Here goes my take at the fuller report…
I read something in a certain free speech aviation forum about the airport at Elba needing help and demonstration that GA traffic can be significant….so when some forumites suggested getting together at such a place for the weekend of 15th+16th the temptation could not be resisted.
Agenda checked and all fine, except that my friend Cecilio had planned to come from Spain’s mainland to spend the weekend at our place in Mallorca. I spoke to him suggesting we postpone his visit so we could instead go to Elba that weekend and the surprising answer came: can I still fly to Mallorca (commercial) then on to Elba and back with you guys? Counting myself and our two kids I had three spare seats so of course yes…the more the merrier, and even better since costs would be shared.
My historian teenage daughter is very interested in Napoleon’s history (which as we all know ended with his forced command of the “empire” of Elba) and our boy is always happy to fly so we would be a party of four.
Wx seemed very good except for the 35+C expected at SL at Elba , with a bit of tailwind on the outbound trip and the correspondingly stronger headwind on the way back. Factoring the mandatory dogleg due to airspace restrictions
, and adding 10 mins for the approach into Elba, this would be about 2.5 hrs outbound plus 2.75 return or an estimated total of 5.25 . We thus decided to carry enough fuel for the unrefuelled return or a total of about 6.25h plus .75h mins hold to avoid high fuel costs at Elba. Well, maybe this is not such a good idea if we are trying to help the airport, but we do have some budgetary limits to try and take care of and since useful load allowed…
So with hangar, rental car and hotel booked (in that order, of course) , once all pax and cold drinks were onboard
we set off from LESB at a reasonable morning hour of around 0900
Departing Mallorca VFR
After about 10 mins at low level we were cleared IFR to our cruise level of FL200. THis was selected because of the slightly more favourable wind and for added safety during the longish (180nm) crossing between Menorca and Sardinia. With our moderate 33nm glide from cruise, this would still leave 115nm or about 35 mins out of dry gliding range during the crossing. Not that there was any immediate risk of hypothermia if we were to swim in the warm mediterranean waters at over 25C, but better dry than wet.
Once established in the cruise, tailwind varied between 5-15 kts so nothing to brag about. The hot ISA+20 day meant engine temps had to be watched but a 65% LOP cruise seemed to work reasonably well with about 185KTAS and a GS of 190-205 with the heavy fuel load. Not that we wanted a higher cruise than 65% anyway since we wanted to preserve our fuel for the headwind return .
Cruise was uneventful and soon enough after leaving Menorca , Sardinia became visible and we overflew Olbia airport where no fewer than a couple dozen small jets populated the ramp
ATC then cleared us for the Northbound turn inbound Elba and our descent was started so could be at low level for a small tour of the island prior to landing.
After passing the famous island of Montecristo
Elba appeared on the horizon surrounded by some low-level cloud which threatened to affect the visual approach
as we got closer, we decided to circumnavigate the island clockwise for some low-level exploration before the southbound approach on R18
Marciana Marina
Overflying Spiaggia di Procchio for the N-S island crossing for the visual approach for R18
closely guarded by some terrain but fortunately low cloud proved not to be an issue
the roll-out on final is at quite a low level…talk about a stabilized approach!
The hangars available for transiting aircraft are visible to the left of R18
After landing we backtracked to our booked hangar where we were met by the airport personnel who assisted us in parking the aircraft inside and later gave us the longish ride back to the terminal.
The hangars are a kind of tent with a loose gravel floor retained by the same plastic honeycomb as used on the sand parking. Adequate but nothing fancy.
All in all 449nm flown at 178KT avg GS in 2.5 hrs with 45USG fuel used. This left us 64 USG for the return, which may or may not be sufficient….hmmm
Will continue the report on another break.
The meeting’s objective was more than attained with over 50 aircraft in attendance on the “ramp” at LIRJ. Somehow a lot of aviators got wind of EuroGA’s plan and it seems half of all Italian GA showed up at at Elba. Ironically, the boss’ aircraft went tech on the morning of the trip and he had to cancel. He was only able to fix it one day later.
As to EuroGA members themselves, a total of 10 people and four aircraft were in attendance, as reported earlier. The boss’ hangar spot (next to our own) as well as some of his other booked services remained vacant…
IN fact a fifth EuroGA member flew to Elba that day but for some reason we could not make contact.
As usual the ad-hoc Telegram group proved useful for us to get together in the evening and one of the members graciously booked …(what else? ) …a gorgeous fish dinner, which is quickly becoming the trade-mark of EuroGA meet-ups! @aart, you are going to have a hard time at that for La Cerdanya!
However, we had landed around noon and after getting our rental car our Mediterranean tummies had more short-term interest in lunch…Apparently the place to go for good meals at Marina di Campo is Da Piero but it was fully booked for both dinner and lunch, bummer! Good thing somebody had managed to book dinner elsewhere. IN fact the whole island seemed fully booked. By chance we went into Da Piero’s pastry chef at the airport (don’t ask how it happened) and asked her for help in booking a table for lunch…what time she asked…
Well, like…now? No way, but, her boyfriend was the chef at La Lucciola, also at the beach at Marina di Campo. Through her intermediation, and despite being fully booked too, taking advantage of some late-arriving customers he booked us the best table at the place…it does not get more Italian than that…hurray!
The place was exactly as we were expecting. Accompanying the chef, the welcome party was the most impressive live Mediterranean lobster you have ever seen plus all its buddies…
but for our lunch we settled for its more appropriately sized (and prized) companion
which promptly thereafter formed part of a delicious pasta dish
…it does not get any fresher than that!
For the evening we had some drinks with the group and then the famous group dinner at KonTiki that we already posted a picture of. I’ll just post the fish menu for your enjoyment…
While discussing with our fellow Eurogaer’s we also learnt the reason for our non-stabilized approach to R18 at LIRJ was we were too high. This is the view on short finals from a colleague doing the proper approach…or so he says…
(hopefully he’s OK for me disclosing this) Anyway I’m not buying the idea of this approach…I prefer 100ft higher even if less stabilized…
Oh, well, after a few more drinks he confessed to this view resulting from his trying to drive the rental scooter on finals, rather than his winged vehicle…
The next day it was time for some history lessons and we visited both Napoleon’s dream home in the countrysinde inland from Portoferraio as well as his government home at Portoferraio itself.
Soon, after a simple pizza lunch, it came time to head back to the airport and while planning, it became apparent the headwind was a lot stronger than previously forecast. Darn! THe prior day our ISA+20 climb had used some more fuel than we had planned, so now our remaining 64USG was not enough for the return with our desired 1 hr reserve (our alternate is 1 min away from destination and wx was good)…more like 45 mins which is a bit tight for my comfort. So we decided to head for the pumps for some expensive fuel that we prepaid at the C-office since we knew exact amount…just 8USG, but enough to regain our comfort.
The headwind of 35-45KTS was similar at all altitudes above FL100 and for the reasons I explained I did not fancy crossing the open sea lower than that, so we ended up returning at FL190 for efficiency, resulting in about 190KTAS at 69% pwr /15.5 GPH and on a similar dogleg route as the inbound trip. No use flying any slower in the headwind.
There was some med-high level cloud enroute but no organized wx system that we had to fight or icing to take care of
so after 3 hrs we landed safely back home, and, as the pic shows…
satisfied and with a fuller tummy! Time for more swimming sessions!
Avg speed was 146 KTS GS and we landed with 21USG remaining, or enough for 2 hrs hold. We would have landed safely with over 1 hr reserve had we not refuelled…
In retrospect, we could have anyway filed with Menorca as the alternate and when overhead Menorca make a decision to continue or land and refuel, avoiding the need for extra contingency fuel…maybe next time!
Another great trip, and other than the well known caveat about the sandy ramp (manageable by booking a hangar, but try phone, don’t expect email answer in summer, they are too busy!) a beautiful historic island and a nice airport with an interesting approach, fine as long as wx remains VFR!
PS: My friend Cecilio has now converted to the GA religion!
PS2: I dont know how much EuroGA helped with that , but the airport employees told us the airport’s future was no longer at risk and Silver Air was happily operating its Turbolets without a need for more runway….hopefully LIRJ can continue to serve the island for years to come!
Great report Antonio 
I was very sorry to have missed this meet-up. One of the very rare AOG cases – only 1 or 2 over 21 years.
Wonderful report Antonio, thank you. What a capable machine.
As to the La Cerdanya fly in, indeed won’t be able to get us that kind of fish. But we do have a special attraction which I will uncover early Sept when we open up the Telegram Group.
Looks like a wonderful trip! Thanks for writing it up!
Peter wrote:
sorry to have missed
We missed you too, but you more than made up for the missed EuroGA fish with Mali Losijn!
aart wrote:
we do have a special attraction
You are setting expectations stratopherically high for that meet-up!
If we continue at this pace one of the key tick points for the unofficial and soon-to-be developed advanced PPL EuroGA license is going to be two EuroGA meet-up attendances. One attendance per year for currency or if currency lost then you need to organize the next meet-up for renewal ;)))
