I am not a Cretan but I am in Crete
After a good nights sleep and a filling breakfast we set off to the airport to meet our handlers, Swissport. At the airport, today was the first day under its new German owners; I believe it was the Greek CAA who sold the airport. The Germans may be known for being efficient, but today even though we turned up early, they caused us to be late. During our small delay we chatted with the Swissport staff. One member of staff was from Edinburgh, Scotland and had been living in Corfu for 24 years. She still retained her Scottish accent. After clearing security we settled our bill with Swissport who then took us to G-DIGA after first discovering that they had lost the keys to the car, so had to use the smaller Fiat Panda. Talking of pandas, we saw the local ginger cat / rat catcher having a human provided bowl of food just by the handlers airside office. The cat may live there but our handler did not know its name. Hopefully the German owners will also look after the cat.
At the helicopter, pictures taken, cover removed and A-checks completed we lift of from rwy 21 turning left to the south east. Once again we were greeted with beautiful scenery. Today however we had a longish water crossing, broken up by a scattering of Greek islands (there are a lot of them). Each island stunning as the last. This did however seem to provide a hazy horizon at our chosen flight level, but nothing to cause concern. The trip was a longish trip of just under 4 hrs (3.9) and our routing was LGKR DCT KRK DCT RIPID DCT RESPA DCT BEVAS DCT DIA DCT LGIR. Our altitude was mainly 3,500 on QNH 1017/16. LGIR twr directed us to land on 27 with a wind from 32 at 7kts. They offered us RWY30 but we were happy with 27.
We set G-DIGA on Apron 36 which is near the threshold of 30 and refueled with HALCO, taking on board 315 ltrs.
Iraklion seems bigger than when I was last here some 28 years ago with my university friend Andrew Ward, but strangely seems more pleasant. This is probably because I am older and wiser, and hoepfully this time will not lose any hours of my life. It is still an unsolved mystery as to how I made it into my locked room those many years ago!
Tonights Hotel is again a great choice by our ground support team at GASE, (Eddie and Ahmed). The Lato Boutique Hotel over looks the harbour port (not great, but not terrible) and is in the city itself. The rooms are pleasant with a nice large balcony and the Herb Restaurant on the roof top terrace (4th floor) is friendly and seems to have a reasonable menu.
Clothes "washed" and hung to dry, lets see it they are dry enough in the morning to wear.
At the helicopter, pictures taken, cover removed and A-checks completed we lift of from rwy 21 turning left to the south east. Once again we were greeted with beautiful scenery. Today however we had a longish water crossing, broken up by a scattering of Greek islands (there are a lot of them). Each island stunning as the last. This did however seem to provide a hazy horizon at our chosen flight level, but nothing to cause concern. The trip was a longish trip of just under 4 hrs (3.9) and our routing was LGKR DCT KRK DCT RIPID DCT RESPA DCT BEVAS DCT DIA DCT LGIR. Our altitude was mainly 3,500 on QNH 1017/16. LGIR twr directed us to land on 27 with a wind from 32 at 7kts. They offered us RWY30 but we were happy with 27.
We set G-DIGA on Apron 36 which is near the threshold of 30 and refueled with HALCO, taking on board 315 ltrs.
Iraklion seems bigger than when I was last here some 28 years ago with my university friend Andrew Ward, but strangely seems more pleasant. This is probably because I am older and wiser, and hoepfully this time will not lose any hours of my life. It is still an unsolved mystery as to how I made it into my locked room those many years ago!
Tonights Hotel is again a great choice by our ground support team at GASE, (Eddie and Ahmed). The Lato Boutique Hotel over looks the harbour port (not great, but not terrible) and is in the city itself. The rooms are pleasant with a nice large balcony and the Herb Restaurant on the roof top terrace (4th floor) is friendly and seems to have a reasonable menu.
Clothes "washed" and hung to dry, lets see it they are dry enough in the morning to wear.
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