Originally Posted by
jeanrayc
Hi! No, Stick is NOT the only pilot flying over the Algarve! I WAS with Aeroclube de Portimão until it closed (3-4 years ago with the crash of CS-AYH). I am now with AEROVIP. They do have a nice C172 and friendly instructors!
Since I am 71 and have had a heart attack (15 years ago), I fly with an instructor (bit more expensive!) Ask what you want to know, I'll be peased to respond!
JR
Wow, this is a blast from the past !
From it, I found Ken Thomsett and AeroAlgarve in Portimao, and flew from there several times, both in the club C152, and in Ken's C172. However, after a couple of years, I grew tired of local flights around Portimao, and the lack of somewhere reasonable to visit and land away in that part of the world meant that I stopped flying from there. After Ken retired and disposed of his business, it also became difficult to find an aircraft to hire. I did try flying from Jerez once, but it was a long drive there and back for a 1 hour bimble.
I did visit Portimao again last September in my Europa, when 5 Europa's made the trip from the UK to Southern Spain. That was on the leg from Viseu to Portimao for lunch, and then onwards to Cordoba.
As I still spend 4 months of the year on the Algarve, I would be interested to know more about AEROVIP. I did google them, but couldn't find anything about hiring a C172, just info about their local commercial flights, so please do elaborate, about availability and cost.
BobD