Flying to Palermo Sicily

[Philip France 13]

Hello,

This to share with you my last trip from Aix en Provence south of France to Sicily.

I flew direct from Aix Les Milles LFMA to Palermo Bocca di Falco LICP, IFR flight until approaching Palermo where we transited to VFR for landing at LICP.

The duration was about 4h00, to note the runway is relatively short and upslip so please use runway 17.

You must contact aeroclub and send in advance a form with your data and time of arrival.

The people are very friendly and is the  only place for refueling in Sicily so is suggested as port of entry.

Also be carreful of weight in summer when we took off mid day the temperature was above 36C

We also flew to Comiso LICB across the island easy VFR and friendly control with Roma and Catania.

We stayed some days with friends in Ragusa enjoyed the fantastic food and hospilality.

on the way back made a stop again in Palermo Bocca di Falco for refueling and flew again direct to Aix LFMA.

The flight is easy and fully compatible with Mooney range.

Only point we were 2x POB to be within limits taking off full fuel out of LICP.

Hope these short notes will help you and motivate you to fly to Sicily

Best Regards

Philip

[kortopates]

Great trip, thanks for posting.

Curious about Palermo runway. Your chart (that says not intended for operational use!) shows the runway at 1164 x 23 with displaces thresholds on both ends. So looking at this I am first guessing its in meters, which wouldn't be considered short, but then above I see it shows airport elevation as 345' feet - i.e. not in meters. So the runway is really only 1164' with both displaced thresholds? I also didn't see any indicatioon of the runway upslope - you had to find that out elsewhere? But that is looking really short, alhough you're light on landing after a 4hr flight with little fuel left but you also mentioned on the return you back from Palermo to Aix, which I assume fully loaded with a full tank of fuel! I assume you needed the full runway to get off at 36C! Or am I miss understanding?

[alexz]

According to foreflight rwy is 3819ft long. 

[Philip France 13]

Hello,

yes the length is in meters and elevation in feet's,

it took me 70% of the runway length to take off and there are buildings at the end of the runway,

this is the reason we limited to two on board my brother and me both pilots’

and had our wife's to join by airline to Catania…

by the way my plane is a M20J MSE of 1993

 

 

[Philip France 13]

Arriving in Sicily we enjoyed great tail wind in descent reached great ground speed,

we made LFMA France to Palermo in 3h50, the return flight took longer 4h20mn with some head wind… could not win all the time

Philip

[Philip France 13]

Picture of arrival at Palermo

[carusoam]

Great pirep with pics, Phillip!

Thanks for sharing them.

Italy has interesting mountains and geography…

Best regards,

-a-

[tls pilot]

Thanks for sharing

I flew across from USA in 2002, was in Sienna LIQS and wanted to land Palermo LICJ but they would not allow. ( I am not certain LICP was an airport in 2002? or I choose not to land there due to short runway) so I Landed in LICT Trapani and spent a week in Sicilia . Great place with fantastic Greek ruins in Agrigento. These ruins are in better condition then in Greece and they are an entire town...

Spent a week, then flew to Sardina for several days, got AVGAS in Sardina before going to Palma Mallorca.

Great pics, brought back pleasant memories. I did not have digital photos in 2002!

 

 

 

Edited August 12, 2021 by tls pilot

[Fabio]

Very nice trip Philip!

Have been in Comiso and Palermo with our Mooney just two days ago. Comiso is #1 for general aviation in Sicily (paid 90€ in total with 5 days parking, they are a bit bureaucratic but what can you do about it :)) ), a pity they don't have avgas there, so Palermo Bocca di Falco is mandatory for the trip back.

[FlyingDude]

Great trip!

Brings back memories, when I flew a TB-10 from LILE to LICJ in 2007...  It was April, Easter, so Bocca di Falco was closed.  Since it was holiday time, at LICJ they were asking for Euro 200 extra for fuel truck, on top of the cost of fuel.  But it was great time.  However, I didn't fly such extended routes over the sea.  I did LILE-LFKB direct, fuel at LFKB, then go due east to fly-by a waypoint 5-10nm south of Elba Island, and then followed the coast ~4-5 nm out.  Landed at LICR, because my friend lived in Messina (right across the strait from Reggio Calabria), and then next day we went around Sicily.  

Great times.  Awesome landscape...  My (back then) JAA license expired.  If I can revive it as EASA or find an N-reg plane in Europe, maybe I can go back...

[terbang]

We’ve been to Palermo as well and almost two years after our trip finally the video is out:

Bocca di Falco

[Ulysse]

2 hours ago, terbang said:

finally the video is out

Nice!

I am planning on flying around south of France this summer, so I watched almost all your videos!

[rbp]

2 minutes ago, Ulysse said:

Nice!

I am planning on flying around south of France this summer, so I watched almost all your videos!

I recommend stopping at CNVV to do some glider flying over the alps. I spent a week there in 2018 and in 2019.  Its magical! 

https://cnvv.net/en/

 

Edited April 30, 2022 by rbp

[Ulysse]

 

4 hours ago, rbp said:

do some glider flying over the alps.

I'll take my paraglider !

[dkbe]

23 hours ago, Ulysse said:

Nice!

I am planning on flying around south of France this summer, so I watched almost all your videos!

I am terbang‘s wife, responsible for the videos and the French radio - if you have any questions, just get in touch 

[carusoam]

Way cool….

Welcome aboard dkbe!

Mooney flying is a family sport!

Very nice video!

Thanks for sharing it.

Best regards,

-a-

[Ulysse]

1 hour ago, dkbe said:

if you have any questions

Thank you. I'll definitely get back to you.

If you happen to fly around France/Italy/Croatia/Montenegro this summer, let me know. It would be fun to fly together.

1 hour ago, dkbe said:

the French radio

I was wondering about the french radio. I can speak french fluently but my licence mentions only Italian and English. Can I legally speak french on the radio in France? Do you have a french licence or some kind of validation?

[dkbe]

59 minutes ago, Ulysse said:

Thank you. I'll definitely get back to you.

If you happen to fly around France/Italy/Croatia/Montenegro this summer, let me know. It would be fun to fly together.

Definitely! 

59 minutes ago, Ulysse said:

I was wondering about the french radio. I can speak french fluently but my licence mentions only Italian and English. Can I legally speak french on the radio in France? Do you have a french licence or some kind of validation?

Legally, you are fine with an English OR French language proficiency, so no issue. The main concern is that many French pilots don‘t speak or understand English, which is no issue for you as you speak French. So you are all set 

I do have a separate French language proficiency, but only because I wanted to find out if I pass that exam and get the German CAA to add it to my license