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European Tour Apr / May 2016 - Croatia, Greek Islands and return via Carcassonne

Milos tourism – 24th-27th April 2016

Planning and administration

Telephone

Once in Greece, we set about getting a local SIM card. I believe the EU has capped roaming charges now so perhps there is no great need to do this any more? We popped into Chios town and picked up a EUR15 SIM card. Hundreds of minutes to all Greek numbers, 1Gb of data, and tethering allowed. Wind “F2GR” prepaid. You need a passport and some patience when buying the SIM, but we bought from a local newsagent and the shopowner set it all up on the spot. Handy tip… After the line becomes active (about an hour), you cannot use the account until you make a telephone call! Call a random number or a friend, and after that, you have data and people can call you.

Fuel and entry

As has been discussed previously on the group, AVGAS is in limited supply. Our options for this trip were: Samos, Rhodes, Megara (Athens GA airport), Sitia (Crete), Iraklion (Crete), Kerkira (Corfu). Our big picture plan was to start at the North, stop in to Samos on the way towards the South. Tour the islands and keep enough fuel for an exit via Corfu.

Customs / Immigration is easier now and the AIP (which I keep on my iPad Skydemon) declares “INTL” at those ports where entry can be made (AIP 1.3.1). There are about 27 entry / exit points allowed. Even flights inbound or outbound from Schengen must still use an INTL port, and with a Customs clearance. Regardless of the Schengen principles, those are the rules. Given the 27 declared ports, this did not restrict us in any way – and indeed, when we actually made our entry / exit, we never saw or spoke to Customs.

In conclusion, Customs is not an issue, but fuel needs to be thought about – at least a little.

Airfield opening hours

More interesting, especially before the tourist season kicks off in May. The airport opens its runway to accommodate the once or twice daily domestic flights that come down from Athens. The opening hours are not hard to determine (Airport NOTAMs), but there are some pitfalls at this time of year. Some of the opening hour NOTAMS can be convoluted – not difficult, just long. Around Easter (which falls a week after the Northern European Easter), all the airport times change. The hours are dictated day by day, and they are sometimes quite different form the normal routine. These days are buried in the Notes, sometimes at the bottom of a page long NOTAM and could easily be overlooked. Perhaps best not to make plans in a Taverna.

Some sobering sights

The moment you land in Greece is the day you start making friends with the locals. We were met by a couple of guys form the Chios flying club, and our Handling Agent from Swissport. Before we were allowed to leave the airport, we had everybody’s personal numbers and were told to call if we needed anything. Everyone made sure we had a place to stay and a lift to get there (pre-arranged, details later). However, we soon found out that tourism had been hit hard by fallout from the Syrian refugee issue. During our 3 day stay, we couldn’t help but notice it. Ad hoc refugee camps in town, but more sadly, every morning the roadside bins would have red life-jackets in them, fresh from the night before. Flying around you could see life jackets on beaches, and indeed you would even see clothes left on some of the beaches. This is a flying trip report so suffice it to say, it was sad to see. Both for the refugees, and for the Chios islanders whose life and living has been so badly disrupted by the issue.

Accommodation

Plentiful and very good value. We used AirB&B and found a place right on the beach for EUR40 a night. Kitchen, bathroom, wifi, lounge. Owner picked us up form the airport and we rented a car for EUR20 a day, leaving it at the airport when we departed.

Been getting lots of questions about Puffin. Puffin was happy.

The last night we had to move upstairs. That’s Turkey 3 miles away.

Contrasting the barren (but still beautiful North and West side of the island), much of the land is used to cultivate mastic resin. I used only to know it as the goo to seal bathroom fittings and windows, but it is has many more uses. Stabilisers for food recipes, gum, toothpaste, medicinal, and apparently aphrodisiac.

Impressive working monasteries and an impressive church…


Great food – Kirsty eats salad

And I get the, errr, mastic ouzo…

The mediaeval Byzantine villages – Pyrgi here;


Narrow roads…

Friendly villages. We were driving through the countryside and stopped at an unassuming spot. We apologised profusely for disturbing the family who were just sitting down to lunch after finishing for lunch. We wanted to re-hydrate a little, but the family insisted, absolutely insisted that we sit down, eat and enjoy the same food they were having. It was a superb meal.

There were the normal driving hazards for Chios,

But with the reward of secluded beaches both with sand

But also the black volcanic beach of Mavra Volia, with smooth black pebbles.


Chios windmills

And of course, that impressive church by the sea – from another perspective!

A change of plan…

Originally we had planned to stay for 3 days then move on to either Samos for a few days, or at least a fuel stop. We amended that plan so that we could take Christopher from the aero club for a quick round trip flight. It also allowed an early arrival into Samos before the winds really started to kick off.

pg
PG
EGJB

Really really beautiful photos!

I believe the EU has capped roaming charges now so perhps there is no great need to do this any more?

It depends on how long you are staying and how much data you want to use. I always used to do what you do, and spent hours in Greek phone shops where the paperwork for a SIM card takes about 2hrs (IMHO they want to see the passport etc to make it harder to run a business totally below the tax radar, showing a PAYG mobile # on the side of your van) but since I’ve had the Vodafone Euro Traveller (£3/day to take your UK allowances to Europe) and 1GB/month I have not bothered. Now I am on 3GB/month (pay £12.70+VAT/month in total, Voda contract, unlimited voice and SMS, VOIP open) and don’t even bother to use any local WIFI… so yes times have changed. But if you want to upload 5GB of photos somewhere then you still need to do something…

However, we soon found out that tourism had been hit hard by fallout from the Syrian refugee issue. During our 3 day stay, we couldn’t help but notice it. Ad hoc refugee camps in town, but more sadly, every morning the roadside bins would have red life-jackets in them, fresh from the night before.

I am not sure when exactly you went there but I think only days afterwards the Turkish “€3BN deal” was done and with almost every refugee (most are not from Syria anyway) having a smartphone and getting the news on it, the refugee flow turned off more or less overnight. Lesbos got it the worst originally, but Justine went there right after the deal and found not one refugee hanging around; just some in camps waiting to be shipped back to Turkey. So the loss of tourism is really wasted and Greece is suffering needlessly. People are piling into the “obvious OK” places like Majorca which is now bursting.

For a while Lesbos did OK from the NGO staff spending their copious funding in the bars and restaurants (there were 80 (eighty) NGOs there, getting photos taken of themselves holding a baby in a lifejacket) they have got fed up and have left too.

Greece really needs to do some serious PR in Europe and let it be known that the problem is gone.

Regarding to instrument problem, someone pointed out to me that your SR22 is not a “glass” one. You have the Sandel SN3500 on the LHS. Did that get affected too? Maybe you have some bigger stuff in the middle or on the RHS? Sorry if I missed any panel pics.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

@pg : With every new entry I’m getting more jealous. Reading this from the office is torture

Yes. The single Avidyne screen started losing data.

So you have analogue instruments in the LHS and lost “only” the moving map and the engine instruments? The 430’s continued to work? That’s bad enough, but not as alarming as it originally sounded…

Concerning the “refugee” issue, we shouldn’t get into politics too much. But I consider it very unfortunate that the distinction between “refugees” and “migrants” has been lost early on and now everyone who points to that important difference has to face accusations of being heartless, nationalistic or even fascist – you name it.

Last Edited by blueline at 19 May 11:34
LOAN Wiener Neustadt Ost, Austria

Samos fuel trip, Greece 25th Apr 2016

Key figures
2 trips – each of 70nm and 0:30 duration, average 150 knots, max altitude 3000 ft. Outbound route is the westerly. VFR/VFR

We learnt too late that in order for an aircraft to be safe in Greece, it needs a safety cone. A special safety cone. Sadly we didn’t bring a special safety cone, just tie downs and chocks. Special safety cones may easily be rented. Special safety cones are truly special in Greece – we tried to borrow some when driving around the island, but found that they are all bolted down for some peculiar reason.

We took a quick flight down via Ikaria…

past misty islands,

Past the 4700ft cloud covered mountain at the west end of Samos,

Little villages,

For a left downwind join at Samos

Left base,

Final

And at the apron…

With a Samos special safety cone…

then a breakfast and some sightseeing in the main town of Pythagoreio – yes this was his island!


Then back home to Chios. Paul and Christopher…

Some big terrain in Samos…

Left downwind join in Chios



Left base for runway 19

And final for full stop – full of fuel.

That night we were invited to dinner with the family, and some home cooked food with Christopher’s lovely wife and daughter. I cannot praise Greek hospitality enough. We woke early the next morning with heavy hearts to be leaving this magnificent island with its genuine warmth and hospitality.

pg
PG
EGJB

blueline wrote:

Yes. The single Avidyne screen started losing data.
So you have analogue instruments in the LHS and lost “only” the moving map and the engine instruments? The 430’s continued to work? That’s bad enough, but not as alarming as it originally sounded…

The left panel is a standard instrument 6 pack (with Sandel). Never affected by the weather. The right panel has analogue engine instruments. Never affected by the weather. The single Avidyne MFD displays (amongst other things), engine power and lean assist functions. These functions stopped working. Garmin 430s and Radio nav were unaffected. Had they have been clobbered as well, then the decision making would have been seriously different.

Touring some of the Cycladic Islands comes next…

pg
PG
EGJB

An absolutely brilliant trip report! Thanks for taking the time and trouble to share with us.

UK, United Kingdom

Chios to Paros, Paros to Milos, Greece 27th Apr 2016

Key figures
2 VFR flights.

109 nm, 45 minutes, 3,000 ft, 150 knots average speed
30 nm, 15 minutes, 2,500 ft, 145 knots average speed.

Administration and landing fees

We planned on arriving at anyairport about 1 hour before desired take-off time. Any earlier would not have achieved much as generally the people we needed to speak to were not available then anyway. We expected a lot of faff and paperwork at the terminals, and were not disappointed in that expectation. However, everything was done so politely and with such charm, that we often got a cup of coffee and just enjoyed the mayhem as part of the holiday. Some airports took longer than others, some airports decided we should see a policeman, some had computer failures, some couldn’t find the right form, some asked for more forms to be completed, all wanted to make sure we paid our landing fees.

A word on landing fees

Landing fees are laid down by the Hellenic CAA and are not significant. They are less than EUR2 for an EASA registration aircraft, but significantly more for an N reg. So for example, after 30 hours in Santorini, we were asked to pay to the Airport Manager, EUR7.88 for our landing and parking fees. It takes about 10 minutes to calculate them, and about 10 minutes to find the change for the EUR10 note. There is lots of rushing around and forms flying about. Kirsty was accepted as “crew”, and only once was some sort of licence requested. An AOPA card will suffice in place of a licence. If you have “passengers” then your airport fees will be significantly higher. Once you have paid a landing fee, then all your landings and take offs in Greece are free for the rest of the day.

Aviation costs in Greece

AVGAS – EUR3 per litre
Airport fees – about EUR15 covers landing, take-off and 72 hours of parking with 2 crew members flying GA. All subsequent landings in the day are free.
Handling fees to be paid on top of airpot fees – Goldair EUR25, Swissport EUR25 (but to this must be added weekend and other supplements – plus special safety cone hire). SkyServ EUR40. This handling includes an arrival and departure.

The route

An early morning departure with blue skies, timed to arrive into Paros just inside their first opening period of the day.

We spoke with Mikonos ATC who were more than happy for us to coast in to take some photographs for EuroGA.

Mikonos coastline, with some nice villas…

Mikonos Airport.

Then over to Naxos island.

And a view of the airport in the distance…

Before joining for a long final into Paros. Important not to join for the obvious airport (which is still being built). It has the same runway alignment and is only 2 miles to the west of the active airport.

But this one! It’s short!


A compact terminal building

But where is our special safety cone?

Bicycles were brought to us at the airport – EUR20 per day for two bikes. We then cycled for 10 minutes down to the beach for breakfast.

Coffee and yoghurt.

Puffin horsing around….

Then a cycle ride up the west side of Paros for the ferry to the really laid back and charming island of Antiparos.



Here they dry out the octopus in the traditional way – on a clothes line.

Typical white villages and blue skies…

Then a quick cycle back through Aliki for a waterside lunch – right on the end of this pier! (That’s not us by the way…)

Back to the airport and depart for Milos.


Arriving into Milos

We were taken aback at how awful Milos looks from the air. It is barren and dissected by quarries everywhere. It looked like a building site. However, once on the ground you never see all the big holes in the island and over the next few days, we came to really love this island too.

Arriving into Milos… The runway is just visible to the lower left of the bay


Setting up for long final runway 26, means quite a steep descent across the high ground to the East of the airport. For the last 4-5 miles of the approach, we must have been no more than 500 ft AGL all the way. Often less.

Finals runway 26


Short finals for runway 26 showing the inset threshold. This makes it quite a tight strip.

On rollout, the runway is cleared about 2/3rds of the way up and to the right along a bi-directional taxyway to the ramp area. It can just be seen on the “finals” photo.

Met by our handling agent from Skyserv, we walked out of the terminal 10 minutes after shutting down the engine, to a hire car that had been left there for us. EUR25 per day. Our 72 hours Milos holiday had begun.

pg
PG
EGJB

How / where did you book those hire cars?

Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany

Brilliant, pg, keep them coming

Compliments to the photographer

I’ve been to Paros, in 2005, but only by boat from Santorini… it took about 5 hours each way and we came back 3:30am. This really shows the value of GA in Greece. Milos was done (by air) last year and along with Kithira we thought it was really lovely.

N-reg landing fees are several times higher than EU-reg but still usually below €10. There is normally a passenger charge of another €10 or so which as you say you can avoid by the passenger being called “crew” but I found this doesn’t always work… it depends on how smart the official is.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Great trip report! I’m glad you enjoyed Chios, next time I’ll be glad to show you Lesvos (LGMT), and offer you some special local Ouzo that is not exported Peter knows

As far as Samos is concerned, it’s great they have AVGAS. Be aware of runway 27, if the wind is northerly and more than 15-20 kt it’s better to land on 09, even with a quartering tailwind. The airline pilots do it all the time to avoid the notorious wind shear caused by Pythagoreio village and the cliffs north of the final.

I’d love to visit all these islands one day.

LGMT (Mytilene, Lesvos, Greece), Greece
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