After an early morning take off due to an approaching thunderstorm, all pilots headed for Turkey after loosing some time due to customs formalities in southern Hungary. On trips like these, the clear advantage of the Schengen agreement becomes obvious. Some pilots made a fuel stop in Serbia (with AVGAS prices as low as 1€ per liter). Some others made a stop in Bulgaria. Due to the military coup attempt in July 2016 in Turkey, the airspace of Turkey was initially closed for all VFR traffic up to 20.000 ft. By the time we arrived, this limitation was restricted to the CTR’s of Istanbul and Ankara…but it was only thanks to the efforts and network of our advisory board member Turgut Kulacoglu, fmr president of the Bosporus aviation club, that all our planes got a special corridor of the Turkish Interior Minister validated which allowed us to fly a narrow route to the airfield of Bursa Yenişehir Airport Turkey (LTBR).

Over here, we discovered the great Turkish hospitality as a welcome reception has been organized by the Istanbul aviation club. In the evening, we were invited by the Bosporus aviation club to enjoy dinner by the on a sea terrace at the Bosphorus. Wonderful people!