So, here are a few notes on airports and on flying in Spain in general:
LEAS Asturias was just the typical spanish (read: catastrophic) dump that I expected. When I called for PPR, the ARO man replied, with his spanish English: "On Sunday? Impossible! The airport is completely full!" Really felt like the third world. So I elected to cancel that. What a mess!
LEXJ was, for spanish standards, a very good experience. It has the four things that are important for the GA pilot: very good opening times, no PPR requirement whatsoever, fuel available at all times and no handling requirement.
LERJ Logrono / La Rioja was "middle if the road". The bad thing is that it's only open for a few hours in the morning, so when arriving, you realistically cannot fly there from too far away (and you'll still have to fly quite early in the morning). The airport is completely deserted and has no traffic at all. Otherwise it was OK, friendly and not expensive. But what a huge waste of infrastructure and money! In fact, there were about ten based single engine aircraft on the ramp, baking in the 35 degree sun and being basically trapped there. A sad sight, symbolizing the state of Spain as a whole.
at spanish major airports, you definitely still need a stamped flightplan for access airside. In fact, it is the holy grail for GA there, it literally opens doors for you. But if you don't have it, you go absolutely nowhere. The good news is that the fligtplan does not need to be filed at the airport with the ARO office. You can file uing e.g. Rocketroute and when you arrive at the airport, you merely pass at the ARO (which you have to do anyway in order to pay landing fees), and they will have the stamped print of your FPL ready for you.
never forget anything in the airplane. Once you have left the airside, there is no way they will let you go back to the aircraft unless - you guessed it - you have a stamped flightplan, even if you don't intend to fly. This happened to me at Logrono. I had to go to ARO office again and explained my problem. The friedly ARO almost apologized for the spanish procedures and offered me to enter a fictive flightplan into the system for me so as to get that bloody piece of paper.
re English proficiency: the controllers were good throughout. The people at the ARO offices spoke only basic English but it was enough to comunicate and get things done.
re IFR routings: sometimes there is quite some reluctance towards approving shortcut requests, often for no apparent reason. It seems like, per default, they try to keep you in controlled airspace. The magic phrase that helps a lot is to state the you have "visual contact with the ground". After that, they are much more happy to approve requests for DCTs and lower altitudes, as this phrase apparently shifts their responsibility to the pilot.
no experiences with refuelling in Spain. Due to the nightmares I have read re the procedures (long waits, need to supply VAT number and to fill out useless forms) as well as the price differential (3 Euros vs. just over 2) I only refuelled in France.
And by the way, to any monolingual English speakers here, I highly recommend learning another language:
5 summers ago ,trying to land Castellon de la Plana (a GA airport in the midst of UK groupie hotels and beaches). The AFISO is not responding my endless calls in the published frequency. Returning to Radar control freq for explanations,the say "....ohh,it is not our fault". So,I follow the American proceedure of CTAF self announcing everywhere and making a cross pass over the RWY to check the wind sock. Still no replies and land ,then taxi to the parking position.Just before locking the doors,a furious GUARDIA CIVIL car came to intercept me.Of course they only spoke Spanish.I tried to ask them,in Italian,what was going on.Eventualy a boy from the local Aeroclub came to assist.They accused me of low,suspicious and dangerous flight over their police headquarterts (which is located just before the RWY finals ) !!! I told them through my interpreter that if someone is to put charges on me is not the Police but the CAA.Later on they left after puting a police shepperd dog sniff the 172's trunk. Eventualy, I found the AFISO who was drinking coffee in the garden next to his shack. I asked in Italian "...why dont you respond the calls ?..Reply "...sorry no speek Igliss".
I agree with you, and I am lazy myself (after forgetting most of my Czech and learning English I had no interest in anything else, having found German and French impossible) but I think there is an expectation in aviation of English proficiency.
This is correct for ATC at "international" ("Customs") airports, but I think it suprises many that it does not extend to anybody else in the airport.
For example I landed at Zaragoza LEZG and nobody at all could speak English. Not even the tourist information desk.
But even the person at the back of the ATC room, picking up faxes, may not speak a word of English. They don't need to because the AFTN messages are standard.
The only place which is highly likely to speak English is a handling agent but GA normally tries to avoid contact with those.
I never found Spain any real issue. The airports there are reluctant to correspond in written English and even less keen to speak on the phone in English
It's probably not that they are reluctant, but because the people on the phones and doing the correspondence may just not speak English at all (or not sufficient English). Not so long ago I read in one of the Spanish newspapers of a European report on foreign language speaking in various EU countries, and Spain actually came below the UK for the number of people comfortable to speak in another language (which I find a bit hard to believe, knowing how lazy British people are at learning other languages). However during Franco's time many people were taught French in schools but not English, so for people >45 or so, if they speak a second language, it might well be French.
People in Britain will often have the impression that everyone in Spain can speak English, but that's probably because they've only stayed in tourist areas and really only interacted with the tourist industry.
Anyone have any experiences with Asturias airport, or general tips for the Gijon area?
Been there a couple of times for work, but on CAT. It's an AENA airport, so all the caveats outlined by Aart apply. Doing a flying tour of northern Spain has been on my list for a long time, somehow never got round to it.
The area is beautiful, wooded mountains rolling down to the Atlantic. Oviedo is a pretty little town, well worth a visit.
Anyone have any experiences with Asturias airport, or general tips for the Gijon area?
Seems like very few people fly to these places...
My experience of "big" Spanish airports is quite good.
Barcelona/Sabadell was great, zero hassle, but €80. But the €80 included transport to city centre and back later, which makes it great value. The whole process was the slickest I have ever seen.
Granada likewise. I don't recall the cost so it could not have been into 3 figures.
Zaragoza likewise, though they are absolutely anal on the PPR. I had a big problem with them on another occasion when they denied having received a phoned PPR which was done right in front of me by the Granada office. They even cancelled the Eurocontrol flight plan, just to drive the point home.
A few others I don't recall.
Of course if you are looking for €10 you won't find it unless you go to little places like La Axarquia.
Also Spanish airport fees increased hugely a year or two ago, though admittedly from a very low base in most cases.
I never found Spain any real issue. The airports there are reluctant to correspond in written English and even less keen to speak on the phone in English, but that is also the case in Italy, I found, and this can make checking things like opening times tricky. But the Spanish AIP is fairly accurate.
Handling companies are good everywhere (=€€€) and the 100ALAS one at Barcelona was exemplary in its communications. Of course GA pilots try to avoid handling but sometimes you get other value from it.
parking fees upto 1.500 kg MTOW: 37 euro/day, above that: 50 euro/day
That's stupid - at a sleepy place like Son Bonet
Correction: parking fees upto 1.500 kg MTOW: 37 euro/day, above that: 50 euro/day
A notice for those travelling to Spanish airports run by AENA:
You may want to review your insurance.. In May I flew to Reus (LERS) and taxied to the maintenance facility station, which requires going through a sliding gate. Suddenly this gate started to close on me and I could not avoid it hitting my wingtip. it appeared that the gate was in maintenance and not electrically driven. They did not bother to lock it and a wind took hold of it, just when I passed... Damage to my plane: 5.800 euro. Took pictures, made a report with the airport staff, who were actually apologetic, which one would expect.. To my surprise, a week ago got a letter from the airport: AENA is not responsible. Apparently the message is: take us to court.. After checking around a bit, there seems to be a pattern to this.
Another topic, related to my home airport, LESB Mallorca. I just saw a list of the landing and parking fees for next year. Especially the parking fees have been increased impressively, although only for July and August: an increase from 1.5 euro per day to 37 euro (1.500 kg). Nice surprise if you fly in with your SR22 and stay here for 10 days. 500 euros for a plane covered in dust.. Interesting to see how the local government is trying to stimulate relatively wealthy tourists to come to the island, and AENA burocrats just doing to opposite. So discouraging to see AENA just wishing to kill off GA in this country. You guys in Northern Europe don't complain..
