Flying in Spain (moving from the USA)

172driver wrote:

Herein lies the problem – when I lived there, getting ethanol-free gas from a gas station was impossible

The composition of the fuel has to comply with the same requirements all across Europe (EN228)
I know of several people using mogas in their Lycomings with no problem.

An amusing and topical view from the same perspective that the OP would face, posted on line a few days ago. I’m sure the author has a lot to learn, and maybe the OP could benefit from greater familiarity on EuroGA.

Coolhand wrote:

The composition of the fuel has to comply with the same requirements all across Europe (EN228)
I know of several people using mogas in their Lycomings with no problem.

In fact, EN228 limits the maximum content of oxygenates (in particular, 5% for ethanol), not the minimum, and different brands may contain different oxygenates in different quantities. For example, a cheap fuel station near my home has a sticker on the pump saying their petrol contains max. 3% ethanol. It could make sense to call the headquarters of all the petrol companies in the region and ask them if they offer any low-ethanol formulations (and low-methanol for that matter, as methanol is even more hazardous to electrochemically active alloys).

I don’t like such negative accounts of Americans about flying in Europe.

It’s different, but so it is the other way around, with lots of new stuff to learn for a European flying in the US. The difference is that Europeans tend to be very open-minded about learning “new stuff” whereas many Americans tend to expect things to work more or less like at home, anywhere in the world.

In fact, I believe those who fail do so because they are not ready to forget everything they have learned about flying (except the actual flying part) and start over from scratch. That learning curve can be very rewarding. But again, some people just don’t seem to be ready for it.

boscomantico wrote:

Europeans tend to be very open-minded about learning “new stuff” whereas many Americans tend to expect things to work more or less like at home, anywhere in the world.

I am smiling thinking of my Bavarian in laws. They don’t leave Bavaria and Austria, because the rest of the world is strange and unpleasant And then there’s my long time Italian friend who has grave difficulties eating anything but what he’s used to, and loses a lot of weight on every trip for that reason. Of course I realize others from their areas may be very different, and FWIW our house has a revolving door for curious visitors. Americans also differ a lot based on their particular life experience, I think moreso than people from any of the relatively homogeneous individual European cultures.

I think the dominant issue with European flying is that the ‘rules of the air’ continue to differ as much as European cultures over very small distances within Europe, and that the infrastructure for aviation is not well funded in almost any country.