Flying through Spain

[Heliplane]

Greetings all.

I am planning a trip from London to Morocco this year and am planning to fly down to the south of France and along the southern coast of Spain.

Having never flown in or through Spain, I wondered whether anyone had any experience of general aviation at the following airports:

Alicante (LEAL)
Almeira (LEAM)
Barcelona (LEBL)
Malaga (LEMG)
Valencia (LEVC)
Reus Tarragona (LERS)
Costa Brava (LEGE)
(** or any other suitable GA airfields along the southern Spanish coast for VFR flights)

We'll navigate along the coast, primarily for the scenery and terrain avoidance but also to make life easy for the less experienced members of the group.

I'm particularly keen to hear whether anyone has any experiences of the above airfields (good or bad) regarding fuel availability, ease of getting in and out (for quick enroute stops), nearby hotels, GA access, etc.

I'm already on to the Spanish AIP website which is very useful.

Thanks in advance!

[S-Works]

I have the same trip planned for this year to do IFR. At least 3 of those airports only accept IFR during peak periods so you need to check when they are available to you if going VFR.

[richatom]

I've flown light aircraft several times the route you are taking from south of France to Morocco, but always IFR.

Don't go to main airports like Barcelona and Valencia unless you really enjoy paying huge handling fees and waiting for mandatory transfer buses etc.

Sabadell is the GA airfield for Barcelona. Good facilities, you can just walk to your plane, but very expensive fuel.

Zaragoza is good and relaxed for GA.

Jerez is OK. Almeria and Alicante reasonable. But all of them insist you wait for transfer buses and you can't just walk out to your plane.

Morocco is very easy, controllers very good (better than Spain), fairly bureaucratic but just be like the moroccans and smile, keep your humour, be patient and you will have a very nice time with them. Just don't expect them to live life at the same speed that we are used to!!

[172driver]

That's been covered here a number of times in quite some detail, suggest you use the search function.

[dublinpilot]

Used Reus, in summer of '06.

It's not very busy, very cheap by UK standards, and as Avgas available via fueling truck.

Like most things in Spain, it doesn't move all that quickly and is tied up in paper work. eg. Flight plans must be issued by the flight planning office, as evidence to get back airside...it doesn't matter that you've already filed them yourself.

Fuel took it's time, but came along.

dp

[IO540]

Flight plans must be issued by the flight planning office, as evidence to get back airside...it doesn't matter that you've already filed them yourself.

Very true; however if you have filed it yourself (via the internet etc) then get a printout of it from the GA office (or whichever office has the "computer" on the desk) and carry it around very conspiciously.

3rd world countries love nothing more than somebody carrying an official piece of paper

[dublinpilot]

Yup

That's pretty much what they did....reprinted my original flight plan from within their own system, added their own dirty big ink stamp to it.

I'm pretty sure they did this three times, as I apparently need three copies to get back airside, though I couldn't swear to that Didn't have any hassle getting back airside, once I found where to do

dp

ps. Use the Jeppesen charts rather than the Spanish ICAO charts. The Spanish ones are crap.

[Ken Wells]

Catellion

Nice old WW11 strip on the coast north of Valencia called Castellion.

Nice people.

[172driver]

3rd world countries love nothing more than somebody carrying an official piece of paper

...or hi-viz vests

[Heliplane]

Looking on the Spanish AIP site, there are a number of "private" airfields listed along my planned route, such as:

Manresa
Igualada-Odena
Castellon
Requena
Muchamiel
Los Martinez del Puerto
Alhama de Murcia
La Axarquia-Leoni Benabu

Does anyone know if these are open GA generally or is it all strictly PPR?

[LH2]

Axarquia is Spanish speaking only Use Granada or Jerez instead.