The original date for this fly-in was coming weekend 14-16 Oct, but most bailed out because of expected marginal wx en-route, France mainly..
So here’s a new attempt for the weekend of 21-23 October.
Should you be interested, join the Telegram group!
Well, this is a pity.
And a first for me… I’ve attended dozens of fly-ins the last 40+ years, but never had one moved onto another date like this. The Aero, the LAA, Oshkosh, the date is set and that’s it. The only reason for cancellations being the Covid thing.
Following the exchanges on the Telegram group revealed many people having joined only to expose why they bail out…
How can anybody cancel due to weather forecasts 3 weeks ahead also beats me. My tactical decision making usually takes place 3 days before the event.
So, what will happen if the weather now really turns bad for the next date? Move it again? For myself, I can’t spend my time and money booking/cancelling accommodation, nor trying to fit my eventual flying around the family like this, nor spend the time reading about cats, dogs, and the kitchen sink on Telegram groups.
Thanks for trying Aart.
Rant over and out.
These are hard decisions, Dan.
The problem we have here on EuroGA is that our meet-ups are free, no committment events.
I still deeply feel this is the right way to do it. Especially in flying, which is so subject to weather.
But I increasingly feel another way needs to be found, because the current system doesn’t work. A forum post, plus a mailing (going to all those who have permitted emails; ~800), and some PMs to “usual reliable people”, tends to yield around 50 people. The telegram group for the fly-in often ends up with 50. In retrospect, 40 of these never intended to actually come, or kind of intended but realistically had no aircraft available. We then have two problems: if you tell the airport about 50 planes, they tell you to get lost (unless it is a lovely can-do pragmatic place list like Mali Losinj or Portoroz; can anyone think of others?). Then of the 10 remaining, 5 drop out because of no parking. So we get 5. The other one is that it is impossible to organise a restaurant for more than about 10, unless you are in just the right sort of place and put some effort in, by a local speaker naturally.
Remember that we had the same on the Andorra 2021 fly-in. Almost everybody dropped out in the last few days, but Aart managed to find new people and we had a great group in the end. But the wx was also great.
Anyway, we have done this topic before. I am starting a fresh discussion there, so everybody has a chance to give us their view.
On The Aero, the LAA, Oshkosh, these are big events which are driven mostly by the need to take money from exhibitors, and somebody will always turn up. A lot of people get airline tickets; same for e.g. a Cirrus fly-in charged at €220 per participant.
On a positive note: our fly-ins to Spain have always been really great. It is the only place in Europe where one can get decent wx in October, which is why we go there. We also didn’t have a fly-in in September.
For any of you considering to go, remember that there should be enough hotel rooms available, it’s low season in the village of Alp. Which means no need to commit now. Wait until you are confident that the wx is OK and then book. Now if suddenly 300 people try to show up, poor little Alp may be overwhelmed. 
As we’ve been to LECD last weekend, here is some recent experience: The field is located at around 3500ft, other than that it’s not a demanding mountain airfield. The valley is really wide and you can fly towards France as well as towards Spain via La Seu through wide valleys. When we first tuned the frequency pilots were talking in Catalonian, at least I didn’t understand much. When we announced ourselves in Spanisch they replied in Spanish as well. It was quite busy with a tow plane and two trainers in the pattern. We didn’t try English but I don’t think it would have worked. In Spanish it was easy to get along with the others. The tow plane did an extremely tight pattern as they always do and the ULM and Cessna gave way to the faster Mooney. 07 is preferred for landing, as it slopes up but only if there is nobody doing pattern work, of course. When we left yesterday there was one other plane entering the pattern just as we wanted to depart. Again RTF was in Spanish. Fees were 18€ for landing and parking.
I hope you’ll have the same beautiful weather we had when you’ll fly in next weekend! And a teaser:
terbang wrote:
We didn’t try English but I don’t think it would have worked
aart, what about a Spanish, or even better Catalan, crash course for the rest of us mere English/German/French/Italian/Croatian/Swedish/etc speakers?
I think English works. In summer there are a lot of foreign gliders there. But let me call and make sure. Note it’s A/A, you won’t be talking to Info.
EDIT: There is very very little traffic there, just the glider towing activity and of course they speak English. And maybe even no gliding on a friday this time of year. You better concentrate on big birds, who don’t speak english btw
Due to poor weather this has been postponed again.
The Low west of France will still be sitting there in a week’s time, slinging rubbish all over France and much else of Europe, making it hard to get to NE Spain.
So the next date is 2 weeks from now: the weekend of 4th November.
We would have had a good turnout this weekend so let’s hope the wx will co-operate soon. Don’t forget to put it in your diary 
Postponed again due to bad wx.
Next date is 11/13 November. Wx looks much better for then, with a High pushing out the endless stream of Atlantic Lows which we’ve had for some weeks now.
Can anyone interested please PM Aart and join the telegram group (link in 1st post).
Well… not exactly bad weather but kind of challenging on return to some directions on Monday…
IMHO it can hardly be better than this in November. LECD was flyable today VFR from anywhere in Spain, majority of France, northern Italy and good portion of Germany. Same applies for return on Sunday and Monday.
