Flying to Kastelorizo LGKJ

I have about 800 pics, and about 500GB of video, from the trip so this is just a few pics

After the Elba part of the trip we did the following legs (airborne times in hours):

Shoreham EGKA – Elba LIRJ 5:00
Elba LIRJ – Brac LDSB 2:15
Brac LDSB – Sitia LGST 4:40
Sitia LGST – Karpathos LGKP 0:30
Karpathos LGKP – Kastelorizo LGKJ 1:10
Kastelorizo LGKJ – Ioanina LGIO 3:40
Ioanina LGIO – Brac LDSB 2:10
Brac LDSB – Colmar LFGA 4:30
Colmar LFGA – Shoreham EGKA 3:05

I will do my usual detailed report in due course, probably over xmas when we have +RA, 30G45 winds, etc Below are just some photos with comments. Any questions / comments / feedback is appreciated as always.

Elba LIRJ to Brac LDSB

This was a short flight

We are now over Italy

Ancona airport and city

Chris overtook us, obviously

The Adriatic landscape

Approaching Brac

The famous “golden horn” beach

The brand new airport was built c. 2005 and was nearly closed a few times; most recently 4 years ago when the staff were given their notices. Then it got new management and now is seeing a rapid growth in traffic – 70% up on 2017 and getting Airbus and B737 aircraft, so its future is assured. The staff are simply the most friendly anywhere – a real dedicated “all female” team I am also sure that EuroGA is responsible for a lot of their GA traffic growth.

Brac is always a lovely place to hang out

Brac LDSB to Sitia LGST

Sitia LGST is a “coordinated airport” i.e. you need a slot for an IFR arrival. I tried loads of times to arrange this but – as always in Greece – half the emails bounced and most of the other half were not answered, so I just flew there… In the end nobody cared. Even most of the CAA emails in the CAA official document are duff… This is a real issue for diligent pilots – which is basically everybody flying this far from their usual watering holes. Often, a 1 minute phone calls sorts it out, however, and unlike some other countries Greece speaks good English at airports.

This was a longer flight

Departure from Brac – great weather from now on

This is probably Montenegro

32 USG forecast at LGST

The mountains of Albania offer few landing spots…

In Greece now

Skopelos

The 2004 Olympics buildings

Tanagra or Tatoi?

Santorini

Sitia and its huge runway

Refuelling from the usual drums, by the usual Australian guy who has been there since 2007

SX-ROD – the usual visitor (another is SX-JOY)

The huge new terminal – somewhat busy in peak summer, apparently

Sitia is another nice place to hang out

This is the recommended spot for…

…kataifi!

The fortress was open, finally, after all the years

Sitia LGST to Karpathos LGKP

This one was done VFR, because it was very short and to avoid any IFR slot requirement. I filed the FP via EuroFPL – just LGST DCT LGKP.

This stop was chosen partly to visit the island and partly because it has wide opening hours, so it makes a good “timetable buffer” between Sitia and Kastelorizo. There is no avgas, though like all Greek “tourist business” islands it is a port of entry.

Chris departed a minute behind us and we did some formation shots, with me on autopilot and him flying around and Justine taking photos, at 2000ft all the way

Nearly there – time to stop playing

You feel a sharp bump as you run over the arrestor wire. Karpathos is clearly an emergency diversion airport for the Greek air force

The airport is fairly busy with the tourist business.

It was almost sunset when we landed

We saw some impressive buildups and a big TS

Cheers!

Karpathos LGKP to Kastelorizo LGKJ

This was another short flight; just over an hour. Apologies for the ancient map but it is what I have handy right now, to overlay the GPS track log over

Very early departure from Karpathos

Chris departing at the same time

Passing Rhodes and talking to them briefly. Eventually climbing to 6000ft to stay above some cloud; wasn’t really necessary since the bases were above 2000ft

Kastelorizo

The little airport

The town

They would not let me land until the Olympic flight departed; they said it took up the whole apron!!! Well, it may have been parked so it blocked the apron entrance… I was keen to not waste fuel because I had to go all the way to Ioanina in N Greece from here.

This approach is not good if there is wind from the right, as is evident here. But the conditions were calm – under 3kt

Chris arrived later because he had to drop off his wife to Rhodes (and make a ~€250 “donation to Greece’s creditors” (the fraport scam) for the 1hr spent there )

I almost never fail to do my little bit to promote our community. This saves a lot of airmail money and makes sure the leaflets end up somewhere “real” – even if there is almost no light GA landing here

Down town where everything happens

Before WW2 there were several times more houses and the population was over 10k (now ~250)

A good supermarket

Good grilled fish; fresh too, not farmed

This chap got a lot of attention from everyone

Excellent coffee and a great place to have it

We did a trip around the island in a little boat driven by a great story teller

The boat went inside this cave – believe it or not! Everyone had to lie down to get in

The “blue cave”

More caves

The boat driver’s brother

Chris departed a day before us – he flew over the boat without realising

Army observation posts

Kastelorizo LGKJ to Ioanina LGIO

This was a longer flight, and since Karpathos and Kastelorizo had no fuel, the fuel situation was not exactly generous. My Plan B was Syros, or (in desperation) one of the fraport-scammed airports e.g. Rhodos or Samos both of which have avgas.

IFR pickup was shortly after departure.

The Operations and CAA offices The people were really nice and very friendly. There was the usual 50% AOPA discount and the lady there picked up that my membership card expired a few days before (I did have continuous membership in fact and was able to show this before departing from LGKJ – this was worth some €50). Since LGIO has fairly wide opening hours, timing was not critical but usually I prefer early morning flights, to get going before convective wx gets started

A spectacular sunrise – it is even better on the HD video which I have yet to process

This is the whole island, with Turkey close behind, and one has to be careful to not enter Turkish airspace which is really close. No idea what would happen…

Astypalea – we had our Sep 2017 fly-in there, and it had a pretty good turnout especially considering the distance

A curious rock near the Greek mainland with little or no habitation but loads of wind turbines. A good use for an island I guess, and the wiring must have been “fun”

The rocks get bigger now…

VOR32 approach into LGIO. The first IAP flown on this whole trip!

A quick refuel. Ioanina has amazingly nice helpful and organised staff – as good as the best anywhere. Highly recommended as a port of entry into Greece, now that Corfu has been lost to huge fees.

Ioanina LGIO to Brac LDSB

With full tanks and about 2hrs this was an easy flight.

Well, the departure track was “interesting”. ATC offered it as an option in place of the SID, and I accepted given it was VMC and there were alternate tracks between the mountains ahead.

I had some pics of the departure area but can’t find them right now… The Aera660 handheld, yoke mounted, showed the terrain ahead really precisely, including red-colouring the conflicting bits, which disappeared at exactly the right point during the climb. I have a video of that flight too which will be interesting.

This is the picture during the climb, taken from the DH video camera, at about 9000ft. The mountain is just over 9000ft and I climbed over the top of the cloud, so VMC all the way

One could have also flown either side of it.

The airport had nobody in the tower so I flew over to check the windsock – which is barely visible

I picked up my passenger who had been enjoying Brac for a week, for the flight back home

Justine got a boat from Kastelorizo to Rhodes and is flying back from there on Easyjet tonight.

Brac LDSB to Shoreham EGKA

This is always a difficult flight because it cannot be done direct if there is more than ~ 5kt of average headwind. I have done it direct a few times but one must have options. On this day the winds would most likely make it impossible

The IR (cloud tops) looked probably doable.

and the wx was generally ok

Metar
LDSP 180500Z VRB02KT CAVOK 19/15 Q1019 NOSIG
LDPL 180500Z 06003KT CAVOK 15/14 Q1019 NOSIG
EDNY 180450Z VRB02KT CAVOK 11/11 Q1019
LFQQ 180500Z AUTO 17007KT CAVOK 17/08 Q1010 NOSIG
LFAT 180500Z AUTO 23009KT 200V260 9999 SCT014 18/16 Q1010
EGMD 180520Z AUTO 22020KT 9999 BKN028/// BKN033/// 19/17 Q1008
EGKK 180520Z 22014G24KT 9999 BKN018 BKN031 18/15 Q1006
EGHH 180520Z 24017G31KT 6000 SCT009 BKN011 17/15 Q1006
TAF
LDSP 172325Z 1800/1900 VRB02KT CAVOK TX28/1813Z TN20/1804Z BECMG 1811/1813 23008KT BECMG 1815/1817 24005KT BECMG 1819/1821 05006KT
LDPL 172325Z 1800/1900 05005KT CAVOK TX27/1813Z TN17/1804Z PROB30 TEMPO 1800/1806 3000 BR
EDNY 172300Z 1800/1824 05003KT CAVOK TEMPO 1802/1807 0300 FG BECMG 1809/1811 24005KT TEMPO 1815/1818 SHRA SCT050CB BECMG 1816/1818 VRB03KT
LFQQ 180500Z 1806/1912 18008KT CAVOK BECMG 1806/1809 24012KT TEMPO 1811/1815 24015G25KT BECMG 1818/1821 17005KT BECMG 1907/1909 23010KT
LFAT 180500Z 1806/1815 24013KT 9999 BKN025 TEMPO 1806/1808 BKN013 TEMPO 1808/1814 24015G25KT
EGMD 180500Z 1806/1815 20018KT 9999 SCT018 TEMPO 1806/1813 20018G30KT
EGKK 180459Z 1806/1912 22012KT 9999 BKN014 TEMPO 1806/1815 22018G30KT BECMG 1809/1812 SCT025 TEMPO 1909/1912 22018G30KT
EGHH 172259Z 1800/1809 20012KT 9999 FEW045 BECMG 1800/1803 18017G30KT BKN014 TEMPO 1802/1806 7000 -RADZ BKN007 PROB30 TEMPO 1803/1806 20020G40KT 0300 FG BKN001

Nice departure wx again

I never get tired of this scenery…

Zadar, with its huge runway, plus the one at right angle for when the Bora wind gets going, blowing down from the mountains

A mystery runway, ex military and abandoned

Mali Losinj LDLO – a great fly-in there in 2014

ATC is generous with shortcuts – all the way into Italy

This is where things got interesting… we were above the tops but went through a few lumps, using the new TKS system. It worked great but in the humid upper layers, and -5C, it had to run on max to clear the ice

The drag of the unprotected surfaces slows the plane down a bit, and of course the stall warner is frozen solid in the ice

The Alps were crossed ok albeit with a detour around the worst of it (the ADL150 worked great too, although it never showed anything worse then green) and we diverted to Colmar for fuel.

The TKS worked out a bit tight, using up some 80% of the tank in about 1hr. There is a lesson to be learnt there: avoid such exposures. At -15C it would have been ok since almost no icing takes place, but you have to fly with alt air to avoid the fuel servo icing up, which means you cannot climb too well. The conditions on this whole trip were around ISA+15 which makes everything harder.

There were some buildups near Colmar too (which was very hot at about +30C) but with very high bases of ~8000ft

My French-speaking passenger phoned up the police to say it was a fuel diversion and to check if they wanted to speak to us (Colmar is a long PNR for non schengen) but they said they were not interested. This was an important thing to do since you don’t want to p1ss off somebody “big” in the system.

Another easy flight, to finish off this epic trip

The N French coast near Calais

Finally, nearly home

Descending through a cloud layer to the UK, as usual

The old girl is safe in the hangar so we unpacked all the junk and got a taxi home

I straighten images up in lightroom. It has controls for H and V distortion (trapezoid), and rotation, and that usually does it well enough. There is also spherical which I rarely use.

To answer the earlier Q: yes 1/80 shutter should do it, but this works only on a camera which has a real shutter i.e. not a phone. With a phone you will never get rid of the prop – we have a thread on this somewhere. People use ND filters to slow down the CCD capture time which helps a lot.

Then, with a 1/80 shutter, you have to use a small aperture to avoid over-exposure. Or use an ND filter but that’s a hassle because you have to take it off to take pics from the side windows where you want 1/1000 or faster.

With 1/80 shutter you want a camera with really excellent stabilisation, and the top end DSLRs are very good. I use a Pentax K1 which is amazing. That blue cave pic was:

and while I was standing up in a little boat which was rocking around!