Would any Spanish friends be kind enough to tell me the best way to go north from LEAX La Axarquia, both to join IFR and to remain VFR?
When I was last there, some very helpful guys on the ramp were showing me complex charts of different compulsory waypoints and radio calls, but the quality of the photograph I took of them is not good enough to really understand what I’m supposed to do.
I am more likely to be going IFR, but I might need to go VFR, depending on the equipment on the aircraft.
Here you go (in Spanish, sorry don’t have time right now to translate – Google may be your friend):
http://www.aeroclubmalaga.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=38&Itemid=126
Thank you. I was delighted to read PROCEDIMIENTO DE VUELO RECOMENDADO as the guys made it sound very OBLIGATORIO.
But the phone number given in that document was never answered.
IME, having done LEAX several times though not recently, you get airborne and Malaga keeps you below 1000ft over the sea for a very long time while you sweat like a pig in the temperatures down there 
I don’t think I ever did a departure directly to the north but it would likely be Malaga again doing something with you.
Peter wrote:
ME, having done LEAX several times though not recently, you get airborne and Malaga keeps you below 1000ft over the sea for a very long time while you sweat like a pig in the temperatures down there I don’t think I ever did a departure directly to the north but it would likely be Malaga again doing something with you.
Nope. LAEX was my home base for years and they only keep you low if you depart to the west and transit LEMG airspace. To the north they used to want you at VRP (Torre del Mar) that now obviously doesn’t exist anymore (see chart) and then made you turn around and climb. Now it’s obviously (again – used to be that way for years) a downwind departure and on course to whatever the VRP norht of the mountains is called now.
@Timothy, I would still suggest to fly the racomendado route, that’s where LEMG APP expects you. Btw, LEAX being in a valley, you Prob90 won’t be able to talk to LEMG APP until you’re well on your way. This used to be the reason for the dog’s leg out over Torre del Mar.
they only keep you low if you depart to the west and transit LEMG airspace
I got half an hour of 1000ft departing to the east, and they were really militant about it even though it was obviously completely pointless
Peter wrote:
I got half an hour of 1000ft departing to the east, and they were really militant about it even though it was obviously completely pointless
Spanish ATC and you just don’t mix…. ;-))
172driver wrote:
Nope. LAEX was my home base for years and they only keep you low if you depart to the west and transit LEMG airspace. To the north they used to want you at VRP (Torre del Mar) that now obviously doesn’t exist anymore (see chart) and then made you turn around and climb. Now it’s obviously (again – used to be that way for years) a downwind departure and on course to whatever the VRP norht of the mountains is called now.
I did part of my training at LEAX and agree with 172driver. This was not long ago. So I doubt that the procedure has changed.
The first point on the IFR FPL is TINEK.
It seems to me that I have three choices once clear of the immediate hills:
Each of these options depends on ATC giving me a clearance reasonable promptly, which is not my experience of Spanish ATC (I don’t always see eye to eye with Peter, but in his attitudes towards Spanish ATC I am 100% with him.)
@172driver, @arun, which card would you play?
First Q: why TINEK ? Looking at the chart the first point on that airway should be VIBAS or am I missing something ? Mind you, I’ve only ever flown VFR there and am not familiar with the European procedures wrt departing IFR from a non-towered field. In the US you would get the clearance over the phone with a clearance void time.
In that vein one thing I would do is to call the LEMG ARO from the office in LEAX from which you file the FP and ask. This is (or at last used to be) the procedure anyway to make sure they actually had the FPL. Failing that, the best course of action IMO would be to stay VFR (if you can), check in w Malaga and then call Seville for the IFR clearance. Reason here being that in a twin you’d only be speaking with LEMG APP for a very short period of time. However, to do so, you need to have crossed the mountains, Seville cannot hear you while you are climbing out of the Axarquia Valley.
Your plan # 2 prob90 won’t work, as LEMG cannot hear you when you’re that low. Don’t forget, you’ve filed a FPL, so LEMG APP know you’ll be out there and coming their way. You also normally input the VFR routing you intend to take out of the area. In the past this would have been either LEGR or VRP N (but that may well have changed).
