Trip to Spain and Portugal

[MarcusH]

A group of us are planning a trip to Spain and Portugal from Ireland this summer in our C172. Could someone suggest friendly airfields to visit? We are ideally planning a trip around the peninsula including the possibility of a trip across to Morocco. All help would be very welcome.

[blueandwhite]

We did dawdled along via

Dinar
Royan (1st night)
Beritz
La Mogal
Braga (2nd night)
Santa Cruz
Portimaio (3rd to 6th Night)
Jerez
Morocco (7th Night)
Almeria (big mistake)
Castello (8th Night)
San Sebastion (9th Night)
La Rochelle
Jersey (10th to 12th Night)

Really enjoyed it.

[MarcusH]

Were any of the fields friendlier? Particularly is there a friendlier place near Malaga?

[piperboy84]

Done Spain from Scotland a couple of times, I found the best facilities for overnighting and reasonable landing fees on the way down were any of the following : Jersey, Rennes, San Sebastián, Pamplona , LEAX (aero club Malaga) . 2 really good GA fields I overnighted at in Portugal were Portimao in the South and Cascias for Lisbon. While in Spain I based myself out of LEAX and done day trips up the coast to small microlight fields although not sure they'd be long enough for a loaded up 172, I was flying the Maule. I started out planning on a Morocco trip but got bogged down in paperwork and agents etc. and that was before I'd even left Spain. Not suggesting it but I sometimes wonder if I'd just taken off from one of the uncontrolled microlight fields headed across the drink and called up the Moroccan tower 10 miles out what would have been the deal.

The Malaga flying club LEAX are very GA friendly

[blueandwhite]

I didn't go into Malaga so dont know.
Jerrez was very friendly and cheap.

We regretted not going into Gib. But costs there can vary very much. We thought afterwards we should have requested a round the rock flight.

[alex90]

All i can say is make sure you understand a little Spanish - especially at the smaller fields, also make sure you ask them for the price of AVGAS BEFORE letting them fuel you up, and make sure that you understand the figure and if that includes all taxes. When I landed in Barcelona last year (Sabadell Airport) - I was told the price of fuel per litre to be just over €2.20, only to find out that they added an extra €1.20 (or just over) per litre of tax for being a non based aeroplane. I am fluent - but the fuel man who took over an hour to get out to me failed to mention this extra. For comparison - price at Biggin was £1.42 per litre, and €1.90 at La Baule (LFRE) - so do watch out! This made my fuel stop VERY expensive, I would have done better to fly across to France and stop ANYWHERE there for fuel.

I have since been told that a large number of airfields charge extra for fuel to non-based planes. Something which I find absolutely crazy as surely, in the interest of safety you would want people to fly with enough fuel, especially when flying further afield, rather than taking the least amount they can to save on costs!

I hear Granada is a good fuel stop (price wise), but cannot confirm this as I have no personal experience flying in.

[piperboy84]

I had a Spanish speaking friend write down a little cheat sheet with words like inbound, base, final and numbers in Spanish that I taped to the dash. When approaching uncontrolled fields I used and announced VRP's as much as possible.

[MarcusH]

Many thanks for all the replies. The information you are all giving me is invaluable. We are interested in heading over to Morocco as well. One of the guys in the club has a handling contact in Tangier but, has anyone any experience of Casablanca? It might be a nice trip, or would it?

I don't think we have a Spanish speaker so we will have to stick to bigger airfields.

[piperboy84]

I don't think we have a Spanish speaker so we will have to stick to bigger airfields.

I wouldn't restrict yourself because of that, it will dramatically reduce your options. Take Malaga for example, I don't believe you can land at the main commercial airport, the flying club however is an excellent location to base yourself while in the area, if I remember correctly the next closest fields are Jerez and Granada whicy is a bit of a trek.

[alex90]

I don't think we have a Spanish speaker so we will have to stick to bigger airfields.


OR - you could always pickup a Spanish speaking friend along the way? Alternatively, just write down the calls, and practice a few times. It'd be a shame to lose out on so many possibilities! :-) Also - when I was there (almost a year ago today), some spoke Spanish on frequency, so it might not be so different anyway!

I would strongly recommend at least learning a few position calls / few common radio calls, as well as a few Spanish words, even at bigger GA airfields. I found that there were few that spoke English. Being able to have even a few words really helped me - especially for PPR where it seemed they only spoke Spanish and didn't have anyone who spoke English.

Don't let it deter you though! I hear google translate does wonders nowadays!!

[blueandwhite]

Castello was quite a small field and quite perfect. No problems that we were English only.

Also at Santa Cruz we were the only English speaking aircraft but managed to fit in OK. It was more interesting when 7 RV's suddenly appeared in the overhead. The one student in the circuit just left until they had all landed.

[Rhino25782]

I can also very much recommend Castello - it's a lovely little field and so close to the ocean. You'll dip your feet in the water minutes after landing. There's a basic hotel called La Ola a few hundred meters down the promenade with sea view hotels for as little as 20-30 euros!

For the trip to Africa, I'd suggest using Granada LEGR as a base. LEAX has no customs and Malaga itself is very expensive and not welcoming to GA traffic as far as I could judge. You're going to need a handling company at LEGR for the flight to Tangier etc. There's several options for that.

The guys in Tangier where we paid the landing fee and who run the local aeroclub are very, very nice - had a nice little chat with them. It's a little more difficult at the terminal, as the policemen etc. have no idea of private planes and mistrust you if you want to get back to your plane without a boarding pass. (Best to carry your license with you).

[Jan Olieslagers]

@blue&white & @Rhino: which aerodrome is being meant with "Castello"? Coordinates, perhaps, or nearest city? I find all kinds of Castello in Italy but in Spain the closest I can come up with is LECN Castellón de la Plana..?

[Rhino25782]

the closest I can come up with is LECN Castellón de la Plana..?

Jan, that's the one. Not to be mistaken with nearby LECH, another one of those failed airport projects that were supposed to attract RyanAir and the likes. When I flew by mid-day, I did not even get any response from LECH tower.

[patowalker]

Jan,
You are looking in Spanish. Try the Valencian Castelló.

[Jan Olieslagers]

Ah thanks, I am usually aware of the Catalá/Catalan but this Valencian tricked me. And yet I am quite used to multi-lingual countries :)

[patowalker]

I once landed at Bullingen and thought I had made a nav error, but didn't want to emarrass myself by asking. It was the BF prices in the bar that confirmed I was in the right place. :-)

[Jan Olieslagers]

That might indicate you fell somewhat short of the mandatory PPR phone call ;-) But yes, Büllingen is the only aerodrome in the (not very extensive) German speaking part of Belgium. People are very very polyglot, there, as a rule; confusing it may be but it always works.

[patowalker]

No PPR back then. What I did fall short of was knowledge of Belgium. Returned to Bulligen many times. The porte ouverte weekend, including Oompah! band in the beer tent, is a great event.

http://http://www.feuervogel.be

[Geriaviator]

.... has anyone any experience of Casablanca? It might be a nice trip, or would it?MarcusH poses this question in his #8. I stress that the following experience was a VERY long time ago. In 1979 my wife and I pointed our Paro south to Guernsey for duty-free avgas - San Sebastien - Faro - Casablanca - Agadir. All went well until Casablanca, where air traffic was using a mixture of heavily accented English, French, and Arabic. Once down, the formalities took over an hour. Five policemen arrived to search the aircraft while we filled in endless forms, fortunately I had fluent French.

Meantime the man in reception was preparing the great dirham ripoff. It was illegal to import or export the Moroccan dirham, which must be changed at the frontier. Since the airside bank was closed, we had no dirhams for the landing fee which had to be paid before we were allowed landside. He refused sterling notes, we had no US dollars, so he grudgingly accepted Spanish pesetas worth more than double the landing fee. They went into his pocket and the receipt was written on a grubby piece of an old cargo manifest. We waited a further hour for the bowser which was parked a short distance away. (Long afterwards a freighter crew told me that a tip or bribe was advisable if one wanted fuel in less than four hours, so perhaps we were well treated after all. And fortunately we had a fuel carnet).

Our reception at Agadir was just as bureaucratic, though we enjoyed our week at Club Med when eventually we got there. No way would I repeat the Casablanca experience, and our faithful Paro would have no trouble returning to Faro in one long haul, but leaving Morocco took almost three hours, with more form-filling, passport-stamping and trekking around various officials in their offices. Having paid our landing and parking fees I went to exchange my remaining dirhams only to find the airside bank was closed although I was told it would be open. Back to the fees office, where after much discussion two soldiers were detailed to escort me landside where I was able to change dirhams to pesetas for only 30% commission. It was a relief to hear the wheels retracting at last, and at Faro a beaming Portuguese marshaller waved us onto our stand, took us in his 2CV to Customs, and dropped us back at the aircraft in 20 minutes. Leaving for Portimao was like starting our holiday all over again.

Again, this happened a long time ago and maybe today's GA visitors to Morocco are greeted with a red carpet across the apron. Good luck with your trip, Marcus, wherever you end up!

[MarcusH]

Many thanks to all of you that responded. Your help is invaluable. I think that I will suggest to SkyDemon that they put this type of information onto the system. We are Planning on sticking to the suggestions that you gave us. I'll give Casablanca a miss based on your reports, I wonder if these people realise the results of their actions. Someone should tell them

[alex90]

I think it would be fantastic if people working at airports would realise their actions in terrible customer service and incredibly high fees would lead to us pilots actively avoiding them, and talking about it.

Perhaps back in the day, without the Internet and social media, it was rather difficult to broadcast a bad experience to a lot of pilots - but nowadays, it is clear that it is unacceptable.

The post does mention that this experience was quite some time ago - perhaps, if you call them you may well receive a very different response from them!

I hope you have an amazing flight irrespective!

[Mariner9]

I've flown into Tangier, Marrakech, Fez, and Tetouan in Morocco and found the airport staff and authorities unfailingly helpful and polite in all.

[jan99]

We were in Casablanca last spring with a DA40 - Aerodrome Tit Mellil is fine - reasonable taxi ride to a not too expensive hotel on the boulevard. Helpful police, ATC lady in the tower likes to give you a stamp in your logbook. In Morocco follow VFR routes. Always have next waypoint with time and planned route available for RT purposes.

[Katamarino]

Flew through Rabat, Essaouira and Dakhla on our way south in 2013, it was pretty smooth. Much easier than some of the other airports we went through in Africa.

[horizon flyer]

I believe either Flyer or Pilot carried an article in the last year of someone making a flight down through Spain in to Africa on route to Tenerife. May be worth finding and reading, just a thought.

[Sam Rutherford]

Morocco flying is easy but very restricted to VFR routes. On the ground, typical African efficiency - but with a smile so just go with the flow and enjoy (don't fight it!).

[ChickenHouse]

When in Africa, do like the Africans do.
Don't expect excellence, just people.
If you know what you want, you can get it.