Indeed. So far, Garmin never managed to really depict airspace accurately for VFR purposes. See their handhelds… I guess this will remain. SD is slowly getting there, but still has some way to go.
DMEArc, I don’t really use it for detailed airspace purposes. I think it still has some challenges in that area.
Jason, thanks for report. I’ve avoided using GP for real but have sub as I’m not confident about Class A depiction when going from OCAS to CAS. How do you find using the app in Europe?
Coolhand thank you for the info – Piper Super Cubs are somewhat allergic to ATC airports preferring aviosuperfizie or farm strips, so a pity that Spain may be unusually restrictive.
First of all, the clasification is changing right now. Soon there will be only ‘restricted aerodromes’ and ‘public use aerodromes’. The only difference will be that in the restricted ones, commercial operations are not allowed.
But up to now, the clasification is:
1. ULM fields
2. Aerodromes and airports
2.1 Private aerodromes
2.2 Public aerodromes/airports
ULM can go to any of them, but only if it is non controlled, because ULMs are restricted to G airspace in Spain (in practice sometimes you can be cleared to cross controlled airspace if you ask for it). Almost every public airfield is controlled, so in practice ULM are more or less restricted to ULM airfields and private aerodromes, with only a few exceptions.
EASA TC airplanes cannot operate in ULM airfields.
Both private and public airfields are listed in the AIP, as 172driver has found. But further info (VAC, ADC, GMC…) can be found only for public ones.
One easy ‘trick’ to know if you can land with an EASA TC airplane is to look for the ICAO code of the airfield. If it has ICAO code, you can land, otherwise it is a ULM only airfield.
Usually, you aren’t going to have any problem landing with a EASA TC airplane in a ULM airfield (is the lenght of the runway allows you to do that). There are no inspections to enforce this limitation, but in case of incident/accident you will be in ‘legal’ trouble. It’s rarely done.
Bosco, the short answer to your first question to the best of my knowledge is no. The Spanish AIP doesn’t list all airfields with an ICAO code, some of these are private (e.g. LEAX – Velez Malaga or LEJU, La Julliana) which can most definitely be used by certified aircraft and normally don’t require PPR either. I’ve been to a few of these. However the – great! – site referenced by Coolhand appears to mix in anything w/o classification. Some of the places I know of and also know that people have landed certified a/c there. How legal that was is a different matter altogether. No idea about a comparison with the ‘aviosuperfici’.
Coolhand, could you give a few more details on airfield categories in Spain?
Is it that cerfied aircraft can only operate from proper airports listed in the AIP? I am not sure… Muchamiel comes to mind, where loads of proper aircraft operate.
The rest is strictly ULM only strips?
Is there is nothing comparable to the italian aviosuperfici, i.e. registered, but unlicensed airfields, where certified aircraft are allowed to operate for private flights?
EDIT: just found out that AD1.3 has a list of Aerodromos Restringidos, including places like Muchmiel, Castellon de la Plana, etc. So, it would seem like anything not mentioned there or in the rest of the AIP is not approved for certificed aircraft, right?
Jan, this link goes to a excel database created by one pilot some years ago. It is very well known among spanish ulm pilots, and it is still updated with certain frequency, but being centralized in one person it’s difficult to ensure the correctness of all the data. In addition, there are a lot of unused aerodromes and not certified ones that are included in this list.
More recently a friend of mine created a web page with the idea of making a kind of interactive database that could be updated/modified by the owners of the aerodromes and/or by pilots who landed there recently. This way it should be much easier to have good and updated information. But relies on people wanting to make their contributions, which is not always the case. Unfortunately, currently it’s in spanish only. But I think it’s the best online centralized source of aerodromes information for Spain, and in some cases there is a link to the web of the airfield (if available) with more information.
You can have a look at it:
http://www.aterriza.org
Garmin Pilot and a GDL-39.
