Went off yesterday morning to mainland Spain and back again this afternoon. Always a pleasure to see marvelous sceneries, go to little airfields and meet nice people.
The goal was to fly to a pristine new field called Tagarudo (LETD) and stay the night in a village nearby called Hita, northwest of Madrid. Two aircraft, a ULM and me. Total of 4 POB.
Routing:
Having crossed the coast of the mainland, one needs to climb quite a bit, peaks of 6k feet. impressive scenery and lovely villages. Amazing to see this varying landscape in Spain. Green vs desert-like interspersed. Very fascinating.
The plan was to make an intermediate stop in Torremocha, but not before making a slight detour to have a look at all this heavy iron being dismantled.. Teruel airfield was selected for being one of the most dry places one can find in Europe:
Torremocha airfield, just a few miles away, in sight:
The man who runs it is a renowned tailwheel instructor in Spain, and spends 6 months a year in Alaska doing bush flying for tourists. His plane is a Savage ULM with a Rotax 914 turbo, which is what you need in hot and high Torremocha. Rather than ‘spot the differences’ I’d like to invite you to ‘spot the similarities’. OK, it’s a trick question. You could have only guessed after I would have removed the wheel pants.. Both aircraft use the same Beringer rims..
Owner took us off for lunch and showed us once more how large parts of Spain are rapidly depopulated. Many villages where just some older folks live, with minimal services. The homes are still there and believe it or not are for sale for as little as 6.000 euros. Apparently, even for remote workers it’s not attractive enough to live out in the boondocks without any kind of infrastructure.
Off to our final destination, LETD. Altitude some 2.500 ft, ISA plus 15 degrees and 400m available between the fences. Time to concentrate.. Turning final:
Sorry, pushed the wrong button, am a bit tired.. Rest to follow..
So far so good look forward to the report aart :)
Lovely couple running the filed and told us we were the first ‘non-field based’ people to land there. As a reward they took us to the hotel in nearby Hita, a surprising village. But first some shots from the airfield. I just love to just wander on an airfield, without a yellow jacked and the risk of ending up in jail:
RWY 34R is for real aviators, so I took 34L, being a sissy:
Hita was quite a surprise, a liitle town built up against a mountain, quite visible from the airfield:
We spent the evening strolling along, having a bite to eat and had the good fortune of running into a church where a lovely chamber orchestra from Madrid was playing. Such a relief to see that there are still plenty of young people who are willing to spend time and effort to (re)create wonderful music, in these times of computerised, easy, soulless junk. Yep, I’m getting old..
Went back this morning, and we could count on ISA minus 5 degrees to help us avoid having to damage the fence on the departure end. Made an intermediate stop at Requena, LERE, a lively field east of Valencia, highly recommended for you poor souls who need at least 1.000 m of concrete.
Spain is lovely, when not too hot, which is why we are doing a fly-in there next weekend, wx permitting
aart wrote:
The homes are still there and believe it or not are for sale for as little as 6.000 euros.
We should group together to buy one for our EuroGA HQ We could have an annual flyin and a BIG party there every year
Lovely report Aart
Would any of this be accessible to a non-Spanish speaker? Sorry if it’s a silly question!
Thank you aart
The photos in the evening really are lovely
What a wonderful way to fly! Thanks Aart.
Lovely trip, islander