UK to Aachen Germany

[Flyinganaes]

HI. I'm hopefully flying to Aachen in Germany in 10 days time in a C172. Is ther anything special I should know about flying into Germany? I recently flew to Texel and there were no problems with France, Belgium or Holland.
Thanks

[pumper_bob]

watch out for ack ack towers in the rhine area, used to be really bad there

[Mark 1]

No problem at all. It may help to have your noise certificate with you, though I've never been asked for one.

Aachen airfield is a nice friendly place, with gliding activity, but not convenient for public transport. Beek has rapid bus links to Aachen city (as does Koeln), but is probably more expensive.

[rangemore]

Flyinganaes

Glad to hear you found Texel straightforward, I am planning to visit in two weeks time. Is there anything in particular to be aware of at Texel or flying VFR in the Netherlands in general?

Thanks in advance

[bookworm]

Originally Posted by Flyinganaes

HI. I'm hopefully flying to Aachen in Germany in 10 days time in a C172. Is ther anything special I should know about flying into Germany?

You're hardly reaching Germany going to Aachen! Aachen's IFR airport is in the Netherlands.

Presumably you've found their WWW site. You need to give them notice for customs if you're going direct from/to the UK. Expect a couple of policemen to turn up and look at your passports.

The VFR squawk in Germany is 0021 below 5000 ft rather than our 7000.

Their AIS is centralised. They're very helpful and speak good English. http://ais.dfs.de/ You can file flight plans either online or by phone/fax, and the AIS will send you NOTAMs for your flight by email or fax.

German airspace is class E from 2500 agl up to FL100, in some places lower, so be mindful of the higher visibility and cloud clearance requirements.

[Mark 1]

Originally Posted by rangemore

Flyinganaes
Glad to hear you found Texel straightforward, I am planning to visit in two weeks time. Is there anything in particular to be aware of at Texel or flying VFR in the Netherlands in general?
Thanks in advance

Rangemore

I was in Texel last weekend. Be prepared for higher landing fees at weekends and avgas at about 2.2 Euros/litre. It may help if you're prepared with reporting points, but not essential.
Dutch Mil and Amsterdam generally provide a very good FIS.
Texel is a very nice airfield and your aircraft will be on their web-site the next day. Generally very straightforward in the Netherlands.
Most like you to use the standard join at 700' AGL halfway down the downwind leg (from outside of the circuit).
Hope you have a good trip.

[733driver]

Originally Posted by Flyinganaes

HI. I'm hopefully flying to Aachen in Germany in 10 days time in a C172. Is ther anything special I should know about flying into Germany? I recently flew to Texel and there were no problems with France, Belgium or Holland.
Thanks

There are two airfields associated with Aachen.

The bigger one is Maastricht/Aachen which is actually in the Nethelands. It is a proper regional airport with plenty of runway and, I believe; an ILS.

Aachen Airfield in Germany is a small VFR field, only about 600meters/2000ft of runway but no big deal in a 172 (depending on your engines HP, your T/O weight and the temperature I guess it could be limiting, though).

Have fun!

[IO540]

The EDKA one shows "customs" in Navbox so one should be able to fly there from the UK. I certainly plan to later this year.

www.flugplatz-aachen.de

[733driver]

Looks like the runway in EDKA is even shorter than I thought. Only 520 meters.

I forgot about customs, the UK being non-Schengen.

It looks like customs are on request. You have to call them at least one day prior.
There is also a note on the airfields website saing "customs for business flights only" not sure what that means. Propably worth giving the airfied a call.