Siena / Sienna LIQS any recent experiences ?

late afternoon, Bonanza F33A

@Berlinflyer: Nice Cirrus – looks very good ;)
Very easy flight to LIQS today, mostly FL 140, direct long final 18.
Very friendly welcome, professional behavior, I must say…

Haha, spotted – nice :-)

Yes, I also must admit, super easy approach (even though one must insist with the controllers for a decent, I had to go for 1300fpm in the end) – and despite the high fees, the service is top notch. Immediate refuel service at the gas station (if you have one, bringing a BP card makes things quicker), easy parking with super friendly service. One of the guys then drove my rental car (which I preordered with AVIS) directly in front of my plane and escorted me the way out of the airport. That was US-style top notch service. I was very pleasantly surprised.

haha – yes same here, got the car driven to my plane, like in a US movie. Service is very friendly and professional. And Avgas is 1,80€ – also nice.

They like to keep you over Florence quite high, same result, quick descent and I cancelled IFR when I had the field in sight and did a combat approach :)))

Controllers in Italy otherwise totally easygoing, except at the departure they zigzagged me a bit…

@EuroFlyer Yep, the descent felt a bit Pearl Harbor Style. Anyway. Looking forward to my departure :-) does the tower get you an ifr clerance or do you have to pick everything up in the air?

they give you a frequency, and they open the flight plan with Grosseto Approach. Problem was, instead of the filed IR pickup waypoint KUGIX they sent me first VFR hard to the west, then, still in steep climb because of the terrain, they asked me to change to Firenze, who gave me the IFR clearance, essentially flight planned route, and KUGIX again back full east. Zig zag. That’s seemingly what happens when you’re VFR. Apart from that, no issues.

@EuroFlyer all right, let‘s see what happens :) I filed IBRID (which is right next to KUGIX) … let‘s see. I‘ll report.

@EuroFlyer: So my experiences are as follows:

• IFR clearance wise, ground will call ATC and try to get a clearance. In my case, they at least got a squawk code for me. ATC seems to be unorganized, after I was airborne and checked in, they asked me to “state intentions”. After a while, the’v e apparently they’ve found my IFR flight plan, they’ve handed me right over to the next controller. And then I was right on track with some directs. Whatever …
• Service was totally top notch. The guys are really super committed and nice. Ops drove my rental car directly to my plane (US service, anyone?) and they’ve tried everything to make the experience pleasant. Ask the guys about the car rental options and the direct emails, I’ve got mine from AVIS.
• Refueling goes way faster if you have a BP card. Get one in advance!
• Regarding the fees, the guy at C found out by accident (because I was wearing my AOPA Crew Card which mainly holds my plane keys) that I am an AOPA member, and that cut the fees in half, from about 240 to 120. I was pleasantly surprised, so the lesson is: definitely get an AOPA membership, state that at the PPR request and show it again when checking out. I always thought the crew card was obsolete, but that saved big this time.
• LIttle hotel recommendation: Hotel Certosa di Maggiano is in my opinion the best price/value ratio for a lovely hotel in that region. About 20” drive from the airfield. Also definitely don‘t miss Montalcino. Lovely city with a lot of wine shops and nice restaurants. Other options in the area: Pienza, Montepulciano, San Gimignano, Asciano, Grosseto. You might also fly to Elba, which I didn‘t do but maybe next time.

I’ll definitely come back again. It’s just sad to see the decommissioned VOR for the IFR approach resting at the field. Let‘s hope that there are better times for this airfield. The guy told me that they want to make the runway longer (which is technically no problem) – but as usual the local people are against it. As if there way anything else in this region than tourism … Anyway.

We have a previous LIQS report on our database here.

@BerlinFlyer I wonder whether another one would be worth doing, to update?

They have officially no immigration or customs but recently there was a TBM fly-in for which these were obviously arranged… somehow. @davidfabry might know.

Yes, they confirmed they will organize immigration upon request. Not just for groups, but also for individual aircraft. Actually, this is possible at any airfield in Italy, and doesn’t actually have to involve the handling crew. The pilot can do this himself. It’s just a matter of having the right contacts at the responsible authorities.