American pilot planning GA tour ex-FRA in fall 2017

First off – welcome!

My initial Q to you would be – have you sourced an N-reg a/c ? AFAIK there aren’t many for rent in Europe. Btw, if you cannot find one, I may be able to point you in the right direction….

Depending a bit how you define ‘fall’, but generally that’s a great time of the year for flying in Europe. I would definitely head south, France, Spain and then perhaps back via Italy, Croatia and Austria. The Grand Tour if you may. While central France is pretty boring from the air, the food tends to make up for it, Spain offers some beautiful flying (as does Portugal, but that may well be too far). Crossing back into Italy across southern France is a beautiful flight, then on to Croatia and the islands, finally up across the Alps in Austria (possibly allow for a couple of wx down days here) and then back to FRA.

Hi Charles!

Are you aware that the German aviation magazine “Pilot und Flugzeug” also has an aircraft rental outfit with two IFR-certified N-reg AA5A? They are based in EDFE which would suit your itinerary well.

My suggestions for a roundtrip through Western/Central Europe (you’ll find more about them by using the search function):

LFGA (beautiful medieval town)
LFPN (for a stay in Paris)
LFEA (beautiful bigger island)
LFEY (beautiful smaller island)
LFCS (for a stay in Bordeaux)
LESO (for a stay at the Basque coast)
LELL (for a stay in Barcelona)
LFMK (beautiful mediveal city)
LFMD (Cote d’Azur Classic)
LIPN (for a stay in Verona)
LIRU (for a stay in Rome)
LIPV (for a stay in Venice)
www.eremodellagiubiliana.it (Sicilian luxury hotel with private airstrip, no personal experience yet)
LJPZ, LDLO, LDSB, LGKR (all nice mediterranean coastal/island destinations)
LOWZ (for a scenic Austrian “mountain” airfield with excellent touristic infrastructure)
LOAU, LOAV or LOAN (for a stay in Vienna)
EDFR (beautiful medieval town)

Enjoy your trip!

Hi Charles,

I am an instrument rated pilot based in Frankfurt. I have a bit of experience flying through most of Europe (both VFR and IFR) for the last 20 years. If you need any mentoring regarding flying in the various European countries, some tips for recommended places or any other support on your preparations, just contact me.

Hi Charles welcome to EuroGA

IFR flying around Europe is fairly easy nowadays – except for wx of course which raises the same issues everywhere (well, except in Arizona ). The wx data comes from free websites and route planning – which used to present horrible problems – is done with automatic tools such as the EuroGA autorouter and that one is also free and it does IFR flight plan filing.

After that, the main difference between the USA (where I have flown briefly, having done the FAA IR there) and Europe is airport facilities and costs. These are very variable and you need to do due diligence (contact the airport directly is the best way, in most cases) before you go somewhere, especially if using IFR airports.

I have a number of trip writeups here and if you have a quick look at the more recent ones you will see the process I use. I write the planning stuff up in a lot of detail exactly for this purpose.

Any questions, feel free to post them here. There are loads of experienced pilots here.

Welcome to Europe! A VFR-only pilot, I have little to add to the above recommendations. Only a little warning regarding

you need to do due diligence (contact the airport directly is the best way, in most cases)

(which is a very sound recommendation!): in some countries your chances of success will be much greater if you contact them in the local language. Spain, Italy, even France come to mind. Northern and Eastern Europe no problem in English. UK might be more, err, picturesque than expected, perhaps, they have a nice collection of peculiarities there … but not so much for the IFR pilot, perhaps.

I suggest you post your ideas/intentions here as they materialise, there is indeed a wealth of knowledge and experience and good will at your disposition.

Edited to add:
Regarding the above suggestion for the Sicilian luxury hotel with its own runway, there are many places like that in Italy. None of them offer instrument approaches, though – and, to judge from satellite photography, some of these runways are in a questionable state – only the fewest are “hard”. They are called “agriturismo (singular) / agriturismi (plural)” in Italian. One more example is this , but again, there are many many more. A few similar fields exist in other countries, like the (somewhat expensive) Hungarian castle Hertelendy, there’s a couple in France too, and likely more.

Dear Charles,

That’s a great idea, most of the folks already gave great advice, however here a a few things that come to mind.

- If you plan to fly into non-IFR airfields, which are generally non-towered in France, please keep in mind that you are required to be able to speak French on the radio. Same applies for some AFIS airports outside AFIS operating hours (indicated on the approach charts and notam in case of a change), where you could technically do an IFR approach but radio calls should be made in French. Most towered airports have comfortable opening hours but if you plan some night flights you could find them closed.

- All IFR plates can be downloaded for free on Eurocontrol website, you just need to open an account. You can also use the ipad app Aerocharteuro which, for a very decent fee, will allow you to download all european IFR plates, and some visual approach plates as well, not in all countries though. AFAIK, you can’t find the visual plates for free in Germany or Switzerland for instance.

- As a suggestion about what to do when you’re here, I’d very strongly suggest some mountain flying in the Alps. Just need to find a mountain rated instructor… Flying into 1000ft runways at 5000fr MSL is a pretty cool experience, luckily they’re very steep and seem longer. You can do a search on google for Courchevel, Meribel, L’Alpe d’Huez altiports to give you a taste of it. This is highly addictive stuff. Depending on when you come, I could try fo find interested people, to come with you from the Paris area.

- I second everything that’s been said about southern places, weather is likely to be better, but you can’t be sure, so you need to be flexible. It would be a good idea to purchase a few charts in advance to be able to quickly adapt your plans.

- I do not know if you plan IFR only, but keep in mind that even if there are quite a few well-equipped airports around, IFR approaches aren’t as many as in the US. VFR will give you access to really nice areas (with the previously mentionned necessity to speak French in France, but I think english is ok in Spain, Italy and Germany, please correct me if i’m wrong).

Benoit

CharlesRobertson wrote:

Thoughts on Eastern Europe?

Within the EU (and especially within the Schengen Zone), it is easy, but don’t expect instrument approaches except for the biggest and most expensive airports.

Hungary
Budapest
LHBS Budaörs – grass, VFR day/night, direct tram to city center (50 min), reasonable fees
LHTL Tököl – hard surface, VFR day, inconvenient public transportation to city center (2+ changes, 1.5-2 hours to most destinations), reasonable fees
LHBP Ferihegy – hard surface, VFR/IFR H24, big aiport with all the fees and amenities

LHPP Pécs – hard surface, VFR/IFR limited hours, acceptable public transportation to city, very reasonable fees

And three on my home turf:
LHHO Hajdúszoboszló – grass, VFR day, walk to city center and frequent buses to Debrecen, Central Europe’s biggest indoor and outdoor aquapark in walking distance, very low/no fees
LHDC Debrecen – hard surface, VFR/IFR limited, but reasonable hours, limited public transportation, taxi or longish walk to city center
LHNY Nyíregyháza – hard surface, VFR during working ours, limited public transportation, taxi or longish walk to city center

Slovakia
LZTT Poprad-Tatry – hard surface, VFR/IFR limited hours, very cheap taxi to city center and good train services to lovely villages in the High Tatra mountains

Czech Republic
Prague – See the many threads here
LKVO Vodochody
LKLT Letnany
LKKB Kbely
LKPR Ruzyne

Please do feel free to join us in Bordeaux (LFCS) the first weekend of September.