I’d like to pop to visit an old friend for a few days in Ibiza, last week of Jan/first in Feb – I have two weeks to spare, so can pick my days… any advice about whether it’s a crazy idea, or achievable?
In detail, I was thinking of this route:
It’s a long (almost 5 hrs, but shared with a copilot) flight to enter Schengen at LFMP Perpignan- which is coastal and quite Southerly, then a hop of under three hours the next day to Ibiza.
The plane (Robin DR401) is comfy and capable (best cruise at 6,500ft) and I can use my IR(R) to break cloud in the UK if needed.
Any and all advice, hints and tips appreciated :)
Not mad at all I would say. Also, the routing does make quite some sense. Only thing I would say is that Ibiza is almost totally dead in winter. But if you have company and it’s just for a few days, why not?
NealCS wrote:
Any and all advice, hints and tips appreciated :)
Not a long-distance VFR pilot myself, but the first thing that I noticed is your choice of Perpignan as airport of entry. In winter you can have splendid flying weather which will let you fly all across France in one hop. But you may also find poor weather with the necessity to divert. Being restricted to customs airfields for a possible diversion (which are constantly decreasing in number) makes things more difficult than they need to be. Personally I would clear customs early and then be a liberty to divert wherever that works best.
I would stop at Caen for customs first. As what_next said, that would give you complete freedom from then on.
The other way to look at this is that the crap wx starts in the UK and likely ends somewhere well south of La Rochelle 
Some would say it doesn’t end until south of the Alps…
So I would argue: do the first leg out of the UK in one hop, as far south as you can go, obviously to a proper airport. That way, you sit at home, comfortably, until the wx is clear all the way. Any stop, even an hour at Caen, is an extra risk.
One of the big lessons I learnt in my VFR days was starting with this trip and it was to do the first leg really long. Before that, I burnt my fingers a few times, getting stuck in e.g. Switzerland in the rain which is no fun at all
I even seem to have heard rumours of clever pilots diverting ever so gladly to their carefully choosen alternate
First of all – not mad at all! I’ve flown to Ibiza in January (albeit coming from southern Spain) and can confirm the place is totally dead. Landed in a snowstorm…..
I don’t know the endurance of the Robin, but think Perpignan is OK, you can always carry on to Girona if need be (which most likely will be your alternate anyway).
Thanks everyone, I think I’ll give it a bash!
Routing: Yes, I was following Peter’s logic about getting as far South in one go as possible, but we have Customs weather alternates enroute in the form of Limoges, Brive, Toulouse, Carcassonne – I hadn’t thought of Girona as an alternate but that would work with the available range, assuming it is a Schengen port of entry.
Then all I have to figure out is whether cloud tops are below 10000ft en-route (would a GRAMET from autoroute be the best resource?) and can I get down in Perpignan?
@Peter – I read your excellent trip report – I noticed this:
There is a fully electronic alternative to paper charts: the Jeppesen Raster Chart add-on for FliteStar/FliteMap. This costs about £200 for Europe – about half the cost of the equivalent paper charts from Jepp.
Does SkyDemon now serve the legal purpose of having current charts on board? For reference I have paper charts for the route but all from 2014-2015. Or indeed do the charts in the Garmin 500/GTN750 count if they are up to date?
NealCS wrote:
assuming it is a Schengen port of entry.
Yes it is. Big RYR presence.
PS: one thing, re fueling there. Unless it has changed, the fuel station is at the opposite end of the apron to the transient parking. Should you go there, fuel up first thing and then park. Otherwise this can be quite a time consuming exercise.
