Day 4

Monday, May 5th 2008
Leg 7: Casablanca (GMMN) – Agadir (GMAD)
PIC: Etienne
Flying time: 2h24
Landing fee: ca. 16 euro (incl. 1 night)

It took ages today to get to our airplane. We left the hotel at 0900 hours to be at the airport at 1000 o'clock so we could in the sky at 1200 o’clock, according to our flight plan. However, security really had a problem dealing with us. When we arrived yesterday, we just walked on the apron to Arrivals and had no problems, but this morning we were not allowed to walk back on the apron. We needed handling, so we were taken to Royal Maroc handling. Fortunately the handling office let us walk to our plane (without the payment of EUR 200,=!!!).
By the way, most airports in Morocco are situated quite a distance from the cities. Taxi’s one way will cost you EUR 20 / Dirham 200 (most of the time fixed prices published at the airport).

We have no idea if Terminal 3 can be used to enter the apron (after arrival yesterday, we had to go to Terminal 2). Terminal 3 is right next to the ARO office.
Finally, at the apron we walked to the ARO. There we found out again that the flight plan filed at AIS in the Netherlands was not in the system at Casablanca. Amsterdam FIO sent it again, after our phone call and the ARO received it. (Tip: file flight plans locally, much easier and even 30 min before take-off is ok). However, we had to wait and ask 3 times for fuel before they got to our plane (and then they showed up with two trucks!!!). With almost another hour of delay (4 hours after leaving the hotel!) we finally took off.

It is pretty funny to start at the beginning of runway 35L and being airborne after ca. 350 meters when the runway is 3300 meters (that thing is long!!!; especially when taxiing to the holding point). There was a nice breeze at Casablanca since the field is situated in the middle of nowhere without the cover of mountains or trees, making the take off very quick.

We had a 15kts tailwind on our way to Agadir, making a ground speed possible of 105-110 kts. Also on this leg we could hardly receive Casablanca Info due to some mountains. We were at FL055 and later on at FL065. With mountains reaching 3500ft, there was still hardly any communications. After the last reference point on the VFR route (lighthouse Cap Rhir) we switched to Agadir Approach.

Then the party started again. Approach wanted us to fly to reporting points which are not on the TPC maps we have and VFR maps are not available (the only new map is the one of the Northern part of Morocco; there are some local 1994-VFR maps, but very hard to get; possible to be ordered at the Aeronautical Office in Casablanca). He gave us some coordinates for a reporting point. But Marco requested if it was possible to fly directions until a certain radial was intercepted to get to the field. But obviously this was too fast for the controller so it was rejected. Finally we got an instruction for "report field in sight". Landing at the field was not that difficult, pretty flat all over the place.

You have to make sure you stay well clear to the north of the city and airfield in order to avoid the prohibited areas and the military airfield. We parked in front of the tower for a refuelling and immediate take off to Laayoune. However, they told us we needed special permission when we wanted to go further south (even to Tan Tan which is not even in the Western Sahara). This is not in the online AIP of Morocco, so we where a bit surprised. Fortunately the ARO was very helpful and immediately sent a landing permission request to Rabat between 6 and 12 May so we could land on the airfields situated in the southern part on our way to Dakar and back. The answer would come the next morning, so we parked our aircraft at the Aeroclub (general aviation).

There were only two other aircrafts standing there, and we are not sure if we would like to board them :). It does take a good 15 minutes walk to go from the parking area to the arrivals terminal since the runway is so long. On your way we passed some Saudi Arabian boeings belonging probably to a wealthy prince or two (at their parking place the grass is very well maintained :)).



The airport looks so remote and deserted we had the feeling the were getting in the more adventurous part of our trip. We took a taxi downtown and we were shocked to enter such a touristic town, it felt like being at a Costa Del Sol (Neckermann, Sunweb and all the other suspects are here!). With our dream shattered we took a short night sleep and wanted to leave early the next day.