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Albenga and Samedan as a finale to 2019

A short trip report of a magnificent little two-day winter trip just after Christmas. The triangle flown was Lübeck (EDHL) – Albenga (LIMG) – Samedan (LSZS) – Lübeck (EDHL). Here is the (usual) flightplanned route from EDHL to LIMG. LIMG does not require PPR.

A huge high pressure area was sitting over the northeast of Germany during these two days, leading to cloudless conditions over most of central Europe. Also, the general situation was showing very little risk of fog those few days, which is pretty rare in winter.

However, there was a strong northerly / northeasterly flow aloft, which had me a little bit worried about possible Foehn-induced turbulence on the south side of the Alps. I had an unpleasant experience a few years ago, flying the same route, which has made me a bit wary of these strong northerly flows over the Alps during wintertime.

Yet, this time, there were no SIGMETs about such turbulence for the westerly parts of the Alps at all (there WERE for the more easterly parts). Likewise, nothing relevant on the SIGWX chart for my route.

Also, in the meantime, I have learned about other helpful tools in the DWD meteo site. For example, for the Alps, they publish what they call a „QNH chart“, which shows the forecast QNHs both in as well as north and south of the Alps, from which one can deduce the likelihood of Foehn. In our case, it showed very moderate QNH gradients, which further reassured me in the undertaking. Here is the one for the day after.

It was still dark when we started up at 08:00 sharp, the opening time of Lübeck airport.
Ten minutes later, we were airborne, climbing out and turning southbound on course. As usual, I went for FL100 as our cruising altitude. It was a beautiful sunrise and thus a first highlight of the trip.




The second highlight, of course, was the nice tailwind.

We quickly whizzed past Hannover, the Weserbergland and the Sauerland.


As always on this route, Frankfurt is the next highlight.

By the way, it was a very calm morning (traffic-wise) at EDDF this Saturday morning between Christmas and New Year. Accordingly, ATC never asked us to climb to FL140, so we were able to just continue at FL100, saving us from having to use oxygen for another half an our or so, after which, approaching Zürich, we had to climb to FL140 anyway, since that is the minimum IFR cruising level on the airway across the Gotthard (N850). Up there, the speed improved even more, leaving me with good hopes of improving my previous record flight time from EDHL to LIMG, which was 3:18h.

Always some amazing sights on this flight:


Love those mountain lakes in winter:

Still, no turbulence at all. Just one single slight downdraft, followed by one slight updraft just past the Gotthard, but that was it. A couple of minutes later, we had Lago Maggore and thus Italy in sight.

Changing to Milano Radar, we requested and were granted a DCT to Genoa, thus cutting the Saronno corner. We also descended back to FL110 to get rid of the cannulas again (and hit 225kts ground speed in the process). Just south of Milan, another very welcome DCT almost to Albenga and a few minutes later, we crossed the coastline. With perfect conditions at Albenga, there was no point in doing the IAP there, so as soon as the Milan class A was behind us, we cancelled IFR and started descending, as LIMG was now less than 15 minutes away.

The winds were calm on the ground, so we chose runway 27 for landing (essentially straight-in coming from the sea). Thanks to all the very welcome shortcuts and the consistent tailwind, it was a new record indeed: 3:12h from the north of Germany to the Italian Riviera!



The rampies and the lady behind the desk at LIMG were as friendly as ever and clearly delighted to see some traffic. Less than five minutes later, we were in our usual taxi down to Alassio, which was as sunny as ever, even though slightly colder than usual, at 12°C, but the sunshine made it pleasant nevertheless.




Fast foward to the next morning. Since we had to expect at least some headwind on our way back home, the idea was to break the return flight into two parts. For us, this was a good opportunity to finally visit Samedan, LSZS, particularly as both Albenga and Lübeck ARE customs airports, so there was no real invonvenience involved in this lunch stop in Switzerland. The weather was still very good, with almost no turbulence expected, but quite chilly temperatures at Samedan…

The first idea was to go VFR, since I wanted to stay as low as possible to avoid most of the headwinds. However, there was some low cloud and some fog in the north Italian plains, so in the end, I did file IFR to avoid any problems (it is not possible to go ny higher than 2500 feet MSL there due to class A (at least not without upsetting ATC).

Arriving at Albenga airport, we were a bit surprised to see frost all over our aircraft! Must have been one of those rare nights when temps dropped below zero in this area. Fortunately, the sun had already started to melt the ice and it was not very thick to begin with, so after only 10 minutes of wiping the ice off with a towel and sponge we were ready to go.

Climbing out over the Gulf of Genoa, up to FL90, which was the minimum level on the way up to Milan.

Genoa.

The headwinds weren’t all too bad after all. Approaching Como, just as we left the Milano class A (and just as the IFR minumum level would have required us to climb) we cancelled IFR and proceeded VFR (at 9500 feet) across Lake Como, up to it’s northerly tip.



The entry to the Engadin/Inn valley coming from Lake Como is via Chiavenna (just below us on the last pic above) and then across Maloja pass to LSZS. With the sun in our back and all the snow, that must be one of the most beautiful approaches one can imagine.

This is the village of Maloja, just past the Maloja pass. The source of the Inn river (which gave the name to this valley, and of course to Innsbruck, too) is just a few miles up the mountain from here (Lunghinsee, approximately where there circle is).

Runway 03 was in use, so it was a straight-in for us, past all the Engadin lakes and St. Moritz. There is a noticeable descent gradient on the last couple of miles due to the higher terrain to the southwest of the airport. This flight took us 1:15h.


Very much as expected, Samedan proved to be a very slick airport operation. It starts with having an ATIS (at an uncontrolled airport!) and an AFIS which must have a very decent TX/RX facility as it allows pilots to establish radio contact from quite a distance away, even somewhat down in the valleys. The runway was swept flawlessly, with no ice or snow patches whatsoever. A rampie guided us into the fuel station where we instantly got fuelled up (despite refuelling at LIMG, I wanted to have just a little more fuel for the flight home to Luebeck, as I was not quite sure what the winds would be like). As it was not a very busy day, we were even allowed to leave the aircraft right next to the fuel station, so without moving it any further. The air was crystal clear, and despite -12 degrees C, it was very comforatable (=dry air).



By the way, Samedan always has a couple of spotters on the ramp in winter, so as expected, one of them took a photo of us as we were taxying in.

Anyway, once past the customs/immigration booths, we found ourselves on the car park of the airport (just across the barriers) and immediately felt the vibe that is so special about this place, as skiers whizzed past and important (or at least: such looking) people arrived to take their heli shuttles to somewhere else. Just a very luxurious atmosphere going on there. Felt a bit like in an old James Bond film…

We were picked up by a friend of ours and had lunch together in the „Piste 21“, a nice restaurant located close to the runway 21 threshold. (I am sure most people going there don’t understand the meaning of the „21“, possibly thinking it must the number randomly assigned to the nearby cross-country ski piste… )





A typical skiers‘ lunch: barley soup (Gerstensuppe).

In the meantime I filed our outbound flightplan. Again, the weather was clear all over the Alps and most of Germany, so we could have even gone VFR entirely, but I preferred IFR at least for the later part of the flight. In order to minimize the flight time, I filed VFR up to the south of Germany (Allgäu area) and then IFR from that point on. We would initially follow the Inn valley further northeastbound to the general area of Landeck and then turn north on course.

The EOBT was set for 14:15h (local time); therefore, we would arrive in Lübeck some time after dark. But again, with the clear, dry weather and no risk of fog at all, that was something I was looking forward to. In the Cirrus, ever more so.

Paying the fees at LSZS was a bit painful (due to the amount) but otherwise very quick and easy (as expected). Off we were. Spotter’s time again…

Departure was from runway 03 again, hence straight out to Zernez and then into Austria.

That first part of the flight down the Inn valley was again very scenic and pleasant.

Piz Buin?

Serfaus in Austria (I have been skiing there in last February).

Just past the last few mountains: Neuschwanstein down there.

We descended to FL70 for the IFR part of the trip, as I knew the headwind would only get stronger and stronger above. Actually, I briefly even considered 5000 feet, but figured it wasn’t really needed, as the headwind luckily wasn’t all that strong and also not directly on our nose.

This was the view during most the flight across Germany. Very relaxing, but almost boring…

The Thüringer Wald was a welcome variation to the scheme…

Due to some high clouds in the northern part of Germany, the sunset wasn’t quite as spectacular.

Here, we have already loaded the ILS procedure to runway 25 at Lübeck. A visual would done the trick just the same, as it was very clear outside and easy to navigate.

We landed after 3 hours and 15 minutes. Not all that bad after all.
Aircraft stowed away. Certainly one of the best short winter trips ever.

Last Edited by boscomantico at 07 Jan 23:09
Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany

Fabulous!

IR planned for this year. Then I need to do a lot more of this.

EGSX North Weald, United Kingdom

Wow nice trip, I paused a lot on the picture of that frozen mountain lake, just beautiful !

Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom

Thanks for the write up and the beautiful pictures.

LFHN - Bellegarde - Vouvray France

Lovely trip!

Interesting to see some swimmers at Alassio… wonder what the water temps were. Albenga is high on my wish list to go to, but I didn’t consider it that nice during winter.

Thanks for the report.

LSZH(work) LSZF (GA base), Switzerland

Wow Bosco, you raised the bar even higher with this trip. I bet your passengers were happy with their weekend.
Can your report the fees you paid ?

LFOU, France

Thanks, especially for the nice pics

EDFM (Mannheim), Germany

Amazing trip! Wonderful impressions! LIMG seems like a great italian „exception“ with Avgas.

always learning
LO__, Austria

A great trip report. Albenga is one of my favourites.

EGTK Oxford

Beautiful pics in beautiful wx, and great detail for the wx planning too.

Thanks for posting it!

I wish I had the chance to do more winter flying to the Alps, but I hope to address that soon.

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Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom
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