GA friendly airport in Malta?

[Sam Rutherford]

Hi, I'm looking for a GA friendly airport in Malta, but one that has either permanent or on-call customs and immigration.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Safe flights, Sam.

[Pace]

Sam

Valetta LMML is fine.

I went in there with a Citation and was parked up in the middle of no where on the airfield, then forgotten by the handling agent who went off with my co while I refuelled. He forgot to come back for me :ugh:

having said that I managed to improve my tan if a little baked exposed in the heat and walked over to a couple of GA hangers where the natives were friendly and which housed a few GA aircraft. I was also given a coffee.

The approach over the island was spectacular

Dont think there is another airport there that fits your requirements But do try this link for info arriving at the international airport. Maybe you can skip the handling agents?

aeroclubmalta (http://aeroclubmalta.piczo.com/aeroclubmalta?cr=6&linkvar=000044)
Pace

[ab33t]

I afraid you dont have much choice LMML is it , yes I concur wuth the previous post . I have flown a c172 around the Island they are very helpful and do assist where they can .

[tom775257]

The Maltese archipelago only has Luqa airport (LMML/MLA), so there is no choice in the matter. That said, they are very friendly, both ATC and ground ops etc. plus as a bonus pretty much all Maltesers are fluent in English. You might have to hang around in the day for the odd Air Malta, Ryanair, Easy etc to land, but the GA scene seems good in Malta.

If you are flying over before end Jan and fancy a beer and/or visit to the aviation museum at Ta'Qali, give me a PM.

Cheers, Tom.

[atceng]

Theres a 'heliport' on Gozo where last year the Maltese microlight club flew in to try to whip up interest to re-open the runway.
If you want a look try google Earth 36 01 38 32 N 14 16 19 88 E
Ignore the info on the web, like the turned around road signs it's just to confuse the non-locals.
The runway is 174M (if you look at Google info it says 174 ft!) but I reckon if you could open the gate to the road you'd get 230M .
Had a couple of hours in October but wasn't allowed to fly over Gozo due to traffic and then ILS calibration so never saw it for myself. (Had a dream of doing a 'FL' on it)
Just lucky but the DA20 went tech,so on my second sortie had to fly the diesel DA40 with glass cockpit,what a drag!Dreams come true.
The ATC is helpful but omnipresent,e.g. a five minute hold orbit on approach to the GA runway. You might need an interpreter, their version of English is testing.(I'm just a student so the instructor volunteered to do the RT, thank goodness)
Going back early in the year,can hardly wait,ambition to land away in Sicily. Maybe just a PFL on Gozo helistrip.

atceng

[Final 3 Greens]

their version of English is testing

Oh the irony of an Edinburgh based poster making that statement :}

Seriously, some Maltese do have a distinct accent (not all Maltese do and some speak with UK accents and have UK names, so be careful on the assumptions), but it is spoken as native English by many of the people, most being at least fluent (as Tom says) and after about a 30 second adjustment, you'll be fine.

By the way, English is an official language of Malta (the other one being Malti, which is not so easy to understand.)

[Sam Rutherford]

Thanks for the posts! Will go there in May next year.

Safe flights, Sam.

[chevvron]

A few years ago, some ATC staff (not all) were Libyan; this might explain the fact a Scot had difficulty with the accent.!!!

[atceng]

Listen mates,I'm a half English/ Welsh,Liverpudian,living in Scotland for over 50 years.
I think I have a CPL and bar, at least, in accents, look you, ye ken, begorra, old chap..
Listening to the big boys talking to Luha tower I wasn't surprised at the many requests for 'say again' from obviously seasoned 'transatlantic' jet jockeys.
Had a recording but my newfangled recorder lost it when the batt went flat
Anyway, we wait for Sam to report after his May trip.

Whatever I am sorely tempted to leave this grey and unpleasant land and gratefully accept anything the Maltese choose to do to English. At least they drive on the aviation side of the road,i.e. with the centreline under the right knee.

atceng (fogbound)

[tom775257]

Well I operated out of Luqa for 2 years, I never had a problem with ATC. Quite a few times when the weather got bad, we were told 'just do what you want!' A nice thing to hear when the weather radar is painting red all around. Either way worth a trip... today the weather was nice, mainly sunny with a high of 17.

BTW I wouldn't fancy a forced landing in Malta much! I once flew a PA-28 into Sabadell airport, near Barcelona. BCN approach keep you very low as you transit the zone, if our engine had failed, we would have had no chance over a highly built up area... glide clear...hmmm