This weekend we’ll be flying to Mannheim City Airport. We’ve been there a number of times before, it’s a lovely destination. The runway is long, the staff are professional but friendly and usually the weather is good. The fact that the airfield is two tram stops away from my Uncle’s house on the Neckar is just lucky coincidence.

Location: Mannheim

Flight Date: 29 May 2009
Sunset: 21:22 CEST 19:22 UTC

Note: Do not rely on other people to gather information for you – and for the love of safety don’t rely on my notes being correct for your flight! Always verify all details yourself.

Airfield: EDFM
Website: Flugplatz Mannheim
Phone Number: 0621-419390
ATIS: 0621-4193966
Hours: Mon-Fri 0500-2000Z, Sat-Sun 0900-1900Z
Frequencies:
Tower 118.400 and 122.5
ATIS 136.550
Langen Radar: 127.5
Runway: 09/27 1066x25m asphalt
Airfield Height: 94 meters (308 feet)
Circuit Height:
Fuel: Yes
Weather Info
Possible Diverts: Karlsruhe EDSB, Egelsback EDFE, Frankfurt EDDF or in an emergency maybe Coleman ETOR

Google Maps: Google Map View

From Wikipedia:

Mannheim is situated at the confluence of the rivers Rhine and Neckar, in the northwestern corner of the state of Baden-Württemberg. The Rhine separates Mannheim from the adjacent Rhineland-Palatinate city of Ludwigshafen. The Hessian border is north of the city. Mannheim is the largest city of the Rhine Neckar Area, a metropolitan area with 2.4 million inhabitants.

Mannheim is unusual among German cities in that its central area is laid out in a grid pattern (called Quadrate, squares), much like many North American cities. The main route through the squares leads to an enormous 18th-century palace. This former seat of the Electors of the Palatinate now houses the University of Mannheim.

Mannheim’s city symbol is der Wasserturm (the water-tower), located in the east of the city centre.

My mother is coming from New Mexico and we’ll all spend the weekend in Mannheim Seckenheim which is a 5-minute taxi ride from the airfield. Seckenheim has a lovely high street with shops and still maintains the feeling of a village. It also has a railway station and tram lines so that you can easily get around the local area without a car. Privathotel Löwen and Hotel Weingärtner are local hotels which I am happy to recommend, although Seckenheim is really the wrong side of the airfield if you are aiming for city centre which is just 3.5 kilometres away.

There is a small snackbar at Mannheim City Airport and I’m told you can get decent snacks there although we’ve never stopped for more than a coffee. The staff are friendly and I found everyone very helpful to GA pilots in both English and German. We are always given easy access to the plane for picking up/dropping off the large amounts of shopping bags I tend to accumulate when I’m back in Germany (Schnapps, Gummi Bärchen, Schinken und Brot).

However, I should share a word of warning about getting flights from Mannheim City Airport: if the pilot is in a bad mood, it is more than possible to miss your flight – even if you are her son!