Comments 1 to 9 of 9
Glider base
Landed there as it is just across the fence of the ITER research facility. General impression: busy, windy & French. There are hundreds of sailplanes, several clubs, many hangars, three runways (depends on how you count them). People are very friendly & helpful, but do not expect too much English there. They understand English on the radio but do not reply (neither in English nor in French), so you should look out and behave. No landing fee, no complications, but also no taxi phone numbers, no easy transportation service from the airport to the nearby Manosque. Will come back.
Cute & pleasant
Nice small airport, VERY friendly people, nice restaurant, gas, no landing fee. What else do you want?
The (only) Airport in Western Greece during winter
Corfu (Kerkyra) is one of the few Greek airports with normal working hours during the winter (see http://www.ypa.gr/content/index.asp?tid=247&lang=2 - some airports are open only on some days, some are open for only an hour in the evening, etc).
The arrival and stay in Corfu was pleasant. I assume that during the high season the airport may be quite busy.
An important advice: have the AOPA membership card or some proof that you are a flying-club member with you. With proof of club membership, the landing fee is symbolic (some 4 EUR) and you get a hefty discount on handling (some 15-20 EUR). It is rumored that Greeks are trying hard to invite GA guests to their nice places and these discounts are part of this campaign. We can only applaud this attitude and wish other countries would do the same.
Altogether the experience was very nice, although the Greek way (everything can be solved, sometimes a bit slow). ARO is the tower: they were very friendly and helpful in planning and arranging the flight through Greek airspace.
For a 100$ hamburger type of stay (in reality it is a 600 EUR Greek dinner), there is quite a decent Hotel Bretagne 5 minutes walk from the airport and another 15 minutes walk from the city centre.
Nice but expensive
The airport itself is very nice (I was told it was recently rebuilt by a German company and they hold a concession for twenty years to operate it).
All the staff was very friendly. It took the gasoline truck an hour to come to us (yes, they have AvGas 100LL), the ARO was friendly, but a bit clumsy. The main objection is the price: 95 EUR for 600kg MTOW, no PAX.
A prior landing permission is needed. In principle it takes 24h to get it (we got it overnight). Contact is Mr. Vrioni (mobile) +355 682 151 493, (fixed) +355 42 343 487.
Closed
By information from LRCV opertions manager (and by info from Jepessen VFR charts) this airport is closed for several years now.
Closed
Planned to go there (aug 2009) but ATC said it is closed for more than a year.
Landed in Craiova
After spending almost a year clearing formalities regarding flight approval to Romania (my plane has only permit to fly not airworthiness certificate) I finaly landed there. All OK, but the landing fee of EUR 130 for a 600kg MTOW airplane is outrageously expensive. No fuel, (virtually) no ARO - they advised me to submit the flight plan at least 3 hours before flight (I did it over phone to LJLJ ARO one four before), ...
Otherwise quite pleasant and friendly (and empty - guess why).
Excellent small airfield
Has at east 330 flyable days in the year.
The "only" reason the airfield may be closed is for strong NE gusting wind Bora.
Use low and powered approach path to Rwy 13 in this case; abort landing soon and divert to the right ASAP in such case (rotor at the and of Rwy13).
Take-off on Rwy31 even if the wind comes a bit tail; there are strong rotors at the end of Rwy13 creating gusting downwash and a lot of turbulence.
Nice refueling
π Thu, 10 May 2012
β @robert at Riviera Villanova d'Albenga International Airport, Italy
Nice moderately large airport, friendly and helpful staff. Gas 100LL (expensive as everywhere in Italy), very moderate landing fee.