April 12th 2018, Tenerife South, day one
The silence in the arrivals hall is broken by 179 passengers who had just flown into Canary Islands from London Gatwick on a white-orange A320. I am one of these passengers and probably the only one not coming here for leisure – but to position an aircraft from Tenerife North to Europe.
I took a bus from TFS to the other side of the island while being on the phone with ARO Poland.
– What’s your departure airport, Sir? – the dispatcher asked me politely.
– GCXO, Tenerife North – I replied.
– Oh, that’s Canary Islands! And here in Gdansk we have 30 degrees Celsius and a lovely sunny day today!
The weather didn’t look exactly like that on the other side of Europe. As we were approaching the northern part of the Tenerife island, the cloud layer seemed to start lowering and started to cover the greater part of the sky. It was quite warm and very windy.
I got off the bus, walked for ages to the Aeroclub de Tenerife office, only to get a lift around the airport (which took some time to be organised) to the hangar which was isolated from the Aeroclub’s building. All the hassle and priceless time wasted in the name of safety.
Having been running already 30 minutes behind the schedule, I pushed the white-blue Socata Rallye out of the hangar. It was the same aircraft I had positioned from Poland to the nearby Gran Canaria, three months before. The only difference between now and then were some thin patches of dust covering the wings surface and no backup GPS on board.
I carried out a careful pre-flight check and having found no issues I got on the plane. I copied the ATIS weather report which was still indicating strong northerly winds and low cloudbase.
– Tower, Buenos dias, SP-GCE at GA stand, VFR departure to Lanzarote, information Alpha, request engine start-up.
– SP-GCE, Tower, buenas tardes, the airport is now in IMC.
Sounds like I might need to stay here overnight… But is the weather really that bad? The only issue is that cloudbase but it’s just enough for a low circuit and as soon as I leave the island I will be able to fly either 2500 feet over the ground or go above the clouds.
– Tower, SP-GCE, departing to Lanzarote, request Special VFR.
– SP-GCE, Tower, runway in use 30, wind 360/15, cleared Special VFR to GCRR, after departure from runway 30 make a left turn and report over point Sierra, not higher than 2500 feet. Report when ready to taxi.
Five minutes later I was already holding short of runway 30, watching Vueling airbus coming in to land.
– SP-GCE, behind the Airbus A320, line up and wait runway 01 behind.
– Behind the A320 line up and wait runway 01 behind, SP-GCE.
Take-off and climb-out were uneventful. Despite strong winds there was little turbulence and the cloudbase left more than enough room to overfly the terrain and obstacles with sufficient clearance.
Upon reaching point Sierra, located to the South of the airfield, I gave way to a turboprop coming in to land as he was in IMC and we could not separate each other visually.
During the first sector I simply followed the radials from omnidirectional beacons and after some time I managed to spot Fuerteventura off my right and Lanzarote ahead of me.
I was asked to enter a holding pattern over left base to Runway 03 in Lanzarote to let Ryanair land first. The female pilot of the airliner complained about me on the radio for not maintaining sufficient separation but the Controller said I remained over the designated position as requested and there was no violation.
Landing in Lanzarote was, as always, very challenging. The wind was trying to blow me off the runway centreline and I used more than half of the runway length to perform a smooth but safe touchdown.
GCRR-Lanzarote, I must admit, is the least GA-friendly airport in the world. They do not allow you to pay the bills in advance, instead you have to park up at one side of the airport and find the office located at the other side (15-minute walk). One may also expect delays due to traffic congestion and also when you want to pick up new passengers or crew who had not flown with you into Lanzarote – this one is due to security restrictions.
When I eventually managed to find the office, I decided to use one of the vending machines to get some food and drink as I didn’t have time to buy much of it before setting off for the trip. I bought a Kit-Kat but the machine stole my 2EUR coin when I tried to buy a bottle of water so I gave up.
Then I entered the actual airport office to pay the bills, get the latest weather and NOTAM reports and to share my point of view on their customer service. The Air Traffic Controller admitted he had seen my email which basically was a notification of arrival and a request to pay in advance, yet he did not understand it.
– Besides, there is no option to pay in advance. You always have to come to the office to pay for the landing – he added.
– Ok, so you’re telling me that every time an easyJet or Vueling aircraft lands here, its captain has to come here and pay the bills?
He only smirked and didn’t say a thing. I signed the invoice and the papework required for the next flight and went out for another 15-minute walk, back to the aircraft.
I went past the parked up Piper Tomahawk which I had also been asked to ferry from Canary Islands to Mutxamel. Unfortunately, it had some problems with battery which resulted in delaying and subsequently abandoning the ferry mission.
I did my second pre-flight check that day, jumped in to the cockpit and requested start-up clearance. The ATC asked me to stand-by and after 10 minutes the situation didn’t change. Another 10 or 15 minutes and I cannot reach Agadir before the sunset! Is that guy taking a revenge on me for giving an honest feedback?
– SP-GCE, Tower, engine start-up approved, report ready to taxi.
Finally! I rushed towards the holding point of runway 03, and whilst lining up, I checked if it’s still not too late to fly to GMAD.
Well… I was right on the limit. With the sun going down and not a massive amount of reserve fuel in the tanks, I made a decision to divert to my alternate – Tan-Tan. I could get there well before sunset and fly less time over the ocean. Tan-Tan requires special permission to operate to but the aircraft owner had arranged one just in case.
– SP-GCE traffic information, PA-32 flying from FIR Casablanca to Lanzarote, altitude 2500 feet, distance 5-0 miles.
So I’m not the only one ferrying aircraft on this route that day, how nice!
After a couple of hours I changed to Casablanca frequency and managed to spot the coastline of Morocco and the Western Sahara. Then I changed over to Tan-Tan tower which cleared me direct to the airport but a while later changed their mind and re-routed me to Guelmim.
I had enough fuel for this diversion but was constrained in terms of time, as then sun was going down very quickly. According to my calculations I should reach Guelmim more or less at the sunset. The cloudbase of the scattered cumulus seemed to start lowering slowly which pushed me lower towards the ground, possibly some 1500 feet AGL.
– SP-GCE, Guelmim, I turned the approach lights for you. Let me know when you see the them and I will dim the lights a little bit.
A very strong source of white light glowed on the horizon, forming a shape of a Christmas tree.
– Guelmim, SP-GCE, thank you, I’ve got the approach lights in sight – as soon as I said that the controller dimmed the lights slightly.
– Is that better now?
– Now it’s purrfect!
A few moments later I arrived in Morocco and, just before vacating the runway, a fire truck flashed at me to let me know they had been waiting for me. I taxied to my stand, turned the engine off and killed all the lights.
I was approached by the armed military personnel. No stress, I’ve gone through this before. They looked rather friendly and curious why an old, small, single-engine aeroplane visited their airbase pretty much at night (sun goes down very quickly in Africa!). One of the officers asked me for Pilot’s Licence, Aircraft Insurance and to explain what happened.
Then we went to the arrivals hall, which was a very small arrivals hall which would not accommodate more than 30-40 people. All my belongings were screened and the passport taken for a verification, together with the licence.
-When did you arrive to Morocco? – the border guard asked.
-Errr, 15 minutes ago? This is my first point of entry in Morocco.
And he showed me the back of my passport where I only had an entry stamp from 10 January (3 months before) and no departure stamp. After clarifying I am not an illegal immigrant, that I had stayed in Morocco for only 2 days the time before and somehow the police forgot to stamp my passport upon departure, I got released.
The (civilian) airport director decided that he is going to take me to the best and most expensive hotel in the city! I pictured in my mind all my savings going away as I’m paying the bills for this layover. After a 30-minute slow drive, I asked my driver to pick me up at 7 AM the next morning.
The hotel turned out to be not that expensive, in terms of standard and the price also. It was quite warm (and humid) in the room, the bathroom was surprisingly clean – no mud or any other substances present on the floor, which is good! Of course first thing I had to do was to plug in my phone and my laptop and tell everyone concerned that I’m still alive and safe.
I went out for some shopping and bought canned luncheon meat, olives, a very juicy yogurt and loads of bottled water. I ate most of it the very same evening and left the rest for a breakfast for the next day.
Coming up next: problems with GPS? I’ve no GPS!
Let's VFR Europe 