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

Absolutely brilliant! Thanks so much for taking what much have been an incredible amount of time to write this up. I really enjoyed reading it.

I particularly enjoyed your mixing of IFR & VFR. Most seem to fly VFR or IFR. Those who fly IFR seem only to swap to VFR for a local flight or when they can’t depart or arrive IFR. I love your interchanging when it suits you :) Really refreshing to read, and very enjoyable!

Thanks for taking the time!

Thanks from me as well. Enjoyed it a lot :-)

Great trip!

Peter wrote:

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.

Yes and they can start by opening the airports to normal hours and having AVGAS. Look at the Bahamas without GA and drugs they would be dead in the water so to speak.

That’s true, and “everybody” wishes Greece opened up more for GA (especially with the blindingly obvious advantage it gives for inter-island tourist travel) but I wonder how many more GA people would actually fly to the islands which have the 2hr openings?

Currently, Greece is pretty easy to plan if you actually read the notams (opening times are all notamed). The 2hr slot precludes a day trip; you must stay overnight.

In some cases one cannot fly from one island to another (especially on a given day) because the slots aren’t in the right place on the day. But if you look at my last two trip reports there (Sep 2014 and Sep 2015) you see I didn’t have an issue. It is indeed ridiculous to be comparing the timetables of two island airports to work out on which day you can fly from one to the other, but it can be done.

Avgas is a big issue but that merely precludes doing the whole Aegean in say a C152 or a PA28-140. In a plane with a reasonable range it is easy enough. You have Crete, Samos and Rhodes, and then Corfu on the way in and out of Greece. And a TB20 can do anywhere in Greece from and back to Corfu without a refuel.

One just needs the will to do it

One day we should do a EuroGA fly-in to Greece! The turnout won’t be big but it’s going to be pretty amazing.

PG great trip report. Wonderful to read and learn from specifics of detail as in costs from airport info to ground transportation to Hotel/B&B?Vila accommodations. In addition how you handled the communication problem over which Im challenged.

Thanks for sharing.

Again, one of the nicest trip reports posted here, ever. And this was his first one!!

By the way, I followed Paul’s footsteps and am now in Paros! Wonderful!

@pg what an AMAZING trip report.

The fact I really liked is that you documented all the practical bits and it proved that what most consider a monster is just a matter of having a practical mindset and few gadgets to easily communicate/plan.

Out of curiosity, before the trip had you consulted the AOPA.gr flying information page for Greece ? ( http://aopa.gr/Info http://www.aopa.gr/en/flying-in-greece )

Your attitude was to enjoy the trip without getting consumed in details.
I really hate it when (the opposite) pilots spend some 2~3,000 Euro worth of fuel to fly down to the other side of Europe but still moan about the airport charges being 30 or 50 or 80 Euro.
The basic principle is to enjoy the trip and disregard the admin. processes. They look at the tree and not the forest.

I certainly agree in the fact that the money spent to the handlers is money well spent. They do the rest of the work for you, at a nominal cost, while you enjoy your stay.
Many pilots try to communicate directly with CAA for PPR, other procedures etc, CAA most of the times responds and in the end they get to use the handlers which are compulsory only to find out they have done half of the handler’s job in advance as pilots.

You do have a very good ad-hoc management skill and that is all one needs in such cases, to get the big picture and stick to the plan plus have a plan B in hand.
I do realize that this is part of a pilot having been flying at 250ft. AGL at some point in the bast but I disagree that this is the prerequisite.
All you need in such cases is to have a practical mind and the communication means handy.
The later was not available (easily/handy) until 10~15 years ago, the former always was.

The fact that you had an aiframe ballistic parachute on board for sure eased your mind a bit regarding the worst scenario(s) but I think this was on your planning stage. The execution was like it should in a “conventional” aircraft susceptible to nature’s tricks.

In cases like your (intended) Kythera to Corfu trip with weather what I try to do is to read the weather mass intentions.
With winds from the west all this humidity block does is elevate and cool above terrain and then it becomes a band of CU, TCU, CB’s etc.
It is clearly seen in your pic’s when flying west of Peloponnese northbound to Corfu where the clouds pick up just as they cross the shore moving eastbound.
In this case, fuel permitting off course, it would be best to circle low & slow VFR the Peloponnese from south & west off the shores before weather built up over terrain moving eastbound.
Most probably you would have made it to Corfu having an above sea route the whole way but it was good you went for plan B to Iraklion with good tailwind.

It is interesting that of all your (non!)worries in Greece I read that you took for granted that MIL TMA’s, through which you had to fly, would be non flexible.
Its a misconception and I will advise AOPA.gr to include something about it in the briefing page mentioned above.
In general, in Greece, because MTMAs are huge and mostly oner terrain, they are not tight in diversions from planned route. All they want, they really want actually, is for the pilot to remain always in VHF communication with them. If you cannot reach them there’s always an ATC unit in range who will relay the messages both ways if needed.
Last/another resort are the MIL radars the network of which is always in VHF and primary & secondary radar range all over Greece.
Check the above article about TUGRIT service on 129.80 frequency. They even provide Radar Information Service workload permitting (which CIV ATC/FIS do not provide for VFR) and just ask you to remain in contact in the other VHF with whatever CIV frequency you were at or to let the CIV guys know you are with them.
It would have given you a chance to talk a familiar language because sometimes they get confused and read back transponder as IFF, altitude as Angels, traffic as target, track as bearing etc.
The only cases you will meet some tight attitudes in MTMAs is when MIL exercises are in progress nearby (like everywhere in the world) or you fly close by one base / civ. airport under their control which happens to be busy that day & time.
Andravida MTMA for example in the summer is extremely busy handling MIL traffic for LGAD & LGRX bases as well as LGZA & LGKF airports (mainly charters).
Again its a piece of cake as long as they are in communication and know where you are. They mainly separate VFRs vertically with other traffic by suggesting you a change if needed.

Regards