Time to move on. My girlfriend arived on friday and we decide to fly to Tortoli on sunday. We are not free to decide to go any day, because the local small airport is not always open. I used to go to Ogliastra since i was 3 years old, and i have spent there several summers of my youth. The place has changed a lot since... many more tourists now. My grandfather used to be the chief of the local custom office in the 50ies. He had to sort a grand traffic of two ships a week, and spent the rest of the time reggatting with his wooden sailboat. There was only another sailboat there at the time, so it was constant match racing :-).
I had relatives living there until a few years ago, then i worked a lot in the area. I have some really good friends there, and at this stage i hope i will be able to take them up for a flight.
Here is the itinerary we will follow. the pink line is the route we took to go there.
The days before i had to ask for permission to land. ULM are not usually allowed in airports, but through friends ( i really know a lot of people there ) i got the permission granted no problem. The day before i call and tell them i will arrive on sunday morning. The local tower operator warns me that there will be traffic. Traffic? i had to muffle a chuckle on the phone. They will have 3 or 4 flights during the whole day. Should i mention to him that the last fly-in i attended there were some 3 or 4 hundred airplanes plus dozens of exhibitions during the day? I promise them i will try to sneak in between "traffics" and ring off.
So we take off early morning, the estimate flight time will be less than 40 minutes. Weather is great. We take off, and shortly after, i try to change the propeller pitch to suit the cruise speed. The mechanism refuses to work. For a second i think about going back, but it is a short flight and the only problem is that i will have to go slow and enjoy the view. My girlfriend flies the airplane and i take pictures
Here she is, proudly handling the stick
a few snapshots of the panorama
We shortly reach the coast and go north towards the airport.
The weather is absolutely fantastic. We contact the tower and approach the runway. You can see half of ogliastra in this snapshot.
On final
screech screech (not used to hear this noise!)
We are directed to the parking, they confine us to a parking spot at a great distance from the airport terminal, and they escort us to the police control. wow. you never know osama bin laden decides to have a go at Tortoli' airport...
Here Betty Boop in Tortoli' airport. See in the distance I-KRLS, the ancient PA28 of the Aeroclub of Cagliari. Must be a student on a"cross-coutry" flight, all 35 minutes of it.
The paperwork is quickly done (what a pain) and i call Enzo, a local friend. He is still asleep, but he quickly comes to collect us. We go to have breakfast, and we drive to the port. We will spend the whole day on Enzo's motorboat cruising along the coast, the same i flew over a couple days before; we will be able to see the same beaches and cliffs, but from the sea. A beautiful day.
This link brings you to the page with all pictures of the boat trip and stay in Tortoli', in Enzo's summer house on the beach. Be aware there are some topless women in there ;-)
On tuesday we decide to head back to Siliqua. We think about staying a bit longer but the airport will be closed until friday. I go to the airport to check the propeller pitch control. I open the cowlings, touch the wires, and the pitch works again! a damn false contact. I hope to take my friends for a flight, but the security people at the airport doesnt let them on the runway!! what a BS. These people need to get a life. Anyway, my friends leave very disappointed. On my way back, i stop by the tower to talk to the folks there. really nice and friendly people, we have a long and funny conversation about flying and the ultralight airplanes, which are still a mystery to them. They are quite surprised i flew over from Novara.
After a couple wonderful days in Tortoli', is time to saddle up. Again, traffic problems :-D so i plan to take off around 1800 hour, between an arrival and a departure. It will result it was a mistake. The tiny airport is crowded, and the security people, smart as usual, expect us to queue for the security check. Dont they know crew dont queue? We also waste a massive amount of time paying landing fees and one day parking, around 40 euro. About two hours worth of fuel...who wants to go to airports...
We quickly load the luggage, warm Betty Boop up and take off. We decided to fly along the coast, so is a longer flight, around 75 minutes. It is almost 1830, it gets dark at 2000 so we have to hurry up, we wont have time to locate and take snapshots of Enzo's house.
The weather is great, but the low sun makes hard to take pictures. We fly over the coast, my girlfriend flies the airplane for most of the flight, i have a splitting headache (still lack of sleep) and the low sun on our face really bothers me.
Here a few snapshots of the coast.
We arrive in Siliqua with 20 minutes light to spare, the sun is really low, and here the wind has changed, so i have to land with the sun in the face. I barely see the runway, i make a crappy landing, and park the airplane.We are greeted by the airfield people. It was a grand day, after all, and as they say, a good landing is the one you can walk away from :-)
After a few minutes the Tortoli' tower controller calls us on the phone, complaining we didnt tell him we arrived safely. Really a nice guy! Wish there were more like him in the airports...
In the next days we will relax in Cagliari, sunbathe, swim, shop and lazy around. I need to catch up some sleep. Badly.