Menzies Aviation

On Friday 19th April we left Szeged that we loved so much, and headed for Timisoara, Romania. Szeged airport from air:

Before leaving, we got passport control and customs, that air traffic controllers kindly arranged for us:

And this is the old passport control building for departures and arrivals (it is not longer used – not necessary):

Szeged airport is quite old – it began operating already during the WWI. On the photo below is a memorial stone with the names of pilots that crashed on this airfield since its opening:

The city of Szeged on our way to Romania:

The weather was excellent, and we soon crossed the border:

I had been in contact with the Romanian aviation authorities that informed me about all the necessary formalities we needed to arrange. Our first landing in Romania had to be in an international airport. The operations staff in Timisoara airport were very helpful, we got in contact with the Menzies Aviation who arranged everything for us.

On approach to Timisoara we were asked to fly to a reporting point we couldn’t find neither on a map, nor in SkyDemon. We honestly confessed, and it was perfectly understood by the air traffic controller, who then redirected us to the upper west corner of the control zone. We were asked to head for the TSR Locator, and then turn to short final on RWY11:

We landed fine:

TWY C, L, and a “Folllow me” car directed us to the parking place right by the side of the big airliners:

Marshall helped with parking:

A representative from Menzies Aviation and a policeman came in a car and welcomed us to Timisoara:

It was fun to be on such a big (for us) airport. Unfortunately, the wind began to get stronger and stronger, with gusts up to 25 kts, and there wasn’t any equipment for mooring our ultralight aircraft to the ground. The authorities recommended us to fly to a small general aviation airfield nearby – Cioca – and park there.

After getting all the formalities done, like passport control, screening, and so on, we filed a flight plan for Cioca. We couldn’t get in touch with anyone at Cioca, but operations were helpful again – they called someone, and found a man who drove to Cioca, and waited there for us. “Follow me” car showed us the way to the taxiway, and we took off.

There wasn’t any info about runways on Cioca, neither in SkyDemon, nor on their web site, but we are used to land on small private airstrips, so we were completely ok with that. We got help again even without asking – the air traffic controller informed us about the direction of the runways, their condition, gave weather information, and followed us up till short final, where she said goodbye and wished us a very nice stay in her country.

Turning on final for RWY 05 in Cioca there was a large train station below us:

There was 17 kts cross wind on landing, and Vagn managed it just perfectly:

We were met by a man and two stray dogs. The man helped us to secure our aircraft on the ground:

And while they were doing that, I had a quick look into the hangar. There were three (!) Antonov, among other aircraft:

The man called us a taxi, and waited with us bu the gate till it came. We asked whether the gate will still be open when we come back in 5 days – and he assured us that it would. He didn’t speak the languages we did, and we din’t speak his languages, but we perfectly understood each other.

We got into our luxury apartment in the centre of Timisoara, and went out as soon as we could. It was +20C, blue skies and a sunsine, lots of people on the streets.