67 Zell Am Zee - Athens

11. Feb 2010

I spend all day Wednesday skiing in Zell Am Zee. Wow it is hard when you haven’t been doing it for a year. It took an hour or so getting used to even the modest slopes. Last Year I had the pleasure of skiing with fellow earthrounders on the invitation of Flemming Pedersen, who has a Chateau near to Lausanne in Switzerland.

While on the slopes of “Mitten” I had a call from ASOC – they wanted me to come for an interview at the Israeli Embassy in Athens in order for me to be allowed to fly into Israel!

So the next morning a left for the airport – a fantastic VFR only airport with a very friendly staff. They got the plane out of the hangar for me, so I could taxi to the fuel bowser. The staff could not take it the about 200 meter to the bowser because of snow, so I had to start up and taxi the distance – I was a bit concerned about that, because the temperature was minus 8 degrees. It is very hard on the starter.

But I got fuel, had coffee in my thermo and a freshly made sandwich from the restaurant in the airport. I paid the grand total of about 40 € for all the services. Very reasonable indeed!

It had been snowing the same morning, but the runway was cleared for me, so I could depart in what can be described a marginal VFR. It was misty, and I had to get to FL150 without hitting any of the surrounding mountains. I departed to the west and circled a few times to get up to a safe altitude before turning on course.

I called information  - but they could not find my flightplan. I had filed it through Naviair in Copenhagen, and they had confirmed it had been accepted.

So I stayed at FL 145 until I talked to an Italian controller, and I got on the IFR flightplan. After crossing the Alps, I descended to FL 130 and stayed here for the rest of the leg to Athens as the clouds almost came up to that altitude. That meant I had to use oxygen.

I had filed to Corfu, but as I entered Greek airspace, I requested to be allowed to continue to Athens International airport, as I calculated I just had enough fuel for it including the legal requirement for a reserve amount of fuel.

The permission was given “this time only”, and I approached Athens airport passing by Athens illumined in bright lights. On arrival Olympic Handling was waiting for me in an Audi 8 to take me the 100 meter drive to the terminal. The taxi’s in Athens was on strike, so Olympic kindly took me to the Metro station.

After a 30 minute ride with the Metro I was in the center of Athens.