Self hire nr Salou - Spain and Spanish VFR advice

[marioair]

I will be in Spain in the first two weeks of April - Salou near Reus.

Hoping to self-hire for an hour or two of sight seeing. Could anyone with experience help me with:

* Recommended ADs/Schools to hire from
* Things to be aware of for VFR in Spain (furthest I've been is Caen!) - i know FPs are required for CAS, but assume my PPL and Class 2 is all I need to show up with.
* Language difficulties for ATC/procedural differences?
* Recommended routes within 1 - 2 hours of Reus.

[London Flyer]

Some of your points addressed in no particular order:

- FPL required for flight in CAS (which is most likely since there are large areas of Class D above 1000 AGL, transits never a problem)
- Peak times (certainly July and August, not sure about Easter) certain airports do not accept VFR traffic on certain days - check the AD Notams
- No night flying unless you have IR and short night bimbles are a pain because departures from certain airports are via the SID which takes you miles from where you may wish to explore
- VFR departure and joining usually via a reporting point N/E/S/W
- Radar based FIS - No need for the UK style hello/heading/altitude/next waypoint/ETA - they have your flightstrip and can see you on radar
- ATC nowhere near as slick as in the UK or Germany
- Charts etc can be downloaded from www.aena.es (registration required) or the Eurocontrol website
- Landing and parking fees are very reasonable

[172driver]

Nothing much to add to London Flyer's advice. Only thing is that at small fields the radio is often done in Spanish. I have a crib sheet in PDF format, PM me if you want it. Also, have a look at the charts and note the Spanis names for the VRPs. While they are called W/E/S/N etc, they often also have local names and local pilots tend to use those. Helps with situational awareness.

Am not overly familiar with the area around Reus, but the wine growing area of the Priorat (roughly W of Reus) is quite beautiful.

Enjoy!

[marioair]

Thanks for you replies. I will probably be staying in Barcelona now so Sabadell looks like my best bet. Does anyone know of more than flight school based their and which is best??

[LH2]

Only thing is that at small fields the radio is often done in Spanish.

I only know of exactly one place where they allegedly require Spanish (Axarquia, near your local area I understand), and as far as I'm concerned se pueden meter la puta pista por el c​ulo, I just land somewhere else. Looks like a ****ty place anyway.

Just for info, do you know of any other examples where Spanish is required? (for the record, I'm not aware of any within bugsmashing distance of LERS)

To the OP: a new airport has been recently opened in Lleida (can't recall ICAO atm). It's probably about 1-1.5 hours away and should be an interesting visit.

[172driver]

LH2 - required and being done are two different things:E

Spanish pilots tend to speak Spanish on the radio, and on small, non-towered fields (think LEBA, LEJU, etc), it's good to at least have an idea what the other traffic is up to.

[LH2]

172,

Spanish pilots tend to speak Spanish on the radio, and on small, non-towered fields (think LEBA, LEJU, etc), it's good to at least have an idea what the other traffic is up to

I certainly agree on both counts. I dislike them doing so, but I recognise they are within their right to use Spanish on the radio (in Spain only... unfortunately it's not unheard of for the Perpignan controllers to have to revert to Spanish on the radio, in the interest of safety :ugh:) I also acknowledge the very few Spanish PPLs who make an effort to use English in busy airspace, and my respect goes to them.

LEAX is different in that officially at least they do not allow English on the radio there at all. IME that's different than say LEBA, where a) it is permitted, and b) the Spaniards in the circuit will usually switch to English when you come in on the frequency.

However, that is the only case I am aware of. All public airports are EN/ES, and so are all the other private airports in Spain I'm familiar with (except perhaps for LEAP, where de facto it's EN/ES/FR/DE, and on a good day Moroccan Arabic and Swedish if you're lucky :))

Now we just need IO540 to chip in to tell us how it makes no difference what they speak on the radio, as once on the ground you'll be lost anyway without a working knowledge of the local lingo ;). Ok, he's got a point there but on terra firma it does not become a safety issue (unless it's to say "mi avión se está quemando"), and one can always gesticulate anyway.

[172driver]

LH2, methinks we can agree - to agree !


mi avión se está quemando

:D LOL!

[LH2]

methinks we can agree - to agree !

Well, that's not very Pprune-ish now, isn't it? :*

:E