Flight to Morocco
 

I am thinking about flying to Marrakesh this year in August (yes I know it will be particularly hot then!!). I would be interested to hear from anyone who has flown in Morocco and especially to Marrakesh for any information, experiences etc.
Mike Glazer
Cirrus SR22

Done that a few times, have a look at this old post
Only thing to add would be avoid GMTN (Tetouan), a right royal pain in the a** and this rubbish dump of a place isn't worth going anyway.

Morocco
 

Many thanks for the useful info. Where do you suggest I obtain the necessary VFR maps for Morocco?
Mike

Mike, will you be flying your own (or club) a/c or be renting in southern Spain ? In case of the latter, Aerodynamics and AFAIK Fly-in-Spain provide them. If not, let me know, should be able to help.

Morocco
 

I shall be flying my own aircraft (Cirrus SR22) with myself+2. Thanks for the offer of help!

Mike

anyway i would recommend you get in contact with Fly-In-Spain, as they are specializing in flights to Marocco and can provide you with some help;)
http://www.fly-in-international.com/...o.php?navid=16

I fly a citation in Morroco, albeit IFR but i would strongly suggest that you get handling if its not already mandatory.

Tangiers is worth a look, they have an aero club, avgas and probably the best bazars in north africa. Its the northern most airfield in Morroco

Also have lots of small denomination notes handy to grease the wheels of industry :rolleyes:

Morocco
 

Many thanks. I have now sent an email to Fly in Spain.

Mike

Did Morocco last September, visiting Tanger, Marrakech, Fez, then Tetouan.

Current VFR charts are the 1996 :eek: edition US "TPC" charts. Pooleys sell them, I think Transair do too. The airspace is well out of date though, but the info is available at the Tanger Flight planning office. The Jepp S Spain chart covers down to Tanger, my recommendation would be to go there 1st, and spend an hour in flight planning, the guys there are really helpful.

Flightplans are mandatory, and you are expected to fly standard VFR routes via VRP's - few of which are marked on the TPC charts but all are available from Tanger. Strangely, a lot of the VRP's seem to be in restricted areas, but apparently they are nearly always inactive.

Tanger to Marrakech the VRP's are Tanger-IBDIR-TIFLET-LEMDI-NEKTI-MAK-Marrakech. Marrakeck to Fez was back to TIFLET then MEKNES-SAISS(Fez). Fez to Tetouan via the Atlas mountains was SAISS-Dar Zwitna-DORDRA-Tetouan. Can provide coordinates for all the VRP's if they'd be helpful, but suggest you get the TPC charts 1st.

Each of the 4 airfields we visited had fuel, though the fuel at Tetouan is hand-pumped from a 45 gallon can. Payment invariably had to be in cash, but they would only accept Euros, and never had any change :rolleyes: We withdrew a huge wedge of local dosh (Dirhams) at Tanger to pay for fuel etc, but nobody but the Souk's would take it

Three of airfields were extremely friendly; Marrakech was the exception, but they were courteous enough (just). Didn't have any problems whatsoever with officialdom, though you can expect to be filling immigration/customs forms in triplicate at each destination - even for internal flights.

Of all the places we went, Fez was by far the most interesting. If you go to the Medina there do take a guide or you will get lost. It is possible to wander around the Medina's at Tanger and Marrakech (both of which are smaller) without getting too lost.

Once south of Tanger, the scenery is stunning, particularly in the Atlas mountains. A fabulous flying destination IMHO

M9

A couple of pics of said Atlas mountains...
http://i10.tinypic.com/4d1znuq.jpg
http://i9.tinypic.com/2gsedec.jpg

The traditional way for the 3rd world (like Greece :) ) where there are no VFR charts, is the U.S. TPC or ONC charts. These were last updated c. 1998 and the only CAS they contain are the danger areas (out of date of course).

Then buy the Jepp IFR (airways) charts and transpose the CAS shapes from them onto the ONC charts. Or you can do it from Navbox; it shows a bit of Morroco.

Actually in this case you can get Jepp "VFR/GPS" charts all the way to the end of Spain, so there is only Morroco left to do.

Morocco
 

Lots of useful advice. Many thanks. It looks quite a challenge so should be an interesting trip. Lots of suncream will be needed I guess!
Mike

Hello there!

Pardon my ignorance, what do TPC, ONC and CAS stand for?


Thanks

TPC and ONC are American US Air Force aviation charts, which as far as I know are no longer updated, but are still available.

CAS is controlled airspace, which for VFR is Class D,C,B,A

Sorry this is a bit aside I'll be doing my Duke Of Edinburgh Gold award based in Marakesh in july this year. Have a great trip I will hopefully
David

posting images
 

can someone here enlighten me on how to post images :confused: tried via Flickr, but that didn't work :ugh:

I use tinypics. Once you've uploaded the image just paste the supplied URL between the "[IMG]" and the "[/IMG]"

Mariner9, thanks :ok:

Here's what the dunes at Erg Shebbi look like from about 1000 ft

http://i10.tinypic.com/4c238yh.jpg

I flew VFR around Morocco in September, pretty straightforward. For maps I just brought a road map and marked up the VFR reporting points for each leg, using the charts in each airport's planning office. I also took digi photos of these maps for planning. Pm me if you want a list of VFR points coordinates and the map photos.

Marrakech was disappointing, other cities much more attractive. If I were going again I wouldnt bother with Marrakech - too many tourists!

Btw those Atlas mountains are high - take care.

Very nice pics - I am going later in 2007.