Piper Seneca in (FlyTampa) Corfu...

April 23, 20215 yr

Encouraged by another recent post, here, using FlyTampa scenery, I, too, looked for a new airport scenery, this week, also from those esteemed developers at FlyTampa, for myself (aka for my humble FSX...🙂...). FlyTampa creations are all excellent, but, I settled on one airport that caught my attention, it being neither a large metropolitan international airport, nor too small an airport. In fact, Corfu (LGKR) is actually now considered an international airport, and the island of Corfu, in the Ionian Sea, of the Ionian Islands, being a major tourist attraction. The airport, founded in 1937, had an original Runway length of only about 1900 feet, during WW II days, then, over the period of next 20 years, it has reached its current length of 7,785 feet, and, thereby, can currently meet even large aircraft needs.

Two high and well-defined mountain ranges divide the scenic island into three distinct districts, of which the northern is most mountainous, the central undulating, and the southern low-lying. In this post, I've lifted off (LGKR) Rwy 17 (southward), made a bit of sightseeing overfly, and, then landed back on Rwy 35 (northward) (see images, below). FlyTampa has provided all applicable (LGKR) Charts on their website. Approach to Rwy 35, is via KERKIRA (KRK) VOR (only VOR DME/NDB, but no ILS). [Side Note: Corfu and Kerkyra mean the same, the latter being the (original) name of the island in Greek. Corfu is the anglicized (new) name]. From KRK (VOR), one can then track the Final Approach Course of 346 degrees, towards GARISTA (GAR) VOR, being careful to be at the (minimum) altitude of 2900 feet while at 9nm out (and also being mindful afterwards, all the way till touchdown), due to the presence of the adjacent mountains to the left (see images). Yours truly seems to have managed to land well on the numbers...🙂...without any untoward incidence, to report,...

For this post, I've selected the Carmonair Piper PA-34 Seneca II, registration (TI-API). Carmonair is one of the most important Costa Rican Charter airlines. TI-API was painted with this singular livery called "PinkTail" by it owners. So, please excuse, here, my discretion for flying this (nice) bold and unconventional black & pink "Costa Rican" Piper (a SIM that I happen to like, but had not flown in ages), in the far-away-from-home "Greek" island of Corfu...! And, a point worth mentioning about this Seneca, is that it's the PA-34-Senaca II model, where Piper, for the first time, switched (from the Lycoming IO-360 series) to the Continental TSIO-360 series engines, that you see here.

Hope you enjoy these pictures, below, of this beloved (archetypal) Piper light twin, flying around the beautiful Corfu island with its rolling green hills, mountains, and the pretty and sandy beaches......

BTW, please do take note of the two brave souls, daring to stand unconcerned, in my final approach path, right under the left wing (see close-up shot). One, at least, seems to be taking note of my a/c, but the other seems too engrossed in conversation to take any note of my (mighty) overflying presence...🙂...

Thanks for your interest...!!

[Carenado (Piper Seneca II), FlyTampa (Corfu)]