Menu Sign In Contact FAQ
Banner
Welcome to our forums

Trip across Europe... UK to St. Petersburg

Hello! I need suggestions… Help me plan a dream trip.

I’m planning a trip in the summer of 2022… Likely aircraft is an N-reg Cirrus SR22T. One way trip… entering Europe at Wick, Scotland… exit point St. Petersburg, Russia.

I want to spend a week or two seeing (the best of) Europe and friendly GA airports. I am American, I have a tiny bit of European flying experience. I have previously flown in the UK, France, Germany, and Belgium.

I am looking for ideas of friendly and beautiful places to visit. I am open to anything, and any reasonable route that gets me from Wick to St. Petersburg in 7-14 days.

I have a few thoughts, but I’d like to hear from folks more familiar with the local areas… I like historical places, unique cities, scenic places, etc… Some of my thoughts were, Stonehenge, Paris, Innsbruck, Lithuania… I don’t have airports chosen for any of these destinations, nor do I know which airports are GA friendly… thus I would appreciate your knowledge. I’m open to ANY suggestions, including skipping any of the thoughts above.

Comfortable range is about 600nm at a time.

Last Edited by Thunderbird at 26 Jan 04:16
United States

Paris is IMHO one of the “big cities” that is “less convenient” by GA, like London or Berlin. If you want an IFR airport, the only airport friendly to “light GA” is LFPN, but it is in the middle of nowhere with bad public transport connections and a long ride to Paris. If the winds are in the right direction, the approach is over Paris, though, for a unique view. LFPB is not quite impossible but expensive (several hundreds of EUR). VFR options are much better and numerous; LFPZ is right next to the (back of the / park of the) Versailles castle. For VFR, I use LFPL for Paris, but that’s mainly because I come from the east.

If you like biking in nature EHTX is a classic. Grass runway, but among the better kept. I also enjoyed EDWY quite a lot; I hopped to EDWJ for the night (but take care: there are no land vehicles with an engine on the EDWJ island; unless you time your arrival and departure to be at the same time as a CAT flight, you’ll have to bike to/from your hotel).

EDCJ is another one of these “North Germany” beach resorts.

LIPV for Venezia (Venice). The airport itself is nearly a historic place.

I’m partial to the Bodensee (lake Constance) area. I usually go to EDNY, but there are several aerodromes around the lake.

If your journey takes you through the vicinity, LFNA is a good stop. Nice mountain surroundings, restaurant, hotel and fuel.

Czech Republic also has a special place in my heart, mainly because of historic ties with my home country, Luxembourg (in the middle ages, “our” dynasty became their king). LKTB is GA friendly, but I can’t say the city is a major tourist attraction. Praha (Prague) is obviously the main attraction. For IFR, if you avoid departure or arrival in the week-end, use LKVO; running the airport is a side business for them (they are a plane factory), so do observe the PPR strictly! Else, you might arrive in the middle of a low level acrobatics sales demonstration for some foreign air force. In week-ends, the “main” airport LKPR (last time I checked) was still less expensive than the week-end surcharges of LKVO. For grass VFR (and good connections to public transport), use LKLT. Just don’t confuse it with the neighbouring military hard runway LKKB :)

For some niche interests:

  • Speyer, Worms, and Mainz each have an aerodrome and a medieval Jewish history.
  • Visit the castles of the Fairy Tale King. To go there, EDMK has car rentals; LOIR is a bit closer but more challenging (mountain environment). Do buy tickets for the castles in advance, they sell out pretty quick.
  • EDCP German WW2 V1/V2 rockets development/production site and museum; can be combined with stay at the sea-side resort at EDAH.
  • The city of Beaufort LFGG has a big lion statue
  • A luxuriously decorated lighthouse (marble, wooden covers on the walls, …) in Britanny: the Eckmühl lighthouse in Penmarc’h; no aerodrome really close; LFRQ is 28km away and has car rentals.

Croatia in general is known to be GA-friendly.

Cheap fuel in Serbia (not in the EU, so no EU excise duty on the fuel).

To rent cars at many smaller German aerodromes, open an account with app2drive. In France, Europcar often has a counter at regional airports.

See this thread for scenic ideas.

High budget, you can spend a night at a castle-hotel in Hungary with its own aerodrome or LHJK for a far cheaper hotel with own aerodrome in Hungary.

ELLX

Welcome Thunderbird !
IF you ask for a bucket list, you will probably get too much ideas.

I would say :
- Scotland (driving from Wick)
- Northern Netherlands (like EHTX)
- Paris (LFPT or LFPN). I can maybe pick you up if you tell me beforehand.
- Corsica (LFKC)
- Innsbruck (LOWI, from there you can drive to some Bavarian castles)
- Venice (LIPV), a must

All these destinations are GA friendly and have 100LL.
You can add plenty others but this list is probalby the max you can do if you want to take your time and enjoy each destination.

LFOU, France

Thunderbird wrote:

St. Petersburg, Russia

I believe it’s a major hassle for GA. If you want to visit it, I guess the best way is to end your flying in Finland and then continue by other means of transport.

LDZA LDVA, Croatia

@Thunderbird, please remember about:
a) Customs and Immigration (UK/EEA/EU/Switzerland/Russia), so you can’t fly direct from the UK to, say, LFPN or LFPT Paris airport as they are both not the ports of entry and
b) fuel – no AVGAS in big airports! For example, ULLI won’t have any, so if that is your destination, then Estonia instead of Lithuania might be better as it’s closer to Russia (and, have to say, old Tallinn looks amazing, you can ask @ivark, he will confirm).

EGTR

Thunderbird wrote:

St. Petersburg, Russia

St. Petersburg is where I was born and started to fly, and my honest advice is DON’T. It’s just not worth the hassle.

LKBU (near Prague), Czech Republic

Ultranomad wrote:

St. Petersburg is where I was born and started to fly, and my honest advice is DON’T. It’s just not worth the hassle

Going ferry Stockholm-Helsinki then 4h train Helsinki-StPetersburg was very practical

For GA flying, the quote I heard was 1200£ for the privilège, at that price I better make it to Yekaterinburg or Novosibirsk

lionel wrote:

Paris is IMHO one of the “big cities” that is “less convenient” by GA, like London or Berlin. If you want an IFR airport, the only airport friendly to “light GA” is LFPN, but it is in the middle of nowhere with bad public transport connections and a long ride to Paris. If the winds are in the right direction, the approach is over Paris, though, for a unique view. LFPB is not quite impossible but expensive (several hundreds of EUR). VFR options are much better and numerous; LFPZ is right next to the (back of the / park of the) Versailles castle. For VFR, I use LFPL for Paris, but that’s mainly because I come from the east.

Second that, LFPZ and LFPL are easy by public transport and convinient depending on your QDM
LFPN is convinient for IFR then taxi/uber

Last Edited by Ibra at 26 Jan 11:21
Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom

Ibra wrote:

Going ferry Stockholm-Helsinki then 4h train Helsinki-StPetersburg was very practical

For GA flying, the quote I heard was 1200£ for the privilège, at that price I better make it to Yekaterinburg or Novosibirsk

Or get to Utti (EFUT) and then ~2hrs train to St.Petersburg. :)
Lappeenranta is even closer, but you have to take taxi to get to the nearest Allegro train station, so in the end will take the same amount of time…
The quote I can find on ULLI Pulkovo website was around 500EUR, including handling.

EGTR

arj1 wrote:

Or get to Utti (EFUT) and then ~2hrs train to St.Petersburg. :)
Lappeenranta is even closer, but you have to take taxi to get to the nearest Allegro train station, so in the end will take the same amount of time…
The quote I can find on ULLI Pulkovo website was around 500EUR, including handling.

Thanks for the useful hint, it’s work in progress fly to Baltics & train

If they have a discount for 2 aircrafts to get the quote bellow 300E, counts me in !

Last Edited by Ibra at 26 Jan 11:33
Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom

Ibra wrote:

Thanks for the useful hint, it’s work in progress fly to Baltics & train

If they have a discount for 2 aircrafts to get the quote bellow 300E, counts me in !

Ibra, challenge with Allegro train (not running now due to Covid) is that the roundtrip cost per person in 1st class is going to be around 100EUR.
Which means that if you have 3-4 people in the cockpit, it might make sense to fly direct. Unless they’ve changed all the prices! :)

EGTR
16 Posts
Sign in to add your message

Back to Top