Venice Lido is a fantastic airfield; Grass-Runway is fine, well maintained. Apart from that the buildings at the airport are from the 1930-ies,
Art-Deco style; from here there were flights to Africa and the Orient in the 30-ies. There are plenty nice hotels on Lido and its more relaxing than going into crowded Venice itself. I have been there twice and if i can make it i will join (will be able to say closer to the actual date.
The view over Venice on the approach is spectacular!
Snoopy wrote:
LSZH/LSGG TMA maybe not but the others should work.
LSGG TMA has (had?) a suggested VFR crossing route, to be taken at or above FL100 from “Col de la Faucille” to “La Roche” along a radial of the GVA VOR on a 150° track (and 330° in the other direction). I requested it once (luckily it was nearly my direct route…) in a C182TR with oxygen, and easily got it; they just requested I take an IFR level for the crossing. There are (were?) also two routes substantially along a 220° track, but these are probably not of interest for this trip.
I´m planning to join as well. Looking forward flying to Lido!
Ibra wrote:
Yes, I would go for that route as default, worst case Corse/Nice are nice
How about flying down along the Brenner? I’ve done that route a couple of times, entering via Innsbruck and then flying over the motorway towards Bolzano and Trento, then to Vicenza. The route is wide enough, you can fly it without needing to exceed 6000 feet, very scenic and the controllers are relatively helpful – except Padova controllers throwing you a curve ball asking you to report your estimate for a waypoint you’ve never heard of 
The good thing is you could land in Germany somewhere and refuel before heading down to Venice – please note AVGAS is very expensive there. I’m hoping to make it, if so, we will probably stop at Kempten-Durach where, if Airshampoo is to be believed, AVGAS is €1,99 / litre (in Italy, don’t expect prices below €3,xx / litre) and from there head direct towards Innsbruck and the Brenner…..
As to fuel – LIDT Trento earlier this year had 2.33/L below quite a few airports in Germany.
LOIJ St Johann is relative cheap, so is LOWZ.
Kempten (and equally Kulmbach) are unrivalled in Southern Germany below 2eur/L.
Bolzano is not especially pricey either, AFAIK, and they changed it recently from the “no avgas unless you know the right people” to “avgas available via the aeroclub” 
RobertL18C wrote:
used to use the Simplon pass when travelling VFR, and you can cross at 10,000 feet. I had conservative weather criteria, especially on upper level winds over the ridges. Travelling via the south of France is likely to be easier.As Belluno is a mountain flying centre, and is only 30 minutes away, there is an added incentive to try and make this fly in.
Which waypoints or region am I looking at? Northwest of Milano right? If you can Printscreen the route on SkyDemon or similar that would be helpful.
The Alps do look scary and I’ve had pretty rough turbulence at FL300+ in an A319 going into Milan, hate to think what it’s like in a GA. Although to be fair it was 100knots left to right across the mountains.
Snoopy wrote:
Once you crossed the channel (Class A above ~5500) most of the airspace is C and ok to enter with clearance in 14000 at which you can then cross the alps in a straight line…
There’s is so much bloody restricted areas, this is one hell of a flight and a lot of avoiding to do. Paris and Reims are full of Restricted areas, any ideas on waypoints to fly. I don’t think I’ll see much at FL140.
P.s. Lido does JetA1 right?
France is full of military airspace, and the simple way to deal with it on a VFR flight is to fly on the Class E routes (what UK PPLs have been taught to call “French airways” ) which have bases generally FL065, sometimes FL055, and the airspace class is E up to FL199. Above that, FL120 and above, it is Class D in which VFR is prohibited in much of France.
At the end of this is an explanation.
Flying in this Class E airspace avoids most of the military stuff. Just file for FL075/085 or so…
Very low level flights, say below 2000ft, in France have to be planned carefully. I used to buy the 1:1M SIA chart which comes with a booklet which details the active times of the various areas. I don’t know if any tablet apps have automated this process (have typed in a database of all these areas) and anyway some have a phone number associated with them which you may need to call. The aeroclub locals of course know what affects their local area so it’s not a problem for them. But long trip planning at very low levels is tedious.
In France, ATC generally clear you through controlled airspace but military stuff is for you to plan. They might assist with it but they are not obliged to.
Most (not all) of the mil airspace is inactive on a weekend.
Turbulence in GA is generally far less of an issue than in big jets, because the big jets fly in the jetstream for fuel savings and they do it more or less regardless of passenger comfort. I recall only two instances of significant turbulence in my 18 years of flying. One was departing from Zadar to the north, and the easterly Bora wind caused a lot of bumps up to 9000ft. The second was flying down the middle of the Adriatic down towards Brac, FL100-150, and the same wind made it very rough. Over the Alps I have never had any turbulence at all. Obviously one has to pick a calm day if crossing them at low level. I normally cross FL140-180 and there are places you can do this VFR OCAS (should be evident on the chart).
pilotrobbie wrote:
The Alps do look scary and I’ve had pretty rough turbulence at FL300+ in an A319 going into Milan, hate to think what it’s like in a GA. Although to be fair it was 100knots left to right across the mountains.
From your position, I’d plan via Dover and Boulogne, then around the Lille airspace towards Luxembourg and from there via KRH and SUL to KPT. Of course people flying through northern France regularly might have better routes there, but once you are in Germany, it is a piece of cake with the airspaces, all that is in the way is Stuttgart which can be circumnavigated easily to the South or East.
For the alpine crossing towards Venice, the Brenner route is by far the easiest. Start out at Kempten (KPT) and then proceed via LOIR towards Innsbruck, usually via W1, I and S and then just follow the motorway to Bolzano.
This is just a rough screenshot. After Bolzano depending on the weather you need to head direction Vicenza, where you will need to fly quite low over Italy down to Chioggia and from there along the VFR route into Lido. There may well be other shorter routes from VIC to Lido, but that is what all the pilots of my plane flew when they went there.
Non stop from your base it would be 700 NM but there are plenty of airfields with customs and fuel around, e.g Speyer (EDRY) or Mengen (EDTM) are very nice airfields for a rest stop and food. Speyer is even worth a night stop, as it has a great museum and the historic city in walking distance from the airfield.
The Brenner Route is quite easy to fly most of the time, that is why a lot of Germans prefer it to the Swiss Alp Routes or the Tauern Route. With its rather low altitudes you can also fly it if e.g. there is a celing at around 10k ft AMSL over the alps.
all that is in the way is Stuttgart which can be circumnavigated easily to the South or East.
And most of the time you will get an airspace crossing on direct route at Stuttgart. Just ask for it with FIS. The controllers at EDDS are very cooperative.
