Spain October 2018 Richard Bowater
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Our last trip to Spain was in 2009 so by 2018 a return visit was
well overdue. We used to go for ten days or a fortnight but this
time a week was the limit. I had kept in contact with my friend
who lives in Madrid, think he had given up on us ever returning.
The rest of my contacts had either moved on or their company had
been taken over by another group thus the e-mails didn’t exist.
I had to virtually start again with translated letters.
The best route would have been to pick up the hire car at
Alicante and drop it off at possibly Malaga or Madrid but they
don’t like you doing that so it had to be start and finish at
Alicante. Then there’s the fees another story.
Muxtameil has always been on the places to visit list when
flying into Alicante, back in 2009 a guided visit was no
problem, a way to see more of the based helicopters and then via
the flying club, the rest of the airfield. This time British
company Babcock had taken over the helicopters so after numerous
e-mails it was a no. The stumbling block was a previous excuse,
getting owner’s permission to photograph the helicopters, the
same helicopters that you can photograph anywhere else when they
are flying. The flying club has also gone down the pan, looking
deserted and when asked about the airfield in the cafe “solo”
was shouted and a finger was pointed to the garden, “solo” meant
only the garden. Solo lunch was had via the local supermarket!
The airfield was parked up with numerous Bell 212, 412 and 407s
a couple of Kamov 32s and some Agustas waiting for maintenance
or possible transport to Chile for their summer fire season.
The next place that was on the visit list was Alcantrilla. Due
to our delayed flight and hire car delay the base and town had
to be missed for another day. The town has recently acquired a
CASA 212 on a roundabout possibly from the local military
parachute school which is the home to about 6 CASA 212s. They
already have a preserved CASA 212 and vintage CASA 352 on the
base which is hard to see.
Cordoba was the first night stop. The next morning we went to
see the surviving DC-7 which used to be stored at the airport
with its sister. They were originally planned to be used as a
fire fighting aircraft but unfortunately something went wrong.
Since 2009 EC-GGC was carefully dismantled at the airport and
moved to its current location in the city centre. Its sister
aircraft EC-GGB has been almost completely chopped up, only the
flight deck survives in France.
A pre arranged visit to Cordoba airport was next, the number of
residents aircraft had decreased with fewer crop spraying
aircraft and of those that were present a number seemed to be
out of use and or dismantled. On the up side N77CJ Learjet 40
was parked on the apron and EC-KES Ce 525A was undergoing
maintenance in the hangar. The airfield has a number of Cessna
337s, Pa 36 Braves and a couple of helimed Agusta 109s. EC-CDO
Dornier 27 used to be displayed on the airfield it has now been
repainted and placed on an entrance road roundabout with a
statue of an airman.
Next was a place we found by accident after visiting Cordoba in
the past, Aero Delgado Villarrubia. The road runs past this
maintenance airfield which we found by the planes being parked
out so just had to investigate. They have never objected to
photographs. We once visited during siesta and were greeted by a
large dog! This time we were surprised by four Moroccan light
aircraft a couple of Cessna’s a Beech Sundowner and a Cirrus
CN-TMZ. N442MT Ce 337 is still here in a state of disrepair; a
long time ago it flew through the DTVA zone on its delivery to
Spain.
The next pre arranged visit was to FAASA Palma Del Rio a fire
fighting and crop spraying company, every time we have visited
it has grown a bit bigger and there’s always something new. This
time no photography was allowed in the new large maintenance
hangar but everywhere else was ok. The training school which had
taken over the original hangar contained a couple of helicopters
EC-EOI a UH-1 of 1962 vintage, the company’s first Agusta 109A
EC-DVR and a Merlin N422GK. Outside on the ramp EC-AZF Pa 25
twin seat was parked with a number of Bell 212, 412, Kamov 32s
and Agusta Westland A119s, some of these were in damaged
condition after being attacked by an arsonist when based in
Chile.
The storage area also contained what looked like a couple of
Bell AH-1 Cobras, unfortunately they were completely covered in
black plastic wrap, so eluded identification. Any help in
identifying these would be appreciated. There are also numerous
helicopter containers which may or may not have had helicopters
in hem staff were busily extracting a 119 from one of the
specially fitted out containers.
We continued on towards Seville again due to time decided to
miss out a couple of targets in scrap yards, a Seata was in one
which when we did pass it was closed. In Utrera town AR.9-55
SRF-5 is mounted on a roundabout, shame we cannot do this in the
UK.
Utrera airfield was next and after a bit of hunting we
eventually found the route to the airfield. Last time we visited
the entrance road was the runway, now they have constructed a
new tarmac runway but still use part of the road as the taxiway.
Mid to end of October seems to be the best time to visit as the
crop spraying is over and most of the fire aircraft are back at
base preparing for the winter in Chile or a bit of maintenance
before winter storage.
With the owner’s permission we were allowed to roam the airfield
and hangars. Most of the aircraft are parked in a big compound,
Utrera is the home base in Spain for most of the country’s PZL
M18B Dromader aircraft all single seat bar one which can be used
for training. There were about 15 of these.
Air Tractors also share the compound with examples of the 802
variant which can be retro fitted with either wheels or floats.
They share the parking area with radial engined AT-401s which
are used as crop sprayers.
Pa 36 Brave is also here in great numbers used for spraying the
vast area of crops. The remainder of the fleet is made up of a
number of Cessna 337s, P68s and a single Tecnan P2006T spotter
plane. Inside the single hangar were EC-IMS a nice Cessna 170,
EC-JLY Cessna 172 floatplane and EC-XNY DR 107 Delicioso sports
plane. The other hangar has never been open and may not contain
aircraft.
The final visit of this long day was a visit to Seville airport.
As you drive into the airport the general aviation park is on
the right hand side. The largest aircraft present was a surprise
Chinese Gulf 450 B-3253 ideally parked for a photograph amongst
a number of Spanish single and twin light aircraft.
The terminal only had a couple of airliners F-GZHJ of Transavia
and EC-LXV Air Europa. Cargo had OY-SRI 767 and D-AEAC A300F.
The Airbus factory is now on both sides of the runway with the
old CASA site being on the North side and the new A400M site on
the South side. The North side had a couple of CASA 235s TR-KJE
being the most interesting but long time resident and F-WWMS
A400M prototype half hidden behind the hangars minus parts.
There are a number of preserved fighters of which Seata
A.10C-112 and Phantom CR.12-51 can be photographed. There is
also a T 33 near the security gate which unfortunately the
security guard didn’t want it photographed.
The Southside can be viewed from the North and this seemed to be
the best way to view the parked A 400Ms 11 were noted, 3 Airbus
colours, 6 German and 2 Turkish. They were parked with 2 CASA
295s with winglets. The road to the Southside has EC-FAD CASA
235 mounted on one of the roundabouts.
With darkness and tiredness approaching we decided not to
investigate the new helicopter hangar or further towards the old
military ramp. Note, visits to the factory can be made on
certain days in advance. Our visit just didn’t match any of the
available times that were offered by the visitor centre who were
very helpful.
We travelled North on the Thursday passing through the remains
of a fierce thunder storm not visiting any airports or airfields
the only flying machines we did see were Griffon Vultures. We
had followed a road sign instead of the planned route and came
across what looked like a prehistoric valley, you could hear a
pin drop it was so quiet. The lake in the bottom of the valley
was probably a great place to scoop up water if there ever was a
fire.
We continued onto the hotel which was in a mountain valley next
to a small town. The town had a helipad which just had to be
investigated the next morning.
The helipad was unfortunately deserted and possibly only a
summer fire station so after that the first stop was Salamanca.
A place which we had not visited before but had always planned
too.
There is a scrap yard to the North of the city its owner seems
to like aircraft as he has an ex Spanish air force C 47 mounted
over one part of the yard and a Cessna 180 EC-AXF and a military
Bell 47 mounted above the other side.
The airfield Salamanca Matacan is half military and half civil
and a bit of a drive from the city. Civil registered CL 215s are
the main attraction here and a flock of Beech training aircraft
in various states of disrepair. A request for a visit was
refused due to the old excuse of asking the owner’s permission.
Babcock has also taken over here.
The fence line produced reasonable results between the weeds and
five CL-215s were seen on the ramp and at least one other might
have been in the hangar. There was no sign of the new CL-215T
which has recently joined the fleet. The other inmates consisted
of the Beech singles and twins a few TB 10s and EC-HOQ a Lake
Buccaneer.
The windows in the hangar gave views of military Beech 90s and a
Citation which eluded identification. A single Typhoon performed
a couple of overshoots otherwise nothing moved.
Madrid was the next place on the visit list and time to meet up
with my Spanish friend at
Cuatro Vientos. The vast airfield and military base usually has
the odd interesting South American visitor, this time only XB
JSG Cessna 210 was present languishing on the dump; it was
impounded here in 2009. 9U-BKB Gulf 4 was a surprise to see
parked outside of the bizz jet maintenance hangar, after
searching it seems to spend quite a bit of time at Madrid. It
was sitting with most of the Spanish registered Citation 500s
and a few other vintage 550s.
The dump area was quite full with a number of different types
from old Ralleys to Cirrus SR22 and Da 42 aircraft. The civil
DHC-5 Caribous EC-GQL,M,N are still here with M being moved to
the fire section, shame someone couldn’t preserve one and
restore it to flight. The rest of the aircraft either look ready
to fly if their tyres were inflated and others look wrecked. One
Pa 28 lies on its back. The airports name is four winds in
English.
Other aircraft of interest were a pair of ex air force Mirages a
single seat and a rarer twin seat preserved possibly in ground
running condition. The far side is the military base this had
two of the three retired Fokker 27s, an Orion and a number of
CASA 212s of which some were obvious wrecks and others possibly
still in service.
Casarrubios del monte was the next place to visit. It has a
large number of lockup hangars just like Fishburn, but many,
many more. Only a couple were open exposing EC-XDH a CTLS and
another with gyro parts. You could possibly walk miles looking
through gaps in the hangars but with the airfield being quite
open I don’t know how long it would take before you are spotted
and then have to explain what you are doing.
The city of Madrid has numerous aircraft parked on roundabouts,
in factory gates and at Military establishments. My friend is
useful as he does the driving and knows the way to see the
aircraft. Our first stop was at an industrial training centre,
the gate was open so we went in. The first aircraft that you
come across is EC-EHC an ex Audel falcon 20 freighter, T.9-10
DHC-4 is also here complete along with the remains of four other
aircraft and helicopters.
The final visit for the Saturday was an aviation technical
college, we couldn’t access the grounds so could only see a blue
UH-1H the former HU.10B-19. The second Audel falcon 20 is here
EC-EDC a long time ago it flew into DTVA, it was also parked
outside.
The Museum at Cuatro Vientos is always worth a visit as over a
period of a year there is usually something new on display.
After nine years a few things had changed, access to the cabin
of the DHC-4 Caribou was new and interesting. The external
exhibits have been moved around and many had been re-painted.
The large hangar which displayed First World War aircraft has
been turned into a night time exhibit with aircraft parked with
ground equipment and billet tents ect. Flash photography
unfortunately wasn’t allowed. I found out from one of the guards
no flash and no tripods!!
The museum has gained a two seat Mirage F1-BM and a Puma
helicopter from the air force and an MBB 105 from the Police
since my last visit. Was hoping they might have acquired one of
the stored Fokker 27s from the main airfield or the better
condition Orion. A 707 from Getafe would also look fantastic but
possibly beyond road transport to the museum site, they did get
a KC-97 in there somehow.
With the museum visit complete we continued with visits to the
suburbs of Madrid to see some of the numerous displayed
aircraft. First was a re-visit to see a T-33 mounted high above
a petrol station near to the main Barajas airport. Next was a
nice ex Spanish Air Force Phantom RF-4C CR.12-45 mounted on a
roundabout near Torrejon and then a CASA 212 the former D.3B-7,
we had a couple of drive bys to get a decent shot. A few more
aircraft on the route couldn’t be photographed a Mirage F1 in a
factory, a preserved Bolkow 105 helicopter in the Guardia Civil
base and then the hulk of a Puma near the entrance to the base
at Torrejon.
.
Getafe was next on the plan we revisited another Phantom mounted
on a roundabout near to a shopping centre and a Super Seata
again mounted on a roundabout, but on quite a busy road which
skirts the base. Preserved around the base are aircraft
representing the transport squadrons, these include a Douglas C
54 and two CASA Azore’s.
The base and Airbus factory share the large airfield with a
number of vantage points the residents can be seen but even with
a heat haze in October the CASA 295s defied identification.
Three of the Air Force 707s are stored here, the fourth is at
Torrejon, hopefully at least the two white ones will be
preserved one at each base. The two grey tankers are missing a
tail from one and the rear stab from the other so their fate
might be in pieces.
The most notable Airbus activity here is the fitting out and
testing of the A330 MMRT aircraft. A new road gives a clear view
of a line of aircraft on test. Five were noted including 18-001
of the Royal Korean Air Force and two Singapore air force
examples 760 and 762. The other two were in primer one marked M1
for the French air force and the other F2 possible for NATO.
This was the end of the Madrid tour.
The trip was almost over and we had to head back South towards
Alicante. A call into the city of Cuenca for some historic views
was made via a detour to the city helimed pad. EC-MOS MBB-BK 117
was parked in the hangar.
The final planned visit was next, after another mad dash drive.
Viver airfield has a new large hangar and office suit for
Aviavilsa a company that works with Air Tractor Europe. Between
Viver and Valencia they operate a large fleet of Air Tractor 802
aircraft for fire fighting and ag spraying. At the moment Viver
is only used for storage and conversion of AT 802 aircraft.
Four aircraft were in the hangar they had all just finished the
transformation from land planes to floatplanes ready for
delivery to customers. The ex Portuguese air force Cessna 337s
were not seen but may be stored in large shipping containers.
We didn’t have enough time for Valencia airport this time only
enough time to find the hotel and venture into the city for a
bite of food and drink. This city also has a number of preserved
aircraft which would take some time to see them all due to
traffic, parking and there location. In 2009 we searched out an
F-86 in a park and a Mirage F1 and Bolkow helicopter in the
university.
The last day was another dash to Alicante airport first to get
fuel for the hire car and then get it back to the rental company
base which is located under the runway approach to the West. One
access route to the hire company was through the old airport it
was here we spotted the ex Spanish Air Force AISA trainer
looking neglected on a verge, it once stood on a plinth airside
near to the control tower.
Alicante airport was quiet with only a few Vueling A320s,
Norwegian 738s and PH-MFX Ce 650 and EC-MNM 737F on the
cargo/bizz parking area. The trip home was via G-GDFZ 738 of Jet
2 departing in the sun and landing into a crosswind back at
Newcastle airport. There was only one other arrival but it still
took more than an hour to pass through the airport!
It was a good trip but definitely needed another week to do it
in a more relaxed manner, but then more airfields might have
been visited.