VFR Traffic into Koln or Karlsruhe

[Randomtox]

Hi there,

Will be transitiing western Germany in a couple of weeks time and wondered if anyone knew how easy it was to get into either Koln or Karsruhe (Baden Baden) ?

What are the landing fees like ? Contacts for handling agents ?

Have looked on Eurocontrol but can;t seem to find anything (which may of course be down to my not navigating the site properly!)

Have though about EDKB (Bonn Hangelar) as an option.....

Thoughts and information gratefully received !
Jim

[Cobalt]

Koln definitely accessible. Not too expensive either - you don't say what you want to fly in, but assuming something between 1.2 and 2 tonnes you are looking at 25-50 Euros + 18 Euros per day parking, depending on noise levels. ATC very cooperative, and with a separate "short"runway (1800m) you won't be holding ages for wake separation either.

However, the general aviation terminal has a very bad reputation - poor access (it is within the boundary fence, so you have to go through a security procedire before even getting there) and poor service. If you pay for handling that might work better, but Bonn-Hangelar is much better in this regard.

No idea about Karlsruhe.

[David Roberts]

A Danish / AOPA friend of mine on the EASA MDM.032 working group regularly flew his C 172 into Koln to attend meetings and had no problems with VFR though he is also IFR rated. I believe the landing fees etc are quite reasonable.

If you want to contact him via me send me a PM and I can forward your email to him for advice.

[172driver]

You say 'transiting'. If this is all you do and don't need to go to either Karlsruhe or Köln/Bonn, then a fantastic alternative is Siegerland / EDGS. Sits right at the bottom of the Düsseldorf zone, very, very efficient and friendly (the firemen do the immigration check if you come from the UK !!) and has - or at least used to have - a very good restaurant. Great - and I mean GREAT - breakfast and steaks :ok:

If arriving from the UK, give them a call at startup, so they can coordinate with the local police for the immigration check.

Highly recommended.

[inbalance]

Been at cologne today, VFR is no problem at all, but as mentioned above, the GAT is krapp and it is more expensive then Karlsruhe.
Karlsruhe is a nice Airport for VFR. Not very busy and quite cheap.
No need for handling services at cologne and karlsruhe.

It is no problem to go VFR to any german airport, exept Frankfurt and Munich.
But if you want to refuel man and mashine only, there are a lot of smaler airfields with immigration and good restaurants. If you are on the way to the south, siegerland will do, or if fuel lasts, Freiburg is very nice.

Inbalance

[LH2]

Out of interest, which German airports accept night VFR with no or very short notice PPR?

[inbalance]

Without restrictions, 24 H, it´s Cologne, Münster, Nürnberg, Berlin schoenefeld, and Leipzig,but you need a noise certificate.
Duesseldorf is open 24 hours for props only.
Inside the opening hours VFR night is possible at every airport exept Frankfurt and Munich. No PPR required.

Outside the normal opening hours PPR is possible at all VFR Fields with lighting, but it may be expensive, so better call for the price first.

Airports like Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg and so on, are open at night, but restricted to ambulance, night freight, emergencys and late incomming sheduled flights.

If you like to do cheap vfr night training 24 hours I would go to Münster. Training Landingfee is below 10 €.

I do lot of ambulance and we don´t have a problem to open every airport in germany within 30 minutes. Even military and smaler vfr places. But we do have a good database with the right phonenumbers.
If you talk to the people in advance, they might give you a mobile number to call them 24 hours.

Inbalance