Judging by the painful groundspeed, this looks like another one of those 7-hour flights.
Lot of headwind and it will be there all day. Waiting for you at LDZA around 1200Z.
Now estimating 13:18 for LDZA! Looks like it might become tight with the fuel…remember take-off from Lesbos was with less than full tanks…
At least the weather at LGMT was excellent
A stop in Belgrade would have made a lot of sense, cheapest fuel in Europe and quick turnaround.
7h+ staring at the cockpit of a 1980s Renault is not exactly something I would want to do on a Sunday… I’d rather add a bit extra fuel and do that non-stop Oshkosh trip.
That was exactly my thinking. Belgrade was more or less on track.
Landed at Zagreb. The Eurocontrol /EuroFPL tracking link broke! That happens quite often and it just scares people watching it
The headwind was 40-45kt against a forecast of some 25kt (from GFS sources).
Airborne time about 6hrs. Landed with 14.4 USG which is OK given economy cruise burn of 8.5 USG/hr (140kt TAS, FL120).
Wow…..Would the flight have been possible at a lower (perhaps VFR) altitude….could climbing high into a presumably increasing headwind have been avoided?
Hi Anthony, see this discussion on winds at altitude: https://www.euroga.org/forums/flying/2282-dealing-with-winds-aloft
This is as far as the tracking link got
but it’s wrong on at least two counts:
so pretty obviously EuroFPL just draw a straight line from the last Eurocontrol-supplied track point to the destination airport, when they get some info suggesting the flight is completed.
Would the flight have been possible at a lower (perhaps VFR) altitude….could climbing high into a presumably increasing headwind have been avoided?
Not with the terrain under the cloud.
Also I collected ice (several mm within a few seconds) when climbing to clear some upcoming IMC, so maintaining VMC was pretty essential (as always if the temperature range is “wrong”).
When I get home, hopefully tomorrow, I will post some pics and a video.
For some reason, the winds aloft forecasts are often bogus, so one relies on a fuel totaliser for making diversion decisions while enroute. I flew much of the way at FL120, best economy cruise at 2200rpm and slightly LOP, and made some use of the long mountain ridge off the coast of Croatia to get an updraught which gave me another 5-10kt of TAS. Belgrade was an option but by the time I was near there, the LFOB figure was good enough.
I don’t have a Renault panel, BTW.