Morocco advice please

Hi Barbeau, if you are able to read in German you may have a look on Facebook. The Fliegermagazin did it last year with several planes.
We have also been down there, but with two planes only, flying nearly the same route as you have planned. All the airports you have mentioned where easy going. We had only some issues at Marrakesh and Rabatt, because they did not know what to do with small planes.
As most of the airports offer Avgas (not Quarzazate) for two planes it was easy, but they did the refuelling with hand driven fuel pumps. So it will take its time, and I would advice refuelling for x planes in advance.
We have crossed the Atlas twice and we haven‘t seen the Atlas because of the dust and very low visibility. So this might be an issue for your group.
We followed the vfr routes, because there is often no radio contact, so it was mandatory and securitywise not too bad regarding SAR in unpopulated areas.
I can recommend to do a camel trip from Quarzazate into the dessert. It was so great. Even our dog enjoyed to ride on the camel. Don‘t miss this.

I’ve been there 6 years ago in a C172, so the information may be outdated. All in all it was easy to do. This is some advice I can come with from memory:

• You need to file your flight plan for the border crossing at least 24h in advance
• Each airport wants a gendec (details of all people on board) on arrival, so we took a bunch on our first stop in Tanger and filled them out beforehand to save some time
• If you want to pay cash in Dirham, you may be asked to show a receipt of the bureau de change or ATM receipt as proof that you didn’t change your money inofficially, so keep the receipts
• Flying wise, all airports (Tanger, Fes, Errachidia, Essaouira and Marrakech) were easy. The route across the Atlas also was no problem in the C172, but we had nice weather. It is mountainous though and weather can be bad, and it’s a bit hard to come by reliable forecasts.
• Between Fes and Ouarzazate, it’s a desert with large rocks. Advice given to us by an experienced Morocco flyer was that if you had to make an emergency landing, aim for the roads.
• Other piece of advice given to us was, don’t land south of Ouarzazate, it’s not very safe.
• Yes, they wanted us to stick to the VFR routes. But only Casablanca and Agadir had a radar at the time. There was a PDF map with the routes somewhere on the Moroccan DGAC website.
• If the royal family happens to travel on that day in the area you want to cross, they may not let you fly at all
• Before each flight, expect to visit the weather office and the bureau de piste for a friendly chat and filling out a flight plan on paper; so bring some time
• Bring life vests at least for the water crossing

On the multiple airplane part, I only have second-hand experience of an occasion where during a French club voyage, on approach to Fes, the planes were quarrelling about who was in front of whom, and when the controller cleared one plane to land the other replied “but you’re behind me”. Finally the controller became fed up and changed the clearance to “whoever arrives first is cleared to land”.

If search here for Morocco, you’ll find all sort of threads with lots of useful information. That said I don’t recall anything about a group flyout.

I have flown in Morocco several times, albeit not recently. It’s really easy, although at least north of the Atlas you have to stick to VFR routes (again, check the other threads, there’s a link to them somewhere). Do NOT overfly any royal palaces (Fes, Marrakesh), that’s a very big no-no. Check for Avgas availability south of the Atlas, especially as you will be 10 a/c that may be tricky. Last time I was there Errashidia did not have Avgas. If you want to fly to the sand dunes south of Errashidia (Erg Shebi), then you have to coordinate that with Errashidia tower the day before. It’s a sensitive border area, and the Errashidia controller needs to get permission from the Army (or whoever, some higher-up) for that. No big deal, but needs to be done the day before the flight.

Enjoy, it’s a great place to fly !

PS: one thing just occurs to me – how are homebuilts like Vans treated in Europe? Genuine question, as I don’t know. If they are treated as certified, then no problem, if not, then I’d suggest to check if they’re allowed into Morocco.

Bienvenue Bernard !
My dad flew in Morocco, 40 years ago, so I leave others give their knowledge.
Happy to see somebody of the VCF here, I have followed your member’s stories on your site for some months I met some of you in Le Touquet on July 14, we were all returning from duxford.

Hello Bernard,

All the above are good advice on flying in Morocco, I flew there mainly gliders (and previously military) but I recently has a quick trip to Fez:
https://www.euroga.org/forums/trips-airports/11007-north-africa-via-spain-portugal-and-gibraltar?page=2#post_222498

10 aircrafts should be no problem, actually load of aircraft fly to Morocco in aeroclub trips and rally expeditions
https://www.dakhlaclub.com/toulouse-saint-louis-senegal-air-rally/

Last year some 18 microlights/ULMs had load of fun and they almost managed to skip “Spanish port of entries”
https://www.enaire.es/en_GB/2018_06_06/blog_raid_chambery_ag_gb

VFR routes and FPLs can be a bit of pain on the ground, we were told to stick to them even in gliders: we just filed what they guys at Ouarzazate want us to fly ! Once in the air, if you can switch from local ATS to other relaxed ATS or Casablanca you may get some flexibility
Also,
- South of Tarfaya, you need a flight permit better left to an agent and do check EU insurance “geo limits” (up to Canary is OK)
- East of Ouarzazate/Fes axis, you may need permission on the day (but we were told myths and scary stories )
- Avoid overflying big cities and double check Notams, old way with pen+paper as they don’t show up correctly on apps
- Marrakesh needs permission (forced by handling), Rabat/Tanger are ok but get sensitive, the rest is “just open”

It may help to coordinate with some local aeroclubs, some would be even keen to join flying on some legs (I can share contacts in Fes, Rabat, Agadir), but honestly, all can be sorted by yourself, the most important: enjoy food & weather and share some pictures

Rwy20 wrote:

Between Fes and Ouarzazate, it’s a desert with large rocks. Advice given to us by an experienced Morocco flyer was that if you had to make an emergency landing, aim for the roads.

There is a list of “crash airfields” along Meknes-Errachdia-Ouarzazates that were maintained/owned by AFs, but yes if you go too much east even the roads and not there

172driver wrote:

PS: one thing just occurs to me – how are homebuilts like Vans treated in Europe? Genuine question, as I don’t know. If they are treated as certified, then no problem, if not, then I’d suggest to check if they’re allowed into Morocco.

Just don’t ask those questions, I asked similar questions to pilots and things went south, when I asked DGAC it was no problem just have insurance & aircraft & pilot papers, they don’t say much on foreign aircraft assuming what you do works elsewhere they are happy
- Can I fly Spanish reg with UK CAA EASA PPL to Morocco? (an ATO south of Spain told me some BS on this)
- Can I fly German motor-glider with UK BGA papers? (tough asked to show Class 2 medical + RT + SEP PPL)
- Can I drive my car + long 20m trailer ?

I’m doing your exact route, starting from Almeria tomorrow. We have about 15 aircraft. I’m in a Robinson R44 this time which will make it more interesting (particularly as I have 2.5 hours’ endurance)

Will let you know any tips when I’m done, or PM me.

You should write the first Helis trip report, we don’t see many doing that long distance touring…

Indeed; a trip report would be great.

Lots of people have done this route over the years, but few have been written up. Morocco is relatively accessible to GA – unlike much of Africa where one gets stuck in paperwork.