To conclude this trip, I finally landed back in Fairoaks today, two months after the day we had planned to return. After the Belgrade team cleaned my nozzles, I went there to pick up the plane, only to have a similar episode over Austria; I left the plane with the well regarded PA46 team in Straubing, who found some more clogging, as well as an issue with the MAP controller; I went to pick up the plane again, and again had the same problem, overhead Nuremberg, only more severe- which meant I had to do another deviation, this one in severe VMC though so not as stressful.
In the end, the Straubing team took the fuel system apart and found some small amount of sand; fine enough that there was nothing showing in the fuel filter or when draining fuel, but likely to have caused the issue anyway. I picked up the plane this morning and flew the 3h30 flight back without any incident.
I’m glad this is over obviously, and I think I’ll stick to more traditional destinations for a while!
What a great trip report!
Thanks!
Yes; wonderful. From 2014, just before our great May 2014 fly-in to Mali Losinj. I think most of us totally missed the report; easily done with so many posts each day.
I realize that this post was written before I even took my first flight lesson, but do you have any idea where you might have picked the sand?
Our C172 was out in eastern Europe a while ago and when it came back there was more dirt than usual when draining the fuel.
I guess the fuel in some countries can’t be fully trusted?
My guess is it happened in Ankara. Funnily enough before I left for this trip, my father warned me of sand in the fuel, based on his experience with sailing boats – which I dismissed, “aviation’s a serious business, not like sailing”…
Great trip report, so nice to see it back on headlines and glad it all went well 
denopa wrote:
“aviation’s a serious business, not like sailing”
The irony is most cars cars/boats that run on diesel have seen water/dirt fuel separators !
While on diesel aircraft, the PIC is expected to sign his TechLog that JetA is clean
5 years on, and Gozen are still a bunch of chancers! Mediocre service, and made huge efforts to charge us double the original quote on departure. I dug my heels in and refused.
If you’re going to Turkey, try someone else.
