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Jetprop to Europe. Summer 2019

I think I want a jetprop

I’d be very happy if I could ever get my hands on a piston 46, despite some of the ‘Bar talk’

Enjoying reading your stories eal.
Looking forward to visiting Venice this summer.
It’ll be a ‘big deal’ for us to venture so far.
I might even try a whoohoo on landing too. ;-)

United Kingdom

We have arrived in Antwerp having left Venice this morning.
Venice was beautiful especually in the evenings when the day visitors had left, considerably quietng the small streets and charming alleyways.

We were given a rare treat as we approached Brussels. There was a conversation between a biz jet and the approach controller about the Tomorrowland Festival we are attending. So I butt in and mentioned l was heading there as well.
After a pregnant pause and a couple of radio clicks, the controller asked me if I would like to fly over the festival ground and take some pictures. :)

That was a definite yeahhhhaaaaa moment right there!! It was magical.

E

Last Edited by eal at 18 Jul 18:13
eal
Lovin' it
VTCY VTCC VTBD

@denopa. The Lido runway is in overall good condition. Grass is short, but there is a pronounced ridge running right across it about mid point.
If you are carrying any speed when you encounter it, it may cause quite a bounce…

Other than that enjoyed operating out of there immensely, Total bill (no fuel) for 3 days was EUR 105.
Bargain really.

E

eal
Lovin' it
VTCY VTCC VTBD

Thanks Eal, appreciate the pirep!

EGTF, LFTF

Adding my yeahhhhaaaaa moment to Eal’s – although my landing isn’t as good as his!

I’ve left a bit more of the video because it contains not one, but two examples of how well-meaning avionics can create distractions at the wrong moment.



EGTF, LFTF

What was that AP bitching about? Could not understand the wording.

EGPWS can cause serious disruptions. I remember that when the new Athens airport was opened, some Airliners had to disable it because it went bananas when they tried to land at the new airport and the crew would have to abort the approaches due to the alerts.

LSZH(work) LSZF (GA base), Switzerland

The AP said “airspeed” because I had slowed down to 95kias. When Stec did the STC for the PA46, they did it in the Meridian (turbine version) and set the enveloppe protection to alert (if AP or FD are on) and lower the nose (if the AP is engaged) at 95kias. For the piston version this should be 85kias or even lower (final approach speed 78kias).

EGTF, LFTF

Nice video, thanks for posting and sharing that yeeehaaa moment. :)

I have a similar spurious terrain warning at both the local airports l operate from in Thailand which l try to remember to disable when carrying non pilot passengers as it can very unsettling for the non initiated.
Interestingly my EGPWS installation required a different obstacle data card for Europe so at the moment it is disabled by default.

Looks like nice weather there again at Lido.

E

eal
Lovin' it
VTCY VTCC VTBD

Yes stunning weather… It was getting hot today when we left, glad we didn’t take too much fuel

Circa 85euros for 3 days parking.

EGTF, LFTF

My European adventure has sadly come to an end and I return with the Jetprop to Thailand this week.

I had a great time flying the aircraft around European skies with a 100% dispatch rate, although I did have an “incident” during the flight between Venice and Bern in July.

My inlet nacelle deice boot failed causing a hotspot to melt part of the inlet nacelle lip. I was in prolonged IMC for about 45 minutes at the time with all deice protections switched on. Luckily I identified the problem via the electric deice ammeter and isolated it before it caused more damage.

Duck tape – a pilots best friend – saved the day for the rest of the trip.

Coincidentally the aircraft was pre-booked in for some unrelated work on the lower engine cowl during August so apart from difficulty in finding the correct flame retardant resin to effect the repair, I was not delayed much. Rocket Engineering who manufacture the lower cowling as part of the Jetprop STC were extremely supportive liaising with the UK maintenance shop.

As far as the flying goes there were some significant differences from when I was last here in 2015.

Firstly during this trip I found the European IFR routes Autorouter produced were sensible and more or less what I flew. Previously they were more an exercise in forcing something through that validated and then getting the actual clearance flown in the air. Is this due to Autorouter (great product by the way) evolving smarter or Eurocontrol/CMFU becoming more real world?

I joined AOPA Greece prior to the trip, which easily paid for itself both in terms of their excellent website information as well as the member discounts at various Greek and non-Greek airports. Shame AOPA Greece cannot influence the cost of Jet Fuel in Greece which is eye watering compared to many other European destinations.

Despite reading the long thread on UK ATC infringement enforcement; having been at the receiving end of it early on during my visit to UK it has left a really unpleasant taste in my mouth. Contrast this with my experience in Europe where I found ATC very accommodating and helpful to a foreign aircraft obviously not 100% aware of every little airspace intricacies. :(

I also found handling and GA access very reasonable at the European airports I visited, which made the whole flying experience very enjoyable and one I hope to repeat in the not too distant future.

Upper wind forecasts were actually worse than in 2015 for some inexplicable reason, especially in Southern Europe. I use Gramet, Garmin Pilot, Windy, which is what I used back in 2015 and during this past three months the wind strengths in particular were significantly inaccurate being under reported mainly.

I was a beneficiary of this yesterday, flying Bournemouth to Dubrovnik there the 55 knot tailwind ended being around 70 knots and resulted in a very nice 300 Kt GS. ;)

I am currently in Jordan today, hoping to make it back to Thailand by the middle of next week – Indian Monsoon permitting.

Thank you to all on here who gave me tips on this thread, much appreciated.
E

Last Edited by eal at 13 Sep 10:37
eal
Lovin' it
VTCY VTCC VTBD
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