Destination Geneva

[Sultan Ismail]

The Sultan seeks advice

The Sultan will be visiting the UK during May, and has the intention to fly a PA28 from Cambridge to Geneva.

Those of you who have done this sort of thing so often can therefore please advise me on my choice of route:

Cambridge - O/H Southend - O/H Manston - Amiens (land for "les douanes") - Dijon (comfort stop) - Geneva

The return follows same route.

Am I going the right way, and what should I be looking out for? My navigation style is 1 mill map and MkI eyeball.

Finally if any Ppruners are in Cambridge or Geneva between 10 and 18 May, and would like to meet up and swap stories with a "Far East" Ppruner please PM.


Thank you

Sultan Ismail

[2Donkeys]

Geneva is a nice destination, and very GA friendly.

Your likely general flight routing will be towards Reims, then down to Dijon, before heading into Geneva, probably around the corner by Bourg.

If you need a comfort break, a better bet than Amiens/Dijon would be Reims Prunay. Customs is available here by PPR and there is decent restaurant on the field.

Amiens is deserted much of the time, and somewhat of track.

As an aside, it is not clear from your posting why you feel the need for a dedicated customs stop anyway. You will have to clear customs going into Switzerland in any case (The GA Side of Geneva is technically in France, but your passport will be looked at by Swiss Customs too).

In any event, make sure that you file a flight plan for your VFR (I assume) leg into Geneva. Ad hoc VFR flights are regularly denied permission to enter the Geneva TMA if traffic conditions are busy. Check the weather too. Geneva applies strict VFR minima to visiting aircraft.

PM me if you want more details