Day 4 Brindisi - Iraklion - Alexandria
We had put a couple of extra days in the plan for Europe in case the weather held us up so we arranged our Middle East clearances accordingly. Since we did not get delayed by the weather we had a day off yesterday while waiting for the Egypt clearance to come through.
The weather was excellent this morning and we departed Brindisi a bit heavier due to the many pairs of shoes in the baggage compartment. We climbed to 7500ft and headed south. Greece seems to operate a system where VFR aircraft fly on QNH, even above the transition altitude, while IFR flights use 1013..seems like a receipe for disaster. The Greeks also really want VFR aircraft to use VFR reporting points. If flying in to Irakion you need to know where Deer Island is. We had a good tailwind and so arrived well ahead of schedule, had a quick refuel, and then set off for Egypt.
Egypt insists that one follows published routes and the minimum altitude is 8000ft. At the FIR boundary we climbed to 9500 and still managed a very healthy 155Kts ground speed. They cleared us VFR to Alexandria but on arrival instructed us to report established on the VOR/DME approach, a trap for the unwary!
We eventually got fuel and put the aircraft to bed for the night parked on one of the runways.
We have our Saudi clearance so we are off to Jeddah via Luxor tomorrow.