Shoreham EGKA to Mali Losinj LDLO June 2013

Sadly I decided to come back today because Sunday's wx forecast didn't look good. Specifically there is a lot of instability over N Europe and I can't outclimb stuff which goes above FL200. I am going to be less than happy if the day turns out to be nice when the IR image (the only real judge) is available....

Anyway, here is a very brief report:

TCU (and bigger) stuff near Shoreham (on the stormscope) but luckily not in the direction I was going

Climbed up to FL130 initially, through some holes

Fuel on Board stabilised at 29 USG early on, and actually I landed with 29.0 in the tanks

Munich from about FL150

Just staying above the muck. I was lazy and stayed at FL150 over the Alps, because skimming over the top is fun, and there was no turbulence (the wind aloft was c. 10kt and I was c. 5000ft above the terrain)

Engine failure options appear unattractive but actually there are loads of big flat-bottomed canyons and I was running a special topo map of the Alps (ripped off from Google Terrain using an automatic tool called Mobile Atlas Creator) as a GPS moving map, running under Oziexplorer

A bit of zigzagging around bigger stuff was needed but usually one could pick a line which missed a load of buildups in one go

At last, the Adriatic appeared on the MFD

A few more big bits to avoid

After the Alps, in the general area of Venice, it cleared up a bit

but the stormscope was mapping the CBs pretty well

Finally, Losinj LDLO

Earlier, the wind was 260/11 or so so I expected runway 20, but they gave me 02 and the wind was OK for that at the time, but it turned around just as I was on final so I went around and landed on 20. This is the second time the wind turned around really quickly (the other was Shoreham a week ago, when I actually landed anyway, but needed the whole runway to stop) within a week

On the ground. It looks like it always used to, but they have a new bowser (which is accurate) and they are building what looks like a hangar

A super little cafe; a perfect place to have a beer after such a gruelling hard IFR adventure

The town of Mali Losinj is lovely

The food is excellent. The Med has been over-fished and a fish like this would have been 50% more (€30+) in Greece. But then Croatia is not in the € (they accept Euros freely, however) so they avoid the huge price hikes suffered throughout the Eurozone

Spotted this amazing aircraft on the way out (see separate thread for more pics)

The departure wx was better than on the way there, but still with some buildups. We got a departure clearance straight up to the filed FL140 and "cleared to EGKA" as per classical IFR ... little do they know EGKA is in Class G so the clearance is meaningless. I climbed to FL160 to stay above some of the stuff

and then we have the Alps, on a different route

Had everybody operated airspace according to ICAO rules (instead of running private policies on VFR access) the whole trip could have been done VFR, at the same levels, except the UK Class A bit.

The two filed routes were

Outbound

Actual flown

Return

The Alps crossing above is actually the shortest possible that can be filed via Eurocontrol - AFAIK. If you actually fly that DESIP-ELMUR leg as shown, i.e. without asking for the obvious shortcut, you get across all the terrain very quickly.

Actual flown

I was asking for every shorcut possible, as usual, and I got some 150nm+ ones.

Got a very late descent from London Control, from FL140 about 30nm out, which normally is what is desired, to maximise height when out over the sea, and have the best options to avoid weather in the arrival area. In fact I really got the impression that LC have revamped the way they see light GA and are trying to be extra helpful nowadays, providing traffic reports, etc as you descend. Very professional.

Mountain High O2D2 oxygen regulator worked great as usual; at FL160, heart rate 75 and blood o2 95%. It's the way to go!

I did everything with the Nokia 808 phone.

The raw quality is very high (40MP downsampled to 12MP, downsampled to 800 pixels wide using ACDSEE for posting here) but in reality it is a lot harder to get good pics with it than with, ahem, a £1.5k DSLR and a £1.5k camcorder, but it is "somewhat smaller and lighter"

Reflections are harder to avoid than with a DSLR, for some reason. Also it uses a slow shutter speed so a lot of pics get wasted due to movement. The focus software is also naff, so it's good for landscapes and other stuff where you have time to set it up.

I am uploading some HD videos to Vimeo and I will edit my post above to include them when they are up.

I think you would need to do what I did when I was flying VFR down there and wasn't allowed to go into the CAS - example - i.e. wait for substantially clear and calm wx and then fly quite close to the terrain, FL100-FL120.

The problem with IFR is that you have to fly at/above the airway MEAs which in the Alps are generally FL140 to FL180. A PA28-181 can do FL140, eventually, like my TB20 can do FL200, eventually...

The temperature was -5C to -8C and that is the best for collecting ice, so any contact with IMC (other than little bits of obviously thin haze) has to be avoided. That also rules out "VFR in IMC", because you have no escape route via a descent into warm air. The only escape route if the IMC cannot be outclimbed is a 180.

I got the shortcut today - see the pic of route actually flown.

I also got one ABESI-HOC which is right across Switzerland.

And HR-REM, which is possible only on weekends when the military airspace there is inactive, I think. According to my notes, the shortcut to REM was 159nm long.

But I don't fly to these places regularly enough to see a pattern.