Hi there!
I am currently planning a VFR Flight from Charleroi to LUX to see some famous castles from above, but all of them are inside paragliding areas (e.g. Vianden, Beaufort, etc.). Is there anyone who has flown there and can provide an advice? Is crossing in those areas to avoid completely or a good focussed lookout can do it?
Thanks in advance
VV
A good focused lookout does it nicely. Even the glider areas can be crossed, again with a good lookout. I routinely show Vianden castle from the air to my passengers. How high do paragliders even fly, actually? Do they go higher than the 500ft or 1000ft AGL that you won’t go below, n’est-ce pas? I genuinely don’t know, but we never worried about them during my PPL courses. (Gliders fly rather higher on the scale of light GA.)
Just north-west of Clervaux castle, there is Abbaye St Maurice with a distinct orange roof; interesting by itself and a good, well-recognisable VFR routing point.
lionel wrote:
How high do paragliders even fly, actually?
It very much depends of the lift source (and will be similar to gliders).
In slope/ridge lift, around 1000ft above the ridge.
In thermal lift, anywhere up to the base of cloud/top of convection layer, away from take-off and landing area most likely to stay un the upper half of the convection layer.
A good thing about them gliders and even more paragliders, is that more and more are equipped with a Flarm device, at least around here.
So flying an aircraft with a Flarm might substantially increase one’s awareness of what is freely floating in the skies, and safety.
I flew yesterday from ELLX to LFSJ cutting across Belgium on the shortest route 4500’ there, 3500’ back. On the way back Lux APP warned that Useldange north and south were active and to keep a good lookout. We saw 2 gliders and one tow plane towing a glider up. All were nicely visible on Safesky app.
And that’s it. You will not have any issues getting clearance into the Lux TMA as long as you sound good on the readio, meaning you use the correct phraseology and explain well your intentions. Don’t mess with the IFR traffic landing and taking off at ELLX, and if you’re going to cross the centerline closer than 11NM expect to do it below 2500’ or overhead ELLX above FL60. Communicate your intention if you’re coming close to the CTR or the approach or departure sector, and ask for permission to change altitude and leave frequency. Basically follow the rules and it will work out great. Oh and call min 5min before the TMA border.
If you want I can get you the waypoints for all the castles, I have a friend who brings friends exactly on this kind of a tour here in Lux.
Thank you @hazek, I eventually made it yesterday, saw three castles and stayed below the TMA; all castles also quite close to each other ( Bourscheid, Beaufort, Vianden)
I suggest in the future to go early in the morning, or late evening, because at 1100LT and the wx of yesterday, the air was very very turbulent..
Thanks again for the tips
Awesome. There are many more if you want to come back and yeah middle of the day that low is quite turbulent usually due to thermals plus rugged surface. This is why most of us based here ask to climb to min 3000’ into the TMA as soon as we exit the CTR.
val1821 wrote:
Thank you @hazek, I eventually made it yesterday, saw three castles and stayed below the TMA; all castles also quite close to each other ( Bourscheid, Beaufort, Vianden)
Sounds like it’s worth a trip report with a few photos 
