Peter wrote:
Is there a list for France, Spain and Italy?It took some time to find out, but here are the top-lists of those countries:
Maybe some people are using Skydemon during commercial flights? Also, smaller countries only have a top 10 ranking in Skydemon, others have a top 20 or 25 ranking.Or an indication of “that was once, but never again”At least many people fell for this “once, but never again” experience.
(according to SD statistics)Does every flight you plan with SD get uploaded to SD’s server?As far as I know, SD collects the traffic data anonymized. They create also traffic heat maps, which they publish sometimes on their Facebook-page.
As always those lists create more questions than answers: Where did they get the data from? What do they count as “visitors”? Individual planes? Pilots? Tablet-Computers? SD-licenses?
If it is e.g. based on individual aircraft, the results are at best “very questionable” in countries where many pilots use club airplanes and therefore dozens of different pilots fly places in the same airplane.
Frans wrote:
we think is synonymous with popularity and the amount of things to see/do there.
They might think this – but it is very likely a significant overstatement of the value of this data. A significant share of the traffic is driven by training.For these flights “things to see/do” is completely irrelevant but it is about landing fees, complexity of the airspace structure, proximity to fields with major flight schools, etc.
The data looks fishy and the rankings are usually useless…but looking at top airfields in every country seems to be right where I flew first time and they are not “club airplanes” places
I think anyone who ventured beyond the borders would agree that some of those ranking make sense, I can point why LeTouquet is a nice place in France? Venise is the best in Italy? or Sion in Switzerland? but I would visit again
Although, it does not appear like rocket science, the list seems trivial once you have visited enough places, now I need to go to Colmar as I don’t understand how I miss it?
Malibuflyer is quite right. Some of the busiest GA airfields in France don’t get a mention. But that might be because it is mainly only French pilots who go there. And most French pilots don’t use SD.
The data looks fishy because, as stated, some of the airports are definitely not GA favourites, and SD has negligible penetration in some countries.
Can anyone do a list for the UK? If Gatwick appears on it …
Still not clear if this is flight plans (border crossing flights only) or all routes planned using SD (which I guess all get copied to SD’s server).
Some of the busiest GA airfields in France don’t get a mention
Which ones? or is there a ranking somewhere?
Look at summer at the Ile d’Yeu (LFEY, the most expensive but with a landing fee of €16 , Les Sables D’Olonne Talmont (LFOO) Sarlat Domme (LFDS), Dinard ( LFRD) St.Brieuc ( LFRT) to name but a few which do get visits from other countries. The above IIRC all have landing fees, although for some, local clubs do not pay any, by a reciprocal arrangement between the clubs. Eg for me LFOO. As club aircraft we also get a reduced landing and parking fees at many other French airports. There are also many fields where the movements are never counted due to the fact that there is no one there to count. Pilots just pop in as and when they feel like it and no landing fees.
The ones above I list because often in summer. it is difficult to find a parking space, even when there is a lot of it.🙂
Ibra wrote:
now I need to go to Colmar as I don’t understand how I miss it?
It is a nice area overall, but don’t expect anything special at the airport itself. There isn’t even a restaurant. You need to organise transport to and from the city for it to be worth it.
gallois wrote:
And most French pilots don’t use SD.
This is slowly changing. Every young pilot I know uses it and the old ones are also gradually accepting that it might be useful sometimes (though many of them just always go to the same places that they know by heart so they don’t even need a navigation aid).
This data must come from tracks simply recorded by SD. No need to plan a flight at all.
The Garmin handhelds do the same, and store them with the endpoints identified using the “obvious logic”. So even if you never touch the planning pages in the Garmin, it still stores all your flights, and unless you go literally to some unknown farm strip, it will have the right ICAO code / name listed.
And SD is presumably uploading all this to their server, tagged by user ID.
Regarding France, it seems “visibly clear” that the places visited by “foreigners” are mostly not the same as those visited by French GA (which is mostly aeroclub traffic). The only sizeable French airport where I have seen a fair bit of local activity was Deauville. Relatively little at Le Touquet, almost none at Cherbourg (which is now a graveyard, for other reasons). LFAT being #1 confirms the high level of UK visits and the high level of SD market penetration in the UK.
gallois wrote:
Look at summer at the Ile d’Yeu (LFEY, the most expensive but with a landing fee of €16 , Les Sables D’Olonne Talmont (LFOO) Sarlat Domme (LFDS), Dinard ( LFRD) St.Brieuc ( LFRT) to name but a few which do get visits from other countries
Thanks, would be nice to get a list and ranking, it’s easy to skip one or two
I have been in all except LFOO and I agree they are nice
