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No Special VFR for departures at Sabadell LELL

As I write this I’m sitting in my aircraft at the Sabadell LELL airport waiting for the weather to improve. The current METAR is

LELL 210930Z 18009G20KT 140V220 9999 RA BKN012 OVC045 17/15 Q1005

The TAF says it will improve so I’m waiting.

I did ask Operations about a Special VFR departure and they told me that it is not allowed in Spain. My reply was “but that is an EASA rule that allows flights in controlled airspace” and their answer was that Spanish rules supersede EASA rules. Eventually the guy told me that he only does what his superiors tell him to do.

This is the second time it happens to me. Last time was also in fall. Traffic on the road is also bad. It rains a bit and everybody goes crazy around here and accidents become more frequent. People don’t seem to understand the effect of rain and brake late. A friend told me that in the mountains the police insists on chains despite the fact that you drive a 4×4 vehicle with proper winter tires.

I’m thinking about repositioning to Girona LEGA for this part of the year. At least that’s a proper IFR airport. The downside is that it takes a little longer to get there and handling is mandatory. But you can land at night and with sunset approaching 5 pm using Girona would allow me to arrive home on the same day.

Frequent travels around Europe

If you go to Girona you can use Center Vol as FBO.
I used them serval time they are efficient.
Girona seems to have lost quite a lot of ryannair trafic over last year (they got slots into Barcelona)

Romain

LFPT Pontoise, LFPB

I’m familiar with Centervol

Here at Sabadell they just didn’t allow an aircraft to taxi from one apron to the other because of the ceiling of 1200. And then a police helicopter just departed

It does feel like an overly strict interpretation of rules

Frequent travels around Europe

Stephan_Schwab wrote:

Spanish rules supersede EASA rules

I feel for you… you can’t win such an argument. Because if the controller doesn’t want to give you the clearance, and it’s a national policy, I don’t think there is much that you can do immediately, even though SVFR is defined in SERA and so should be available.

I can only contribute that I have had a bad experience at Girona, where we diverted due to bad weather on our way to Santiago de Compostela once (yes, we didn’t get very far). They were quite unfriendly, overly bureaucratic and worst of all that 3 hour stop cost us somwhere around 120 Euros in a C172! Made a note to myself never to fly there again. But maybe they are less stand-offish now that they have lost some Ryanair traffic, and if there is a good FBO it might be a different story if you properly pre-plan your visit. Which of course you can’t really do when you divert due to weather.

Girona wasn’t bad at all when I had to divert last time. I was cutting it close for getting into Sabadell and then a CB sat overhead the field and I had to go back to Girona for landing there after the official sunset. However, what I noticed is that the employees mostly don’t know and are more afraid of asking their boss instead of angering the customer. It is a common theme in many parts of the world and well-known to me from different places around Latin America.

I would probably try to push a bit but then I need the hand-off to Barcelona ATC after I’m in the air. As that is a VFR departure with change to IFR I will run into the next issue “maintain VMC until …” It’s that old business of not getting into the system because of airspace structure and restrictive rule making. It would really make a lot of sense to get rid of the whole distinction between VFR and IFR airports in favor of just airport. I wish for “clearance void time …” US-style … However, that requires an attitude change of the people working in this system and is a much larger issue.

Frequent travels around Europe

Stephan_Schwab wrote:

It does feel like an overly strict interpretation of rules

SERA.5010 Special VFR in control zones says:

Special VFR flights may be authorised to operate within a control zone, subject to an ATC clearance.

SERA doesn’t say that special VFR is authorised or has to be authorised. I don’t see where Spain doesn’t comply with SERA.

Last Edited by Guillaume at 21 Nov 12:37

Good point!

It’s an option and at this place they have chosen not to use it.

Frequent travels around Europe

LELL 211230Z 18008KT 140V230 9999 -RA BKN012 OVC045 18/16 Q1004

Last Edited by Stephan_Schwab at 21 Nov 13:05
Frequent travels around Europe

Just find their weather station and throw a blanket over the cloud sensor!

Stephan perhaps you might be able to cross over and have a coffee with ATC and they may be able to explain why there is a restriction – I think LELL has radar and the surrounding hills might create some ground clutter which means they prefer a higher ceiling?

I was amused that it took around 20 minutes and three different people to produce an invoice last time I visited. Some destinations you need to calibrate that everything might take a bit longer.

Hope you can launch soon.

Oxford (EGTK), United Kingdom
48 Posts
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