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I am considering visiting the malta air rally this year, from the uk in a PA28, I have flown through france before but never italy, does anyone have any helpful hints or tips about routing vfr down the west coast and through scilly. Any info on which airfields are ga friendly would be especially useful. Many thanks.
Dear Jude,
As far as I know there aren't too many "friendly" GA airports in Italy.
About your trip I would suggest you to rech Italy from the French riviera. A fuel stop in St. Tropez (La Mole) would be nice and intresting (if you're not concerned, of course, of fuel prices which are incredibly high either in France and Italy). Once airborne from St. Tropez you'd just need to follow the coast VFR, passing over Genoa, Pisa, Rome, Naples, Reggio Calabria and then Sicily.
Even with a VFR flight plan you will be probably required by ATC to maintain 1000/2000 ft. AGL (actually flying IFR you could get a little higher clearance), especially near the Rome area in order not to disturb the Rome Fiumicino and Ciampino airport traffic.
I'd suggest you to make a fuel stop in Pisa (that's also a nice place to spend a couple of hours as the downtown is only minutes away from the airport). I would suggest you NOT to land neither in Rome Ciampino nor in Naples Capodichino as they're just busy airports with lots of police, paperwork etc. I'd rather suggest you to make fuel in Salerno Pontecagnano airport and then directly in Sicily (you'd better land in Catania rather than Palermo). From Catania you can probably make it to Malta: otherwise you could make another stop in Trapani Birgi airport.
Instead of the west coast of Italy, anyway, I'd suggest you to fly along the east coast which is actually more friendly and less congested from IFR traffic of big airports.
Arriving from France you could make a stop in Brescia-Montichiari airport. After that everything is fine: Fano is a very nice grass strip (I'm not sure about fuel availability), but you can land with no problems in Rimini, Pescara, Ancona. You could cross Italy VERY VERY south by maiing a stop in Lamezia Terme airport and then Catania, Sicily.
Before landing in each airport remember to make a phone call to each airport (just to make sure you'll have assistance with fuel, customs, parking). You can find all phone numbers in the AIP or (easyer) in the Jeppesen. You could also consider to buy a Jeppesen Bottlang trip kit for Italy.
Please let me know if you need further help.
Ciao
taralluccio
6th Jan 2004, 02:35
I also recommend a fuel stop in salerno pontecagnano as it is a GA only airport, then for the next stop you have to do a sad choice between reggio calabria (LICR) that is definitely a GA not welcome airport, and catania (LICC) which is one of the busiest airpost in italy (if you get there during peek time you can expect 30 min of circling out of the atz until you'll have to declare fuel emergency). You can't use lamezia terme (LICA) becouse they have no avgas.
bye;)
The point is (I suppose) not to make too many stops in order not to spend too much money with landing and parking fees and in order to avoid as much as possible unfriendly airports.
Let's assume that a fuel stop in Sicily (flying with a PA-28) is necessary: I imagine that Trapani is at the first place followed by Catania and Palermo.
I'm quite sure that a PA-28 can make a trip from Salerno Pontecagnano to Trapani or Catania: this means that the last part of the trip is almost planned.
Moving north we have Pisa and also Perugia (which is not on the coast but might be a choice if you're planning to arrive from Switzerland instead of France.
Jude: give us some more details about your trip so that we can help you a little more.
CIAO !
pinguino
6th Jan 2004, 20:05
I think that trapani birgi is a military airport and you nedd to apply for an authorization to land there. I also think the shortest route is salerno-reggio-malta or salerno-catania-malta.
ciao
:D
My fault...I forgot that Trapani was military airport...
The two choices Pinguino suggested seems to be the only available for a single-engine like the PA-28. Salerno-Reggio Calabria (or Catania)-Malta.
Thanks for the replies, i'm ordering the vfr charts and the jepps today. Once i've had a look at these i'll consider if i need the ifr charts too. On first impresssions it looks like we will be crossing from switzerland over the alps by the st gottard pass and landing at locarno, if we have good weather otherwise it will be round the med from france. I'll keep you posted once the planning progresses further. ciao
Locarno is a nice place and a nice airport too. May I suggest you (if you and your plane are both IFR) to fly IFR? Crossing the border to Italy from Switzerland in VFR you wil be required to maintain no more than 1000/1500 ft. AGL all over northern Italy.
From Locarno you could make it to Perugia and then Salerno. I suppose this would be the best route to reach southern italy and then Malta.
Keep us informed...
Having looked at the charts a little, a provisional route is :
Liverpool
Jersey
Avranches LFRW 80th Anniversary Flyin the weekend before
La Rochelle LFBH
Libourne LFDI
Condom LFID
Montpellier Candillargues LFNG
Cannes LFMD
Bastia (Corsica) LFKB
Pisa LIRP
Roma(Urbe) LIRU
Salerno LIRI
Lamenzia LICA
Cantina LICC
Valletta LMML
All this is at the very early stages of planning so open to change as I recieve more information. I'll post the return route soon.
Ciao
Your flight plan looks fine:
just a couple of notes:
DON'T LAND at Roma Urbe (LIRU): too many problems. Just avoid it and land at Perugia (LIRZ) which is just 60/70 miles north of Rome.
It looks quite a short trip from Pisa to Perugia so I'd suggest you to fly direct from Pisa to Salerno.
Don't land at Lamezia airport as there's no AVGAS available. I'd rather suggest you to fly direct from Salerno to Catania.
2 questions:
1) what is the estimated endurance of your pa-28?
2) what is your estimated endurance in flight?
Knowing, for example, that you're planning 2 or three hours long trips would help...
CIAO
C-47 Thanks for the advice, we were hoping to visit rome, is there a suitable airfield or shall we forget this and visit rome another time by schedule? We also hope to visit the town of pisa, and the area around sorrento, pompeii, capri etc so i guess we will night stop here and have a day on the ground. A provisionla route back is:
Valletta
Calabria LICR
Crontone LIBC
Bari LIBD
Pescara LIBP
Perugia LIRZ
Pisa LIRP (For Customs)
Locarno or Ladrino
Lausanne
Dijon
Our fuel endurance is 4hrs 30, but we prefer legs to be about 2hours, at most 3.
Ciao
Looks good !
Just one thing: if you're moving north via the west coast why, after Perugia, do you want to go back to Pisa?
I think it would be better to continue northbound and land, for example, in Bologna (LIPE), Brescia Montichiari (LIPO), or Bergamo (LIME).
About Rome: I am just saying that Rome Urbe is not a good airport to land. I'd suggest you to avoid it and rather land in Rome Ciampino (LIRA): it might be a little more expansive but you'd probably find there a better service. Give 'em a call so that you can know in advance landing fees etc. .
CIAO
The entry forms and the vfr charts have arrived, so will get down to more detailed planning next week. Is there an italian ais web site where i can access notams etc, as i plan to take a laptop with me enroute.
Ciao