Landing at Larger Airports in a SEP
Join Date: Aug 2009
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Good idea of yours, though it's not always a particularly plesant thing to do.
'Larger' airports are, by definition of their size, easy to find and land at. The problem always comes when you are down and have to find your way around. It's not that easy in any aircraft, but in small SEPs it's particularly challenging because you're not sitting high enough to see where the taxiways lead. Even with an airfield map (which obviously is an absolute must), I still struggle when I land somewhere big unfamiliar and I've had my licence for over 20 years.
In fact, it's the only thing I ever worry about, and is usually by far the most stressful phase of any trip.
I'm sure most of us feel the same, don't we?
'Larger' airports are, by definition of their size, easy to find and land at. The problem always comes when you are down and have to find your way around. It's not that easy in any aircraft, but in small SEPs it's particularly challenging because you're not sitting high enough to see where the taxiways lead. Even with an airfield map (which obviously is an absolute must), I still struggle when I land somewhere big unfamiliar and I've had my licence for over 20 years.
In fact, it's the only thing I ever worry about, and is usually by far the most stressful phase of any trip.
I'm sure most of us feel the same, don't we?
Last edited by dr.boff; 17th Sep 2009 at 13:25. Reason: I can't add up
Join Date: May 2008
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If you're looking for a big airport with more runway than you could possibly use, Exeter or Manston are around £20 to land.
Manston also has a free spitfire and hurricane museum, with a nice cafe for tea and cake.
Manston also has a free spitfire and hurricane museum, with a nice cafe for tea and cake.
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Maybe not in the UK but currently I am sitting at Split which is a big place but costs only about 20 Euros to land, and long term parking is 4 euros per 24hrs - far less than parking on grass at certain UK dumps I know of.
What are you doing there
Lovely place which I diverted into flying to Cyprus in a Citation (We lost the heating If you want a good hotel PM me the owner put us up in a great one Stop at LJLJ in Slovenia my favourite airport in Europe
As to the owner of the question why do you want a big airport? Do you want to practice identifying taxiways and markings? It cannot be the complex mass of Sids and Stars with a basic PPL.
Maybe its the ambience of mixing in with large jets taxiing around you?
Maybe you just want to be confident with commercial RT?
What do you want from your trip in a small single into a large airport?
Pace
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Shunter....
I am ACTUALLY speaking from experience. I would never return to Leeds for the reasons stated. I took fuel on in order to avoid the handling fee, but landing fee was £25 which is quite steep for a C152
and I waited 20 mins to get in after orbitting at the end of Rwy 14 and this was at 7.00pm on an evening.
I am ACTUALLY speaking from experience. I would never return to Leeds for the reasons stated. I took fuel on in order to avoid the handling fee, but landing fee was £25 which is quite steep for a C152
and I waited 20 mins to get in after orbitting at the end of Rwy 14 and this was at 7.00pm on an evening.
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Shunter,
Wind yer neck in, matey. I kept a SEP at LBA for several years until relatively recently, and I know exactly whereof XL319 speaks. I have orbited at the end of downwind on VFR approaches because of "IFR traffic on the ILS" more times than I can remember, when frankly I could have been down, parked and half way through my second pint before said SleezyJet had even stumbled across the localizer ... and don't even get me started on the amount of fuel burnt sitting at the hold waiting to line up ...
Back to the OP, as someone said, why not try Liverpool, much cheaper and a far more entertaining arrival/departure usually.
Oh YAWN.
Usually people who say stuff like that have never been to Leeds. You'll get the occasional instance where the odd orbit might be required to counter for wake turbulance from a jet, but if you avoid the rush hour it's rare.
Usually people who say stuff like that have never been to Leeds. You'll get the occasional instance where the odd orbit might be required to counter for wake turbulance from a jet, but if you avoid the rush hour it's rare.
Back to the OP, as someone said, why not try Liverpool, much cheaper and a far more entertaining arrival/departure usually.
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To counter that, i've sat at the hold burning 10kg of fuel a minute waiting on some puddle jumper make his approach and landing. I've also been sat on the runway waiting to go while some plonker flies straight through the control zone, talking to noone, across our departure route.
As someone mentioned earlier, don't go near any of these places if you are not comfortable with your RT. Study the charts beforehand to familiarise yourself with VRPs etc
If you are competent when you check in with APP/Radar then they'll give you a good service. If you bumble around and just readback ROGER to everything ATC transmit they probably won't even let you enter the zone.
My tuppence, go to Edinburgh
As someone mentioned earlier, don't go near any of these places if you are not comfortable with your RT. Study the charts beforehand to familiarise yourself with VRPs etc
If you are competent when you check in with APP/Radar then they'll give you a good service. If you bumble around and just readback ROGER to everything ATC transmit they probably won't even let you enter the zone.
My tuppence, go to Edinburgh
I have not done any GA flying in Europe but in Canada you see light aircraft in Vancouver International quite often. It is no big deal and well within the capabilities of a PPL. The big thing is flying into big airports usually means operating with big airplanes flown by professionals. ATC won't be very forgiving if you are not sure of the procedures and stumble on the radio. Do you homework and make sure you understand all the VFR arrival procedures and VRP's. Ideally talk to a commercial pilot that operates regularly out of the airport to pick up on the "localisms".
My experiences going into Vancouver is I think typical of major airports. ATC ruthlessly triages light aircraft on the intial call up. Give a nice crisp intial call with all the right info and away you go. Stumple and mumble and it will be " ATC is not accepting VFR traffic in the control zone, remain clear"
My experiences going into Vancouver is I think typical of major airports. ATC ruthlessly triages light aircraft on the intial call up. Give a nice crisp intial call with all the right info and away you go. Stumple and mumble and it will be " ATC is not accepting VFR traffic in the control zone, remain clear"
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Prestwick is not a bad choice. Quite a few airlines, as well as the RAF use it for training, not to mention Ryanair and freight operators. It is not particularly busy, last time i flew there, the only other traffic was a Ryanair 737 taxiing for departure. If you contact the Flight Centre, the landing fee is pretty reasonable (somewhere between £10 and £20 if memory serves). Also, the longer runway is 2,987M, which is quite different to what i usually experience!
