Friendly Small Airport Near Amsterdam ?

[LateFinals]

Local knowledge please ? I have to drop my plane in Amsterdam before returning to the UK for a sailing race which ends in Amsterdam when I propose to fly back. Does anyone know a friendly airfield,with reasonable landing/parking close to Amsterdam to fly into ?

Thanks in advance

LF

[S-Works]

schiphol. Believe it or not cheap and friendly.

[FerrypilotDK]

Lelystad is VERY close to Amsterdam and is good. VFR place, although they have an approach for IMC and night.

Have fun!

[Avarell]

Hilversum (EHHV) might be an option too. Small, cheap, very friendly and also close to Amsterdam. Grass rwy can be a problem after heavy rain.
www.ehhv.nl (dutch only)

Avarell

[scooter boy]

"Schiphol. Believe it or not cheap and friendly."

Interesting to hear Bose-X, I had previously used Rotterdam (which is a proper pain in the ar$e journey away from Amsterdam) as I expected Schipol to cost a king's ransom.

Out of interest, how much did they charge you?

SB

[bookworm]

http://www.jetcenter.nl/ has the fees. Ironically their handling fee at EHAM is less than at EHRD.

[BackPacker]

Yep, those seem to be the options. To summarize:

EHAM (Schiphol) - Controlled. Surprisingly friendly to GA. Requires handling plus landing fee, expect a minimum of 200 euros + parking. You'll end up at the GA terminal at Schiphol-east where the connections to Amsterdam are not as good as from the passenger terminal itself. But there's various buses that go around the perimeter. From the passenger terminal itself it'll take 10-15 minutes by train to Amsterdam.

EHRD (Rotterdam) - Controlled. GA friendly (I fly from there.) Requires handling. Bus to Rotterdam Central Station (10 minutes or so?), from there trains to anywhere. To Amsterdam probably 45-60 minutes.

EHHV (Hilversum) - Uncontrolled, grass. GA only, very cheap. As with all grass runways, may get waterlogged after heavy rain. Tight airspace and circuits due to the proximity of Schiphol and Soesterberg AB plus noise abatement procedures. Hilversum has train stations but I don't know how close that is to the airfield. Probably a 10 minute bus ride.

EHLE (Lelystad) - Uncontrolled, tarmac but has a defined IFR approach for night and IMC approaches. GA only but with big ambitions and prices/assumed professionalism to match. 15 minute bus ride to Lelystad station, I guess. Half an hour train journey to Amsterdam.

So I guess it depends on the plane you're flying (can you get in&out of EHHV allright) and how the rest of the journey is being undertaken.

Does the sailing thing end in Amsterdam proper (ie. not IJmuiden)? In that case you'll probably be docked right behind Central Station. From there you can get a direct train to any station mentioned below, and you should expect a 10-15 minute bus (or taxi) ride to get to the field in all cases.

[LateFinals]

Thanks for very helpful advice. I'm inclined to use Schipol if the parking isn't going to need a second mortgage !!

LF

[S-Works]

The standing joke at Schiphol is you can park your aircraft cheaper than you can park your car.

I have been in many times and in fact will be there the weekend after next (I lived there for many years) and the most it has cost me for a weekend is about €100.

[dublinpilot]

the most it has cost me for a weekend is about €100.

According to the website quoted by Bookworm, €97 of that €100 is a handling charge :confused:

Are the landing fees at French levels?

[S-Works]

You can negotiate your own price with the handlers if you go more often. Parking is €4 per day. I will have to dig out the invoice from March and see how it is broken down. But I don't recall a landing fee element on it.

[Georgeablelovehowindia]

If flying VFR to Schiphol, make sure you read up on the VFR Flight Procedures, especially the location of Point VICTOR. You will be proceeding to it on arrival and departing via it. At least 10min before CTR entry, contact Schiphol TWR, include confirmation of the current ATIS and estimate for VICTOR. This will reassure them that you know what you're doing. They tend to get a bit terse with people who don't! :cool:

If you don't have a flight guide which includes this, then I suggest you Google: AIS Netherlands/Integrated Package/Part 3 Aerodromes.

I'm sure you'll find them friendly and welcoming!

[BackPacker]

If you *really* know what you're doing you could also try and approach from the west. Not an official procedure, but light aircraft normally can get a west-to-east transit if they ask nicely and, from their radio calls, appear to know what they're doing. The normal transit is Zandvoort-Heemstede-Hoofddorp (or secondary tower)-Main tower-Victor (or Vinkeveen) at 1500 feet or below. This takes you right over the center of 04/22, which is the runway used for GA. So after that runway, technically, you can join downwind. I've never heard this done, though.

Of course, it helps if you can pronounce all these names properly, so you might have to fake a Dutch accent...

And in any case, you might get a "treshold base" or "midrunway base" - don't get caught out by that instruction!

[007helicopter]

I personally found Leystad a good option and was easy to get a a train into Amsterdam if you need to.