Woke up to a CAVOK day at Tirana and after an early breakfast, we took a taxi back to the airport with Colin Williamson and Judith Niechcial who had a similar departure time to Belgrade as us. Formalities at Tirana worked quite speedily and Miranda spent my remaining Albanian currency on some interesting books and refreshments for the flight to Belgrade. A shortish flight over some very high and wild country before we landed at Belgrade just as the morning rush ended.
A much bigger airport than Tirana but once again ground handling was efficient and we were turned round in just under an hour and an half. By then it was quite hot so with full fuel, including tip tanks, our climb was quite slow. Again quite a short flight to Sibiu where we were the first to land in fine and warm conditions. But then came the problem; on shut down checks, the right magneto (ignition) system had failed, a fault which grounds the aircraft. Various phone calls to Stuart at RGV and ohmmeter checks established that there is a fault in the right magneto; a spare has been ordered and current plans are that Phil Caiger in his recently acquired TBM (of which more in due course) will fly out the spare with an RGV engineer on Monday. This means that our planned departure on Sunday will be delayed probably until Tuesday so the earliest we will be back will be Wednesday. Luckily the kennels can keep Inca and Isla and there is nothing else urgent at home. A major bore but the first time in 46 years that I have had a magneto failure!
Everyone else arrived safely, having refuelled en route at another Serbian airport, and we then went out to a very jolly dinner organised by our Romanian pilot Eleonora before leaving for the countryside tomorrow morning. We split into two parties for the night. Miranda and I and three others are staying in Prince Charles’s Romanian house. Then back here on Saturday afternoon and the rest of the team will depart on Sunday while we amuse ourselves here but at first sight, Sibiu looks a jolly place.
Tirana to Belgrade 206 nm in 1 hr 40 min
Belgrade to Sibiu 197 nm in 1 hr 30 min