Airports in the Netherlands

http://www.babacar.org/car-hire-netherlands/amsterdam-schiphol-airport-car-hire.htm

Rotterdam airport is interest for private pilots, as it has commercial (mainly 737, F27) and GA (business and private) traffic. There are a number of flying clubs based there, one of which is the largest in the Netherlands with 20 aircraft.

This morning, Turkish Airlines flight 1951, a Boeing 737, made what appears to be a forced landing in a field 1.5 nm short of runway 18R at Schipol. Most of the passengers survived, but there were nine fatalities:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_Airlines_Flight_1951

This is a small airport, situated extremely close to the village of Drachten. A small caveat is that only 26 is open for GA. 08 is only for MLA traffic nowadays.

An airport official at the office told us later that 08 might be used by GA-traffic, but only after permission and instructions from the tower and that landings should be done at the threshold (this is very tricky because of the trees at the beginning of 08).

Furthermore if you're entering from the south you may enter the circuit from the east, but again only with permission from the tower (or you could ask for a straight in, but that's not so much of a fun).

I visited Schiphol for the second time in 2006. It was simple, fast, and well-organized, with virtually no waiting time for customs. Easy and inexpensive to get into Amsterdam (or to other parts of Holland) by rail. Coming from North America, you're far better connecting here than Heathrow for visiting the continent.