Flying in Egypt

[5lippery]

Hi All

I go off on holiday to Egypt (Sharm) next week and thought I would try to find a plane to hire. I am a low hour PPL and was thinking of hiring a plane and a chaperone instructor to give me some overseas experience.

I cant seem to find any flying schools or airstrips in the Sharm area. Any ideas guys?

Slip.

[IO540]

Last time I looked at Egypt (2008) there was no avgas at Sharm so in theory there won't be any conventional light GA there.

The only avgas is Luxor, one airport I don't recall near the coast near Israel, a military airport near Cairo called 6th October (need special permission), and Aswan (no avgas but one can get it from the military, according to a pilot I know who has done it).

Egypt isn't like the UK :)

[gasax]

From recollections of convesations with a friend who worked there - VFR flight is only allowed in the airways and must be flight planned.

The lowest airway is around 8000 ft so 'sight seeing' is pretty limited. 'Pleasure flying' is usually leaving the place..............

[5lippery]

Thanks for the replies guys. That explains why I cant find anything there.

I'll wait until I am in a different country.

Slip

[IO540]

I've been to Luxor twice (airline) and Cairo and to be honest there is nothing to see in Egypt from the air - outside of a very few spots.

The pyramids are in Cairo, not outside in the desert. But I know of people who were allowed to fly an orbit around them while transiting, so some unofficial things are possible - like refuelling at "6th October". But once you have seen the pyramids you have seen the pyramids... the main advantage of doing it from the air (IMHO) is that you don't get ripped off some euros for using a toilet.

Luxor is much better but to see e.g. Karnak Palace you would need to be very low. I think I saw somebody doing pleasure flights, but it may have been something else "piston".

The rest of Egypt is totally barren - hundreds of miles of absolutely nothing, zilch, zero. Many hours flying. Better bring some serious survival gear, with food etc.

Getting permissions is possible only via overflight agents who "arrange" stuff like visas and overflight permissions by "lubricating" "contacts" in their government. That's how Egypt runs.

[Oldpilot55]

This is absolutely irrelevant but 26 years ago I did a hydrographic survey in the delta and there were (Polish, I think) crop sprayers working in the area. We had mega problems getting up and down the river due to water hyacinth. The sprayers did their biz ( I watched them spraying, fortunately from the bank, they were ultra low, 5 feet or less) and within a couple of days night had become day, what had taken us days to criss cross could now be done in a few hours.
On an even more irrelevant note I remember seeing an airstrip full of abandoned small planes but I was unable to identify what they were. No one throws anything away in Egypt. They are probably still there although I can't find the strip on Google.
I would be very, very surprised if there was anything GA in Egypt but its always nice to be proved wrong.

[Sam Rutherford]

I've flown through Egypt twice in the last 12 months (part of a Brussels-Cape Town-Brussels).

Only 'normal' avgas suppliers are Luxor and 6 Oct. You have to fly airways (they get REALLY unhappy if you try any short cut :O), and all at FL080 or above. One nice thing, almost regardless of your routing you end up on the airway between 6 Oct and Cairo, which is a direct overhead the pyramids!

If you want to go, Mike at White Rose can help you out.

Bring lots of USD for the Egyption system - handling alone at each stop (not including fuel or anything useful) will be USD400-500! :rolleyes:

It was the most expensive country by a long shot of our entire trip.

Safe flights, Sam.