route planning - your suggestions welcome

[D SQDRN 97th IOTC]

I plan to go from Shoreham to Stockholm end of July, and to come back early august. Will take an Aztec twin.

Any suggestions for the route - or matters I should take into consideration - would be gratefully received?

And should I believe all that I have been told about swedish women?

[BackPacker]

Lots of water crossings to get there. Are you planning to take the shortest route to Stockholm and back, never mind the water crossings, or are you going to plot a route so that you are feet dry most of the way?

Furthermore, do you plan on making use of the maximum range of the Aztec (and what's that, exactly) with refueling stops only or are you going to short-ish, two hour legs with long leg-stretch & lunch breaks in between?

IFR or VFR?

[david viewing]

I'm planning a similar trip to Helsinki in July (Warrior, VFR), a repeat of the trip I made last year. I went Den Helder (v. expensive! - go to Texel next time) - Aarhus (superb) - Vasteras (superb) - Malmi / Helsinki (superb and good facilities).

Also visited Bromma (expensive but right in the city and very helpful) and Visby Island (beautiful location). Also Malmo (miles from the city) and a private strip near Gotenburg.

The main issue this year seems to be the ELT in Amsterdam FIR. It's hard to avoid Holland. Does anyone have current experience of the situation? Can exemptions be obtained? Has anyone had an FPL refused or been challenged over this?

The decision to fit mode S was finally catalysed a couple of years back by the need to fly in Holland, but I'm not nearly so sure about the usefulness of ELT when I have much more survivable (over water) PLB.

Main tip about Sweden is to buy a landing season ticket if you are going to be touring. Superb country to fly - second only to US in my experience. Once you are in Scandinavia no further formalities are required and you can route from, as I did, Denmark direct to a private field in Sweden. (FPL required of course).

It's true about the Swedish women. What were you told?

[IO540]

Assuming this is VFR (??) you get the VFR charts and plan a route OCAS.

Plan a 2nd route which needs CAS transits by all means but you may not get some of them.

That's how VFR works.

I am sorry but I don't see the problem - anybody with a PPL should know this, especially if flying a tank like an Aztec :)

Then you get the weather and notams, sort out airport PPR, avgas, etc, and go.

IFR, and working out Eurocontrol routings, is a different proposition.