Staying current - flight around Switzerland

After several weeks of “social distancing” and isolating at home, I started developing severe withdrawal symptoms. I even started playing airplane noises from Spotify at home. Since we are still allowed to fly in Switzerland – if we respect the general social distancing rules, which I did – I gave in to the urge this weekend and took the club’s Columbia 400 to fly some approaches and finish off with a VFR flight around the Alps as a reward in the end.

It was ridiculous to see that we still have to book slots in Zurich. The whole MFGZ fleet was taxiing out at the same time at the earliest possible moment, only to leave the airport deserted for the remainder of the day. For the return, I had to change the plan to an IFR slot as my intended VFR slot was already “full” and I would have had to come back an hour earlier, rendering the whole plan for the day impossible. This is while the whole day’s commercial flight programme fits on a half screen on the airport information system. So the VFR flight was done on a Z flight plan with an ILS instead of a quick VFR approach, in order to save precious slot capacity.

My main takeaway from this flight is how quickly your skills deteriorate. My last VFR flight before this was in the beginning of February, but the last IFR flight was in October 2019. As everything was with different avionics, there were a few “what’s it doing now” moments. Nothing dangerous as the weather couldn’t have been better, but in IMC I wouldn’t have liked to re-discover certain things at the same points in time, e.g. that this plane has no WAAS capability and that I failed to check that it displayed “LNAV” on the FPL page instead of “LPV” which would have been an early clue. It really drives home how much you need to prepare your flights if you’re no longer very current on a plane.

Which brings me to the second point I want to stress. Yes, this is an unprecedented crisis, but by preventing GA pilots to stay current, we’re creating huge risks for when activity resumes. Probably, solo flying will be allowed first, but no instruction. Many pilots who would normally do their first flights after the winter with an instructor will find themselves in a situation where either they can’t fly at all or they have to go alone. In my opinion, each day where we force the grounding of GA compounds these risks, and it contributes almost nothing to prevent the spread of the virus. Rant over, I’ll come down from my soap box, and hope you enjoy the pictures.

For those concerned, all rules and recommendations for social distancing have been followed and the plane has been duly disinfected before the flight. Luckily, we have no formal stay at home order in Switzerland as people are mostly sensible about this.

Parked aircraft at terminal 3, and a KLM which has just landed on runway 14 holding short of runway 28:

More parked aircraft. The SWISS maintenance staff are working part-time as well, but are putting the planes in the short-term storage configuration one after the other. This takes about 10 man-hours per plane and entails closing the engine inlets to prevent animals installing themselves, and also humidity entering. Re-activating a plane takes longer than de-activating it, at least a week. After three months, you have to take it for a maintenance flight, which is the point in time where you decide if you don’t want to go for long-term storage instead.

The Hallwilersee (left behind the wing) and Baldeggersee (off the wingtip) in the canton of Aargau, as well as some mist in the plains due to the high pressure situation. Looking towards Lucerne.

Approaching the WIL VOR, ATC called out a traffic at 12 o’clock, opposite track, 1000 feet low and climbing. Then again at 1 nm. Finally saw it passing a few 100 ft below (forward visibility in the COL4 is limited.).

First approach at Berne (LSZB). View over the city with the central station. The train schedule has been thinned out now.

Approach to runway 14. The interesting question for me always is, will the plane fly the BIRKI hold or not. In this case, ATC requested to fly the hold for spacing, the hold was loaded, but it did not enter it. Last time I did not want to fly the hold but the plane entered it anyway.
River Aare, crossed by the Kirchenfeldbrücke, and the parliament building in the back. Berne cathedral on the right.

Grenchen (LSZG) in the middle of the picture. On the missed approach for runway 24 after the first go-around. Only surprise here was no LPV, and where on the G1000 to find the distances for the cross-check altitudes for the correct waypoint. Also, Swiss IFR charts don’t state the approach tracks, so you need to know that this approach is offset 11° from the runway or you’re in for a surprise.

Final approach on the ILS 24 for Les Éplatures (LSGC) over the city of La-Chaux-de-Fonds

Approaching the other runway (06) after a visual circuit

Overhead Lake Neuchâtel on the VFR flight part towards the Rhône valley:

Synthetic vision in the Rhône valley, a bit north of Bex aerodrome, approaching the bend at Martigny. You have to inhibit TAWS in order to fly a sensible path on the side of the valley.

Looking towards Martigny

After the bend

Sion airport (LSGS)

The former military airfield Turtmann, closed since 2003. Legend has it that all villagers had left during an epidemic or war, except one. When they returned, they saw him and exclaimed “Dort ist ein Mann!” (“There’s a man!”), which led the name to the village – first “Dortmann”, then “Durtmann”, now “Turtmann”.

Bisgletscher between the Weisshorn (left) and Bishorn (right), off the village of Randa in the Mattertal, leading south towards Zermatt

View to the west from abeam Täsch

Matterhorn

Zermatt and the Mattertal looking north

Looking back

The area of the Simplon pass

Looking north towards the Aletsch glacier

Finsteraarhorn

Rhône glacier

Going north through the Grimselpass

Mount Rigi

Looking back over Lake Lucerne

Empty apron at the Zurich GAC