I’m in Risoul (Haute Alpes) there snow. Weather is perfect.
This is today in the western Swiss Alps
Yeah; this is amazing. I wonder if there is any chance of natural snow in January? Normally the first (heavy) snowfall melts, and that hasn’t happened yet.
Hi Peter, this would be new for me that the first snow fall melts, ususally the early snow is the good snow, february snow and later is melting much faster thats true, as the soil is frozen as it should be now with the cold nights the snow should not melt. There is some snowfall forecastet for this week
@Aviathor wrote:
Crosswind is not as much of a problem as you might think as longs as you have aerodynamic control at higher speeds and enough friction at low speeds. I have landed on completely icy runways in Norway, so slippery that I fell when I set foot on the ground. And snow does provide friction, and even ice most of the time.
Maules are very forgiving taildraggers, not exactly STOL airplanes but they land relatively slow and they often need a touch of brake as well as rudder to maintain directional control during roll out and taxi. On Bushwheels there is very little friction on ice or packed snow, so the slightest crossfall or cross wind can indeed be much of a problem.
Also, HU is a sort of baby Courchevel and on a narrow runway with packed snow, directional control is rather important, because if one wheel goes off into deeper snow, the (usually docile) airplane may decide that’s the way it wants to go. At that point the driver has to be very quick with full gas, but even that may not work.
Being somewhat risk-averse, I prefer to pick benign conditions for operating with wheels on ice or packed snow.
Incidentally, I think it is possible to provoke a ground loop on ice, perhaps with a dusting of snow, and people have used a controlled 180 degree ground loop as an alternative to reverse thrust. Unfortunately we have no reliably frozen lakes in Scotland to learn this technique.
I have just dropped a few final pics in the Bolzano thread from Madonna di Campiglio, and it does seem possible to get there from Bolzano in “most of a day”, or much less with a €300 taxi, but frankly there seems to be zero interest here in doing a winter meet-up like this.
I know of a few pilots who fly to ski but most of them do it purely as a day drip, possible e.g. from southern Germany to St Johann or Zell am See. Then the wx factor is taken out of the equation, which is important for skiing as much as flying because e.g. the ski conditions here at Madonna were CAT3 for most of the week.
Just bumping this thread… as the winter is coming
As I posted in the Bolzano ski thread, Bolzano to Madonna is a €200 taxi, or a train an a bus for probably peanuts.
Any interest in a meet-up in say Madonna di Campiglio this winter?
What is it with your fixation on Madonna di Campiglio? It’s one of the most secluded/remote ski resorts you could imagine. A trip in itself from Bolzano!
Several others are so much closer to Bolzano. The closest one being featured here.
I am “all ears” re suggestions.
However, if you go to a place where it is mostly black runs, with a few nursery slopes e.g. your link
or e.g. Zell am See, more or less – perfect for those who started at age 5, like 99% of central European skiers, then I will leave it to someone else to drive it
Anyone here is free to propose a fly-in but for some reason very few do. And if I am going to drive it, it needs to be to a place where I can do something useful.
FWIW, Madonna is hugely scenic.