We were very well welcomed at Newtonards.
Nice club atmosphere with rental cars available about 200m away.
Just putting in a word here for beautiful, beautiful Kerry. There’s car hire on site and buses to Killarney and Tralee. While I agree with the touring rather than basing suggestion, Kerry is nonetheless a superb base for flying the ring of Kerry, Dingle Bay and the cliffs of Moher, to mention but a few. While at Dingle, you can head out to sea, turn back, and imagine you are Lindburgh, 20 Hrs out over the ocean and able to identify this place he’s never seen before, somewhere between Spain and Norway, just from a map. Now that’s flying!
Oh and just to mention that Shannon used to be GA friendly with good GA services, but I’ve not been there for a few years.
Hi Thomas,
Let me ask the question, why do you want a “base”? Why not travel on each time rather than always returning to the same place each evening? If we understand that then maybe the answer flows from it.
The only airport that I can think of that has good public transport from it is EIWT Weston. It’s on the outskirts of Dublin. But actually, the most beautiful scenery in Ireland (from the air) is all along the west coast. So I’m not sure that it makes sense to constantly return to Dublin each evening!
Perhaps basing yourself on the west coast and getting a hire car would be a better idea?
EISG Sligo wouldn’t be a bad choice. A decent sized runway, and it’s possible to walk into Strandhill village (about 10 minutes walk along a quiet road). So if you could find somewhere to stay in Strandhill, then it would give convenient access to the airport. If you need a bigger town, Sligo is possible in a taxi without getting ridiculously expensive.
EIAB Abbeyshrule or EIBR Birr, are more central, but there isn’t a huge amount near Birr, and nothing at all near Abbeyshrule! In any case, I’d encourage you to spend most of your flying time along the west coast…just follow the coastline and you can’t go far wrong scenery wise!
What do you plan on doing here? Exploring by air, or basing yourself in one place and exploring by car for a few days then moving on?
Colm
I was asked about my home base.
Warm welcome for a visit to Berlin EDBW
Thomas
Speaking of the devil….
If it was me, I’d pick EGAB Enniskillen and get vat & duty free fuel each day crossing the border…. It’s a nice picturesque place. After that I’d say Kilrush EIKH might be good, relaxed and self service fuel. Weston EIWT is good too but more expensive.
EIWT Weston Airport would give good access to Dublin but is expensive (40 Euro landing fee for non-Irish/local planes). Maintenance if you need it. Ireland is small enough that any aerodrome will work as a base.
Make sure to buy the following book:
https://www.wfaviation.com/products/aviators-guide-to-ireland
It really is comprehensive. The author will probably post here soon.
This may be of interest
Jan is correct, Ireland is not Schengen, but all the airports I mentioned have Customs available with 24 hours prior notice.
Thomas,
some info here:
http://www.fliegen-in-uk.de/irland.html
Pay attention that unlicensed airfield info may not be up to date. There unfortunately is no half-current airfield guide for Ireland out there.
Immigration stuff here (a little further down):
