Mooney_Driver wrote:
I was once told by one of that species that he would advocate one landing fee only for ALL airplane types, as each is the same work for ATC and their people who do bills and stats. When I asked how much it should be he answered 12’000 Euros.
Did he say how much CAT he expected to retain after that move?
Airborne_Again wrote:
Did he say how much CAT he expected to retain after that move?
That particular guy, thankfully for myself I have not seen him since, sees anything below an A320 as useless and he doesn’t want it. He can halfways live with the typical 50 seat commuters as they fill up his fat boys, yet he was vocal against ANY form of GA including biz jets.
Sure, an extremist and a not very clever one, but the gist of it is, regarding small GA, what most people who run airports think. Small GA for them serves many purposes: They can use it to proclaim that it is its fault that they still have delays, they can promise the anti noise guys to get rid of it (so he is seen to do “something” to help them which actually follows his own aims) and they have a pet anger they can focus their otherwise quite limited brainpower on. Many of them operate on the “And by the way I am of the opinion that Carthago needs to be destroyed” principle, will bring their pet hate into ANY discusssion in Airport Operator Councils e.t.c.
I notice it many times that when I fly into an airport like that and an A320 or so is at the holding point, that those pilots will angrily ask if they have to wait because of my landing and write REPORTS against ATC! This leads to ATCO’s in the tower to actually explain on the frequency before they let a GA plane take off before any larger jet. And ALWAYS the explanation is that the big jet was not yet released by the sector or they had to wait for the slot or whatever. ATCO’s are not stupid, but even ATPL’s are sometimes so much against any GA on their fields, that they fight us. Alone the fact that such explanations go over the frequency by itself reduce the capacity of ATC.
I have been personally (vocally) attacked by a ops guy whom I have known for years for having a small airplane, on a very low personal level in front of a high score meeting. The guy has not talked to me since, yet he relentlessly will rise a scandal each time he receives such a baseless report from one of his pilots with the authorities. And I do understand that they will tire of it eventually and, maybe even subconciously, will start to see GA as a problem themselfs, even though the problem sits with such arrogant people, not with GA.
I fear it is, in the end, a loosing battle. So much the more it is important that smaller airports which can not take the big guys get properly equipped and usable for us. Because it is perfectly clear to me that the larger airports WILL eventually succeed in banning GA. Maybe once they are done they realize their mistake, but I doubt it. The only thing that will happen is that once they have eradicated GA they will have a minor problem explaining why there are still the same delays, the same noise complaints and not ONE problem they have made up has changed. But they will find lies around that, I am sure.
Maybe somebody should start a thread about dumb airport management…
I was hoping to post a few pics from Skiathos LGSK – Corfu LGKR – Bastia LFKB. I am sitting in an overpriced hotel at the end of a €70 taxi ride and with utterly crappy WIFI (about GPRS speed) and hope to get out of this dump early tomorrow morning for the last leg home, so I will keep it brief
Skiathos, with an SR22 from Israel
The spotters waiting at the end of the runway 
Skiathos airport
The WIFI in this sh*thole has just died so the rest will have to wait till I get home
A local we met in tatoi offered it.
Amazing!
However I did notice there is a facebook site called “zakynthos aeroclub” and they must be getting fuel “somehow”. I wonder if it is in barrels or they have a pump? Or maybe it’s mogas?
Anyway, the wifi now works, so more pics
Crossing the mountains in N Greece
Final for Corfu LGKR runway 34
The Greeks did everything really quickly. Fuel and two visits (1 x handling 1 × CAA) but since we paid airport charges at Skiathos there was nothing to pay to the CAA! So I moved the flight plan 50 mins earlier. They were totally amazed this was possible! They still have loads of people doing handwritten flight plans which need to be taken personally up to the tower, just like I was doing in 2004.
A few other planes apart from mine
You pay the fuel man directly – AIR BP or a credit card
Departing
Italy
It was extremely hazy
Montechristo Island – I did an orbit around it but really one needs to be much lower than FL110… The sea was calm so it looked like it was floating in space
Corsica approaching in the haze
There was a layer of low cloud, base about 2000ft, tops 4000ft, and very warm and extremely humid
The ILS is procedural only. They just said “cleared for the ILS” and there was initially no reply to a request for vectors. So I flew the NDB-based version, where you track to the NDB and then outbound, then back in to intercept the LOC
The place was almost dead. With nobody speaking English, I got by with hand gestures and got a guy hanging out in the fuel depot to work the self-service (AIR BP card only) pump, whose menus were in French despite it initially identifying my card as UK based and saying so in English
I also realised why nobody replies to the “mandatory PPR” in their AIP. 3 emails and 1 fax, no reply. They can’t understand your request. That’s fine, because nobody seems to be too worried
A stupid mistake in assessing the location of the only hotel listed on booking.com resulted in a 25 min / €70 taxi ride… I have never before seen such low hotel availability.
The wx looks OK so I am going…
I will file the flight plan once I am at the airport and paid up. Just remembered – the bloody GAR form to do!
Peter thank you for the write up, I know you know it, but that TB20 is an impressive cross country machine.
Vieke wrote:
petakas wrote: @Vieke Zakynthos LGZA, what fuel ?Avgas. A local we met in tatoi offered it. He is the owner of the p28a, homebased in lgza. :-)
Yes that should be Zakynthos aeroclub. They ship them in in sealed barrels but I guess the cost is more than 2.8 Euro/Lt (the current price in Greece by GISCO).
The availability is not published anywhere since this is a private thing based on private contacts etc.
Lucky you @Vieke !
Impressive groundspeed too. Looks like another of those endurance record attempts…
