Advise about European trip

[skyflo]

Hi,

I'm a french pilot and I'm preparing a travel crossing these European countries:

-Italy
-Slovenia
-Hungary
-Slovakia
-Austria
-Czech Republic
-Poland
-Lithuania
-Latvia
-Estonia
-Finland
-Sweden
-Denmark
-Germany
-Netherlands
-Belgium
-United Kingdom
-Spain

I would be grateful if somebody who has experiences in one or more of these countries could give me some information about the good and bad surprised (cost of avgas, handling, landing fees) he has discovered.

Best regards and sorry for my poor english.

Florent

[Aim Far]

There wont be much room in the plane once you've got all the Bottlangs in:p

[Fujiflyer]

skyflo

Can you be more specific about the route you are considering and when you are thinking of doing it. It will likely get you much more feedback here.

Back to your question: as for the UK - generally quite a bit more formal than in France (for example ATC clearances are given explicitly), airspace is busier and landing costs quite a bit higher (do check these in advance because some aiports charge very high associated costs such as mandatory handling). AVgas is similarly priced (to France) at about 1.45 euros per litre.

Look forward to hearing more. I had a couple of good visits to LFSD in the last fortnight - they are very helpful,

Best Rgds

Rich :ok:

[skyflo]

Hi Rich,

For the moment, the route is not properly defined. I wait the chart for that !!! The departure will be the 27th september and the come back the 10th october. Here is the main project:

Departure from Dijon-Darois
1st step: France / Italy

2nd step: Italy / Slovenia

3rd step: Slovenia / Hungary / Slovakia

4th step: Slovakia / Austria

5th step: Autria / Czech Republic

6th step: Czech Republic / Poland

7th step: Poland / Lithuania / Latvia / Estonia

8th step: Estonia / Finland / Sweden

9th step: Sweden / Denmark / Germany

10th step: Germany / Netherlands / Belgium

11th step: Belgium / France / United Kingdom

12th step: United Kingdom / France

13th step: France / Spain

14th step: Spain / France
Arriving at Dijon-Darois

Here is the map of the project:
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/fv/i2a/francais/images/map.jpg

Rich if you go back to LFSD, send me an email before.
For Aim Far, no problem for the weight and place of the Bottlang, the plane is big enough ;-)

Best Regards,

Florent

[Radar]

skyflo,

Sounds like a fantastic trip. I flew Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Hungary and Czech Republic in June. Send me a private mail if you have specific questions. In any case, enjoy the trip. The Baltic states were quite a revelation.

[Aim Far]

Skyflo

Sorry for the flippant first response:)

Looks like a good trip.

If it helps:

Llubljana, Slovenia - I was in there in May in a light single and it was good value (which I rate as less than £25 for landing/handling and parking at a regional aiport) and GA friendly - has its own GA office in the main airport who provide handling. Don't remember the fuel costs but I think it wasn't much more than 1 Euro/litre

Austria - went to Salzburg, Linz and Graz - bit more expensive than Slovenia but still reasonable. Fuel not cheap. GA friendly. AIS and met on site.

There is an article by a Czech person in Pilot this month which comments on Czech, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland. Poland seems to be the difficult one.

Germany - fantastic place to fly - lots to see, relatively uncontrolled/unrestricted (compared to France!), expensive fuel (1.69 a litre at Konstanz), cheap landings (landing, handling and a week's parking at Frankfurt Hahn was less than 50 euros, also went to Lubeck which was good value)

Denmark - I only went into Roskilde which was good value but I think I wish I'd tried to pay a bit more and gone into Copenhagen because Roskilde is a bit of a hassle to get to. Again, though, GA friendly country with lots of unrestricted airspace. I think I got cheap fuel there because I was international.

Hope this helps. Write a report when you get back.

[AfricanEagle]

Regarding Italy:

In Rome you can choose between L'Urbe (LIRU) or Ciampino (LIRA).

L'Urbe is the GA airfield of the capital, 900m runway: avgas is currently 1.85 euro and airport taxes work out to about 27 euro for a < 2 ton aircraft. Not the best airport to stay at, lots of hassling security rules.

Ciampino is Rome's second airport, mostly charters: don't know current price of fuel (but not less than L'Urbe) and taxes should work out a bit cheaper, normally good service.

Naples is caotic, very busy, you'll have to phone ahead for parking permission, not GA friendly.

Salerno is a GA airport further south, Avgas 1.75 euro last sunday and taxes 26.00 euro

Depends if you are staying over in Rome for sight seeing or just refuelling. There are a couple of grass strips (600m) north and south of Rome that have avgas (1.70 euro) and no taxes.

If you arrive on a weekend I could organize for you to stopover at Latina Military (LIRL), taxes work out a bit cheaper.

Let me know if you need further info.

AE

[Radar]

Florent,

Spoke to a common friend of ours this evening (controller in Maastricht). Are you testing the aircraft or the contents??? Anyway, I've got charts for Estonia and Latvia if you're interested. Let me know and I'll pass them to the lady for you.

Bon chance!!!