Paginatitel

The Grumpy Gang

The Grumman Aircraft Pilots Association European Branch

Biarritz did however present us with one problem. The weather forecasters had cast their tarot cards and foretold of rising winds to the west. The lady in the terminal (she collected the landing fees) expounded stories of dire hurricanes and "Zer are tres bad burrmps". But the TAFs and METARs told a different story, so, having studied the charts and filed our flight plans, the group decided to depart along the northern Spanish coast (see red line), destination Asturias, near Gijon. And so started our invasion of Iberia.

Almost immediately on departure from Biarritz, we entered into Spanish airspace. Straight away we discovered that Spanish (and the Portuguese) air traffic controllers want to do just that, control, all the time and all the way - but more of that later!)

We all routed along the coast passing famous cities such as San Sebastian, Bilbao and Santander being passed on from one controller to the next. The wind did rise as we went further west but nothing too serious.

Personally, I had imagined Asturias as a quiet backwater of a place with a few light aircraft, but no! It was a thriving airport dealing with loads of B737's and Airbus thingies. The Terminal too, was busy and modern. One can perhaps judge an airport's feeling of self-importance by the number of locked doors one has to negotiate to get to the flight planning/landing fee payment desk. Asturias had 4 doors and one lift to get through! So it must have been big!!

There was no camping on the airfield, so a delegation headed by master negotiator and people abuser - Dave Barratt - was dispatched to haggle over hotel prices at the local hostelry whilst the rest of us 'people watched' in the terminal and tried to learn Spanish from the various vending machine instructions. Our haggling team returned triumphant if not a little stressed - we were to relax in a hotel bed that night, and with a free breakfast! Thus ended Day One of our trip.