A little trip Shoreham EGKA to Bolzano LIPB Sep 2017

I had never been there before and it looks like a good location to fly in to do a ski trip to the Dolomites. Various people said the approach into Bolzano is “butt-clenching” so it was definitely worth checking this out…

Obviously I picked some good weather for the trip. As with skiing, there is no point in going to somewhere scenic unless it is basically CAVOK. This is the MSLP

which shows a cold front across the route, but these fronts (with almost no wind gradient across them) tend to be relatively benign and usually the TB20 can fly over the top of them. I ended up flying a lot between layers, as might be expected from the IR image which in the absence of stuff on the radar shows some higher altitude stuff with nothing underneath

I worked hard on asking for shortcuts, as always

It’s quite funny to see an A380 underneath a TB20

Finally, after 3hrs, the Alps

I got some hassle from an ATCO at Innsbruck telling me there is “no weather” when I was asking for an avoid. This is very unusual; never seen it in my 12 years of IFR flying. This short video has the whole thing

FORER is the IAF for the LOC/DME 01 procedure

This requires special crew authorisation which I don’t have and never will have, so I cancelled IFR and asked ATC to fly it VFR. They were happy with it; there was no other traffic and they don’t seem to be too bothered how you get down into the canyon. Actually flying this procedure is a perfectly good way to come in VFR; it avoids any traffic around Trento. The funny thing was that as soon as you cancel IFR you get handed from Padova Radar to Info – a bit like the UK

Flying past the airport at something like FL150 an descending for FL120 at FORER

This is flying towards FORER, from the north. The terrain does look close… the approach plate MSA is 14500ft here so clearly one has to descend to FL120 in the hold

After a couple of holds and descending I was at FL120 and this is just after capture LOC capture, at 24DME. It isn’t clear whether the localiser is supposed to work that far out (the plate starts the LOC at 9.5D) but clearly it does work, and how else would one navigate in “classical IFR” (I don’t mean the GPS OBS mode) otherwise, from FORER to 9.5D?

The rate of descent is at least 1000fpm, so this was done with gear down and Flap 1

This pic is at the 2930ft decision altitude for this approach – you can see the runway offset

After a quick dogleg to line up with the runway

I landed on 01 despite 6kt of tailwind – it’s fine with such a long runway.

There is nothing difficult about this procedure, but obviously – like many others – it will kill you if you completely screw it up in IMC. The alternative VOR approach has a much higher decision height and doesn’t need crew authorisation. The gotcha however is the missed approach which needs a lot of performance if flown as published. I guess VFR pilots fly in from the southern end of the canyon, and anyone going missed on the procedure after getting visual will turn back and fly south until out of the canyon.

Parked up and waiting for avgas. Everything (AIP, notams, handler emails) says “no avgas” but various pilots reported there is no issue getting it, and – without going into detail here – I can confirm that 100%. This is just another example of how the Italian official position can differ massively from what actually happens, which is a pity because it screws visitors who play it by the book…

I was parked among the “elite” and expected a fair size bill, according to previous emails with the hander, but this is worth it for hard surface parking

As one normally gets when bizjets are common, the airport is very posh, and everyone is smart and well dressed

The town is nice to hang out in, too. Lots of cafes and masses of boutique shopping. Not so easy to find healthy food; when I ate at a restaurant and asked for a salad, the waiter was shocked that someone would want a salad as the main meal But they did make a very nice one…

Departure weather was nice too.

I wonder what lives in this hangar? Thunderbirds / International Rescue?

Departure was on 19 (I asked for 01 but it was declined due to some ULs flying circuits) so a tight right turn after takeoff

and a climb by following the A22 road towards VRP “E” – this has since been renamed to “PBE1”

The unmistakable profile of the Dolomites to the right, and an easy climb to FL130

Eventually I got an IFR clearance from Innsbruck. I was cleared FL160 but said that conditions are VMC and can I have FL130 for the cruise. This worked out just right, flying just above a load of stuff most of the way back

I worked every possible shortcut as usual

This – DCT BILGO – is a very rare shortcut in NE France where ATC is normally absolutely unwilling to do anything, even on a weekend “due to military activity”

The N French coast at last

A “DCT EGKA” while still over France By this time I was descending so Paris Control handed me to Lille which nowadays can do a handover to London Control which I got at FL090

Le Touquet

Outbound track

Return track

Both flights were about 4hrs. The outbound had ~10kt tailwind but flying that procedure took extra time. The return flight had ~10kt headwind but was shorter.

The airport bill came to a total of €14.24, comprising of 11.36 for landing and 2.88 for parking and no VAT. This was astonishing – way less than was previously quoted – but I didn’t argue. The avgas was about €2.9 per litre.