By 'eck! Etna! (by heck, Etna!) Event on 4th May 2022 LIBJ 18:00 UTC
Sicily beckons with a sight seeing tour of Mt Etna and local areas. Note: LIBJ is not listed in skyvector (but is listed in Flightgear) so LICA is indicated as the skyvector starting point. The second GPS coordinate on the Skyvesctor route is roughly where LIBJ is located.
We depart LIBJ grass strip onto a heading of 215 @2000ft until we encounter the coast which we then follow South West with the coast to our left to enjoy the views of the container terminal at Gioia Tauro and shortly afterwards, the steep and impressive coastline.
We'll turn South to keep following the coastline before our first stop landing at Reggio Calibrea LICR where there is a choice of two runways.
Tune NDB to 325 and backup to 407
Depart LICR altitude 2000 and follow the NDB 325
When the NDB swings behind you, turn onto heading 255 out over the water.
Sicily should loom into view after a few minutes, keep the heading and once near the coast, turn left and follow the coast, enjoying the view on the right for a few minutes down to Naxos. Once over the harbour, turn sharp Right Hdg 305 and follow the valley and start a climb 11,500.
Unless visibility is bad Mt Etna should now be visible to our left.
Tune to NDB 345 and when the needle reads 90 degrees to your left, turn left Hdg 180
We'll need about 11,500 ft to see Mt Etna below but even from a close shave of the volcano at 10,000 we'll get a view of the plumes. (Don't forget to turn on volcano activity in the Environment menu).
If you're very daring there are points on offer for landing and baking a potato but it's not recommended.
After a look around at Mt Etna take a heading of around 140 (South East) to the coast.
Once at the coast tune to NDB 407 and follow the needle (South) to LICC where our journey finishes.
Meet and chat: 18:00 UTC (Mumble GA-Wednesday channel)
Wheels up: 18:30 UTC
Comms: Mumble, radio-mumble.flightgear.fr 'Special events/GA-Wednesday', Flightgear Chat (Mumble recommended, it's more sociable and inclusive)
Aircraft: General aviation capable of 11,500ft
Weather: Live weather
Environment: Enable volcanoes in environment menu
Time: Afternoon
Please post your aircraft type in the discussion thread https://forum.flightgear.org/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=39025&p=400800#p400800 so we can download it in advance and see each other on the multiplayer.
https://skyvector.com/?ll=38.2219511705 ... ICC%20LICC