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A trip to the Alps to get nice photos (and a video)

BTW, I am almost certain that the Swiss authorities allow landing by UK citizens without quarantine currently, if you do need to refuel at say Sion.

Upper Harford private strip UK, near EGBJ, United Kingdom

@Peter,

@Frans has done some really nice videos of Alps trips and I suggest you take a look at them. You can get to them via his recent Aubenas-Annecy thread or his Euro Aviators YouTube site. He did a couple nice flights from Raron LSER to Bern LSZB and Reichenbach LSGR to Birrfeld LSZF. These give a very good impression of the necessary radio work and how one should not really be frightened of the various CTL and MIL zones. Of course, one needs to be professional and careful, but timely contact will always get you through, even if you need to do a few orbits from time to time. Most military areas are closed on weekends and lunch-time.

Of course, if you want cloudless skies, you might need to wait a bit but there is no free lunch. Switzerland has been essentially cloudless for most of November, but with dense fog from the ground up to 2’000-5’000 ft ASL depending on the day and time of day. So finding a place to land needs to be carefully planned. Les Eplatures LSGC is almost always cavok when the lowland is fogged-in, and the Valais, Tessin, and Engadin (Samedan LSZS) are also usually clear when the north side of the Alps are fogged-in. St Gallen/Altenrhein LSZR is an IFR airport and could be used as entry point and departure for a VFR on-top flight to get to the Alps.

The following photo was taken from the Bachtel (near IFR wpt ROLSA) last Friday, 27 Nov, direction south. @Peter, Wangen-Lachen LSPV is down under there somewhere!
/Users/vince2/Library/Group Containers/6N38VWS5BX.ru.keepcoder.Telegram/account-6774607662645459311/postbox/media/telegram-cloud-photo-size-4-5913673447353988438-y.jpg

This is direction Zurich/France. The Jura mountains are just visible on the horizon on the left side of the photo.
/Users/vince2/Library/Group Containers/6N38VWS5BX.ru.keepcoder.Telegram/account-6774607662645459311/postbox/media/telegram-cloud-photo-size-4-5913673447353988439-y.jpg

LSZK, Switzerland

As additional note for flat-landers who are intimidated by mountains, one highly recommended approach would be to take a short Alps initiation flight with any Swiss instructor. There are a lot of flight schools that would do this, since it is part of the standard PPL course in Switzerland. Anyone converting a non-EASA ICAO licence to a Swiss licence needs to have it signed off. It is about an hour “ground school” and then an hour flight in the Alps. It covers some mountain flying techniques and specific weather phenomenon but has nothing at all to do with a mountain rating….. it just builds knowledge and confidence to head off into the Alps alone. It would be no issue to do it in one’s own plane.

LSZK, Switzerland

Thank you for the ideas

Yes it would be a nonstop flight, although I will plan to refuel if reserves look a bit thin on the way back. Even a stop Le Touquet is worth about 7 USG

I am not likely to do this until the UK has introduced the shortened quarantine (7 days with a CV19 swab test) because I may be forced to do this if I refuel. The UK police have said to some people doing instrument approaches in France is that a touch and go in France needs a quarantine upon return (but this obviously highly dubious “advice” varies).

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Can’t you tell the police you did a low pass? Once below minima, the approach counts, right?
A few weeks ago I heard a similar discussion on the local FIS frequency, for a flight to LZTT (Tatry, Poprad, Slovakia); I don’t know what they ended up doing.

tmo
EPKP - Kraków, Poland

I posted some info here on doing a flight out of the UK, abroad, and not landing.

The Alps have had a huge amount of snow in the last week or two. Damn frustrating…

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

I am starting to plan this properly. It seems obvious to do the Monch, Jungfrau etc first and then fly on to the Matterhorn.

I will create a user waypoint for each summit so it can be flown with no messing about, FL150 or so.

Does anyone else have any ideas on what else to take in? We have loads of pilots on EuroGA who know the mountains well.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

From the Matterhorn, heading west, if you follow just to the north of the crest of the mountains, and thus just north of the Swiss border, you will fly over a ridge to the north of Mt Collon, then fly down a beautiful glacier (tracking about 240 degrees). You will appear to be flying straight into a solid vertical mountain wall (Mt Gele), but just before reaching the mountain the glacial valley turns to heading 350 degrees. You follow this, fly over the long skinny lake (Lac du Mauvoisin) and along the Val de Bagnes. In a couple of minutes you will pass Verbier on your right. I think this will appeal to your inner skier!!

My best friend from my Swiss days, who was based at Verbier, showed me this route in his King Air. We flew down the glacier at about 100ft agl doing 250 kts one still sunny winter day (this was not my idea min you, it was his). But I have since flown it a number of times in a TBM700 and SR22 (with greater ground separation). Take a look at the map below.

Also, note that the wonderful Swiss govt has released all their incredible topo data online – Swiss Topo. You can zoom right in to see every footpath, rock and cow shed.


you will

Upper Harford private strip UK, near EGBJ, United Kingdom

Also, on your way in to the mountains, I highly recommend heading for the Brunigpass (a few miles E of the Brienzersee in the map below. Then fly just south of the ridge , at ridge height, from the Brunigpass, past the Brienzer Rothorn towards Interlaken. This is spectacular scenery, take a close look at the “hiking” trail that runs along the top of the ridge and you will understand why so many people die “hiking” in Switzerland each year.

NB, you will need to call Meiringen military zone to arrange transit. I have never had any trouble with this, and they always speak excellent English. Just tell them where you intend to enter the zone and where heading after that. While VFR in Switzerland (and outside the military zone) you will be suggested to speak to Zurich Info – 124.70, and when you are half way down the glacier to switch to Geneva Info 126.350. Its a really good idea to be in touch with these guys. They operate like a UK LARS (basic) and will tell you about other traffic if they can, but also if something goes wrong like engine failure, they are who you want to tell. Reception can be patchy if you are too low.

From Interlaken you can follow the valley towards Wengen and skim over the top of the Jungfraujoch between the Jungfrau and the Monch, and then descend part way down the glacier (Aletschgletsher) before heading to Zermatt and the Matterhorn. Make sure you have PLENTY of altitude. The valley up to the Matterhorn is incredibly rugged, if case of engine failure you want to be able to glide back to the floor of the main valley.
Upper Harford private strip UK, near EGBJ, United Kingdom

Thank you very much @buckerfan – I will look through all this. It needs to be planned properly, with user waypoints created so I am not mucking about trying to find things while flying

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom
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