This is how it might look at best.It happened to me 12 years ago and I happily didnt manage to go.
Quite an interesting document you have there. I did note the requirement for FL240 or above. Certainly made sense even back then.
Interesting. Why would the fl240 limit make sense back then?
Given the limited distance between Lebanon and Damascus you could probably avoid this rule by starting the descent within the Lebanese airspace on arrival, and level off in the Lebanese airspace on departure.
Anyways, it seemed so much simpler back then :
And here comes the crazy little print:
1)Yes,arriving via Larnaka to the exit point NIKAS,they wanted me to climb the 172 up to FL240.Then the approach to the nearby OSLK (17nm) would be a downward rocketing.
2)If unable to do that,they were also unable to control their coastal artilery from hitting me,as they said in telephone calls.
3) Later I was told that Latakia airport was not Intl as advertised but the personal base of the President;now a permanent Russian base.
Back then, Syria was not a failed state, to the contrary, it was the envy of millions of Arabs as one of the most advanced countries in the region with a stable order and relative wealth.
I wonder how many pilots actually do this type of permit planning nowadays i.e. talk to the authorities in the country in question? I tried that once with Egypt (an abandoned trip to Luxor) and after a few months got nowhere with the Egyptian aviation ministry in Cairo. Then I discovered that an overflight agent will sort it in 24hrs for something like €100 per person (permits and visas). I have several names on my aviation page and all pilots I know who fly to these 3rd World places (most of them doing it professionally) use these agents.
@eal might be able to input something in this area… He has done the Middle East and India, etc.
Another thing is that we often read of GA trips through Africa; down the east coast or down the west coast, and very occassionally down the middle. The writeups usually leave out the key details but when I have spoken to the pilots I found that they mostly used these agents too. One seasoned Africa traveller told me that absolutely every mile is done by an agent, and it costs him a few hundred quid. With some exceptions… down the east coast, once you are in Kenya, things get easier, and some trips down the west coast were flown literally below the radar at very low level along the beach.
@aeroplus has done some flying in Africa.
As regards how much based GA there is in these places, that’s another story… Africa has quite a lot as @172driver will tell you. Not many roads + little or no maintenance supervision → GA is effective. I have an AIR BP booklet which lists the avgas outlets and there is a huge number all over Africa, even in places where you might expect to be boiled up for soup 
it was the envy of millions of Arabs as one of the most advanced countries in the region with a stable order and relative wealth.
Well, Assad did terminate troublemakers swiftly and decisively so stuff didn’t get out of hand. Always the best way (it’s the best formula for running a big aviation forum too; the big US sites do exactly that) 
Whether he could have kept the lid on the boiling saucepan of today’s widespread troubles, is another matter. IMHO he died just in time to collect the credits…
Peter wrote:
Well, Assad did terminate troublemakers swiftly and decisively so stuff didn’t get out of hand.
You mean the father. His son has been much less successfull in that and, btw, used weapons of mass destruction against his own people. Charming in both cases.
It’s depressing to see how the whole region there has gone down the drain.
@Peter:
For shure about those agents.They are the key persons to wake up the sleeping authorities,motivating them for the incoming bribes,arrange the IFR (I Follow Roads) clearances and costs,transportation and sale of fuel drumms and eventualy a temporary cease fire if heading for Sierra Leone,Al Shabab or Boko Haram land.
But never mind,even “super civilized” places like Mykonos needed to be “treated” via an agent ,otherwise you didnt have a chance !
LGMK had a “rather special arrangement” which became “well known” in the “right circles”, I am “reliably informed” The reason for having to use the handler is that nobody with a brain wants to be running a “rather special arrangement” in the “European union” with strangers who might spill the beans (that’s actually a very appropriate idiom, involving Greece), hence a “front” is needed…
Of course in the 3rd World all this can be done overtly, and that is what the overflight agents lubricate.
To think I was expecting another thread on intra-EU flying….
