Hi,
I am a Polish C182 pilot flying quite a lot over Europe (just returned from Bari to Warsaw with LHPP refuel stop, has already been this year in Ostende, Bolzano, Vilnius and some other places),
I do all my flying within Europe with my Cessna if only possible (I can fly IFR up to FL 200)
I have never been to Ukraine with my plain, do not plan to be any soon.
I talked with number of Polish people who flew to Ukraine on private GA flights - and this has always been very very difficult and expensive,
For VFR you will require Ukrainian CA approvals, you need to land on international airport first (of course Odessa is), fees are horrendous (some guy paid EUR 500 for fees including 3 day parking), fuel is poor quality if any and expensive, you better speak Ukrainian or Russian,
in general - I strongly recommend you to go with commercial airline to Ukraine unless you really look for adventure and want to spend a lots of money,
kind regards,
Greg
Hi Greg,
Thank you for sharing. Yes I'm aware this might be a tricky task, it's a dream of mine since my wife is from there. It's for the adventure. I understand that this needs a lot of planning and perhaps also some precautions when the aircraft is parked so that neither plane nor items 'take wings'. I hope my wife could help since she knows someone at the airport. My plan would be to go via Constantia/Romania (which also needs some prearrangements, but probably much less) and top up as not to rely on fuel in Odessa which should be unavailable anyway (100LL).
Do you know what charts your Polish friends were using? Did they use an intermediary for their permissions?
Congratulations on your interesting trips by the way. I'm planning to going to Bari in September (from Hungary LHFM)
Cheers, Kero
P.S.: Your Polish AIP also states that place of first landing of international flights must be an airport of entry. Can you confirm this is true, even when coming from a Schengen country?