What’s your favourite airport approach?
VFR approach into Cannes
I was part of a judging panel for PrivateFly’s favourite approaches poll. My three suggestions (which I have flown myself) were:
Cannes
When you fly the VFR approach, you fly right over the centre of the town, over a beautiful medieval walled village and then turn south and fly down to the actual runway with a view of the sea ahead. It’s utterly beautiful.
Amsterdam
The VFR approach to Amsterdam is insane. There’s a short-ish GA runway and you approach from the East at low altitude and only turn finals when you are over the midpoint of the runway. But the truly beautiful approach is the ILS for the GA runway that takes your right over the centre of the city. In good weather, the view over the canals is beautiful.
Belfast
Perhaps not as glamorous as Cannes or Amsterdam but my memories of flying into Belfast City at night are very strong. I popped through a cloud layer at about 4,000 feet and the city was lit clearly below me and, after a long flight, it felt very welcoming. I had to go to Belfast to get my Visa for my CPL training so it was a quick overnighter and a great example of how flexible you can be if you have an instrument rating and a well-equipped plane like the Cirrus at your disposal.
So, what are you favourite approaches? Comments below please. Also take a minute to vote at PrivateFly.com on the shortlist we chose.
New FBO at Amsterdam Schiphol (EHAM)
Until recently, if you flew a private aircraft into Amsterdam Schiphol the only FBO there was KLM Jet Centre. They weren’t particularly cheap and compared with their snappy sister FBO in Rotterdam, it all seemed a bit too laid back and unwelcoming.
Now, Aviapartner has opened a new FBO at Schiphol and you have a choice. The prices doesn’t seem to be much different. They charge about 400 euros for a Cirrus SR22, including airport fees but they can cope with aircraft up to an A380, so perhaps a Cirrus suffers from being on the first rung of a very tall ladder.
The place seems less like a scaled-down passenger terminal and more like a VIP lounge, which gives a more luxurious experience, I think, especially for passengers. I hope to visit in person later this year and then I can give a more complete report.
The contact details are:
Aviapartner Executive Operations
Thermiekstraat 16, 1117 BC Schiphol, The Netherlands
Phone: +31 (0) 20 2066780
Fax: +31 (0) 20 2066790
SITA: AMSAPXH
E-mail: ams.executive@aviapartner.aero
Internet: www.aviapartner.aero
Cirrus SR22 to Rotterdam (Awesome HD Video)
My friend Nick flew with me and our wives to Rotterdam a week ago. We went to The Hague for lunch and a quick visit to the delightful Mauritshuis Musuem. It’s such a lovely museum: full of treasures, including Vermeer’s Girl with the Pearl Earring, but small enough so that it doesn’t give you culture indigestion. This was my first passenger flight with the new R9 avionics and you can see me checking the manual on a few things on the long autopilot flight over the North Sea. Nick made this video with his very shiny new HD170 helmet camera.
Flying to Lelystad, Holland (Video)
Lelystad (EHLE) is a great destination for GA pilots in the Netherlands. It’s very GA-friendly but still has customs on site and (relatively) cheap landing fees compared to Schiphol or Rotterdam. The aviation museum, pilot shop and cafe with terrace make it a nice place to spend a day if you’re a pilot or aviation enthusiast.
Egelsbach (EDFE)
Located 5 miles south-east of Frankfurt am Main, Egelsbach is Germany’s busiest general aviation airport. It’s a non-controlled VFR-only airport in class D airspace, with a permanent implicit clearance to enter, granted from Frankfurt Tower. On busy days, up to 80 movements per hour are not unusual. Yes, 80 landings or take-offs in 60 minutes, on a single runway. I flew there in 2009 when I got my multi-engine rating flying a DA42 TwinStar at the Motorflugschule Egelsbach. I used to fly at busy, international airports, but I must say that what I experienced at Egelsbach is something different. Before flying there, I never had to overtake other aircraft in the airport pattern.
The runway has an east / west orientation and there are two circuits, one on the north side for training, and one on the south side for aircraft coming to land or leaving the area. The circuits for runway 09 have almost no final leg, the base turn is to be flown shortly after passing abeam the threshold, to avoid intruding the Frankfurt CTR. Both circuits must be flown at 1’300 feet, and the Charlie airspace of Frankfurt TMA starts at 1’500. Finding the circuits is rather easy, thanks to two nearby motorways and a power line on the south. The golden rule is easy: you should in no case fly west of the A5 motorway – this is Frankfurt airspace.
Because of the proximity with Frankfurt, approaching and leaving Egelsbach is possible only via the south and the east. Five VFR reporting points are defined (J, D, K, E and T) and routes between these points and the airport are published. Beware of one important details: these routes are all one way, and change according to the active runway. Don’t think of an overhead join, or a mid of downwind entry. A bit more than the standard preparation is required here. The “Egelsbach info” frequency is active when the airport is open and the guys operating it are rather helpful and they have good radar coverage. Even if it is not formally a Tower, not following their advice would be silly.
The Egelsbach train station is approximately 20 walking minutes away, and taxis are always available. From there, Frankfurt is a 20 minutes ride away. The airport’s restaurant is one of the best in the area, I personally like their fillet of springbock.
[post-geocode zoom=”15″]