Category: 2017 – Albania & Romania

Avignon dawned fine and sunny but with a mistral; not the strongest we have taken off in but sufficiently strong to cause low level turbulence unto FL80. Staying at the airport meant that we only had five minutes walk to the airfield but we were delayed slightly by the Douanier being late “to control us” – apparently he had received a priority urgent call to do something else first.

Climbing to our cruising level of FL110 meant that we could see Corsica in the distance before leaving the coast of mainland France. The good departure weather soon became more cloudy as we went east catching up the cold front and once again a serious CB over Elba meant a course alteration to the south for avoidance.

This CB and its shower showed up well on the MFD with further rain shown over the Italian mainland.

By mainland Italy, we were largely in stratiform cloud but this became more convective with rain and the odd lightning flash seen both on the stormscope and in the cockpit with an increasingly bumpy ride and radio interference. At the FIR boundary, we gratefully accepted a descent into calmer conditions from Split Approach followed by vectors to the ILS and a landing in a gusty crosswind and rather hot and humid conditions.

Last time I was here was in 2005 with Humphrey catching up on an earlier PPL/IR Europe tour after being delayed by an alternator fault at Cannes. Then the airport was very quiet and we were parked in front of the terminal. Now it is very busy with holiday charter traffic and we were parked with a couple of other GA aircraft rather bigger than us off to the side. Fuel came quickly and we were efficiently looked after by the handling people who took us to the front of the passport queue for a quick exit to a taxi to our pleasant hotel in Trogir nearby (much nicer than the one that Humps and I stayed in before).

Out for an after flight beer in the old part of Trogir where we took refuge as a thunderstorm and rain broke overhead. So far, not much sign of holiday weather. Later we went out to dine at a recommended restaurant and got soaked getting there in anther thunderstorm!

We heard yesterday that Jim and Judi Thorpe have had some sort of an engine problem and see that they have returned to Gloucester today; we should have met them for dinner this evening but fear that they are now out of the trip. Tomorrow we have a short flight to Tirana where we meet up with the remaining aircraft and crews.

Avignon to Split 567 nm in 3hr 30 min

Having dropped our labradors Inca and Isla off at their kennels, we drove to Carlisle Airport and loaded G-TRJB ready for a takeoff at 1100Z (noon local time). Last minute weather checks showed a rash of showers in the Manchester area, a few further south in the Birmingham area, a clear Channel and then more showers over northern France.

We departed five minutes late and having filled main and tip tanks started a slow climb to FL110. This put us on top on most stuff but there were a rash of CBs over the Pennines with some spotted further to the south so on handover to Scottish Control, we requested a further climb to FL130. This cleared all the low and medium level cloud and enabled us more easily to plot a course through the buildups. The controllers were kept busy until the English Channel with everyone wanting weather deviations; we flew just west of Slough so had a splendid view of Heathrow Airport off to the left.

The cloud largely cleared over the Channel but built again over northern France although tops were not quite so high. Towards Avignon, the main cold frontal cloud came into sight and we landed on a damp airfield after a flight of just under 5 hours with the same temperature as at home (16ºC). Apart from about five minutes in heavy precipitation near Joe Iliffe’s airfield where we picked up a little ice, it was a generally smooth and problem free flight.

The phone started pinging on landing and we soon gathered that Goose has had three little puppies late this afternoon and one of our number for the trip has aircraft trouble and may not make it; that will be a real disappointment. We are staying in the Best Western hotel near the airport and were soon enjoying  a post flight beer looking at pictures of Goose and her pups.

Carlisle to Avignon: 768 nm in 4 hr 49 min

Our poor summer weather has continued into the first weeks of Autumn and tomorrow shows some distinctly unsettled weather for the first leg of our trip. There are two principal ways to Split where we meet up with the first of the other participants on Sunday evening; either south through France and then eastwards over Italy or SE’wards through Belgium, Germany and Austria before turning south along the Dalmatian coast. This second route requires a crossing of the Alps with possibly difficult flying conditions in the event of any frontal weather. Forecast charts earlier in the week suggested a fair amount of this so the decision was taken to route through France to a first night stop at Avignon, an old favourite of ours.  The forecast for tomorrow shows a couple of troughs and cold front en route with showers and occasional CB so potentially a tricky flight with a lowish freezing level albeit with some tailwind component. Life is made more complicated by the need to comply with a specified arrival time for customs at Avignon and an arrival slot time at Split on Sunday afternoon so last minute changes due to poor weather are difficult to manage.

Since the South African adventure in Spring 2016, Juliet Bravo’s flights have been of a more routine nature within the UK and Europe. However in few days time, I am embarking with other pilot friends on a trip to Albania and Romania and as this is a relatively unknown part of Europe for GA, it is perhaps worth a write up.

Seven aircraft are taking part ranging from a Cessna 303 and Twin Commanche through my Bonanza, a brace of TB20’s and a Cirrus SR20 to a Grumman Tiger which I used to own in earlier years. We all meet up in Tirana on Monday 11th September although individually some of us are foregathering at various places en route. We spend two full days in Albania before going on the Sibiu in Romania for three full days there. The trip which is organised under the auspices of PPL/IR Europe, an organisation promoting the interests of instrument rated pilots in Europe and encouraging pilots to acquire instrument flying abilities,  finishes on Sunday 17th September from whence we all make our way home.

Once again my wife Miranda is coming with me, with her sewing and a number of other wives are also coming with their husbands. Most of us all know each other well so we are looking forward to a jolly outing. Compared to Africa, preparation is relatively minimal but Albania requires all aircraft to get a landing permit in advance from its CAA and the lack of avgas at our destination field in Romania requires an element of forward fuel planning.