So we’re off, next Friday. Routing via Lausanne (overnight stay, family currently skiing), Brac, Çorlu on the way out. Çorlu is some way out of Istanbul center, 1h30 instead of 30 min at Atartuk, but the cost including transfer is about eur700 less. This was recommended by Erdogan Meneske, thank you Petakas for the referal. On the leg from Brac to Çorlu, we’ll fly over 7 countries, which is pretty cool, I think. I hope the kids will be as excited as I am…
Then to Kapadokia for three days. Asia!
On the way back, Ankara for a technical stop to refuel (no avgas at Kapadokia) and to pick up some oil (pack of 12 delivered by Gozen), then to Skopje, Macedonia for a technical stop, and Mali Losinj for the night. Next day return to the UK via Troyes, France.
Everything was set up with Gozen.
Jepp tried to charge me eur1,000 for a trip pack, but since I already have navdata for the country, for that price I’ll do without electronic charts!
Thank you everyone, especially Peter, for the infos provided.
In terms of PPRs/customs, Switzerland is an email 2h before (but GAR declaration 24h before on the UK side), Croatia an email the day before but they don’t seem too bothered as long as you arrive during the airport’s opening hours, Turkey you need a permit to be arranged with Gozen.
Well Turkey was awesome, and the flying itself was great. I unfortunately cannot say the same for Gozen – pricey and the only person from their team I actually met was useless. Mostly they delegated stuff to the locals who were themselves useful. I’ve made a couple of contacts at some of the airports, so if anyone plans to go there, please let me know and I’ll put you in touch.
We had a “small” issue as we started our way back as I somehow temporarily lost a cylinder over the mountains between Albania and Montenegro. We diverted to Podgorica, with an ILS down to 700 feet. People at the airport seem very friendly and helpful, and I’m meeting a mechanic early tomorrow morning (Easter Sunday). We’ll see.
JasonC, please don’t gloat ! ;-)
Glad to hear everything OK and you got down safely. Not gloating at all. Sounds like you handled it well.
Denopa – that sounds like it will be a great trip writeup!
By “temporarily” do you mean that the cylinder started producing power a bit later?
We had a “small” issue as we started our way back as I somehow temporarily lost a cylinder over the mountains between Albania and Montenegro.
Lycoming engine? Which model/airframe?
Jason – thanks. Not a nice thing to happen, but I was still getting enough power to maintain pressurisation and altitude, and our airframe glides well, if it comes to that. In retrospect the most dangerous part was the ILS, if the engine had packed completely I could not have reached the runway once I had descended to intercept the GS.
Peter – yes it did – got CHT indication back and what seemed like normal power while descending towards the approach. I’ve got the JpI download but no means to look at it for now. If anyone has any idea how that’s possible, I’d love to hear it.
Achimha – Lyco TIO-540, PA46-350P Mirage.
In more details: on the JPI, EGT2 started to shoot up then disappeared (BAD PROBE message), CHT2 went low and disappeared (and did go down to 150deg on the native instruments), TAS went down 10kts. It was very windy (40kts headwind) and TAS fluctuated quite a bit over the mountain despite the fact that we were 10k above the tops, so I may have missed the first indications of power loss, but the JPI was unmissable. Then in the descent I noticed CHT was back, but not EGT, and the usual approach power gave the usual speeds.
I’ve got the JpI download but no means to look at it for now.
Upload your JPI data to Savvy Analysis (free) and post the link, then we can have a go at it: https://www.savvyanalysis.com/home
If anyone has any idea how that’s possible, I’d love to hear it. Lyco TIO-540, PA46-350P Mirage
There are a few possibilities. You have about the least reliable powerplant/airframe combination there is 
EGT2 started to shoot up then disappeared (BAD PROBE message) [..] CHT was back, but not EGT
This means the probe got destroyed by the event, a failing probe alone will not cause a loss in power and coincidence is rarely an explanation. It sounds like a clogged injector nozzle to me. A stuck exhaust valve (very common on Lycomings) wouldn’t have caused a massive EGT increase it might be an option as well.
I know that feeling very well, too well actually. It happened to me overhead Cairo last year.
I don’t have a computer to put my memory stick into, but will try to find one tomorrow.
Thanks for the pointers. Would a clogged injector nozzle destroy the prob, and would it sort itself out enough that I’d get CHT (and power) back?
I know about the reliability issues… And I wish I could afford to put a turbine in the airframe
It would be a curious coincidence that a partially blocked injector would (via the high resulting EGT) burn up an EGT probe.
I have burnt up maybe 3 EGT probes since 2002, so this does happen, but I would not expect an abnormal EGT to burn up a probe instantly.
But yes it is possible that that probe was on its way out anyway and this just finished it off.
However a partially blocked nozzle would produce a high EGT only if the cylinder was running ROP at the time. If the cylinder was running peak-EGT or LOP at the time, a partially blocked nozzle would reduce the EGT.
I’m running ROP (in the Mirage, it’s a lottery wether you can or not, and my engine doesn’t like it).
Looking at the JPI diagnostic chart, could be a stuck valve. That might also explain why CHT comes back.
Not something I’ll be able to fix here I’m afraid!!!
