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Trip report: Portoroz and Lido in a loaded 172

The plan:
For many years now I wanted to take a short family vacation by private plane. Corona didn’t make things easier, as Croatia was a no-go area suddenly, but Slovenia and Italy were ok. The first time I had to cancel the trip due to one of the many coldfronts we had this summer. Then finally at the end of August everything came into place. The Airplane was available and weather was good. The plan was to fly to Portoroz, rent a boat for a day and stay overnight in Piran. The next day continue to Lido lowlevel along the Adriatic coast (my family has good memories from decades of summer vacations there). Spend the day at the Lido beach for some swimming, overnight one more time and then fly home on day 3.

The plane:
My local field has nice “new” plane on offer for charter. It is a 1977 Reims/Cessna 172M, completely refurbished with a new CD155 Jet-A engine, very nice interior and everything Garmin has to offer at the (avionics) front. G500Txi, GTN750, GTN650, Dual G5 backups, ADS-B in/out and a GFC500 Autopilot. It also comes with 4 Bose A20 headsets. Probably one of the better spec’d 172s out there. The sleek interior certainly instills more confidence in our non flying peers than the usual “charm” from the 70’s and 80’s.

I used Foreflight for WX/Notams/W&B/FPL filing and Austrocontrol for the lowlevel SigChart as well as their excellent (ufn german only) text forecasts. Additionally I used Autorouter on Telegram for updated METARS/TAFS.

Since my mother (nervous flyer) and 4 year old child were coming along, I wanted the flight to be as enjoyable and smoothly as possible.

Day 1
LOWG-LJPZ
Airtime: 1h19m
(Driving time door to door would be: 3h14m)

It was late morning and the sun already showed it’s August strength when we arrived at the plane with our bags. Here is where the Cessna shows it’s advantages as a “light” family tourer. It offered me easy double door “standing up” entry to load and secure the child seat in the back row, a duffle bag behind the front seats and the rest of our stuff in the baggage compartment.

While this was going on and during my preflight, the wings offered my passengers shade in the scalding heat on the apron. Still, it was HOT. Keeping doors open and then, as soon as the engine was running, opening the large windows really helped on such a hot day. Very comfortable.

The other plane I considered for this trip was a DA40NG, but in this heat I was happy to not get cooked in a bubble canopy. Also, the DA40 air vents make this weird obnoxious noise in cruise.

The flight was planned VFR around 6500 feet, exiting LOWG ctr to the south and proceeding via Maribor (LJMB) and Celje (LJCL) to join the “famous” slovenian VFR transit route, avoiding LJLJ TMA. Some military airspace was active but Ljubljana Info was accommodating as always and suggested a heading to stay north of it.

Take Off


Here we are on our way. Everyone aboard and ready for some time at the sea. I found the Cessna wing air vents are simple to “set” and effective. Cabin temp was just right, closing the vents more and more as we gained altitude and reached cooler air.

Soon after, cruising on autopilot and avoiding some puffy clouds gently with a few degrees of HDG L/R, my 4 year old (issued some candy for climb and descent) was already sound asleep.

There was quite some traffic on the VFR route that day, and Info issued advisories every other minute, as did the plane, sounding penetrant alarms. This VFR route definitely condenses traffic to a narrow area which is something to watch out for and I’d probably do the flight IFR the next time.

After about an hour we were in contact with Portoroz LJPZ approach and the nice ATC lady requested us to fly along the coast and join the downwind for RWY33. Nice.



After landing, refueling with JET-A was immediate. We were then picked up with the golf cart and driven to the terminal. The typical “Shuttle in 5 minutes” turned out be a a good 30+ minute wait for the shuttle van to the marina of Portoroz, where we had arranged a boat for the day. If we’d been told a realistic waiting time, we would have taken a snack at the restaurant instead of standing around. My mistake.

Finally the shuttle came and as we shared it with others, we were only charged 50%. At the marina we also had to wait for the boat “only 5 minutes”, which again turned into a 30+ min wait. Not fun with a kid, a buch of bags in no shade 30+° C heat. Finally the guy came and we had our boat. The boat was ok, but in pretty run down shape for the price. The folding seat was ripped from it’s hinges, and some sharp screws were protruding out where one would have (bare) feet standing at the steering console. I told the rental guy afterwards, but he just shrugged it off. I see some similarities here between charter airplanes (except this C172 for now) and boats. Even during Corona, business seems to go well enough.

The next couple of hours were spent cruising along the coast, enjoying the scenery, swimming and sipping drinks while anchoring. Afterwards, we collected the boat rental guy again and he dropped us off directly in front of our accommodation in Piran.

The rest of the day was spent swimming in Piran and enjoying a nice dinner on the promenade, watching the sundown. Absolutely breathtaking views.


Day 2
LJPZ-LIPV
Airtime: 1h11m (can be done in 30-40minutes, but we did some slow flying sightseeing)
(Driving time door to door would be 3h32m)

The airport shuttle picked us up on time at 0900 local. A few minutes later I was having a pre-departure coffee at the airport restaurant and my 4yo was watching planes while my mother bought some salty souvenirs from the nice shop LJPZ offers. The airports staff was very kind and gave my kid some souvenirs (magnets, stickers).

The friendly lady from Portoroz drove us to the plane in the golf cart again and took a picture for us.

Departure was on RWY33 with a nice view of Piran and it’s Tartini square, following the coastline to the north, then crossing LIPQ CTR westbound.

View of Piran, our accommodation and the restaurant we visited.

Cruising along the coast towards LIPQ airspace with a happy camper in the back chewing on some inflight catering.


Soon after we were passing the beautiful beach town of Grado, Italy. We’ve spent many vacations here and my mother enjoyed seeing it from above.

We continued further at 1500 feet via Lignano, Bibione, Caorle and Jesolo. Padova Info frequency was heavily congested, with people stepping onto each other. A normal summer flying day I’d say.

Instead of landing at Lido LIPV right away we passed it for a quick sightseeing detour to the town of Chioggia (supposedly a “little Venice”).

Runway in use at LIPV was 05 anyway, so we came back out of the right direction. After avoiding some UL traffic we lined up for final, avoiding the town of Lido and enjoying a great view of Venice below our left wing. Welcome to Venice/Lido.



We taxied directly to the JET A pump and refueled. Then parked on the grass. Lots of planes present, including a DA62 and a PC12 landing right behind us.

Happy to finally have this picture ;)

We took a taxi to a hotel close by and located directly at the beachfront. The sandy and flat beach here is well suited for small kids.

After a nice day at the beach we walked around the town of Lido, had some dinner and went to bed late. I must say that flying with family, taking care of everything, planning flights the evening before, checking weather etc.. is pretty exhausting. I guess doing it more often would help to get more routine and make it less strenuous.

Day 3
LIPV-LJMB
Airtime: 1h23m

LJMB-LOWG
Airtime: 0h39m

(Driving time door to door would be 5h45m)

Wake up, coffee, get taxi to the airport. Carry everything to the plane, load up and go. Handling at LIPV was more or less quick. It does amaze me that it takes 10 minutes for each plane to pay landing/parking fee… if there are 5 pilots waiting that can be an issue. Why not simply make a form on the airport website with credit card info and deduct it once the plane is airborne…

On the way from LIPV to LJMB (I planned the flight back with a stop in LJMB to shorten flight timesa little).

Enjoying the view of the dunes as we climb up to 7500 feet.

Passing Caorle Eastbound.

The flight was again uneventful, thanks to the solid high pressure area that was ending only on this day’s evening.
LJLJ gave us a shortcut through their TMA. After a short physiological break at LJMB we were on our way for the last leg back home, involving again a small sightseeing detour to the northwest and then via our house for a landing at RWY17.

The area of Graz

Back home. Always handy to have Grandma read to you while Daddy takes so long to unload the plane and clean the bugs of the leading edge.

All in all everything went very well. It was a great experience and I’ll have fond memories of the trip, but I would probably not fit so much “program” into 3 days again, as it was a bit exhausting too. Something I’d probably do differently next time is, upon arriving at the airports for departure, immediately “park” the pax at the coffeeshop, then load everything and do the preflight alone, and then pick them up when ready to go.

In case someone is interested, here are the costs of this trip.

If you’re interested in 360° videos, please send me private message and I’ll give you the links.

I hope you enjoyed this trip report.

Last Edited by Snoopy at 19 Sep 20:41
always learning
LO__, Austria

Nice writeup.

Definitely… always „park“ family/non pilot friends in the cafe, or even better, call them to the airport 45 minutes after you arrive. Even if it means taking two cars. Makes it so
much more pleasant for them. Nothing more annoying than watching a pilot refuelling or doing preflight. Must always minimize their waiting times for pax.

And yes, on trips, always plan one stop less than YOU would like do do.

Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany

Super write up Patrick, super trip, quite envious. Thanks for sharing. It has been a poor year for many of us so it’s good to see someone getting something good done.
That 172 is utterly amazing.

United Kingdom

Thanks bosco, that “one stop less” is a great tip. I’ll remember that.
Thanks Pete. That stuff would look good in a C210 as well.

always learning
LO__, Austria

Excellent trip and report, Patrick

Yesterday Slovenia joined the “UK quarantine embargo” so that’s a no-go for many now… I was going to pop down to Piran. We had a great fly-in there in 2015, after Venice (Lido) got cancelled, due to, guess what, rain

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Thanks. Nice writeup, useful details. Plane looks super nice too.

Last Edited by loco at 20 Sep 06:31
LPFR, Poland

Very nice Patrick, thanks for sharing. Smooth little diesel, isn’t it?
I am assuming your family enjoyed the flying part as well and that you can seduce them into repeating.. Not all here are that lucky

Last Edited by aart at 20 Sep 08:42
Private field, Mallorca, Spain

Yes, it’s smooth, simple to operate and performance is good (800fpm at mtow). Fuel flow is about 8gph at 90% load. The 172 diesel is a bit slower (around 120 tas) than the DA40NG, but overall it is a good „summer“ option due to high wing shade, easy entry and windows. I plan my descents at 1.5° and 200fpm to stretch a high speed over a long distance (unless the tailwind is high).

I made some small edits to the report visible here

Last Edited by Snoopy at 20 Sep 11:50
always learning
LO__, Austria

Super aircraft for the family trip, now I am jalouse with all these Lido trip reports !

Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom

Thanks for this nice trip report and the pictures and surround videos.

Gorgeous aircraft indeed.

I am glad that you as a professional pilot do appreciate the increased “stress” involved in flying with family members. Guess that a lot of pilots underestimate the added workload which might ultimately lead to dangerous situations.
Reminds me of my first longer trips with the family. In hindsight taking this additional factor into account when planning would have saved me a lot of sweat.

Happy flying

EDAQ, Germany
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