FEWP (the Federation of European Women Pilots) is holding their Annual Congress in Salzburg at the end of May, and a friend and I are planning to fly there, in the ancient C150 in which I recently got a share. Neither of us has flown much in Europe, and not beyond Northern France. We pretty well understand the basics with respect to paperwork and so on, but have a few questions that hopefully someone will be able to answer. Our route is likely to be through North-East France to the Strasbourg area, then across Southern Germany to Salzburg. We could go through Belgium etc, but are trying to restrict the number of countries we go through, to save on both buying maps/flight guides and learning rules/regulations on a first long trip abroad.
1) Rumour has it that some aircraft landing at some airfields in Germany are required to have silencers. Is this the case? And which aircraft, and which airfields?
2) The area of Germany around Stuttgart and Munich is a plain at around 3000ft, where apparently the cold air of the mountains meets the warm air of the plains, and at certain times of the year there can be fog for weeks!
What's it like in May? And what are our chances for VFR flying for the whole route at that time of year? or is there another route which would be better?
3) Are there any other national/regional/local rules and regulations that we should know about?
4) On a brighter note - where are nice places to stop, eat, stay etc?
5) We've already had lots of advice concerning which maps, flight guides etc to use, but more can't go amiss; does anyone have any particular recommendations?
Thanks in advance. And yes, I will tell you all about it afterwards....if you'd like me to.
