Today turned out to be an easier flight than I expected. We arrived at the airport at 9 am to be met by our handler, Elizavet of Skyserve (ex Olympic). They have looked after us well here, at Heraklion and Rhodes over the past four years or so; we remember them and they remember us. We gathered that Corfu is expecting a 20% increase in CAT traffic this year as Ryanair are establishing a base there. PPR for GA will not be a problem providing it is applied for well in advance but refuelling is likely to be much delayed at anything other than quiet times. The airport has now been sold off to a private company and landing charges are likely to rise. There is much to be said to visiting these places off season and we noted that late February is significantly warmer than early February when our visits have usually been.
The fuel truck arrived quickly and the pump had been mended and then we were off five minutes early. We were offered either a SID for Tigra or visual departure to Tigra and I choose the later. The weather for the first part of the flight was good with the overcast slowly lowering towards us and FEW CU below building to BKN CU by Salerno. We were at FL120.
We entered slightly convective cloud just north of Naples and picked up a little ice before coming out into a clear layer. The weather ahead did not look good with convective rainfall over Corsica with a few lightning flashes to the south. We amended our routing to go via Elba to keep out of the red/purple areas of the sat rainfall download picture and entered cloud. Rome allowed us to vector ourselves as required to keep in the yellow areas. CAT were not requesting weather avoidance so I deduced that there was no deep convection anywhere. We flew in smooth and benign AS for the next hour or so with an OAT of around -10ºC and no ice build up. Rain was reported from both Elba and Bastia but no precipitation at our flight level. We eventually ran out of the AS as we neared the French coast at STP and the sky started to clear by the time we arrived at Avignon. So, a much easier transit of the front than expected.
Three douaniers met us at Avignon; they were friendly and just looked at our passports. The senior one had done his homework and remarked that I seemed to land at Avignon quite frequently. It is apparent that customs and immigration checks are being much more actively carried out in France.
Phil and I set off from Avignon to Seville on 28th January southbound and Miranda and I have arrived back in Avignon northbound on 28th February to close the loop. Tomorrow we fly back to Biggin Hill and stay a night with Phil and Tracey for a bit of a celebration before reaching home on Tuesday. So tomorrow’s blog will be done when we get home.
Corfu to Avignon: 784 nm in 5 hr 08 min