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Turkey via Bulgaria

I’m planning flight to Alanya LTFG with refueling stop at Plovdiv LBPD. Actually, I could fly direct but since I have passengers, making short break at half of journey will be highly appreciated. A friend from Turkey will help in organizing landing at Alanya but I need some additional info on Plovdiv. I sent an e-mail to address indicated in AIP but received no reply. Basically, I need confirmation that immigration and fuel (Jet A1) will be available when I land. Anyone has recent info o Plovdiv?

LDZA LDVA, Croatia

Contact @Mooney_Driver, he has been there.

Last Edited by Vladimir at 23 Mar 21:19
LSZH, LSZF, Switzerland

Hello Emir,

normally immigration is available between 6am and 10pm, that is during the normal operation hours. They are very likely also to have Jet Fuel as they have regular airline flights. I did not call ahead to them or anything at all and they were very cooperative when I got there.

For information, I suggest to contact either [email protected] or [email protected]. Usually they should answer pretty quickly.

Taxes can be found here: http://www.plovdivairport.com/uploads/assets/files/governmental_charges.pdf

My experience with Plovdiv was very good, but it was in 2011.

Otherwise, Sofia is a variant, they have everything and with the AOPA card they are quite reasonable I hear.

Best regards
Urs

LSZH(work) LSZF (GA base), Switzerland

Thanks!

LDZA LDVA, Croatia

Due to forecasted bad en-route weather over Bulgaria I’ll fly over Greece with Corfu LGKR as refueling stop.

Last Edited by Emir at 11 Apr 10:07
LDZA LDVA, Croatia

Really? Its beautiful here right now in Plovdiv and supposed to stay so… also on the seaside.

Last Edited by Mooney_Driver at 11 Apr 10:31
LSZH(work) LSZF (GA base), Switzerland

It will probably be OK in Plovdiv on Saturday (Apr 15) morning but flying from Croatia some icing and build-ups are forecasted en-route. Also on Turkey mainland some build-ups (TCU, CB) on my route are forecasted as well. On Sunday (even Saturday afternoon) the weather will definitely worsen so why not to avoid it using different route.

LDZA LDVA, Croatia

The time for this trip finally came again. Last time I had to cancel it because my daughther’s passport expired and travelling to Turkey with Croatian ID card wasn’t possible so we stayed in Greece. I’m flying on Sunday (more probably) or Monday depending on en-route weather in Croatia/Serbia. I’ll try to contact Plovdiv airport just in case but I don’t expect any issue even if they don’t reply (like they didn’t in spring).

LDZA LDVA, Croatia

I’m back and I’ll write trip report in following days. In the meantime basic info.

Plovdiv was great as fuel stop but also as destination to visit. People at the airport were extremely friendly and helpul. Fuel is fairly priced while airport fees are quite low.

I don’t know the prices in Alanya or how complicated is to arrange anything there because everything was organized by my friend Tamer who’s local (actually he lives at Black Sea but he flew to Alanya to meet me).

LDZA LDVA, Croatia

Our trip started on Saturday morning (September 16) with rain following us all the way to the airport. The weather (as well as forcast) looked bad for first 50-60 NM en-route and after that only blue skies. The rain gave us just a short break to jump into the aircraft and delaying departure didn’t make any sense since the weather seemed to worsen as forcasted.

We departed at 7:06 UTC and first 10 minutes of the flight was VFR, we picked IFR clearance and continued to climb to FL180. At FL100 we entered clouds and at FL120 we started to pick up some ice. TKS was already on in NORMAL mode but this wasn’t sufficient to get rid of the ice so I switched it to HIGH mode and the ice started to fall off. At FL180 we were still in clouds but ADL was showing we would soon be out. However, high mode wasn’t sufficient, so I swithed to MAX mode (5 minutes) and we were completely clear of ice in 2 minutes. At the same time we received cheering call from ATC announcing only 15 NM more in clouds which was consistent with ADL picture. Total time in the icing conditions was around 20 minutes with little or almost no turbulence and some 15 kts of tail wind.

This is how wings looked like after exiting with TKS still dripping.

The rest of the flight was in the clear skies as expected overflying east part of Croatia, Serbia and west part of Bulgaria. Sofia radar handed us over to Plovdiv LBPD tower and, although active runway was 30, we got streight in VOR approach for runway 12 which saved us some 10 minutes in the air.

The route (taken from ADL tracking) was pretty streight.

We were greeted by friendly staff at Plovdiv airport, fuel bowser was already there and we were back in the aircraft (refueled, fees paid) in less than 30 minutes, so I brought our flight plan 30 min forward (initially I planned at least one hour stop). Total fees were 60€ (landing and handling) while fuel (Jet A1) was 0.95€ per liter.

While on the ground I got e-mail from autorouter passing message from Turkish ATC/CAA asking additional info on purpose of my flight to Alanya. Since I didn’t know what to do with this message and I hoped my friend from Turkey would resolve any problem, I simply ignored it.

The flight to Alanya LTFG was quite uneventful but due haze and flying again at FL180 I didn’t take any photo.

On arrival we got RNAV approach for RW08 and my wife took short video clip but the air was so humid and hazy that anything can be hardly seen. Here’s just one frame.

When we landed we were greeted by our friend Tamer who landed 30 minutes before us with one of his Trinidads. He probably owns largest TB20 fleet (4 at moment, 2 more arriving in October) and he uses them for dropping fox vaccines.

After refueling Turkish customs put labels on all doors and fuel caps, to be removed at our departure. Tamer sorted out all bills including fuel (thanks again!) refusing any compensation, took rental car and drove us to our apartment. Later on we met for dinner and drinks which lasted to some 2 a.m. – it was quite long day.

Pirat boats/restaurants in Alanya harbour

LDZA LDVA, Croatia
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