Flying in Portugal (north & central)
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Flying in Portugal (north & central)
Am planning a little jolly around central and northern Portugal in the next few weeks. No Algarve. Just a few days, leaving from southern Spain (Malaga). Anybody got any airports (places) to recommend, unusual procedures to warn of, dos and don'ts ? Will be VFR all the way. Currently planned route is Malaga - Porto - Cascais - Seville - Malaga. Would like to include a couple of stops at smaller fields in Portugal. All comments welcome.
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Places to recommend surelly are not in shortage. There are, obviously, some places that, as you state, have some "small" cons.
For example, Cascais usually has long hold/apron waiting times. It's inside Lisboa TMA, a very busy airspace.
Porto ( LPPR ) , as is an intl' airport, has heavier landing fees than ordinary aerodromes. On the other hand, it has very good transportation.
Aveiro ( LPAV ) , Braga ( LPBR ), Coimbra ( LPCO ), Evora ( LPEV ), and a few more are also good places that can deserve a stop.to consider a stop.
As an alternate to LPPR you can use LPVL ( Maia / Vilar de Luz ), a nearby aerodrome. I don't know if you'll save any money using this facility, as it's about 20/30 minutes away (taxi) from Oporto's city centre.
Here you can get some un-official data regarding landing strips. Unfortunatelly, this page is available only in portuguese.
http://www.pelicano.com.pt/zmapa.html
Feel free to PM me, so I can fill you with more details.
MC
For example, Cascais usually has long hold/apron waiting times. It's inside Lisboa TMA, a very busy airspace.
Porto ( LPPR ) , as is an intl' airport, has heavier landing fees than ordinary aerodromes. On the other hand, it has very good transportation.
Aveiro ( LPAV ) , Braga ( LPBR ), Coimbra ( LPCO ), Evora ( LPEV ), and a few more are also good places that can deserve a stop.to consider a stop.
As an alternate to LPPR you can use LPVL ( Maia / Vilar de Luz ), a nearby aerodrome. I don't know if you'll save any money using this facility, as it's about 20/30 minutes away (taxi) from Oporto's city centre.
Here you can get some un-official data regarding landing strips. Unfortunatelly, this page is available only in portuguese.
http://www.pelicano.com.pt/zmapa.html
Feel free to PM me, so I can fill you with more details.
MC
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Hey, mpcosta, thanks for that link - great 
(I speak Spanish and Italian so can work out the Portuguese - well, kind of....
)
I'll pm you in the next few days once I got a better idea where I'd like to go. No probs flying into an int'l airpoirt, do this all the time. LPPR is probably the most convenient for the overnight. Cascais is a definite, as I'm visiting friends who live nearby. I'd just like to get some interesting stops in between....
(I speak Spanish and Italian so can work out the Portuguese - well, kind of.... )I'll pm you in the next few days once I got a better idea where I'd like to go. No probs flying into an int'l airpoirt, do this all the time. LPPR is probably the most convenient for the overnight. Cascais is a definite, as I'm visiting friends who live nearby. I'd just like to get some interesting stops in between....
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Originally Posted by 172driver
Hey, mpcosta, thanks for that link - great (I speak Spanish and Italian so can work out the Portuguese - well, kind of.... )
I'll pm you in the next few days once I got a better idea where I'd like to go. No probs flying into an int'l airpoirt, do this all the time. LPPR is probably the most convenient for the overnight. Cascais is a definite, as I'm visiting friends who live nearby. I'd just like to get some interesting stops in between....
(I speak Spanish and Italian so can work out the Portuguese - well, kind of.... )I'll pm you in the next few days once I got a better idea where I'd like to go. No probs flying into an int'l airpoirt, do this all the time. LPPR is probably the most convenient for the overnight. Cascais is a definite, as I'm visiting friends who live nearby. I'd just like to get some interesting stops in between....
MC
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Now back (in LEMG) after a fab trip. WX miraculously improved at the 11th hour and went to Porto/Vila de Luz, Aveiro, Coimbra, Cascais and Evora.
General impressions - great
! Extremely friendly people, nice airfields, no landing fees (other than LPCS), very pro (and excellent English) ATC. In short, a joy to fly, can recommend highly. Lots of daunting looking mil airspace on the charts, but very helpful controllers letting us through all of them, so not really a factor. 100LL avail no problem, even at reasonable prices (at least at LPAV, where you land in an Army base, get issued a sort of visitors ID and then stroll out to have a fab seafood lunch..... doesn't get much better than that!).
A very special THANKS to fellow pruner mpcosta who provided a load of vital info and came to collect us at LPVL to show us around Porto ! Three cheers, mate !!
All in, a great experience, perhaps one of the underrated gems of flying in Europe.
General impressions - great
! Extremely friendly people, nice airfields, no landing fees (other than LPCS), very pro (and excellent English) ATC. In short, a joy to fly, can recommend highly. Lots of daunting looking mil airspace on the charts, but very helpful controllers letting us through all of them, so not really a factor. 100LL avail no problem, even at reasonable prices (at least at LPAV, where you land in an Army base, get issued a sort of visitors ID and then stroll out to have a fab seafood lunch..... doesn't get much better than that!). A very special THANKS
to fellow pruner mpcosta who provided a load of vital info and came to collect us at LPVL to show us around Porto ! Three cheers, mate !!All in, a great experience, perhaps one of the underrated gems of flying in Europe.
