Photo Gallery/Trips/Istambul

(Submitted by Brian Wilson) Istanbul Turkey was the last stop after Kavala Greece on a 3 week summer holiday Aug 08. Google found Duha Aviation, and EMails were answered promptly. It is no problem doing a dual flight with an instructor and a 172, but the Euro 300 per hour[C$ 492] seemed a bit high. Istanbul has 2 international airports, Ataturk Europe side, and Sabiha Gokcen Asia side. Istanbul is a city of 12 million and its the only city in the world that is on 2 continents. It is separated by the Bosphorus Strait, which is a 20 mile long body of water separating Europe And Asia. This waterway is the only route into the Black Sea and about 120 ships pass through it daily. Western Istanbul is in Europe, and the eastern part is in Asia. Upon arrival I phoned Duha and they said its no problem to do a sight seeing flight over the city. We would be flying out of the Sabiha Gokcen airport , flying on the east side of the river crossing over to the European side and flying over the area of the city called Sultanahmet, which has most of the main sights like the Grand Bazaar, Yeni Mosque, Hagia Sopia, Blue Mosque ,Spice Bazaar and the Topkapi Palace. I found this hard to believe they allow random flying over a city like this and also they agreed to cut the price to Euro 250 per hour [C$410] what a deal, how could I say no! More info go to www.duhaaviation.com