Mediterranean Adventure

This flying adventure in the Cirrus SF-50 personal jet includes an eclectic collection of short flights to airports scattered around the Mediterranean Sea. I focused on airports in the center and north side of the Mediterranean Sea, as I had just completed my African coast adventure, which ended with several stops on the south shore of the Mediterranean Sea. This image shows the completed itinerary. I chose each destination as I went, so I built up the complete itinerary in real-time, and didn't get this summary route ready, until near the end. For the individual flight writeups in this adventure, I used the from-to airport identifiers to start each paragraph.

 

12/13 GMTT-LXGB. My first (very short) 38NM flight on this trip departs from Tangier, my last stop on the Africa trip, and arrives at Gibraltar International Airport. The flight is slightly longer than that, as it takes a couple of sharp turns, to avoid a some restricted and prohibited areas. I've heard some fun stories about this airport, which has a highway routed across the runway.

 

12/15 LXGB-LEPA. Flying 435NM from Gibraltar to Palma de Mallorca Airport, near Palma, Mallorca, Spain. 

12/27 LEPA-LKFJ. Flying 311NM from Palma de Mallorca to Ajaccio Napoleon Bonaparte Airport, serving Ajaccio on the French island of Corsica. 

 

1/2/2022 LFKJ-LICJ. Flying from Corsica to Falcone Borsellino Airport, in Palermo, Sicily, Italy. 

1/8 LICJ-LGSA, a 555NM flight from Palermo to Chania International Airport on the Greek island of Crete. I experienced one of those really pretty moments, as I was flying between cloud layers on the way down to the airport, with the sunset lighting up the space between clouds from the west.

1/12 LGSA-LDDU, a 503NM flight from Crete to Dubrovnik Airport in Croatia. There were some pretty strong winds at altitude, and they didn't let up very much as I got lower. I found myself needing to hold a significant right crab angle on final approach, in order to stay aligned with the runway.

1/24 LDDU-LDRI, a 226NM flight from Dubrovnik to Rijeka Airport on the island of Krk in Croatia.

1/24 LDRI-LIML, a 224NM flight from Rijeka to Linate International Airport, serving Milan, Italy. There was minimal visibility when arriving at the Milan airport, due to low overcast and fog, which left me with a very limited view of the approach lights, when I got to the decision altitude. You can see them, right? Just to the left of the windshield center post.

1/25 LIML-LEBL, a 401NM flight from Milan to Josep Tarradellas International Airport, serving Barcelona, Spain. This snapshot is looking off to the right as I was passing Marseilles, on the south coast of France. 

 

 

 

(date TBD) The yet-to-be-completed last flight of this adventure is LEBL-GMTT, a 503NM flight from Barcelona to my final stop on this 3,457NM Mediterranean adventure, and back to the airport where I began, Tangier Ibn Battuto airport, serving Tangier, the capital city of the Tanger region in Morocco.