Spotting conditions in Greece

[RafaleTiger]

Hello everyone,

Following my next trip next week to Greece, I was planning to visit Araxos and Tanagra.
I tried to find out but there is little information on spotting conditions in Greece. There were big problems in 2002 by a group of spotters, was there a positive evolution of spotters in Greece?
I have seen few photos of military aircraft outside Greek airbases.
Is it more or less tolerated?
I think you have to be far from the airbase? (minimum 1 or 2 km)
Regarding the Tiger Meet, can we expect a little more tolerance from the Greek authorities?

Thanks a lot for your help,

RafaleTiger

[Bennie]

Greek authorities DO NOT sympathize with the hobby of plane spotting (or train spotting, for that matter). Indeed a groups of Dutch & British spotters were arrested, convicted and imprisoned in the past. I spoke to both Dutch guys following their release and they swore never to go back to Greece! They DID NOT have fun!!! I was lucky to 'only' get questioned and sent away back in 1985.
Try to arrange base visits through your national embassy in Greece and you can pretty much do what you want. At least when I went there in 2007. I would personally not go near military installations without prior permission.

Ben

[Stratofreighter]

...better read this:
https://scramble.nl/community/messageboard/45/150254

Not a lot will have changed over the last three years.

[Maudit]

On his return from Andraviada this year, a French friend of mine took a simple photo in the Athens terminal of a civilian plane and obviously got a little tickled by the authorities.

[F17_114PM]

Araxos Base wrote that spotting from the outside during the Tiger Meet will not be tolerated.
So, be really careful!!!

[frank kramer]

Not only is it something the authorities are NOT sympathetic to, also the locals are happy enough to alert police if they see you. Also, Araxos is known to be particularly tight when it comes to security. Obviously, every now and then people DO get lucky, but you cannot count on that. And in the current security situation in that part of Europe, best advice would be : don’t!

[Richard from Rotterdam]

Is Araxos the base with the A-7 dump? During the Iniochos spotters day I heard from British friends that a couple of Dutch spotters had been arrested while trying to read the numbers of the dumped Corsairs. Apparently held for a couple of hours before being released.

[RafaleTiger]

Thanks a lot for your responses, very appreciated!
In view of your comments, I will not take any risk and no spotting in Greece.
It's surprising for a European country I think.

[Stratofreighter]

...oh dear...
https://scramble.nl/community/messagebo ... 5#p1027805 .
Even just watching with your own eyes, not even using your phone,
is a problem, it seems...

[Key]

Actually it's not, but locals being paranoia is. That is what I gather from this useful report.

Erik

[patrick dirksen]

"Rare jongens, die Grieken...."

(Obelix)