LOCATION

Situated right in the heart of Portugal the Village occupies a 25 acre site with many mature trees two beautiful small valleys, with natural water courses that run only in winter, a 5 acre grass paddock, a 1 acre lake and island, a 550 x 30m level runway, a taxiway, apron, a 10 aircraft hangar and 25 homes with individual hangars attached to the dwellings with direct access to the apron, taxiway or runway.
The village is within 500 metres from a lake 15 x 1.5 miles surrounded by cork forests. The village has direct access to the lake where one can enjoy two very private bays with fine white sand. The summer water temperature is 26oC. The lake is full of all sorts of fish, and an annual fishing license can be obtained for a cost of £1.00!
Monte do Lago is set in a rural area with many small-holdings, orange and olive tree groves and cork tree forests. Water is plentiful the whole area is very green, except during the months of July, August and September. The village has an artesian well producing 30,000 lt. an hour, which can maintain the whole site green all year round.
The site is at the edge of a small village with a restaurant and small shop. A good meal with wine will cost £4.00 We plan to be self sufficient with a source of excellent drinking water and our own fruit and vegetables, all grown on site.
On the other side of the lake and 10 minutes by road, Montargil is a charming and very old small town from Roman times, with a good Hotel, medical centre, super market, and a range of shops and services.

Lisbon is some 60 miles away, a new bridge recently built, and 8 miles long enables one to join Lisbon's main airport in about 1 hour by car or 20 minutes by air. You can also fly to Cascais in about 25 minutes and be in the Portuguese Rivera to enjoy Atlantic sailing from the new marina just built or enjoy the attractions of the Lisbon area.

FLYING IN PORTUGAL

Portugal is rectangular in shape 450 miles N - S and 140 miles E- W. The North is mountainous, up to 8000 ft where one can snow ski in winter. Winters are cold, a little wet and the summers are hot. The South, the Tagus River being the dividing line, has mild Winters, with crystal clear visibility (100 + miles) and virtually non stop sunshine. On average it rains 2 or 3 times a month for short periods, enough to keep the country side green but not enough to stop you enjoying flying. The runway has never been waterlogged or is likely to be due to the cambered design. A hard runway is under consideration. Apart from July and August when one can expect temperatures in the high 30's, the rest of the year is extremely pleasant to live and fly. Air quality is excellent, and the area, a low-density population is virtually pollution ion free.
There are many very good G.A. airfields in Portugal with long hard runways, virtually all landings are absolutely free some with good, very inexpensive restaurants nearby. A new guide published recently lists over one hundred private landing strips, many for Micro-Lights, which are very popular and growing fast in numbers, some 200 at this time.

LEISURE OPPORTUNITIES

As said before Monte do Lago is next to a beautiful lake by the name of BARRAGEM DE MONTARGIL. We have direct access to the lake and can enjoy its shores in total seclusion and swimming, sailing, water skiing, power ascending and canoeing can all be enjoyed. Fishing is also excellent, as there are plenty of fish and many varieties in the lake. For those who like hunting the area is also very rich from partridge and other birds to rabbit, hare and wild boar.
Other available activities will be mountain biking, off road driving, horse riding, and astronomy with no light and other types of pollution. The sky at night in Lago is absolutely magnificent.
Monte do Lago is however a bird and animal sanctuary. One can often see herons, storks, eagles and other wonderful bird formations ride the thermals, displaying some spectacular flying, not to mention ducks, geese and swans that live on site.

A large flat grass paddock by the small lake inside the village will feature special events such as hot air ballooning, international rallies of historic and modern aircraft, model boat and aircraft flying etc. The Iberian air rally has selected the Village for their annual stop over in Portugal and last year we had over fifty aircraft and 120 visitors stayed over-night.
A golf course within 5 minutes walk and next to the village is also being planned with beautiful cork trees and spectacular views over the lake. There are other golf courses within easy reach by air or car.
For those who would like to continue or expand their business careers, Portugal is a place that can offer many opportunities, industrial land and labour costs are both available and inexpensive and there are huge pools of European Union finance available. We can help you if this could be of interest.

HISTORY

The area has been populated for the last 40,000 years and while flying over the countryside, one often sees ancient monuments. If you fly low, and you really can in Portugal with a very easy going CAA, you will often see pre historic monuments dating back 5,000 years or more.
The Romans were here from 200 AD to 500 AD and there are many bridges, roads and monuments still standing and in daily use. The most famous being the Temple of Diana in Evora which is a great tourist attraction. The Vandals arrived at the end of the Roman period in 500 AD and destroyed most of the Roman culture and were dominated by the Arabs who conquered the southern area of Iberia in 710 AD and stayed until 1350 approx.. They marked Portugal extensively and their influence is still visible, particularly in the South where they stayed longest and where the Christians coming from the North allowed many to stay and the mixing of races is more pronounced.

FLYING AT MONTE DO LAGO

The meaning of the name is literally " Hill of the lake " but " Monte" in Alentejo (province name meaning " beyond Tagus ") means a farm with houses, normally set on a hill so that the owner may survey the estate. The Alentejanos are famous in Portugal for being very calm, relaxed and not enjoying hard work! In fact, they are a peaceful, friendly and hospitable people and the villagers near us could not be nicer and are very supportive of our flying activities.

The prevailing wind is from the NW so runway 32 normally is exactly into wind speeds varying between 5 and 10 knots The runway is 550m long and 20m wide with flat cleared grass areas to either side. The runway elevation is 400ft above sea level and 120ft above the lake. Both approaches are clear, the surface is grass over a loamy/sandy soil with very good drainage and lightly cambered. No flight plan is required for VFR flights inside Portugal outside controlled airspace. If you are transponder equipped and you would like the extra safety of the Portuguese Air Force's excellent SSR flight services, you call Lisbon information on 127.9, make an abbreviated flight plan and will then be transferred to 123.75 in our area for co-ordination with Lisbon Mil. The skies are almost empty (805 on the register in 1999, some 300 GA, some 250 are Micro-Lights and the rest belong to the Airline and Transport companies) but occasionally one sees the F16's and Corsair's flying around which is good fun. The military are very helpful and friendly, speak perfect English with slight American accent, will advise you if destination weather is unsuitable (after a while one assumes there are perfect conditions 100% of the time!) and generally make you feel welcome and safe.
VFR at night is not allowed in Portugal, however as the time zone is the same as the UK and Portugal being the most westerly part of Europe, one can fly until quite late.
Gliding and motor gliding is also excellent with strong thermals and mountains not very far away for ridge flying.
For those who like the sea, the West Coast is well equipped with airfields all within 30 minutes flying. The Algarve to the south has also several airfields within 1 hour flying. In winter you can fly in 1 hour to the mountains for snow skiing, para gliding, trout fishing and enjoy the spectacular scenery. There are many airfields here too; in fact the whole of the country is well served with airfields which are well under used.
After take off from runway 32 one has a spectacular view of the blue water of the lake which extends 3 miles to port and 12 miles to starboard some 1.5 miles wide. The beaches would provide emergency landing areas in case of engine failure. Wind is normally light on average 5 - 10 knots and when really light one would land on runway 14 approaching from the lake, which is really great fun as the airfield and runway give the impression of a giant aircraft carrier.
From a safety point of view, there are many flat fields around suitable for emergencies and the whole area is generally flat with some undulating ground to make it interesting.
The village has a clubhouse with facilities for flight planning and a place where all can meet, have a drink and talk aircraft. There are plans for some aircraft building, and we already have all the machines required to manufacture light aircraft if it is decided to do so. Flight training is also contemplated and the fleet includes nose wheel, tail wheel and STOL GA and Micro-light aircraft.

THE PROPERTIES

The main entrance gate is landscaped and provided with an automatic opening system and controllers will be distributed to all owners for automatic access. Visitors will ring a large bell and the resident caretaker, will personally meet visitors.

The driveway will lead to a visitor's car park, a landscaped roundabout. At this point, you may either go to a gate by the apron, which will divide car side to airside. Residents can proceed along a driveway to their garages, which will be directly under their homes.

Show house:

The village will be open plan, no fences at all between the houses and the gardening and maintenance will be carried out by caretakers who will also perform many other duties to make owners / pilots lives as comfortable and trouble free as possible.
There will be a village centre with large pool and landscape area, bar and barbecue area. Portugal is a paradise for gardeners and we will aim to provide a lot of greenery and colour throughout. Specially paved areas in traditional Portuguese style will make very attractive walkways.
The layout of the village will be organised so that cars and aircraft will not share the same areas to enhance safety.
Monte do Lago will be a small selective village for pilots and others who would like to share this wonderful part of Portugal.
We are at an early stage in costing but anticipate costs to vary between £150,000 to £200,000. There will be a monthly maintenance fee that will reflect the cost of running the village but will be responsible and fully accounted for.
Those owners wishing to rent their homes when they are not using them may do so through the management company.

PRESENT SITUATION

We are currently in the process of getting the necessary permission for the development but all indications from the different departments involved are that this will be granted. Both the local council and the municipal assembly have voted by unanimity to approve the project but we still need detailed planning permission. We can therefore only accept orders/reservations with holding deposits of £1,000 on the basis that should the development not proceed for what ever reason with in a short time frame the deposit will be refunded in full.

The following list of works are already finished or being finished:-

· Property fenced, entrance and gate built, power cables buried, telephone line in place, telephone line connected and power connected.
· Hangar built, show house built, reception area built, domestic pressurised water in place, sewer system built, TV and satellite Arial installed.

· 120m deep Artesian well with 30,000Lt. Per hour built, 8m deep water well built, landscaped paddocks, lake and island made ducks, geese and swans very happy!
· Runway, taxiway, and apron all built. An Australian built twinjet prop 18 seat Nomad aircraft has visited us on two occasions. We have hosted in 1999/2000 the round Iberian air tour with some 50 aircraft visiting and staying overnight. The village has been selected as the stopover place in Portugal.