Relay-Version: B 2.11 6/12/87; site scolex Path: uunet!olivea!apple!SHELTON.J@applelink.apple.com From: SHELTON.J@applelink.apple.com (Joe Shelton) Newsgroups: rec.aviation Subject: Flying in Europe (part 1 of 2, LONG) Message-ID: <48938@apple.Apple.COM> Date: Thu, 07 Feb 91 14:42:33 PST Sender: cep@Apple.COM Organization: Apple Computer, Inc. Lines: 165 [This is being posted for Joe Shelton, an Apple employee without net access.] After my Link a couple of weeks ago on the Museum at the Frankfurt Airport and the Paris and Farnborough airshows, Stephen Keese asked me to share a bit about what general aviation is like in Europe. I have to start out by admitting that I have flown a GA airplane in Europe only once while I have lived in here. Ill get into that further on. Before I say anything else I ought to direct you to two videos from ABCs Wide World of Flying. Videos numbered 14, and the newest video number 15 have segments on flying in Europe. You might want to pick them up if you are interested in finding out more about flying in Europe, especially if you relate better to videos. English is the worldwide language of aviation so theoretically you should be able to communicate anywhere in Europe. Considering the number of American Comanche owners that I know have travelled around Europe and from the videos mentioned above, that is probably true. I know a few weeks ago I listened to the English ATIS at Hamburg International airport. On the other hand, I would imagine that the English as spoken might be different in individual countries and for an American (or anyone) not used to the local accent, difficult to understand. French aviators, for example, may not speak Aviation English as understandable to an American as you might hear in some other countries. In any event, people do fly all over Europe so they must be able to communicate. I may be wrong and should be able to talk more knowledgeably on communications as I plan to do a bit of flying in the near future. I received a French amendment to my US pilots license for Christmas. Now that I have it, I plan on finding an airfield near Paris and seeing what it takes to get checked out. One major difference is that Europe is made up of many countries and like to flying between the US and either Mexico or Canada, you need a flight plan and you have to deal with Customs. That makes sense, but it also means that in some of the smaller countries you are almost restricted to local or fairly short flights unless you want to go through the hassles. Something equivalent to flying from San Jose CA to Santa Barbara for dinner is much harder here. I understand that these hassles arent that bad and the theory is that the EEC will resolve that in 1992 making flying around the continent much easier. I wouldnt bet on it. To talk about flying in Europe it might also benefit you if you look at a map of Europe and compare it to the size of the US. A trip from Paris to London is only about 200 statute miles or about the distance from San Francisco to Santa Barbara. London to Berlin only about 575 miles. Paris to Rome only 700 miles. Compare that to the US: San Francisco to San Diego is 450 miles. San Francisco to Denver is a bit less than 1000 miles. San Francisco to New York is about 2550. Airline travellers often say that any city in (western) Europe is only an hours flight away. Having flown from Paris to most European capitals, that is essentially true (add half an hour here and there). There are some other interesting differences in general avaition flying in Europe. The only time I have flown in Europe in recent years (other than many airline flights) was near Zrich Switzerland. We flew from a small airfield named Birrfeld near Zrich to another airfield called Baden, about a 30 minute flight away. The airspace over Switzerland is used for a lot of military flying so we flew at an altitude less than 1000 feet. On the top of the navigation chart we used is printed in bold letters: Warnings/ Firings above 250 m AGL (820 ft). Baden was right beside Lake Zrich. The runway was improbably short and wide. On final approach it looked almost as long as it was wide. I am sure a lot of this was optical illusion, but I would have had a serious look at the runway length on the chart before I would have tried to land my Comanche. The 182 we were flying took a good portion of the runway and we made a short field landing. I just looked to see if I still had the chart for Baden but I couldnt find it. Birrfeld seemed to have a longer runway. The chart shows that the available runway for landing is 600 meters long (1,950 feet). Taking off gives you another 90 meters. Speaking of the charts, many or maybe even most of the airports in Switzerland use a special chart for planning a VFR approach. Unlike the US, these charts arent always readily available and you can often only get those for a specific airport at that airport. Makes it difficult if you are flying to the airport for the first time! I am sure it isnt that bad, but it seemed to be when I was there. I am not talking about an IFR approach/airport chart but it is similar. It is sort of like a the charts in the Blue CA Airport Guide. One side has a drawing of the airport and the surrounding area; with all the appropriate frequencies, runway lengths, warnings, procedures, and so on. The other side has other pertinent information about the airport and the surrounding area (all in German). There is an additional page that contains aerial photographs of the approach routes showing ground references that you use in approaching the airport. The pictures are taken from an airplane (e.g. just as you would see it). They have arrows superimposed to show the correct flight path. We had lunch at a great little restaurant on the airport. It had outdoor picnic tables on a pretty little patio. We also paid the landing fee. You heard it right. Many (most?) GA airports in Europe have landing fees. Seems to me it was between $5-10. Dont know if that is per landing. If so, practicing landings could get expensive! Add that to the fact that the rental costs arent cheap (all fuel in Europe including Avgas is MUCH more expensive than in the US), and flying in Europe isnt for the poor. There are lots of GA airports in Europe; maybe not as many per capita as in the US. But the countries are smaller so it looks like there are more. I have noticed at the 15 plus general aviation airports I have been to that the smaller airports almost always have a flying club. And by a flying club I mean something that is really more like a club than what a FBO in the US calls a club. Many years ago I spent a four months on and off visiting a small grass airfield in southwestern England (a week or two per visit and then riding my motorcycle around England and the continent). Forget your images of small US airfields. In the US there might be lots of aircraft and a few people hanging around working or talking flying. This airfield was different. First, dont let the term grass airfield give you the wrong impression. It was grass because it is cheaper to make a grass airfield and the British have a tradition of grass airfields. They towed gliders and a grass field allowed them to change the takeoff direction enough to make it easier to deal with crosswinds. This was more than a small glider strip. They also flew larger aircraft like the De Havilland Rapide as well. (Remember I thought the Rapide was one of the prettiest airplanes flying? This is where I first saw one.) There were even light twins (a particularly beautiful Twin Comanche with tip tanks for example another of the most beautiful airplanes flying in my prejudiced opinion). I mentioned gliders. They had glider competitions almost every weekend. And flying lessons. And amongst all of this, some great sky diving (the reason I kept coming back; I even got to parachute out of the Rapide a few times as well as a number of other unusual aircraft). On a weekend it wasnt unusual to find 50-75 or more people around the airfield with many sleeping in caravans (small touring house trailers that they brought with them), tents (my abode), and even with just sleeping bags. It wasnt like an American airfield in a couple of other ways. There was a restaurant that offered good, wholesome food at a reasonable price run by an Italian that really knew how to cook (even over-cooked and boiled English foods). Good food, reasonable price! Name me an American airport with a restaurant that can match that. What else? How about a Pub that was part of the flying club and that was a pretty good hangout for the pilots and families in the evenings. Almost every airport I have been to in France seems to have a similar atmosphere (although maybe not as homy). Lots of people hanging around flying and talking flying. I have seen very few airports in the US with this kind of activity. (Maybe I havent been to the good ones. Anyone got any recommendations?) One other thing before I finish. I talked in my last Link about the difference in aircraft between US and European airports. Europe is not a place where the tie downs are populated with rows and rows of similar aircraft from companies that used to make them in Kansas, Pennsylvania, or Florida. As I said, there are a few, but not many. You see many European low wing trainers and other European GA aircraft. There are lots of what looks like home builts, but what I understand about licensing home builts in Europe, they were probably built by small aircraft companies. I was at an airport near Paul Ricard raceway on the southern coast of France last Christmas (a year ago) and found a couple of ex-military jet trainers. I looked around to see if they were available for lessons, but couldnt find anyone around to rent them. There was a race going on at the raceway so I figure everyone was there. You also see unusual aircraft like the Grob motor powered gliders. They take off just like a regular airplane and then when the get to a reasonable altitude they shut the engine down and become a glider that is slightly less efficient than a normal glider. I have walked into hangers and found airplanes stacked two deep. Aircraft are hanging from the roof and are lowered with wenches when they are needed. As I said in my last Link, airports in Europe are interesting and fun. If you really like airplanes and are on a trip to Europe rent a car and do some exploring. Interesting and diverse are the operative words. Besides, Europe is beautiful.