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Best Places To See for Pilots, in Your Home Country

If someone was visiting your home country by light aircraft, and was asking you where they should go, what places would you recommend?

These could be places either to stop and base themselves for a few nights, because there is worthwhile places to see close by, or it could be places that they should fly past as they are nice places to see from the air.

For Ireland, I’d list the following:

Places to stop:
EIWT-Weston
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If you want to visit Dublin City, then this is really the place to go. It’s the only GA airport anywhere close to Dublin that has regular public transport going to the city. It has Avgas, and customs can be arranged for EU flights. Dublin itself has obviously lots to offer tourists, shoppers & party goers.

If visiting Weston, then you’re likely to be arriving or departing across Dublin City. Ask for the “Liffey transit” which basically has you following the river Liffey through Dublin City centre, usually not above 1700ft. You’ll get a good view of Dublin City and all its major landmarks.

EICM-Galway
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Galway airport has recently reopened. Galway is a beautiful city, and well worth an overnight stop.

EIIM/EIIR/EIMN – Arran Islands
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The Arran Islands make a lovely stop, and offer the opportunity to see a more historic and traditional Irish Life. The three islands are part of the remaining areas where the Irish language is still spoken. But don’t worry! Everyone will speak English to you. You’ll probably not even notice the Irish language except for on some signs or perhaps over hearing some locals talking. It can get quite busy in summer, especially at the weekends. If only visiting one island, then try for EIIM Inishmore, which is the largest of the three islands. The smaller two are small enough that you can walk pretty much everywhere. The larger one, you can get around either on tour mini-buses or bike. There are bikes to rent in the main village. (There are no rental cars…not big enough to need one). Runways on the islands are approximately 500-550mtrs with maybe another 20mtrs each end as run offs. Surface is hard, but with a few “Loose chippings”.

EISG- Sligo
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Sligo has a lovely approach over the bay and a nice beach nearby, which is popular with surfers. There is a small village within walking distance, but nothing to keep you more than a short stay unless you get transport and make your way into Sligo City.

EIKK-Kilkenny

Kilkenny the only grass strip on this list. The airport is on the edge of Kilkenny City. This is a small city, which is dominated by its castle. If you are into partying (and obviously not planning on flying the next day!) then Kilkenny at the weekend is a great place to be, and has a great, young buzz around it.

Places to see from the air.
As mentioned in EIWT earlier, the “Liffey Route” to/from Weston across Dublin City is well worth a flypast.

Newgrange historical monument
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It’s close to Dublin airspace, so be careful.
53N 41 41 006W 28 32
If you get a chance to visit on the ground, then it’s well worth seeing. It does involve having your own transport or taking a day trip tour from Dublin City though.

Fr Ted’s House.

If you were a fan of the Fr Ted comedy series, you can see his house here.
53N 00 38 009W 01 50

Mayo/Galway Coastline

The scenery along the coast line is specular. The Atlantic has eaten away at the rocks over the years, to give specular cliffs right along the North Mayo coastline. Along the west Mayo & Galway coastline there are beautiful mountain formations and little islands. It’s some of the most scenic areas to see from an aeroplane. I’ve marked it in red here.

Tuskar Rock Light House
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A lovely light house off the east coast.
52N 11 56 006W 11 54

Fastnet Lighthouse
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The most southerly point of Ireland. It’s a lighthouse on a rock off the south coast.
51N 23 20 009W 36 18

Kerry Coastline

The mountains around the edge of the Kerry coastline make for some very scenic photos.

Donegal Coastline

Again the coastline along here is quite specular, as is most of the west coast!

Hopefully I’ve given you a taste for where to visit in Ireland, and where to “fly by”. So how about some suggestions from your own country?

By the way you can see many photos of these areas from Peter’s trip report here, from which I’ve linked a few photos above.
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Last Edited by dublinpilot at 20 Feb 15:36
EIWT Weston, Ireland

Excellent idea, thank you! I’ll try to prepare something similar for Austria in the coming days.

LOAN Wiener Neustadt Ost, Austria

Mine’s simple:

IOM Ronaldsway (EGNS) because it’s the only place to go which has avgas, and has the facilities you’ll need to make your journey by ground.

Andreas IOM

Kilkenny is the only bit mentioned I haven’t visited – some years ago. . Why was Coonagh and Limerick missed out?
For my own area, the whole west and north of Scotland are scenic. Videos below. Many more on the same channel.
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Maoraigh
EGPE, United Kingdom

Okay, here are my recommendations for Austria:

LOIJ (St. Johann): 750 m / 2460 ft concrete at 670 m / 2200 ft altitude. A straightforward VFR field in a valley basin dominated by the „Wilder Kaiser“ mountain. Excellent base for the famous ski resort of Kitzbühel and several other skiing areas nearby, but there may be persistent fog in winter. LOWZ (see below) has an even higher exposure to fog due to their lake and LOWI/LOWS are more than 90 minutes driving time away, so you don’t really have a viable alternate. Note that the fog problem only arises in winter, however.
Picture taken on final rwy 31.

LOWZ (Zell am See): 660 m / 2160 ft concrete at 750 m / 2470 ft altitude. Scenic position in a valley basin with lake „Zellersee“ to the north and „Kitsteinhorn“ with its glacier to the south. Traffic pattern very close to the mountain slopes, be sure to know your aircraft performance on take-off and watch out for other traffic (it’s a very popular destination and has had its share of midairs over the years). Apart from that, nothing especially difficult, but friendly people with a decent restaurant and the possibility to rent cars/scooters/bikes on the field. In winter, several skiing resorts are immediately nearby. You can even ski on the glacier in summer, followed by swimming in the lake in the afternoon. In the summertime (and only then), however, you should be aware of a massive influx of Arabian tourists whose sheer numbers have reduced the attractiveness of the area to other guests.

LOSM (Mauterndorf): 820 m / 2700 ft grass, Austrias highest aerodrome at 1110 m/ 3640 ft. Seems to have one or two accidents due to density altitude each year. Great traffic pattern around (!) a mountain, best for „grassroots mountain flying“ in Austria. PPR.

LOWS (Salzburg): international airport, „Hangar 7“ aviation museum complete with bar, fine dining and race car exhibition on the field, by prior arrangement you can park directly on their apron (opposite from the main terminal). Salzburg is one of Austria’s tourist hotspots and best avoided during the “Festspiele” high society season (July and August). Parking restrictions apply on winter weekends due to heavy charter aircraft traffic, but don’t let that put you off. In my experience, they find a way to accommodate single aircraft even then. Despite some bad rep recently, I have always found them professional and efficient.
Picture of Salzburg city center taken on climbout from rwy 15 after left turn, airport not visible (would be on the far left).

LOAG (Krems-Langenlois): 900 m / 2970 ft concrete, IFR letdown at the nearby military field of LOXT is possible. Highly recommend wine/design hotel “Loisium” right north of the traffic pattern, excellent base for discovering „Wachau“ (scenic , wine-growing part of the Danube valley) and the smaller valley „Kamptal“ to the north.
Picture taken on final rwy 11.

LOGM (Mariazell): 660 m / 2160 ft concrete (officially only 500 metres, but there are generous “overruns”) at 860 m / 2800 ft altitude. Further to the east than the other „mountain destinations“ and not as well known, but again with a very scenic setting in a valley basin including lake and towering mountain („Ötscher“ in this case). Additionally, there is the small town of Mariazell with it’s cathedral, the most important catholic site of pilgrimage in Central Europe. Their annual Christmas market is said to be one oft the nicest in Austria, and a well-known family shop produces the second-best gingerbread in the world (after my mother). There area some skiing facilities, but one cannot compare them to the big ressorts in Western Austria. Great for hiking and mountaineering in the summer. Very laid back atmosphere at the airfield, lots of glider flying, but phone ahead – their opening hours vary somewhat and they do not always remove the snow.

Last Edited by blueline at 06 Mar 10:08
LOAN Wiener Neustadt Ost, Austria

Great traffic pattern around (!) a mountain

Not just great, but really large :)

Actually there’s a tiny traffic pattern too, took me about 3 attempts to get the speeds right…

LSZK, Switzerland

I am looking at a trip to Inishmore EIIM and came across this great thread which really needs more posts

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Is anyone willing to add onto this thread?

I’m sure there are some wonderful places to visit in England/Wales, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden. As a ‘foreigner’ it can be very hard to find the places worth flying to or over that the local’s know well :) So it would be great to get a pilot’s prospective on where to fly in your country rather than a ‘lonely planet’ guide on where to drive to

EIWT Weston, Ireland

Wonderful thread indeed!

Sadly it can’t be promoted to the banners because the 1st post is too big.

I will try to post something.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

I also spent some of the afternoon trying to think what in the UK is worth seeing.

There are lots of quite nice things, but no amazing things. Snowdonia is nice, so are the white cliffs of Dover. In various parts of the country if you know where to look you can see some truly massive country houses.

Up in Scotland a trip up the Great Glen is pretty scenic.

EGLM & EGTN
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