Aerosoft Samos Documentation
LGSM – Samos | 29palms.de | 29palms-store.de
LGSM – Samos v1.01
Documentation
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1. Introduction
2. General Information
3. Technical Information
4. Airport Operations
1. Approach Runway 09
2. Approach Runway 27
3. Departure Runway 09
4. Departure Runway 27
5. Night Operations
6. Warnings
5. Scenery Configurator Settings
6. FSX and Prepar3D Settings
7. System Requirements
8. Installation and Uninstallation
9. Frequently Asked Questions
10. Credits
11. Copyrights
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Contents
1. Introduction
Samos is the island airport with the most notorious landing approaches in Greece. It involves pure
“stick n’ rudder” demanding hand-type of flying in between mountains, without navigation
instruments guidance, moderate or higher turbulence due to terrain, the FIR border just on the
airport’s pattern and tight turns short before lining up for last stage of final approach to land.
“I have operated for years into some really demanding airports such as Gibraltar, Innsbruck, Madeira, La
Palma. But Samos approaches are still at the top of my list as the most challenging and exciting!"
- Giorgio La Pira, A380 Pilot (formerly A320 Examiner)
These are only a few of the reasons why we have decided that this challenging and interesting
airport would be the perfect addition to our Greek island series following Mykonos and Skiathos.
Are you ready to test your piloting skills? Let the journey begin!
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ICAO:
Latitude:
Longitude:
Elevation:
Magnetic Variation:
Fuel:
Runway 09/27:
Approaches:
Frequencies:
LGSM
37° 41' 20'' N
26° 54' 50'' E
19ft / 5.7m
04° E
100LL
2.044m x 45m; Asphalt
RWY09 VOR Approach
RWY27 VOR Approach
APP 124.100
TWR 129.850
ATIS 127.050
2. General Information
Samos International Airport (SMI / LGSM) is located 4 km west of the town Phytagorio, named after
the locally born mathematician and philosopher Phytagoras.
Do you remember from school the Pythagorean theorem relating the lengths of the three sides of a
right triangle? Well this is where it all happened 2,500 years ago by Pythagoras!
Also an important antiquity very close to the airport, deep inside the Pythagorion hill - mentioned
further down as a hazard to the airport approaches - is the Eupalinos Tunnel (underground
aqueduct) dating also 2,500 years ago; the first known underground tunnel to have been designed
using geometry.
The story of Samos Airport began when the Greek Government decided in 1935 to modernize the
transportation infrastructure all over the country.
The initially selected area for the new airport was not used due to a misunderstanding with the local
residents for granting the land. The Samos Holy Diocese and its monasteries finally accepted a
symbolic price for 500 acres of land from the Greek Government for the construction of the airport.
In 1960 construction work started again, undertaken by the Air Force, which completed in 1962. On
June 23, 1963, almost two decades since the project began, the brand new airport was inaugurated.
The airport was first served three times a week by a Douglas DC-3 “Dakota”.
In 1968 it was decided to expand and widen the existing runway in order to serve even bigger
aircraft. The project was completed in 1971 and the airport was designated “International category
B” with the ability to serve aircraft from abroad. At that time the relationship with Turkey was quite
tense and the Greeks feared an invasion at the beaches south of the airport. That is the reason for
the sparsely vegetated and cultivated area south of the airport which still has the remains of army
posts and anti-invasion installations (not depicted in the scenery). In the area, officially, it is still
forbidden to snap photographs!
With a new terminal completed in 2003, the airport nowadays not only serves many international
and domestic flights but also hosts two Hellenic Air Force firefighting aircraft on standby during the
summer at the dedicated east apron.
Sources: www.gtp.gr, Kyprianos Biris
3. Technical Information
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Runway Lights:
Samos runway has some conventional runway edge and end lights.
There is an approach lights system (ALS) for runway 09 which has worn in time and is partially visible
in the real airport due to wear and vegetation grown around it. This is reflected in the scenery.
You can spot it in the Challenger 300 dusk approach 09 video documented below.
Even though the official charts of Samos indicate one set of PAPI4 lights on each runway's side, the
actual configuration in the real airport is of four sets of APAPI2 (abbreviated PAPI) lights left and
right of each touch down zone for runways 09 and 27. This is how the real airport is, this is how we
did it. The four sets of APAPI lights provide greater accuracy for descent path and redundancy (in
real airport) in case a light bulb needs replacement.
Samos LGSM charts publicly available with Login at Greece AIP
The charts can be found in the following folder: “[FS main directory]/29Palms/29Palms – User Documents”
4. Airport Operations
The airport is situated in a basin by the sea surrounded by rising terrain close by in three quadrants
with only one direction available for approach and departure, that being from the south. The eastwest oriented runway is at sea level, but 2,044m (6,706 ft) long. This is something which provides
little room for error in the procedures explained below.
The usual wind prevails from northwest (310~340) and anything above 10kts generates turbulence
and/or windshear on approach from surrounding terrain. Stronger winds always become gusty and
a typical METAR of Samos with the summer "Meltemi" wind of Aegean Sea will display 33015G25KT.
To complicate issues more there is a hill (Pythagoreion) just east of the airport north abeam of the
final approach to runway 27. This hill generates prohibitive gusts and wind shear at lower levels in
conditions anything above 10~15kts for aircraft who may be low and slow on approach runway 27.
To complicate issues even more, just 4nm east of threshold 27 lies the coast of Turkey with steep
rising barren terrain. This close proximity also means that Samos approach ATC can provide services
only up to 2nm southeast from the runway with standard ICAO aircraft separation not guaranteed.
There are often cases where “fast and low” flying aircraft “groups in formation” pass just 3nm south
abeam the airport – typically outside Greece’s FIR border – without prior notice/coordination from
neighboring ATC facilities. For more background on this read
here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aegean_dispute
Samos does not have approach radar and all ATC is based on procedural separation in relation to
time above SAM VOR Initial Approach Fix (IAF) or DELOX IAF.
As IFR the airport is approached:
a) from the west via a DME ARC on SAM VOR using DELOX point as IAF
or
b) from above using SAM VOR as IAF with a teardrop procedure to the south
As VFR there are recommended VFR routes which you can see in the charts in the following folder:
“[FS main directory]/29Palms/29Palms – User Documents”
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Below is a visualization of the final visual approach part of the IFR procedures. A higher resolution
image can be found in the following folder: “[FS main directory]/29Palms/29Palms – User Documents”
This is a very useful page that briefs real pilots on the Samos procedures which includes even company made
custom visual approach chart.
https://pilotsbriefingroom.com/2011/09/06/samos-greece-smilgsm/
4.1. Approach Runway 09
For the above reasons runway 09 is the preferred runway for landing even with tailwind gusts
coming in from the rest of the mountains surrounding the airport.
But even if it is the preferred runway, it too has a tricky approach due to terrain.
A VOR approach is first executed that brings the aircraft heading north on R179
SAM perpendicular to the runway at 4 DME SAM to the South.
Then, once visual with the area, SAM VOR is set to radial 240, the aircraft is steered
northwest towards “Ireo” coastal village to fly just west abeam its pier which extends in to
the sea crossing it at 1,100ft. They cross the coast at this point on a northwesterly heading,
with 1,000ft high terrain just 1nm to the left
They continue flying towards “Mili” the only next village, 1.7nm ahead, descending and
heading straight for the 2,000ft high mountain!
Descending for 900ft (500 AGL) pilots identify the big white agricultural shed in the valley
below at “2 o’ clock” on extended centerline runway 09
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