Santa Maria Azores to Mallorca, Spain
Monday, October 29, 2018
We departed Santa Maria around 8:30 AM local. Our flight was a little over nine hours and we landed at Mallorca at 7 PM local time. We were in and out of clouds most of the trip. About 150 miles out we picked up some very light clear ice and immediately descended to a warmer temperature, the ice disappeared rapidly.
We were met at our plane by our ground handling team. We breezed through customs and immigration. We had hotel reservations at the Melia Palma Bay Hotel, a beautiful property.
On landing, we discovered that part of our high frequency (HF) antenna came loose on our flight over do to light icing in the clouds. A functioning HF radio is required for trans-oceanic flying.
Tuesday, October 30, 2018
We are staying at the Melia Palma Bay hotel, very nice. We went over to the international airport today to check our plane. We knew when we landed last night that the HF antenna had separated from the tail.
Since the international airport does not have Avgas, we drove to Son Bonet, a general aviation airport, six miles away to make arrangements for fuel (total 220 gals) and an oil change the following day. Marty was able to pick up a spring for the HF antenna. We got back to the hotel and a Spanish dinner and went to sleep.
Wednesday, October 31, 2018
We left our hotel after a very small breakfast and arrived at the international airport around 9 AM. The HF antenna was repaired. Then we flew about seven minutes to the Son Bonet airport. We had the oil changed, topped off our wing tanks and refueled the ferry tank. Then we flew back to the international airport and prepared ourselves for a 9 AM departure the next morning. Mallorca to Cyprus is 1,500 NM. Flight time is about nine hours and 45 minutes.
