VFR Flight to Dubrovnik via Vilshofen, Pula and back via Lido di Venezia

Just returned from escapade down the Adria, had an excellent week with fantastic flight weather. Day one 5 machines – D-ELKC (PA28 Archer III), D-EWLH (C172SP), D-ELBE (C182), D-EDRJ (C182) and D-ECNZ (Marchetti 205R) headed from Hamm stopping off at Vilshofen to clear border controls as Croatia is a non Schengen member. What surprised me is that each aircraft was charged €1 for having the Border Police appear (even though the Border Police themselves don’t charge for attending) and 50c for “AIS services” – whatever that was – after all, we filed our flight plans online, we could have had them opened via Munich Information once airborne. Possibly having a landing fee of €12 and more might put some pilots off so perhaps these “charges” are added in order not to frighten off the locals. Having said that, fuel was horrendously expensive there as well, although not quiet as bad as Italy.

The Wasserkuppe, previously a Cold War listening post, now a popular location for Gliders.

Vilshofen Airfield

As the Austrian GAFOR was showing “open” across the country, I took off from Vilshofen, headed south and crossed the border into Austria intending to follow the Salzburg – Tauern Autobahn route, other colleagues chose to fly further east and head via Zeltweg – Klagenfurth. However, IFR procedures were announced in the Salzburg area, I was advised that this could delay me in the Delta airspace over the Aiirport so decided to climb to FL100 and passed over Ried / Kirchheim in order to stay clear of controlled airspace. My route south took me between the Mond and the Atter See, over the Wolfgang See, past Radstadt where I turned slightly east and a little later headed south down a valley between the Gamskarlpass and the Kalkspitze. Once over Mauterndorf I turned west and then joined the Tauernautobahn before it passed under the Katschberg and followed this past Gmund to Villach, where I turned south-east to join the VFR route through Slovenia beginning at Nipel.

crossing the border from Germany to Austria.

Villach at the bottom of the picture with Klagenfurt and the airport visible in the background.

Slovenia was easy to fly with no complications and before I knew it, Trieste appeared on the right and I was being handed over to Croatian ATC who had me fly down the eastern coast of the peninsular where Pula is located and suddenly, the first day’s flying was over: EDLH – EDMV – LDPL in 04:42. Services at the airport were prompt, fuelling was quick and simple with an approximate price of €2,24 / litre for Avgas 100LL, landing fees including handling and overnight parking were around €41.50. We had previously faxed our passport / ID details to border controls so immigration went without a hitch. Our Hotel was the Hotel Riviera which is a grand Hotel but unfortunately a lack of maintenance has meant that it has started to lose it’s grandeur, however with a position right next to the Amphitheater and close to the City, it was ideal to allow us to explore the city of Pula.

A nice gesture in the baggage reclaim hall….. (look at the arrivals screen)

The Amphitheater

The Stone Archway which signified the entry to the walled city

Temple of Augustus

Around 1pm we submitted our flight plans and around 2pm we then set off and headed down the Adria 1 to our destination, Dubrovnik. The flight itself was uneventful except for the fact that we were kept at a low altitude (max 2000 feet even though we requested higher) and 02:11 later we arrived in Dubrovnik. Once more, the Croatian ground services were excellent, very prompt and fuel cost around €2,21 / liter. Transfer to our Hotel was via taxi, we chose the hotel Adriatic which was outside of the centre of town but it had a number of points which made it “best choice” – it’s reasonable in price, the rooms are airconditioned and in good maintenance, you are very close to the water if you fancy a swim (which was freezing when I went for a dip) and the bus line 4 stops right outside the Hotel to take you into town. However it has one small drawback – no lifts – so if you get a room on the 4th floor, you’d best enjoy climbing stairs….

We stayed 2 days in Dubrovnik, paid €120 for a 1.5 hour guided tour of the old walled city, which was highly interesting, covering the days when the Venecians were the de facto rulers because of their trade, the fact that Dubrovnik used to be an island and really opened our eyes to the challenges which Croatia faced, including the balkan conquest in recent history. Food was excellent – we ate at Moby Dick in Dubrovnik, highly recommendable. An impressive sight was to wake up, open the curtains and look out from my hotel window to see the Aida Aurus cruise ship arriving in the town.

Aida Aurus

approaching the walled City of Dubrovnik

After a number of enjoyable days in Dubrovnik, it was time to start our way back up the Adria where our first port of call would be Lido di Venezia. Having never been to Venice, I was eager to see what Venice held in store. Lima Hotel broke away because one of the crew was born in Montenegro and had relatives still living there, so they flew there, refuelled and headed off to join us in Lido de Venezia. The fact that Dubrovnik aided them with everything they needed and also waived the charge for an additional landing shows the attitude that the Croatians appear to have to service. Unlike the Italians…..

approaching Venice, Lido in the foreground

A closer view of Venice

right base for runway 05 into Lido di Venezia

four of the 5 aircraft on the apron at Lido di Venezia

With hindsight, we would have been better off landing in Portoroz and clearing customs there / refuelling because clearing customs was long and agonising – 2 border policemen turned up to inspect our passports / ID cards in greatest detail, writing down every last figure, every last nuance of our passport onto a note block before passing us onto two agents from some government agency who wanted to check the contents of our wallets….. The whole experience I found slightly ludicrous because upon leaving the building, the border police threw away the paper they had used to write our details down and the government agencies didn’t go anywhere near our aircraft to see if we hadn’t left a few hundred thousand Euros hidden in them. Had we come from Portoroz, in Slovenia, we would have cleared immigration there hence this whole farce would have been avoidable. And no doubt the fuel would have been cheaper… Did I mention agonising? Yes, that was paying around €3.00 / litre for 100LL Avgas….

However, undetermined, we checked into our hotel which was around 300metres from the water bus stop on Lido and bought ourselves a 24 hour ticket and set off, travelling the Grand Canal until we reached the railway station, whereupon we turned round, headed back to the Rialto Bridge and started exploring. I’d heard that Venice smells but I couldn’t notice anything out of place, around 9pm the group headed to the St Mark’s Square and enjoyed an evening of light entertainment before retiring to see the closing minutes of the Brazil / Croatia match..

Rialto Bridge

Ducale Palaste

Ok, sing along with me: “just one Cornetto, give it to me……”

St Mark’s Square

Our original intention was to fly from Lido to Stockerau, an airfield to the northwest of Vienna and spend Saturday sightseeing there, however that meant getting to Vienna and Friday morning we awoke to find the Austrian GAFOR showing practically the whole country under the grip of storms which extended south over Maribor and Ljubljana. However looking closer, it was noted that there was a 2 hour window where the Brenner Pass would be open, where the german airspace bordering the Inntal motorway would be passable. Unfortunately, 2 aircraft decided against this, electing to head towards France and anticlockwise around the alps. Checking all weather reports available to me, checking webcams along the route, we departed around 10am and headed around the Venice / Padova control zone and flew towards Trento, Bolzano and onwards via the Brenner.

Pergine, close to Trento

Mezzocorona, just passing N1, Trento.

The Brenner Pass (I think… ;-))

The Zillertal Alps

Arriving at Innsbruck, this was the picture which confronted us to the North, however we were advised that both N1 and Mike 1 were flyable, the Fernpass route via N1 wasn’t something I felt comfortable with so I headed down the Inntal at 7000 feet and crossed into Germany a little later. The three aircraft who had chosen the Brenner route landed at Eggenfelden and enjoyed lunch in blue skies.

At that point, routes separated, I decided to fly back landing at as many locations in my “Landegutscheinheft” as possible, heading to Aalen, Mosbach and Traben Trabach, stopping over night in Koblenz. The next morning was spent sight seeing – Fortress Ehrenbreitstein, Deutsches Eck and the Altstadt whilst waiting for word from my colleagues who had flown around the Alps via France. The previous night they flew to Avignon and set off around 11am on Saturday morning, however the wind was from the north so they were forced to land in Freiburg. A word of warning. Freiburg does NOT accept credit cards or similar, only cash. And there’s no signs anywhere to point this out in advance. One crew refuelled their aircraft, expecting to pay with a credit card or similar only to find they didn’t have enough cash within the group hence had to take a €20 taxi into the town and back to withdraw some cash….. In today’s day, an airfield which demands cash and cash alone is surely stuck in the stone ages…

Fortress Ehrenbreitstein from the Cable Car, crossing the Rhine.

Castle along the Mosel

Deutsches Eck with the Rhine running from left to right and the Mosel River merging from the top into it.

Total flight time for my trip was 15:34

To conclude, a special thanks has to go out to Boscomantico for providing this Link , an exceptionally useful website for newcomers to flying through the Alps and Italy….. THANKS.