Menu Sign In Contact FAQ
Banner
Welcome to our forums

An absolute top-tip for southern Germany: Nördlingen (EDNO)

Nördlingen is in the Bavarian part of Swabia, about 60 km northwest of Augsburg. Last time I have been there was in 2004, I believe (when I was still living in Nurnberg, from where this was a short flight). I remembered it was really pretty and always wanted to go back, but so far, I did never happen. Last sunday was a summer’s day in all of Germany, and I decided to go there again. Boy, I didn’t remember just how nice and pretty it really was. But see for yourself. It’s in quite a central location for southern Germany, and I really recommend it to anybody else.

Here is the big picture. Departing Mainz, it is not a challenging flight. The airspace around Nördlingen is totally free of any class C or D airspace or any restricted areas and such. One merely has to pay attention to the Frankfurt TMA. South of the Frankfurt airport, it is basically impossible to get a clearance into the airspace Charlie at the lower altitudes.

My ride: our Morane-Rallye (180hp).

Nothing too exciting from the enroute section; it was a straight line across the country, and I eventually climbed to FL55 to enjoy the calm, cool air. Crossing the river Rhine…

…and touching the river Neckar.

Before too long, I was approaching the Nördlingen. A few words about the town: it has roughly 20.000 inhabitants and the old part is of a circular shape, with a 100% preserved of city wall that one can walk on along its entire circumference. It has four towered gates. The nice thing with these smaller German places is that you have survived WWII mostly unscathed, as they did not have any military or other significance.

I didn’t get to make a good aerial shot of the town, so here is one from wiki:

(credit: Wolkenkratzer, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

As you can see here, the airfield is comfortably close to town. The (tarmac) runway is 750 metres long, but with displaced thresholds on both sides.

In summertime, the airfield is always open on weekends, so then no PPR is required. The downside of this airfield: it’s another one of those which are “German only”, officially.

Base for runway 04.

The nice thing about this airfield is that during its opening hours, the doors at the base of the Flugleitungs-building are open, where arrving pilots can get biycycles to rent for free.

Anyway, I had brought my own folding bike.

By bike, it’s really only a little more than 5 minutes to the limits of the old town wall. Maybe 20 minutes if you walk on foot (check google for the shortest path).

Here we go with a few photos of the old town. It’s is quite difficult to convey the beauty of this place by photos alone. It’s just so well kept and charming. As a comparison with a place some more people may have been to: it is much nicer than Rothenburg ob der Tauber (which is not all too far away). Mainly because it is not so touristy. It is also much more “Bavarian” in its architectural style.








I really recommend this for a visit on a sunny day.

I cycled back to the airfield in the afternoon and, for a change of scenery, made a dogleg on the return flight, to see more parts of Franconia and the river Main.

The Frankenwald, east of Rothenburg.


I “joined” the river Main at Kitzingen…

…and proceeded to Würzburg.

Proceeding further westbound, direct to Frankfurt, one happens to cross the river Main a few more times without even changing course.



The last pic is Seligenstadt. From there, I continued along the river Main, all the way up to whereit flows into the river Rhein (at Mainz), but I will post those photos on a separate thread, to keep this on topic.

Last Edited by boscomantico at 13 May 16:39
Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany

Yes, Nördlingen is a really nice place. We did a ILS Flyin there a couple of years ago. Top location.

LSZH(work) LSZF (GA base), Switzerland

Thanks for the report. Looks like a nice destination for a Sunday afternoon trip. Haven’t really had this one on my list. My children will love the airplane stuck in the hangar wall.

boscomantico wrote:

As a comparison with a place some more people may have been to: it is much nicer than Rothenburg ob der Tauber

I have been there two weeks ago and it was very nice as despite pleasant spring weather the town was almost deserted. No comparison to normal times in which what you have written is absolutely true. So better do RodT now and the other destinations which are not on the Asian bucket list later.

EDQH, Germany

Very nice, thank you

LSGG, LFEY, Switzerland

It is so close to our homebase, that we have never been there although it is on my to fly to list. Thanks for the reminder @boscomantico.

BTW: The new saddle on the Kwiggle is much better for Jane.

EDDS , Germany
5 Posts
Sign in to add your message

Back to Top