Flying in Spain, Portugal, Marokko

[Ronand]

Hi, I'm planning on going on a holiday in spring and wanted to do some flying between Spain, Portugal and Marokko.
Is it possible to fly over to Marokko on a VFR flight? And what kind of Flight plan and Kustom arrangements do I have to do before? Visa or anything like that?? Does anyone know a place whith cheap rates for 172's or PA28's on the south coast of Portugal or Spain?
Has anyone of you guys done trips in this area before? Would be very happy about any suggestions or advises...

[ab33t]

I know for a fact in Spain you have to file a flight wether you are vfr of ifr , Portugal is pretty much similar to the UK in terms of flying. You may find it very difficult to rent a plane to take over to Africa in the first instance , most FBO are not keen on having there planes going into Africa and most insurance companies charge a premium to insure them. It can be done though .

[172driver]

You may find it very difficult to rent a plane to take over to Africa in the first instance , most FBO are not keen on having there planes going into Africa and most insurance companies charge a premium to insure them

Total BS. Done it several times. Here's the lodown:

Spain: on the south coast basically two outfits to rent from, Aerodynamics in Malaga and Fly-in-Spain in Jerez. Both will require the requisite checkouts, of course. Google them.

Spain & Portugal: very pleasant to fly in, loads more small fields in Portugal, though. ATC is somewhat more UK-like in Portugal, especially regarding the English accent, but no probs with Spanish ATC. Some (very few) fields require radio in Spanish. Landing fees dirt cheap. Flight plan required in CAS, which is pretty much everything, but no probs flying in it. This is not the UK :ok:

The Portuguese want you to enter/exit their airspace at designated points (intersections), read up on it or ask wherever you end up renting from. No big deal.

Morocco: slightly more complicated, but not much so. You will need to leave and enter the EU via a custums/immigration field (e.g. Jerez, Malaga). I have heard that the Moroccans, after some bad experiences with ULs, now insist that you do your first landing in Tanger; cannot confirm this, but not a bad idea anyway, as the Moroccan charts are pretty much impossible to obtain and you will most likely need to copy the waypoints off their chart in the flight plan office there. According to a friend with recent experience, expect a full ramp check.
En-route: flight plan and VFR routes, program these first into your GPS (if you can't get them beforehand, at Tanger). No overflying of city centers (exception being arrival to Tanger rwy 27), and don't even dream of having a gig at the royal palace at Fez from the air :=
Landing and parking fees negligible.
If you intend to cross the Atlas, be aware that you need to get a long way up (FL 110 or thereabouts) and treat the mountains with respect.
Avgas no problem in the North, can be problematic south of the Atlas, especially Errashidia. Check and plan ahead.

I am travelling without my laptop at the moment and don't have the web address to hand, but there is an excellent website for Moroccan VFR flight (in French); I'll post the link as soon as I can.

Enjoy!

[flavio65]

Here the link to the AIP of Morocco: eAIP MOROCCO (http://www.onda.ma/sia-maroc/eAIP/)
Here the one for Spain (first register): Cómo consultar la AIP - Navegacion Aerea - Aena.es - Aeropuertos Españoles y Navegación Aérea (http://www.aena.es/csee/Satellite?cid=1078418725020&pagename=AIS/Home_AIS&SMO=1&Section=1&c=Page&MO=2)

Have fun down there!

[falko]

Hi Ronand , i m an ex ATC in Morocco ,it's not really compilcated to fly over Morocco ,so as "172driver" said right ,but also i correct for him that you don't have to make your first landing in Tanger ,except for refuling or sth ,anyway if you need anything contact me on :[email protected]

[172driver]

falco, thanks for clarifying the 'first port of call' question.

As promised, here is the link (http://www.flightsystem.net/) for the GA website I mentioned earlier.

[akaSylvia]

but not a bad idea anyway, as the Moroccan charts are pretty much impossible to obtain and you will most likely need to copy the waypoints off their chart in the flight plan office there.

Yep, we had this problem. But in general it was straight forward and we flew direct to Marrakesh and back from Málaga.

The biggest issue we had was refuelling in Marrakesh because we didn't have a Shell card, the only fuel card they take. We had money from an ATM but they would only take cash with a bank receipt - so we had to go to the bank and draw out more cash to pay for the fuel, leaving us with unwanted dirhams at the end of our trip.