VFR Guide Greek Islands Greek Islands

By VFR Guide Series

An

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VFR Guide Greek Islands, by VFR Guide Series

Table of contents Preface .................................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Disclaimer............................................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined. The Aircraft.......................................................................................................................................... 3 The Scenery ........................................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined. The Weather........................................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined. Navigation ........................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Credits ................................................................................................................................................. 4 Support................................................................................................................................................ 4 Also published in this series................................................................................................................ 5 Introduction.............................................................................................................................................. 6 Stage 1: Triodhon – Kythira..................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Stage 2: Kythira - Milos ........................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Stage 3: Milos - Paros ............................................................................................................................. 7 Stage 4: Paros - Santorini ....................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Stage 5: Santorini - Astypalaia ................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined. Stage 6: Astypalaia – Maritsa (Rhodes).................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. Stage 7: Maritsa - Ippokratis.................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Stage 8: Ippokratis - Leros ...................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Stage 9: Leros - Samos........................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Stage 10: Samos - Chios......................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Stage 11: Chios – Odysseas Elytis ......................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Stage 12: Odysseas Elytis - Limnos........................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined. Stage 13: Limnos - Kotroni ...................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Stage 14: Kotroni - Triodhon ................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Appendix A: Airfield information ............................................................................................................ 11 Kythira ............................................................................................................................................... 11 Milos .................................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Paros ................................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Naxos .................................................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. Santorini .............................................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. Astypalaia............................................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined. Maritsa................................................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. Ippokratis............................................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. Leros ................................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Samos ................................................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. Chios ................................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Odysseas Elytis................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Limnos................................................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. Kotroni ................................................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.

© Jaap van Hees

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VFR Guide Greek Islands, by VFR Guide Series

This Guide This guide is a description of a trip that is to be flown in Greece and over the Aegean Sea during autumn. The Trip is to be flown VFR, so there is no need to use (radio) navigation instruments. The description is based on flying this trip in a certain time-frame. You can do it exactly as advertised, but to enjoy the scenery the most each stage can also be flown on different times. The benefit of this is that the shades in the scenery are optimal, especially early in the morning or late in the afternoon during sunrise and sunset. The scenery is at its best then. Per stage situation files and WX-files are available to preset the beginning-position, the time and date, fuel, payload and the weather-conditions. After you have installed the package and you want to start a stage, simply click “Select a flight”, click “VFR Guide Greek Islands” in the “1. Choose a category”-box, and click the stage you want to fly in the “2. Choose a flight”box. Everything is preset then, and you can leave right away. If you are using another plane, don’t forget to make the necessary adjustments.

The Aircraft This trip-description is based on flying a Cessna C172SP Skyhawk. The reason for this is that from this plane you have a good view to all sides to enjoy the landscape flying “low & slow”. Because it is a shoulder-wing aircraft, the wings are not blocking your view when you want to admire the landscape below. They are blocking your view during some approaches, but that adds to the adventure! Of course, when you want to fly this trip using an aircraft of your own choice you can do so. The trip can be flown best using the virtual cockpit. The outside views are maximal, while the most important instruments (artificial horizon, airspeed indicator, altitude indicator) can stay within view. By using a joystick or yoke the remainder of the panel can also be observed using the hat-swhich. As said, this is a VFR-trip and not meant to be flown using a GPS. If you do not want to be tempted to use it anyway during a stage (if your aircraft is fitted with one), you can disable it the following way (this example is for the default Cessna C172SP Skyhawk): • Go to the folder \Aircraft\c172\panel. • Open the file panel.cfg with an editor-program, for example notepad. • Look for the heading [Window Titles], about the 5th line from the top. • Under this heading, look for the line Window02=GPS. • Put two ‘//’ (slashes) in front of this line. • Save the file. • Start Flight Simulator. If you are not certain, make a backup copy of the panel.cfg file first! The two slashes are comment-signs and this way you de-activate the GPS-definition to the sim. When you click at the GPS-button or type Shift- (Shift-3 for the default Cessna C172SP Skyhawk) in the sim for the GPS, it will no longer work. Don’t forget to remove them again after finishing this trip!

© Jaap van Hees

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VFR Guide Greek Islands, by VFR Guide Series

Credits This trip description has been accomplished by the well appreciated aid and contributions of the following people: Ruud Faber François Dumas Don ‘Bushsimmer’ Lively Maxim Overre Alexandros Damigos Nikos Vitsovits

Bringing in ideas, techniques and test flying the trip. Adding ideas, writing part of the preface and editing. Providing ideas and test flying. Test flying the trip. Providing information on a number of the Greek islands you will be visiting (Marinet Travel Guides) Providing information about Milos Island (www.milos-island.gr).

I am grateful for their help and enthusiasm!

Support When you are having problems installing parts of it or using it, there is a VFR Guide Series Support Forum available at http://forums.simflight.com/viewforum.php?f=192 . Support is only given on this forum, not by email.

Jaap van Hees Email: [email protected] Website: http://home.tiscali.nl/vfrtripsseries

© Jaap van Hees

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VFR Guide Greek Islands, by VFR Guide Series

Also published in this series A beautiful travel guide, taking the FS pilot from the wonderful city of Cannes, Côte d'Azur, France, northwards to the French Alps and via the Swiss and Italian Alps back to the Mediterranean. Along the way you will learn about the the country you are flying over. And you will get a great customized mesh terrain with it, courtesy of Raimondo Taburet ! VFR Guide Azur-Alpes is available from simMarket

© Jaap van Hees

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VFR Guide Greek Islands, by VFR Guide Series

Introduction You are an airline pilot by profession. Usually you fly a Boeing 737-700 for a low-cost European airliner. To spend your holidays you have you purchased a little piece of land with a house on it in Greece, near the town of Akrogiali at the borders of the Messiniakos Gulf. During your holidays you can’t put flying aside, so you recently bought an old Greek registered Cessna 172 to fly around with. You stored the aircraft at the airfield of Triodhon, just a 20 km drive from where you live. Lots of work has to be done on the aircraft to make it look like new again, but you have plenty of time for this during your holidays. The whole of last summer you have flown tourists in and out of Greece where they spend their holidays. And now, in October, it’s your turn for a holiday. You have arranged a last flight to Athens Eleftherios Venizelos Airport, where you will be replaced by a fellow-pilot and from there you will travel to your house in Akrogiali. Just two days before your holiday begins you received an email from your neighbor in Akrogiali, Georges Aristokis. He owns a wholesale trade company in medicines and other pharmacy goods. He has a lot of customers on the Greek Islands in the Aegean Sea and normally he ships his goods through a ferry company. But now the ferry seamen are Short Final at Eleftherios Venizelos Airport, on strike and this strike already lasts for Athens. And then… Holiday! two weeks. There is not a single ferry that leaves port right now. As a consequence Georges cannot ship his goods anymore and his customers are desperately short of supplies. So he asked you if you could use your Cessna to supply his customers on the islands with the medicines that are most needed, all expenses paid. Well, this is to your liking. You are not too familiar with the area but using good maps and navigational aids this should not be much of a problem. And this also is a good chance to get to know your Cessna a little better AND the Aegean Sea with all of its beautiful islands as well. You agreed with Georges that he will compose a list of airfields to deliver his goods and arrange everything, from informing his local customers to unloading the merchandise. You will start the roundtrip on the 21st of October.

© Jaap van Hees

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VFR Guide Greek Islands, by VFR Guide Series

Stage 3: Milos - Paros Serifos Paros Sifnos

Antiparos Paros Aegean Sea

Kimolos

Ios

Milos Polyaigos Folegandros

Sikinos

Milos Route to fly

Weather Report Clouds: Wind: Temperature: Dewpoint: Air pressure: Precipitation: Visibility: Date: Time:

Clear 360°, 3 kts. 18°C -3° 1015 mb None 40 miles Thursday 21st of October 10:30 am (10:30)

Fuel: Cargo:

72.5% 70 kg’s

ETE:

About 30 minutes

Paros

Maps: Cyclades Western & Cyclades Eastern You should already have the Cyclades Western map from flying Stage 2. How to obtain the Cyclades Eastern map: • Go to the Alpha & Omega website. • Click Eastern under Cyclades in the menu bar on the left. • Save the map that follows to your PC (right-click, save). • Open it with the Windows Viewer and you can enlarge it many times to suit your needs. © Jaap van Hees

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VFR Guide Greek Islands, by VFR Guide Series

Introduction

Too much Ouzo?

Well, nobody here to await your arrival. The place looks deserted. After nearly half an hour of waiting a little van arrives on the platform with a redheaded and quite nervous driver. Quickly he jumps out of the van, introduces himself as the collector of the goods and mumbles an apology: his wife was ill and he couldn’t leave his shop when there were still customers. You unload his merchandise from the luggage compartment of the Cessna and as fast as he arrived he leaves again. After a brief preflight check you consult your map. You will have to fly a straight line using a heading of 56° to reach Paros, about 40 miles of flying.

Trip You start the engine and taxi to RWY 08 for takeoff. A Piper Cub happens to taxi just in front of you doing the same. You don’t know for sure, but it looks like the pilot has had a little too much of Ouzo to drink: he is making such a wide turn to line up on the runway that he’s taxiing through the grass. This pilot must be new to the Piper Cub because taxiing a taildragger is not one of the easiest things to do due to the limited visibility ahead. Finally the Cub pilot finds the runway again and off he goes. After what seems to be ages the Cub has flown a far enough distance for you to make a safe takeoff and you turn onto the runway.

Kimolos (front) & Sifnos

You state your takeoff intentions on the Milos traffic frequency and take off, thereby starting a climb to 1500 ft. Just after takeoff you turn a little to the left to a heading of about 56°. Looking around to keep an eye on the Cub somewhere in front of you you see the island of Polyaigos ahead of you and the island of Kimolos to your left. Behind Kimolos the island of Sifnos is visible in the distance. Well, the weather holds for now. You decide to fly in between both Polyaigos and Kimolos to admire both and so you change your heading to about 30° and head for Sifnos. Antiparos & Paros

© Jaap van Hees

After having passed Polyaigos you look to the right and see a few islands in the

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VFR Guide Greek Islands, by VFR Guide Series

distance of which you believe them to be the islands of Antiparos and Paros, your goal for this stage. Well, this is easy navigating! You don’t miss your radio navigational aids at all and tourists map more than suites your needs. You make a turn to 60° and head for both islands. After a few minutes the island of Naxos becomes visible behind Paros. You consult the map and discover that Paros airfield is on the south side of the island, just behind Antiparos. You head for the southern tip of Antiparos island to fly straight in to the airfield. Looking to your right you can see the islands of Folegandros, Sikinos and Ios while at your left you see the islands of Sifnos and, more in the distance, Serifos. This is a nice sightseeing trip! You tune your comm radio to the Paros traffic frequency of 125.05 MHz and judging the calls from other planes RWY35 is in use. But you like to fly over the airfield first to Approach Paros airport take a look at the situation before you decide what runway to use. When you approach the island of Paros and you fly over the little island of Panteronisi just in front of it, you spot the airfield a little to your left. You descend to something like 500 ft, throttling back to as slow as you can and fly over the airfield to check the windsock. Indeed, RWY35 suites quite well. You make a turn to about 170° and fly a few miles back, meanwhile calling out your landing intentions on Paros traffic. After this you finish your circuit and make a landing on RWY35. You make a backtrack, taxi to the little platform and park the Cessna at the north side.

About Paros The island group of Paros- Antiparos lies roughly at the center of the Cyclades, between Naxos to the East, Mykonos, Syros, Tinos and Andros to the North, Sifnos and Milos to the SW and Serifos to the West, Ios and Santorini to the South and 90 nautical miles from Piraeus. Paros has a surface area of 1,865 square kilometers, with 120 kilometers of coastline. In the middle of the island is the highest point - the peak of the mountain Aghios Ilias or Aghii Pantesreaching 771 meters. Antiparos has a surface area of 38 square kilometers (length, 125 kilometers - width, 5,5 kilometers). The highest point on the island is 300 meters, on the mountain Prophet Ilias. The island has deposits of iron ore, lead and zinc, the mining of which ceased long ago. Throughout the summer there are about six Olympic Airways daily flights to Paros, with a flight time of 45 minutes. The airport is 9 kilometers away from Parikia (or Paroikia) and Olympic Airways buses transport passengers into town. 5 to 8 boats ply from Paros to Piraeus (Pireas) daily during the summer months. The trip takes about five hours. The island is also linked with many other islands with frequent

© Jaap van Hees

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VFR Guide Greek Islands, by VFR Guide Series

departures during the summer season. Also there are 10-15 boats shuttling from Paros to Antiparos daily. History According the mythology, the island’s first colonist was the Minoan Alcaios, who built the first city on the site on which Parikia stands today. After the departure of the Minoans, the island was settled by Ionians who had left mainland Greece when the Dorians descended from the North in about 1100 B.C. The island was still in the hands of the sons of Minoa when the Ionians arrived (the sons’ names are recorded as being Eurymedon, Chrysos, Niphalion and Philolaos). After initial defeats, the Ionians subjugated the island, and then proceeded to sack it, destroying the Cretan civilization and murdering the Cretans themselves. However, archaeological discoveries have shown the extent to which Paros had developed during the Minoan period. Like all the other Cyclades, Paros began to play its part in the history of the area with the rise of the great naval powers of the eastern Mediterranean. When the great naval state based in Crete came to dominate the area, Paros was important as one of the empire’s outposts. At that time, Crete ensured safe communication and transport of minerals between the kingdoms of Egypt, Babylon, Assyria and the Balkan states. The Minoans found that Paros had safe harbors to offer them, and its central position in the Cyclades made it of strategic importance. This blend of safe harbors and fertile plains round them made the island into a major naval station. Of these harbors, Parikia faces the Peloponnese and Naousa face north, while Drios is opposite Naxos, and the island as a whole lies on the route to Rhodes and Asia Minor. The importance of the military and communications role played by Paros in the Minoian empire is shown by the name the Cretans gave it: Minoa, which was a title of honor given only to royal cities. Source: www.travel-to-paros.com/ (courtesy of Marinet Travel Guides)

© Jaap van Hees

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VFR Guide Greek Islands, by VFR Guide Series

Appendix A: Airfield information

Kythira General ICAO

LGKC

IATA

KIT

Latitude

36° 16' 27" N

Longitude

023° 01' 01" E

Elevation

1043 feet

Airport use

Civil aviation

Magnetic Variation

003° E

Operating Hours

By NOTAM.

Traffic

-

Tower

123.25

Approach

-

ATIS

-

Communications

Runways ID

Dimensions

Surface

ILS

02/20

4855 x 98 feet 1480 x 30 meters

ASPHALT

NO

Navaids Type

ID

Name

VOR/DME

KAM

KALAMATA

NDB

KIT

KYTHIRA

Channel

-

Freq

Bearing Distance From From Field Navaid

112.6

67’

133

372

At Field

-

Remarks CAUTION

© Jaap van Hees

Possible visual illusion: Rwy pavement 148' wide but area 1150' fr apch end Rwy 02 to fst twy steeply shouldered: rwy sfc 98' wide. No edge mark.

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