In November, there were 19 days IMC plus 2 days unsuitable due to wind.
… and so on
That’s what you get for building an airport in a swamp, staff it with an inflexible ATC (no SVFR clearance even during the times of the day where there is virtually zero traffic), plus have a met office with apparently very dirty windows 
– always wanted to send some glass cleaner
I also don’t know what your wind limits are, but I can’t remember many days I wouldn’t have gone due to wind. Winds are mostly quite benign here IMO, with 15G25 about the maximum we get, anything above that is rare. It’s absolutely no comparison to say the rhone valley during mistral. Ok we have some föhn turbulences occasionally closer to the mountains, but then you can still easily fly north…
And even if we take your numbers at face value, i.e. roughly 50% chance for non-VFR weather, you still get 75% dispatch rate in a 2 day window…
OK, being based a controlled airport that does not allow SVFR is of course a total show-stopper for VFR flying. I would never base myself at such a field as a VFR only flyer.
I agree, Bosco, and that’s before we even start to discuss the extremely restrictive slot regime they now play…
Tom,
, staff it with an inflexible ATC
Well, I am not sure that that is very fair to the folk up there. Their problem is the same as ours: They get restricted well below their actual capability by overregulation and totally useless rulemaking following each ever so tiny incident. Neither was it their choice that SVFR is only allowed for helicopters these days, nor that they now need to apply the full sequencing standards for Runway 28 (which has halfed our slots), in fact, I know that they protested against this, but had no chance. Geneva is even worse now, the new rule set simply closed down their grass runway. That something worked for 50+ years does not interest the regulators at all.
plus have a met office with apparently very dirty windows – always wanted to send some glass cleaner
LOL, well, sitting in front of these windows right now I can assure you they are perfectly clean, but anyway, observations are not done in here, but one floor up on the roof. And believe me, my glasses are clean too. The problem is more the location of the station: It is situated at the far end near the approach end of 14/16. And there is a lot of time when weather up here is different than for the south of the airport. I can also tell you that our eyeball visibility is usually a lot better than the measured values. Yes, this sometimes does lead to IMC conditions when RWY28 is significantly better, but when I look at the values I posted, most of the IMC was caused by clouds, not by visibility. And in ZRH, I would not want to fly VFR with a ceiling below 1500ft AGL, some of the hills are high enough to make it rather difficult. You should really come out here one day with me and see how it’s done.
I also don’t know what your wind limits are, but I can’t remember many days I wouldn’t have gone due to wind.
The days I singled out for wind had 25G35 and more. Demonstrated X-Wind for the M20 is 17 kts, I once landed with about 20 (on a 60m wide runway) but that is about what I’d do with a good reason. MOD TURB e.t.c the whole way does also not appeal to me too much…
Slots here are manageable if you can plan one day before. If not, it can indeed happen that by the time you decide to go fly, there are no slots left. So much the more it is important to have the IFR option, as they tend to run out much later than the VFR slots.
In any event, this is just one factor in the whole game. It’s not very useful either if the departure airport is ok for flying but the route is not. But Winter has never really been the season for GA anyhow. I’ll get back to this subject once I finish my research on the statistics. Going IFR now is a new ballgame and should improve things in any event.
OK, being based a controlled airport that does not allow SVFR is of course a total show-stopper for VFR flying. I would never base myself at such a field as a VFR only flyer.
Easier said than done. For me, driving over 100 km (one way) every time I want to go flying is not really what I want either. Nor is flying off a grass runway which is closed due to surface conditions from November to March. And those airfields who have concrete runways and are open have waiting lists for stationing sometimes worth 10 years or more. I am on 2 of them since 2009.
Achim states, “I have always been of the opinion that piston GA is virtually useless for travel and should not be seen as an alternative to airline travel. As I mentioned, my Tour de France went to Poland. That’s what I meant when I say “a bit of flexibility”. If you have that, GA can be great for leisure travel, if you don’t then take the airline and use your aircraft for traffic patterns and the occasional 100 CHF burger.”
That is true in Europe. But GA in the US can and was used by me for 200NM-500NM trips on a regular bases. With a 90% dispatch rate. The only time that was not the case was when we went skiing. Mostly because in the mountains there were VFR only fields. Also due to snow on the runway from the nights snowfall. We did day trips and getting Wx and airport information at 5AM was impossible. Occasionally we would fly IFR in IMC to airports that had a good instrument approach system. If we decided to go having an alternate that required a 2 hr drive to the mountain was not in the cards. Afterall it was a day trip. The only reason I am going on about these ski trips is because it actually reminds me of Europe. Lot of VFR airports with IFR fields for GA being inconveniently away from destinations. Yes so its much less practical.
The 90% dispatch rate was for family functions, business conferences and weekend trips away . There were delays at times; a few hrs. but most often not by much.
So now that Im here in Europe I am retired and I can go when I can. My limitations are a home airport that is Day-VFR only with a MEA that is ridiculously high 4000’ with no contact approaches allowed. My alternate has a 400Euro landing fee that is close by. The other affordable Alt is 1.5 hrs by car. Not being too bold due to unfamiliarity with systems I file IFR always when I leave Hungary. My usual trips are to EDMA. Great airport with a good Instrument system. The reason I have cancelled some flights going there has been to severe headwinds and severe icing conditions. Now that I have Achims Gromet Im a little more comfortable. But I need Alternates just in case along my route. (Plan B). Not being familiar I dont want to drop in and give them my banks swift code so they can make up their budget shortfalls.
So Europe is unfriendly towards GA. It dosent have to be that way but it is. Look at what happened around Munich. They closed or severely limited GA airports. The govt probably as in the US the airlines are backing limitations on airspace use by GA. Afterall do they want to loose business class customers to GA (flying oneself). Im surprised that the railroads allowed road development for cars 80 yrs ago cause they didnt want competition. Maybe cause they were mostly state run affairs.
Before the French jump down my throat I know in France its different. But my flying is mostly in and between Germany, Austria, and Hungary. Occasionally to France Greece Slovenia Czech and Croatia.
Thats what Ive observed.
So Europe is unfriendly towards GA.
You have to keep in mind that the golden days of GA were the 60s and especially the 70s. Eastern Europe (where you are based) had both very limited personal freedom rights and was relatively poor. Therefore it didn’t participate in the GA boom. The Czech Republic somehow was an exception.
Every since the 70s, GA has been declining and that is true for both Europe and the US. We’re just a bit ahead of the curve 
Even though I’m a GA pilot, if I had to choose between our high speed train connections and the better GA infrastructure in the US, I would choose the train connections without hesitation.
Now that I have Achims Gromet Im a little more comfortable.
Wallace and Gramet? Just make sure “I had Achim’s Gramet” (actually make that Thomas’ in this case) does not get engraved into your tombstone…
“You have to keep in mind that the golden days of GA were the 60s and especially the 70s. Eastern Europe (where you are based) had both very limited personal freedom rights and was relatively poor.”
That plus personal ownership of anything was discouraged in Eastern Europe as it was viewed as a capitalistic trait. One could most certainly not own a plane!
“Even though I’m a GA pilot, if I had to choose between our high speed train connections and the better GA infrastructure in the US, I would choose the train connections without hesitation”
I guess in the US 50es and 60es technology being bona fide viewed as a “transportation option” for 200NM trips just gives a fair idea what state the rest of the transport infrastructure is in… (though Germany could also improve on the “high speed trains must stop in any town regardless of size” rule…).
I find the biggest deterrent to be the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
If it’s a nice day and I want to fly to (say) Castle Kennedy – about 30 minutes flying time in the Auster, I just can’t do it on a whim. I have to fly down to Ronaldsway, then to Carlisle, then to Castle Kennedy – after filling out reams of forms. And then do the same for the way back, turning an easy and fun day trip that would be about 1 hr of flying time that doesn’t cost much to do into a 4 hour marathon with four additional and unnecessary landing fees. I didn’t learn to fly to fill out reams of forms. If I decide the day before I want to do it, then there’s still the reams of forms to fill in and then if the weather turns sour I then have to start phoning up Special branch in every county (sorry I exaggerate) to tell them I cancelled.
It’s become a little bit better with OnlineGAR, but the Manx lot still want a form even if you’re departing from Ronaldsway (the UK lot don’t need a form for a designated airfield) and don’t participate in OnlineGAR. Their PDF forms are not editable so it’s a complete pain in the backside to email them. (I ended up writing a program to generate the damned forms because of this).
If we got rid of these onerous reporting requirements within the CTA, I would probably fly five times as many trips away as I do now.
I would personally say that others involved in aviation can often knock confidence far more than they would perhaps think through their actions.
Agree wholeheartedly.
There are many thoughtless, stupid people in aviation, especially general aviation – none on here, of course – and some of the banter and sniping that go on at club level is very off-putting. I suppose it’s just (hu)man nature, and will be found in any activity….
