Last weekend, I did a Friday afternoon/evening trip to La Chaux-de-Fonds and Yverdon-les-Bains, in order to regain confidence after a good two-month break. Two new destinations I’ve never been to before.
While the weather at my home base was sunny with a few clouds, and the forecast for La Chaux-de-Fonds looked good, it began to snow after arrival in LSGC. The airport is based within the Jura mountains and located on the north side of the valley. Great approach over a city that does not feel typically “Swiss”. It is also the highest full IFR-airport in Europe. After staying for a while, and being outside of the airport, the guy from the C-office went outside to “catch” me. “The Tower called me and the weather is getting worse, with snow and fog settling in, you should go.” Upps.. this was not expected for me, since forecasts looked fine and I thought to stay until the snow passed. But according to the Tower, its unlikely to have clear skies again, after the snow passed.
Once back in the aircraft, I briefed my departure and the Tower gave me some helpful weather advice. The idea was to check in the traffic pattern if a safe departure out of the valley was possible or not, otherwise I told the Tower to come back in again. Once in the air, both ways going south or north in the valley were ‘closed’, except for going straight over the mountains towards the southeast. On crosswind for runway 23, I could see the Alps and decided to leave the circuit. Just one minute later I saw Lake Neuchatel and it was safe to leave the area.
Once overhead the lake, I decided to go ahead with my original plan and pay LSGY a visit too. The weather looked good, with extreme visibility up to the Alps and Geneva. Some small showers could be seen, but not much to worry about. LSGY is maybe one of the easiest airfields in Switzerland, as it is located in an extremely wide and flat valley. I had a nice chat with a friendly guy, who helped me with parking the plane and even paid for my coffee and snack. What a great comradeship! I also saw some EuroGA prospects in the C-office container. 
The flight back was easygoing, even though the Payerne CTR was still active after 5 pm, but approval was given upon the first call. Also, the Bern TMA crossing is always nice and just a formality with friendly ATC.
Passing Berne on the way home.
Again, I learned that the Jura mountains can provide some tricky ‘surprises’. Even when the Alps and Swiss Plateau are fine, you could get stranded in the Jura. After landing in LSGY, the METAR of LSGC indeed reported IMC conditions, as the only IMC airport in the entire region. Oh… and before I forget: LSGC has (almost) a fly-through with the golden M!
Note the short distance between Tower / C-office building and the Drive through
I just did a Poland-Portugal run on Sunday. Strong headwinds, so I had to stop in Girona.
Landing in Faro at sunset, I had some nice pics taken by kind ramp people.
I have moved from read-do to do and verify with the checklists. The flying experience improved a lot. There’s a chance we will become friends with the Piaggio.
I am slowly adapting to the Proline 21, but there is still some way to go. Yesterday, I was asked to fly fast on approach and later failed to capture the glide slope. Luckily, the weather was good, and I could look out and use the red button.
I just left my DA42 at service shop for yearly service and few other items waiting to be done for some time (new oxygen bottle, LED strobe and nav lights and few other smaller items).
checked the internal relay settings of the sandel:
Darkfixer wrote:
This weekend I signed the sales agreement for my new aircraft.
A Mooney M20K 252, hopefully pre-buy will be smooth without any major findings and I can close the deal.
Thought you bought an Arrow….but, anyway….best of luck with that speedy bird!
We went to Coburg EDQC. Initially we just wanted to do a short trip and return the same day later, but once we were there in fair weather looking at the big castle at 5 minutes walking distance I was notified about the (quite short) opening hours of the airfield in winter. I misunderstood that in flight planning. As my crew didn’t want to pack it up and just fly back home we decided to stay overnight.
What a wonderful decision!
I noticed that @boscomantico already wrote all details about that destination and the city here so I’ll save on my fingers.
Just to add: the restaurant “Burgschänke” in the Veste has very good traditional german food. And the airfield has an RNAV approach
Other than that: we’ll go there again soon. Two (half) days are nowhere near enough to just see the best.
Emir wrote:
passed skill test
I am so happy for you! You must have felt exhilarated when you got the good news after all the hard work. Any pics of your happy face standing on a puddle of your own sweat after the session?
loco wrote:
red button
??
Darkfixer wrote:
A Mooney M20K 252
COngrats @Darkfixer! You will not regret flying turbocharged, especially if you fly IFR: great weather avoidance tool. Make sure you get as familiar with the type as possible before operating it.
Is there an an engine monitor installed? If not, it (together with pulse-demand O2) should be in your list of urgent upgrades. Also make sure that cylinder borescope-, oil filter- and fuselage tube structure- inspections are included in your prebuy. @terbang and others herein are much more knowledgeable on the type and you may want to ask further specific advise.
ivark wrote:
Spring is coming in Estonia..
Naaice! Our bird just left EEPU and is now back in EETN..
It seems we made quite a show at EEPU
Those guys at Magnetic MRO are a blast! Congrats on that and the beautiful country!
