Venice was tried a few years ago, and I seem to remember was going to be quite popular. But at the last minute, it was discovered that it clashed with their film festival, and all accommodation was booked out.
Might make a nice destination. Not too far south for those from the north but still warm and scenic.
Piran, Croatia.
Although it’s very close, it’s rather:
Piran, Slovenia
@eddsPeter
EDTF sounds splendid then from my point of view.
@all does a EuroGA fly-in have to be at an IFR field?
Yes – I knew Piran is in Slovenia, really Even an IFR pilot has some (possibly very vague) idea of the country
Regarding IFR fields… I have written this before a number of times (can’t find the threads now) but basically there are a number of factors which determine who will turn up, and they aren’t necessarily what one might expect. For example:
Other requirements are
Yes; Venice had a lot of interest. We could look at it again. Somebody would need to check out with the airport management if they could park say 20 planes, etc.
Peter wrote:
Yes – I knew Piran is in Slovenia, really
and Copenhagen is in Sweden
I would be interested in EDTF too, it’s somewhere I would like to have visited this summer.
As for me, the only restricting factor would be crossing the alps.
VFR-only removes some 1/3 of participants (it depends on where it is of course)
@Peter To reach Freiburg EDTF the ones who would like to approach IFR may use EDTL (Lahr) for cloud breaking on the ILS (that‘s what I normally do when approaching Freiburg) or LFGA or LFSB. So there are a lot of possibilities in the vicinity to do an instrument approach.
But as far as I have realised in the posts before, no one would come if the weather is bad or cold.
Peter wrote:
VFR-only removes some 1/3 of participants (it depends on where it is of course)
I wonder why. Seriously why?
Freiburg would be a good choice, even though obviously isn’t by the sea or so. But the Schwarzwald is right there, for people who want to go hiking or similar. The city is full of young people, being one of the most important university places in the southwest of Germany. I think the ratio between inhabitants and students is quite remarkable. Freiburg is also pretty much the warmest place in Germany. It often reaches 20 degrees in March (and the magnolia are in full bloom, when the north is still in the middle of winter).
There also is a frequent bus line from the airport into the city centre. Thus, people can avoid taxi costs, the latter often being a turnoff.
I wonder why. Seriously why?
Because the option of an IFR arrival (via flying an instrument approach) considerably improves your options, both for planning alternates and actually arriving.
Most IR holders fly in VMC above any cloud, so they have to descend through the cloud in order to land. And that raises various issues as to how to do it safely with regard to obstacle clearance, and an IAP solves those nicely.
Whereas a VFR pilot will most likely fly all the way to the destination below the cloud, so the issue does not arise.
And IR holders are much more likely to come to a fly-in. It’s just the way it is… They also do most forum contributions… again, it’s just the way it is.