Flying outside UK

[tomboo]

Hi,

I'm a 90ish hour PPL, looking for nice places in Europe to fly and combine a family holiday.

I don't want to necessarily "hour build" but experience build with different scenery!

I'm looking for somewhere cheaper than the UK with high safety standards and good English RT.

Any thoughts?

[Gertrude the Wombat]

Suspect you'd find you had rather a lot of expensive Eurozone to fly over, at considerable expense in flying costs, before you landed up somewhere cheaper!

[Lone_Ranger]

I'm looking for somewhere cheaper than the UK with high safety standards and good English RT.

Any thoughts?

Just one...if you ever find such a place, please post back here.

But France has to be the first step in building experience, the large airfields all speak English at least as well as a Scotsman, but without the profanities (well mostly)

[Steve6443]

The question I'd pose myself is how far do I want to fly? But for ease of flying and nice scenery, I would fly to Germany which will offer you an excellent traffic service and none of this "basic service only due to Controller workload" which seems to be standard response from Farnboro these days. I'd look to fly places like Koblenz, or, if you fancy something slightly - um, unusual and challenging, try Traben Trabach).

Landing fees for smaller airfields are around 6 - 10€, fuel prices vary though. I've always found flying in Germany significantly simpler than in UK basically because you're not pushed from pillar to post by one LARS to another but have just the three FIS to deal with - Bremen, Langen or Munich Information.

If you want, you could also do things like recreate historic flights - for example Bleriot's first crossing of the channel or flying over the Moehnesee Dam - but please not as low as they did 70 odd years ago

[Genghis the Engineer]

Originally Posted by tomboo

Hi,

I'm a 90ish hour PPL, looking for nice places in Europe to fly and combine a family holiday.

I don't want to necessarily "hour build" but experience build with different scenery!

I'm looking for somewhere cheaper than the UK with high safety standards and good English RT.

Any thoughts?

The Republic of Ireland? Hard not to find it, they speak English, prices are a little lower than the UK, everybody's very friendly, the place is certainly perfectly safe, RT seems to make reasonable sense most of the time - and only about a 50 mile sea crossing. The beer is generally good as well, although if you want good affordable whisky, go north east of there!

Little bit of mild paperwork nauseum with special branch getting each way, but that's about as difficult as it gets.

Heading north into Ulster is also easy enough - even a big place like Londonderry / Derry / Eglinton / Stroke-City is very welcoming to GA.

G

N.B. But do expect at-least two varieties of potato with every meal.

[turbopropulsion]

The Irish Mars bar as they say!

[Jan Olieslagers]

Consider Belgium. Good R/T in good English, both at controlled and uncontrolled fields*, safety standards ok (but aren't they all over Europe??), and less expensive than UK mainly as regards landing fee - 5 € is usual.

Not clear what you mean by a family holiday, though, or to what practical requirements it corresponds for you. Generally (and much simplifying), Southern Belgium = scenery plus some industrial archeology (do fly along the Canal du Centre!, but mind the airspace limitations), Northern Belgium = historic & art cities.

* except at a few microlight fields in the south, which are NORDO

[ChickenHouse]

Except for France you will find mostly good English RT on not too small places, but one thing I find a bit strange - cheaper then UK? Hm, we continental flyers go to the UK, because it is more relaxed and cheaper, so what does that make of your idea?

Just one extreme example: I had to fly to Debrecen lately (mother in law heart attack) and paid landing fee 12,30 Euros plus mandatory handling (this is a very common street robbery part of the fees) of 30,75 Euro plus PPR fee for landing at 10:15Z outside opening hours (the place close Sunday 1000z!) of 700,00 Euro - and on top of all, Tax of 27% = 943,67 Euro bill for one landing of an old C172.

[Jan Olieslagers]

CH, sorry, but that example is ridiculously out of the way. If you want the earth to rotate backwards, that comes at a price too. You may have your own reasons for doing what you do - let us be grateful to have this freedom! - but this says nothing about the average cost of an average flight.

Again, the average grass field in my country levies a 5€ landing fee and I think few UK fields are cheaper, with a possible exception for farm strips.

[tomboo]

I didn't word my post very well!

I want to hire somewhere other than the UK!

[ChickenHouse]

@JO: Lucky you, recently spent 4 weeks around in Germany, typical landing fees are i.e. between 12€ and 18€ for a <1.2to and a usual mid-size GA field, very few cheaper - didn't encounter any less 8€, lots more expensive - everything up to 35€ for <1.2to is thought normal (some strange lateron bills from german DFS included).

@tomboo: what is a "cheaper" hire? A typical C172SP goes for 260 Euros/h ...

[Jan Olieslagers]

Tomboo, consider France, then - but expect SOME kind of hassle before being allowed to rent a club plane if you're a recent member. And polish up your French, the best deals will be at the smaller fields where R/T is in local language.

[BobD]

You could do worse than Aero Algarve at Portimao in Portugal. When I flew there a couple of years ago, if you joined the local flying club, you could hire their C-150 for <€100 per hour. They also had a C-172 for reasonable rates.


Not many places to land away, but nice scenery along the Algarve coastline. Be aware that you also need to file a flight plan but that is pretty straightforward.

It looks like their website is being updated (just had a peek and not much info), but if you contact Ken Tomsett (the owner), I found him very helpful.

[Steve6443]

@JO: Lucky you, recently spent 4 weeks around in Germany, typical landing fees are i.e. between 12€ and 18€ for a <1.2to and a usual mid-size GA field, very few cheaper - didn't encounter any less 8€, lots more expensive - everything up to 35€ for <1.2to is thought normal (some strange lateron bills from german DFS included).

First things first, I usually pay between €7 - 12 for a P28A so don't know who charged you so much. Secondly, had I known you were intent on flying around Germany, then I would have recommended you buy the Landegutscheinheft from Airshampoo - there are two books dividing Germany into north and south, each offering free landings at 40 airfields per book.

With the book, you can then land up to 3 times at selected airfields without charge. Oh, and they're not just smaller airfields either.. Want the experience of an international airport - land at Paderborn or Hannover. Want to experience the North Sea Islands? Land on Wangerooge.... I could go on but suffice to say the books are well worth it, saves me around €140 a year in landing fees per book.......