@nealCS it was just my experience of the airport. It was not a quick stop. As others have said the fuel is at the far end of the airport. Security is a nightmare. I’m not usually fussy and often fly to larger regional airports but this place was a disorganised joke. Allow at least two hours for a stop especially if you want to go landside at the airport!
@quatrelle. Sadly you are right!
Notam shows 24hours PPR for customs until 21 December… I guess this is “customs and imigration”
Be careful around the big towns in Spain, some club colleagues did the trip last year, and couldn’t get any sort of clearances into controlled airspace. Only VFR sectors, some of which don’t go higher than 1000ft MSL.
Not mad at all given the time you’ve given yourself—unless you’re horribly unlucky with the weather! (Coming from hardcore, long distance at 100 knots VFR pilot w/o instrument rating). Route looks fine. Have fun! & if something stops you en route, enjoy the place you stop and chock (or chalk) it up to fate and fine adventure. I fly to go places. Go for it!
It is true for all VFR flight that if your planned route involves CAS then you need a Plan B which is OCAS, in case you are refused entry, and you need the means of executing that plan at any moment – basically a GPS showing the airspace properly.
Obviously this is not possible if the destination itself is in CAS 
Also in some cases it isn’t practical to have such a Plan B e.g. in some parts of France it is virtually impossible to work out a route, especially as a hurried diversion
Fortunately, in France, ATC tend to clear you right through (except D and P areas, if active).
Almost; just for reference the situation in France:
D – you may fly through when active, but at your own risk. No clearance required.
P – you may never fly through, even if a clearance should take you through one
R – probably what you had in mind. You must not fly through it if active, but can be cleared into it.
Should be a great trip. Hugging the coast, you add a good hundred miles to the trip, and I can appreciate why you would do that. I always use Perpignan. I find it easy, hotels are good, and it is quite a nice place. From there, I route BGR DCT, then straight to either Palma, or Ibiza. On all my trips, Barcelona, have never communicated, either inbound, or outbound. I used to think it was something to do with VFR traffic, so I would be aware when planning that route around the coast, and through airspace. You will need several,clearances. Others will come on and say, they have never had a problem, but I have, and not just once. Clearly marked VFR arrival routes into Ibiza, and very scenic on a nice day.
I lived in Ibiza as a kid. Went to school there for a few years. Just an aside…….
@BeechBaby thanks for the encouragement – I’m going to try it :)
The coastal routing was as much for scenic as safety reasons, I see Barcelona has a VFR area below 1500 feet – how can you use that if you can’t raise them on radio? (Or any other advice from anyone about transiting Barcelona) And who are you talking to across all that water?
My tips for CAS transits, Spain especially, are
Have some frequency chart, in case of loss of comms, so you know who to call up next.
Rwy20 wrote:
D – you may fly through when active, but at your own risk. No clearance required.
AFAIU that is the international norm. The UK is an exception.
NealCS wrote:
And who are you talking to across all that water?
Well it should have been them. You speak with Girona, they then pass you to Barcelona, however, on almost every occasion, I can never raise them. I generally stick with Girona until out of range. You can get Palma, however, but due to VFR level restriction, and the mountains on the North of Majorca, this can also be a bit tricky.
I have some friends who fly for RYR. It happens to them also. Now, my last trip in that neck of the woods was four years ago. Things may have improved.
I came up from San Sebastian a couple of months back, and had no issues with either Spanish or French ATC. In fact, San Sebastian were extremely helpful.
Not meaning to be funny, but I do not mind all that water. If I go in, talking to someone is not going to comfort me on the way down.
