EuroGA fly-in - Venice Lido LIPV, 18/19 May 2019

As a post mortem, I decided to cancel because :
- I had to go through the Alps or around somehow
- forecast (ECMWF and ICON) were predicting unstable weather in every direction, with a huge low pressure area over Europe.
Plan A was Venice, B was anywhere with good weather (I mean stable, over several days).

With a system on SW France, one over Germany, one over England, and convective weather on northern Italy everyday, plus obscuration over the Alps, I quit

It seems the forecast was globally wrong in the extent of the bad weather and I was too conservative, that’s life.

I feel like May isn’t the best time to fly

Peter wrote:

practically all Mooney pilots immediately drop out, so they must know something…

I’m sure that with sinking to mud and lot of power applied (and related nose-down tendency) Mooney would have hard time with prop clearance.

Jujupilote wrote:

With a system on SW France, one over Germany, one over England, and convective weather on northern Italy everyday, plus obscuration over the Alps, I quit
It seems the forecast was globally wrong in the extent of the bad weather and I was too conservative, that’s life.

It’s always better to be a bit more conservative than to be sorry. I know that nobody could influence my decision not to fly in case my judgement was that weather was potentially beyond my comfort zone. If I hadn’t planned my arrival for Friday (100% VFR forecast) and departure on Sunday (rainy forecast only locally but without probability for hazardous weather), I would’ve canceled it as well. In addition, I was kind of flexible (remote work) until Wednesday in case I have to prolong my staying.

I think that for the EuroGA Fly In, Venice was a good choice.
In normal weather it is one of most attractive airfields in Europe (the world?);
It was good to be able to eat/meet on site;
The ability to make it a 3/4 day trip in such a wonderful city made it a very attractive break.

LIPV does, though, suffer from certain defects, which others have mentioned:
It is only grass;
It charges high prices for Avgas (although the parking/landing was – compared to other fields I have been to – reasonable);
It needs to improve its run-in from the grass to the apron;
It doesn’t seem to be able to cope with rain! – perhaps on the basis that it rarely happens.
In the US, a field like LIPV would have had RNAV many years ago.

Despite the downpours (and for once – perhaps because I was in disguise – I was not teased, as is usually the case, of “not having done anything about the weather”), I believe that those who came all thoroughly enjoyed each other’s company; made international contacts; and appreciated EuroGA for initiating/organizing the event.
Although I came IFR directly from the UK over the Alps on Friday (which was no problem), discretion made me fly eastwards ‘VFR’ to Avignon on Monday; and then IFR from there back to UK.
I chose VFR for the first leg because any attempt to file IFR, which involved Nice, seemed to constantly produce routes that went via Corsica!
As it was, the flight was basically IMC for the first half of the route (‘marginal VFR(?)’ which they seemed happy with; but as I was given 6000’ all the way under radar contact it worked well – basically what in the US would be ‘VFR with flight following’.
Even Nice, for once, was kind to me and asked that “due to intense traffic” would I mind going inland at that level and they would try to get me to Avignon direct!

Because when organizing these events, one is “damned if you do; and damned if you don’t”, I think that the selection of this very attractive venue with accommodation/eating nearby, made LIPV a good choice, grass or not.
Thanks, Peter. I look forward to you finding a similar combination next year.

Lets face last weekend was only meant for IFR and for those aircraft with relatively good equipment.
It is just the way it was. The whole region, also due to Alps, can be quite volatile with weather.
It was not the first flight I cancelled due to wx nor will be the last.

What matters is we continue organizing such events :)

I would say it is another excellent choice of venue for a flyin. Then the fact that it was the coldest may in the Veneto region for ages was something that was hard to foresee. We absolutely enjoyed our stay. @Andrea: thanks for your tip about Pellestrina. Looked a bit sleepy at first so we went in to a restaurant for some lunch. Soon it was filled with a 50 year wedding anniversary italian style. Doubt it would happen in Venice :)

It was a pleasure .
I’m sorry you are absolutely right about the weather . The coldest and rainy May I have ever seen in my life :-(( .

However, we had great time and I was lucky to arrive when the weather was beautiful