFR pilot doing a long VFR trip when that suits their purpose 
Thanks for a great report, eddsPeter 
I have an update on Brac:
Every 3rd landing in the same year for private flight of GA AC until 5.7 t MTOW is free of handling, landing and passenger service fees.
The above is not applicable for AOPA members (they must have valid membership card with them – we make a copy of as the explanation for the given discount) who always have a discount of 50% on handling, landing and parking fees. And from this year, a group of 5 and more aircraft obtains the same discount as AOPA no matter if they are member of it or not.
Great trips!
Great report, thanks for posting. Its really nice to see people using and going places in their aircraft. Of course, much easier when your ‘significant other’ enjoys the adventure as well. We are off on the 16th June to the Croatian Islands and Sardinia for a couple of weeks. My other half Jackie carn’t wait.
Lovely report, thanks a lot!
Great trip and pics, congrats!
I have done a similar flight (through Morocco) some years ago, and it was so great that I plan to do it again with the family. Our route was Fez, Er Rachidia, Quarzazzate, Marrakech.
Interesting that you didn’t enjoy Marrakech, to me that was one of the highlights. A crazy place, for sure, but very colorful and interesting. The funny part was when a motorcycle appeared next to me while I was still on the runway, with window open, and the driver yelling “50 dollars handling”… :-) We ignored himm and when we reached the apron he disappeared.
My favourite was the Sahara. We made an excursion at night from Er Rachidia.
Navigation (GPS) and ATC (mostly position reports due to lack of radar) was very simple, and there was very little traffic.
So…my “investigation”:
1.) FPL was recieved by fax – reason: FPLs from AFTN addresses KBLIHAEX (EuroFPL.com) were not distributed even in the past in accordance with DOC4444 and national AIP. Garmin/EuroFPL/SkyDemon/AutoRouter are using this AFTN address the same for all four applications – KBLIHAEX. That means all FPLs from these app will be delivered as fax msg. (for example – in Netherland you are also not allowed to file a FPL via AFTN – they have the same reason). So if you file a FPL via these apps you have to call and check your FPL.
AIP SR, ENR 1.10.1.4.4 Submission by FAX
Flight plan submitted by FAX to CARO (FAX number: +421/2/48 57 22 85 or +421/2/43 42 33 90) must be confirmed by telephone by submitter (TEL number: +421/2/48 57 22 80 or +421/2/43 42 21 02) immediately after submission. Flight plan not confirmed by telephone will not be processed for distribution by CARO personnel.
2.) FPL was recieved by fax aprx. at 07:30 UTC with EOBT 07:40 UTC – 10 min.
AIP SR, ENR 1.10.1.2 Time of submission
1.10.1.2.1 Flight plan shall be submitted at least 60 minutes before departure (3 hours before departure if IFR flight is subject of ATFM measures) or if submitted during the flight, it shall be submitted at the time which will ensure its receipt by the appropriate ATS unit at least 10 minutes before the aircraft is estimated to reach the intended point of entry into controlled airspace.
AIP SR, ENR 1.10.1.3 Place of submission
1.10.1.3.1 A flight plan shall be submitted before departure to a Central Air Traffic Services Reporting Office Bratislava (CARO) or direct to the IFPS (IFR-GAT flights) or during the flight (AFIL) via RTF to appropriate ATS unit.
If the FPL is recieved by fax it needs to be put in the ATC systems manualy and also AFTN addresses for all ATC units along the route needs to be added. And that takes some time. If you are filing FPL from the ACFT and after you click „send“ in your app it does not mean that you have the FPL in the ATC systems.
3.) your first filed route: LZIB KOXER 4810N01659E 4807N01651E 4808N01642E 4808N01638E 4812N01627E 4814N01624E 4819N01620E 4823N01618E 4824N01615E 4824N01610E 4825N01608E 4825N01601E 4827N01543E NENUM WLD 4837N00914E EDDS
AIP SR, AD LZIB 2.22.6.5 All VFR flights to/from the Štefánik CTR shall be carried out only via established entry and exit points unless appropriate ATS unit states otherwise.
– first 13 coordinates are only around LOWW (it is not wrong, but for 62NM long segment 13 coordinates is little bit confusing)
– instead of using your 4825N01601E you should use STO
– instead of using your 4810N01659E you should use VFR exit point DEVÍN
– coordinates are allowed in the FPLs, but I think using them in area, where VFR points and also ICAO points are established is more complicated for ATC units to recognise exact location quickly
4.) you did not write any EET to boundary
1.10.1.1.10 In the flight plan filed for flights to/from abroad intended to be conducted out of controlled airspace, the pilot shall indicate in item 18 FPL an entry/exit significant point of crossing the FIR boundary with estimated elapsed flying time to the boundary from the place of departure. When entering the airspace of the Slovak Republic, the pilot shall adhere to the estimated time of crossing of the FIR boundary according to the flight plan, with an
accuracy of +/- 10 minutes. If there are no designated significant points on FIR boundary VFR flights shall indicate entry/exit point by geographical place or the direction and distance from geographical place depicted on the Aeronautical Chart – ICAO 1 : 500 000.
In your case, EET/LOVVhhmm EDMMhhmm EDGGhhmm
5.) According to my investigation probably you click on your map on the village (in Garmin app) but the app did not file the route with geographical names of villages but sent all those coordinates. And maybe/probably you saw names in your operational flight plan, and you did not know that FPL was sent with coordinates. That is the reason you dictate via telephone (from your point of view) the same names of villages you had but ARO LZIB had only coordinates.
Final route:
N0172A045 KITTSEE PETRONELL ORTH SCHONAU FREUDENAU DONAUTURM
KLOSTERNEUBURG KREUZENSTEIN STO EDMF
You: FPL:
PETRONELL 4807N01651E
ORTH 4808N01642E
SCHONAU 4808N01638E
- – - 4812N01627E
DONAUTURM 4814N01624E
KLOSTERNEUBURG 4819N01620E
KREUZENSTEIN 4823N01618E
STOCKERAU 4824N01615E
- – - 4824N01610E
SEITZERSDORF 4825N01608E
STETTELDORF 4825N01601E
HADERSDORF 4827N01543E
RESUME: I personally think that not all the guilt is on the side of ARO LZIB (or any other ARO) and it’s not that terrible at all as you wrote. Those web applications are only computers and there is no human interaction. Most of the AROs around the Europe have problems with FPLs filed via these web services. Some of the AROs do not accept FPLs from EuroFPL/SkyDemon/AutoRouter/Garmin/RocketRoute because the applications/web services distributes the FPLs not in accordance with DOC4444, national AIPs, when there is a need to get SPL (supplementary info) there is no response to AFTN messages (or late) etc.
It is legal to use coordinates, but please if possible use full names e.g. Stockerau instead. This will make life much easier for ARO/ATS and yourself if you need to track down a point in your FPL. Maybe it is also neccesary to „upgrade“ those application. Regarding ARO LZIB, there is absolutely no problem to call and ask for a help.
And for your info. FPL from Croatia to LZIB was also incorretly distributed by your apllication! (The application distributed the FPL instead of Croatian ARO).
Maybe now it is the perfect time to open the discussion about VFR planning in Europe. I have no problem to share my email address if there is any problem in LZBB FIR.
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