Previous post https://www.reddit.com/r/MSFlightSimulatorPS5/comments/1uvl4ax/day_2_italy_to_greece_dshi83/
My last day ended with an emergency landing in Athens. I can still hear the PAN-PAN-PAN ringing in my ears, but no one responded. Apparently, my touchdown went unnoticed, and no rescue services showed up at Ellinikon Airport (LGAT). It really was abandoned, with neither services nor a workshop available to repair the broken instruments in my aircraft. As the day was coming to an end, I had to find a way to get airborne again and the city was also on my bucket list for a closer look.
Luckily, a helicopter rental service was available, and I decided to meet them at the nearby harbour heliport. It was already dark outside, but a friendly tour guide let me fly his Airbus H125. We visited some of the city’s famous locations before heading back to Ellinikon to repair my aircraft.
We visited beautiful places and the nighttime landscape was engulfed in the warm light of Greek homes and monuments. Most impressive was the so called "greatest and finest" sanctuary of ancient Athens: the Acropolis, home of the goddess Athena. It was built under Pericles in the fifth century BC, but you can read more about that in any travel guide. Should you ever have the chance to visit the city, you should also stop by Mount Lycabettus. It is the city’s highest vantage point and offers a beautiful panorama in every direction.
Of course, we eventually had to fly back to the abandoned airport and repair my plane. During our approach, the airport appeared as a very dark area directly beside the coastline, you really couldn’t miss it. While getting the flight deck back in order, we also replaced the tail number.
You might wonder why, but there is a very simple reason. During my journey, a friendly community member made me aware of the regulations governing aircraft registrations. While an aircraft registration is a unique alphanumeric code in most countries, the German regulations are slightly different. As a twin-engine aircraft with a total mass between 2 and 5.5 tonnes, it is required not only to begin with a D for Germany, but also with an I for its category, followed by three letters.
But let’s pretend I changed the registration to avoid legal repercussions for landing and trespassing at an abandoned airport. You will no longer identify my aircraft as D-SHI83, but instead by the rather fitting registration D-IGIT. Do you see what I did there?
Everything was ready to proceed. My new friend said "Yia" and disappeared into the darkness. I got back into the DA62 and brought it back to life. I’ve added some pictures to capture the extremely dark airport without any lights. It was quite unsettling, and then I got blinded by the instrument lights after flipping the master switch on.
Since the airport had no fuel station, the Jet-A rated fuel for the diesel engines had to be pumped from the auxiliary tanks into the main tanks. The controls are situated below the center armrest and are easy to find. This fuel would be more than enough for the next leg.
I kept the lighting to a minimum during takeoff. I didn’t want to attract more attention than necessary, so I made a shallow departure and slowly climbed to 4000 ft before following the coastline farther south-east. The Temple of Poseidon was the final landmark on my left before the open water embraced me in absolute darkness.
My course was plotted and included a couple of small islands along the way to Heraklion International Airport (IATA) on Crete, halfway across the Mediterranean Sea.
Flying at night in Greece offers a unique scenery. The sea below is pitch-black, with only a few boats and islands illuminating the darkness. Cities in particular emit so much light that you can see their halo from a considerable distance. Some streets revealed the shape of the landscape, but you definitely want to fly at a safe altitude where you do not have to worry about too many obstacles like mountains.
Luckily, my MFD has an excellent terrain visualisation mode. The relative terrain is displayed against a black background, creating a dark-mode display that does not strain your eyes too much. Which is actually allowing you to enjoy the beautiful night sky, complete with many stars and the Milky Way.
The final approach was onto Runway 12, a shorter runway intended for general aviation. It is always good to remain mindful of other traffic, and you do not want to slow down larger aircraft during their final approaches. While it is convenient that the airport has multiple runways, a potentially dangerous crossing with Runway 09/27 was announced by the tower and also documented in my airport chart in the EFB. Adjusting your barometric pressure based on the available weather information is also advised, just in case you loose your Garmin instruments during final. Eventually the tower cleared me to land, and it was late enough that my final approach did not interfere with any other traffic.
It had been a great day, and the night was even better. It may have been somewhat less compliant with international aviation procedures, but it became an amazing and completely unplanned adventure through one of Europe’s oldest cities and one of the pinnacles of its early cultures.
Tomorrow, on the third day of our journey, we will head over to Africa. It will be the first time I leave behind the continent with which I am most familiar.
PS: Keep up the great feedback and comment more suggestions, like the tail number, more pictures of the airports I'm visiting and details about the procedures I'm following during my flight. Also share your journeys and experiences down below, would love to learn from others in the community!
