Turbulence at Athens International(Venizelos Airport)

[aleech]

I was told by a pilot that there are problems landing at Athens Venizelos Airport. That the surrounding mountains enhance and increase
the prevailing winds and channel a crosswind, cyclical in nature, across the approach to the runway. He said pilots from the local private airfields had mentioned this often, but were ignored.

Since the airport was opened every passenger I have collected or talked to has complained of bad turbulence before landing. I was particularly impressed when a close friend told me her landing had been exceptionally
turbulent, at a time when only winds of around 5mph were officially
reported in the area.

I am interested in the opinions of pilots, who have landed at this airport, on this matter and how they view the problem, if one exists.

Thanking you,
Andrew Leech

([email protected])

[greg1]

Hi Andrew,

I have heard that the main problem is the southerly tailwinds on approach to 03L until around 4DME on the ILS when you finally "tune" to the local northerly winds. Hence: winshear alerts all the time!

Have not heard the other one. "Local private airfields" pilots could only have been from Marathon airfield (LGMR) which is now closed. They couldn't have legally flown over what has now become LGAV (and certainly not below 3000ft while they were buliding the airport) as there was never any VFR routes through there. The only other private airfiled (well, AFB actually) in the area is Tatoi (LGTT), quite a way to the northwest, and you could bend the VFR route to fly over Spata (at 3000ft) going east/southeast for the Aegean.

Hope this helps. Cheers!

[gr_ppl]

As an owner of Greek light metal I can contribute the following:

1. History. LGMR has (sadly) indeed closed, but all its activities have been transfered to the old Athens int'l (LGAT). While at LGMR we used to train on what has now become final of 21 at Venizelos (LGAV). We also used to overfly LGAV at 2,000 (it was still under construction), as long as we told Athens Information, the Greek flight-following service. When we moved to LGAT and before LGAV became operational, the local VFR route crossed the long final of LGAV 03 on the way to the Aegean. Naturally, now we are not allowed to even think of getting anywhere near LGAV, the new VFR route takes us on an excessively long diversion around the island of Aegina.

2. On none of the above occasions had I felt any particular turbulence near or above LGAV. But both I and other PPLs who have flown as passengers to LGAV have observed excessive turbulence on the final to 03. I have noticed excessive yaw (wing dropping and abrupt pilot corrections, and these are big birds...), passengers using the sick-bag, and generally an excessive pax nervousness. On two occasions I bet my PPL that we would do a go-around, but I lost on both occasions

[CaptA320]

Yes there is some turbulence but not to the extent you mention. Mostly due to the prevailing terrain (ie surrounding mountains and hills) on final to 03L. Still I believe it's much better than LGAT 33R when the wind was blowing from 030 or so.

[gr_ppl]

I guess pax get nervous due to lack of familiarity with the approach scenery (and I get nervous due to lack of familiarity with type!).