Ben Wilhelmi

Greece, aerial photography

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

leaving Greece, here is Italy.

ferry flight, Europe-Dubai last week

 

It was a bit of a last minute call late May to replace a copilot on that same Twin Otter, just like last year. Weather in Europe was still awful so I didn’t really enjoy the lake of Constance possibilties, Switzerland side, while the plane was being readied for the 3 day flight. Anyway here are a few pictures over the 3 days.

 

St Gallen-Altenrhein airport is located in some stunning area, between the lake and the Alps. Not a busy airport but various planes come in like these 2.

 

We flew eastbound first to go Athens, again a longer trip than necessary, a flightplan due to Eurocontrol conspiracies? I don't know but we came close to Bratislava before finally taking a more south east heading. Here looking towards Austria.

Central Europe was again mostly cloudy this year for us. Pretty soon after we had taken off, we lost sight of ground and flew over a white sea of cloud with an occasional storm which gets boring after a while… the icing conditions we met were mild.

 

things got a bit better from Greece onwards, we stayed one night in the Athens airport Sofitel (!). I like companies that take care of their pilots….

 

Cairo looks like a giant slum… the limit between the green Nile delta and the desert looks artificially drawn.

Egypt was clear this year, finally! Leaving Cairo, the Nile on the right, a wet dark wet strip across the desert just before it spreads out.

 

the Canal of Suez flowing in the Gulf of Suez.

 

a bit of the Sinai where we stayed again for one night at the Hilton. Again some companies are really great….

 

then a huge dust cloud seemed to cover most of Saudi Arabia, we had a brief glimpse of those circular cultures in Saudi Arabia. I wonder how deep the farmershave to dig for the water table. How much did the water level drop over the years…

and things looked a bit better over the Persian Gulf but not that good in terms of visibility.

 

Dubai…nice weather so to speak, 38C but humid with an atmospheric veil. Not great for pictures and scenery….

ferry flight, Dubai-Zurich, aerial photos, part XVI

 

on th 3rd day, we left the Greek airspace for the Italian one.

this is the Peloponnese area, islands, mountains, these pictures here are shots alongside the Corinth and Patras gulfs.

The whole Ionian sea was hidden under a thick cloud layer. This is the last view from Greece. The Ionian islands and Corfu would stay out of sight, damn’.

Otrante Strait (Canal d’Otrante) between the Adriatic and the Ionian sea

 

and here is Brindisi.

from here, we could finally fly straight towards Switzerland.

ferry flight Dubai-Zurich, aerial pictures, part XV, over Greece

 

from Athens, the weather was mostly good, though cold outside, like –20. The cockpit was nicely warmed up but funny enough the back of the plane was about freezing: some water bottles were partly frozen.

Over the Peloponnese we left the westbound heading for a north westbound heading to Brindisi. I was quite impatient to fly over Italy I must say.

ferry flight, Dubai-Zurich, aerials, part XIV

 

3 rd day, we had stayed at the nice Sofitel hotel located on the main airport. The hotel provided us a serious piece of  takeaway for the long day. We took off from cold and windy Athens early morning and flew straight west towards Brindisi, Italy, though the destination was nearby Zurich. Yes flight plans, especially in Europe, don’t always allow  you to fly straight to your destination…

some clouds blocked the view to the Piraeus (Le Pirée) but we had a decent view of the Peloponnese and the surroundings were quite clear and beautiful under the morning light.

Salamis, Corinth, Patras, Ithaca…(Salamine, Corinthe, Patras, Ithaque…) were all other famous places we flew over.

rough terrain, it seems the villages and cities can’t be built anywhere.

 

ferry flight Dubai-Zurich, aerial photos, part XIII

 

 

end of the second leg, from Sharm El Sheikh northbound to Athens across numerous islands, the Cyclades.

all these islands are quite rocky, which means the villages had to be built on the shorelines. The mountain range on the horizon is the Parnetha (Parnès en français), north of Athens.

 

 

 

 

 

ferry flight, Dubai-Zurich, part XII

 

south of Athens, coming from Sharm El Sheikh

the difference of lighting between these pictures is easy to explain: when the captain was having a meal in the cabin, I could bend across the left seat and shoot towards the sun.

 

village project.

 

Athens area far away and ahead of us, near the white peak.

 

 

ferry flight, Dubai-Zurich, "Gosex', part XI

 

from Sharm El Sheikh to Athens, 2nd day of ferrying the Twin Otter over some Greek islands. We were skipping the jet stream but still tooas dreadful and the Twin Otter, not the fastest plane ever built, was dragging facing up to 80 mph winds...

Flying instrument flight rules, even in good weather, requires the use of virtual waypoints across the airspaces. Usually made of 5 letter words that are easy to pronounce no matter what your native language is. Gabso, Avatu to name a few in Tanzania. But in Greece there was a surprising GOSEX!! A touch of naughty humor from the Greek aviation authority? In Belgium, and probably most other countries, keep on dreaming to get your airplane registerd with the SEX letters...

Near Iran, there was a beacon named 'Lamerd' ('the shit' in French with a slight spelling mistake but the sound is perfect)

 

The famous Santorini (or Thera) island. A tremendous volcanic eruption in the 19th century changed the world weather pattern for some years!

 

ferry flight, Dubai-Zurich, part X

 

coming from Egypt, here are the first Greek islands.

Crete and a beautiful snowy crest.

 

 

 

ferry flight from Dubai to Zurich and back

 

so I’m back in Tanzania after 6 weeks. Here are some random pictures of the ferry trip, I’ll be more specific in the next posts.

 

over the Persian gulf.

 

circular crops over Saudi Arabia.

 

A desert similar to Death Valley, still in Saudi Arabia.

 

Mount Sinai, Egypt.

 

The aeroplane to be ferried, a De Havilland Twin Otter or DHC 6, here being refuelled in Sharm El Sheikh.

 

Gulf of Suez, Egypt mainland on the left, the Sinai peninsula on the right. The canal is located much more to the north, we didn’t overfly that landmark.

 

Over Greece. Snow!

 

fields in Italy.

 

The beautiful lake of Como at the foot of the Alps, Italy.

 

Crossing into Switzerland.

Bad weather before landing near Zurich.

Some icing at 16.000 ft.

 

Snow and artistic patterns over Serbia.