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Move somewhere warm, and GA friendly. Is a Greek dream even possible?

My wife and I are starting to think about moving away from rainy, cold England to somewhere in Europe that is warmer and sunnier. We have a bit of a habit of moving every 7 to 10 years to a new country. Now in our early 60s we have lived in the USA, Hong Kong, Switzerland and England, so it’s time for a new adventure, and we have always promised ourselves that one day we would live near the ocean.

The challenge is that I love flying, and my wife is a great supporter of my passion. So we need to find somewhere that we can realistically base a GA aircraft nearby. We have been flying a Malibu Mirage for the last 6 years, it’s the ideal plane for our kind of flying. Given the lack of Avgas in many warmer parts of Europe I would readily trade this for the Jetprop (turbine) version.

Fiscally speaking Greece, Italy or possibly Portugal would be the best candidates.

Over Christmas Therese has expressed a passion for Corfu in Greece However, I have just spent a very depressing few hours reading through all the posts on EuroGA on the difficulty and cost of accessing LGKR, Corfu Airport, and indeed at any of the Greek Island airports. So far it seems it would be impossible to park at Corfu for more than 3 or 4 days, let alone all year! And there is no maintenance.

Question for any Greek based GA pilots here. How do you plan your use of GA aircraft in Greece? Assuming you want an airport with hangarage or long term parking and maintenance facilities, does that mean you are limited only to Athens Megara, and making occasional trips to an island? Or are there any other airports/Islands where it is feasible to base an aircraft? At somewhere like Corfu or Kythera (which Peter talks about), might it be possible to arrange a deal with airport management to base an GA aircraft there long term?

Upper Harford private strip UK, near EGBJ, United Kingdom

Having experience with Greek bureaucracy, I would suggest one of your other two options.

Unless of course your name is Asterix and you want to obtain a copy of permit number 838.

ESME, ESMS

Maybe Malta or Croatia ?

Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom

There are fiscal advantages to people drawing a pension in Portugal, and the GA scene is quite functional I believe.

Oxford (EGTK), United Kingdom

Justine often talks about moving to Greece, maybe for a part of the year. Unlikely to ever actually happen but it’s a fun dream

If I was to do that, I would choose Sitia LGST on Crete every time. Customs, Immigration, Port of Entry. It’s a nice town too. Crete is a decent size place, with loads of places to visit. A PA46 can reach N Italy from there so you could go skiing

Other choices would be Syros LGSO which has 100LL but is not a port of entry. You would need to stop at LGIO, LGKV etc for PoE but neither has 100LL.

Kithira LGKC is beautiful and great for a totally laid back life and most curiously is a PoE but no fuel. Lots of other islands are also beautiful and laid back but no fuel and no PoE; examples too many to mention and we’ve been to many of them – see my trips.

Corfu LGKR would be a very expensive base (perhaps €150 per movement, and lots of €€€€€ for parking; Greek govt officials and other recipients of backhanders from N Europe keep their bizjets there) but again it has all the facilities. The island is OK once you get away from the tourist parts which are rather crappy, including the food. Been there many times, in the pre-Fraport takeover days.

Iraklion LGIR on Crete also has everything (probably very expensive as a base though) but the town is horrible. One Cretan described it as the worst town in Greece. The area outside is nice though, though not IMHO as nice as the eastern end of Crete (Sitia).

There is no hangarage anywhere in Greece except at some private strip, of which there are a few, but probably none have 100LL or PoE. So your plane will rot pretty fast, both in the summer from the UV taking the paint off, and in the winter from the rain and salt. There are stories of drums of 100LL being stored behind bushes in a few places

There is Megara LGMG near Athens and most Greek GA is based there and there may be hangarage but I have never been there so can’t say. But you probably don’t want to move to Greece to live in Athens

Remember Greece does have a cold and wet winter. The metars are just like EGKK a lot of the time, albeit a few degrees warmer. The winter is just shorter than the UK’s.

Greece – the nice parts at least – is not as “functional” as the UK and you will need to have your own projects and be quite “self contained”, and living there is nothing like visiting as a tourist in term of local officialdom etc. The people are however really friendly; our experience of Greeks is 100% which cannot be said for anywhere else we have been to. Maintenance is likely to be a nightmare, which is probably why all Greek GA I have seen is “simple” types, abandoned wrecks, or they are based at Megara. For anything of significance you fly to N Europe, though Slovenia has good facilities IIRC.

A Jet-A1 burner would make life a lot easier, but much depends on what you want to do in terms of travel. Most of the holiday-trade islands (which all have Jet-A1) have had the Fraport takeover and cost into 3 digits for a quick stop.

A decent cabin cruiser (50k+) will be a must, too. From Sitia, lots of islands are nearby.

Greeks here are mainly @petakas @atmilatos @MedFlyer and a few others I can’t remember.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

I believe Robert is correct on both accounts.

I suppose somewhere warm means the southern part of Portugal.

From my own (limited) experience:

Portimao, Algarve region. Smallish aerodrome, but very friendly. Not sure about hangarage though. No instrument appch.

Cascais near Lisbon. Proper airport, VOR appch (really enough for the prevailing weather there, and in the odd case of very marginal weather, Lisbon is very near).

The only thing against Portugal is that of course you are really at the outskirts of Europe, and if the plan is to travel to (middle) Europe extensively, that’s a little inconvenient. But then again, who cares if you both like flying. And the Iberian peninsula of course has a lot to offer.

Private field, Mallorca, Spain

Having lived in several European countries and a few more around the globe, I would suggest in descending order:
- Portugal: great local GA scene, many airfields, fiscal advantages, but of course very much on the periphery
- Spain: if you find the right place, very pleasant to live, but steer clear of the expat traps like the Costa del Sol. Good GA flying in general, but rather few airports, the scene is more geared towards UL. Bureaucracy can be, ahem, challenging….
- Italy IME somewhat similar to Spain, @Bosco should be able to tell you more about the fiscal situation (in short: not good); not as ‘warm’ as some people might expect, other than the deep south, but you wouldn’t want to live there
- Croatia: only know that it’s beautiful and rather central from a European POV; also not ‘warm’ year-round
- Greece – frankly, I couldn’t think of a single upside

It’s not easy to say for any Mediterranean country that’s extremely GA friendly but, in my experience, Greece is at the bottom of the list, especially for the base aircrafts. Occasional visits, although can be complicated and expensive, are still feasible and I’ll continue to make trips to Greece. I would definitely choose Spain over Portugal (although I like Portugal a lot) because there are much more possibilities, the weather in general is better and it’s bit closer to the rest of Europe. I guess South France should be OK, Italy as well, although it would be better if one of the locals could comment. Regarding Croatia, the problem is hangarage – I’m not aware of any available on the coastal airports. Living inland anywhere except Zagreb is hard to recommend and in general there are just few airports and hangarage options are very scarce.

Last Edited by Emir at 03 Jan 17:54
LDZA LDVA, Croatia

Peter wrote:

If I was to do that, I would choose Sitia LGST on Crete every time

Well, thats an idea Peter. Definitely on the itinerary for the spring/summer reccy trip.

BTW – did you know Crete has skiing. Check this out:

Skiing Crete

and

Youtube Crete Ski Touring!

and

Ski, Swim, Hike – same day. Crete!

Upper Harford private strip UK, near EGBJ, United Kingdom

And thank you Peter, Dimme, RobertL, aart and Emir for all the great input.

Upper Harford private strip UK, near EGBJ, United Kingdom
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