The original idea was to have a sightseeing flight in one of many valleys in Alps with old friend of mine. The weather in the western part of Austria was not cooperating in the morning but we decided to depart anyway – with enough fuel to turn back home at any point in case the weather will improve.
The IFR initial segment was filled just to get south of Vienna comfortable – going VFR means you need to stay below TMA and this is usually not too high. After cancelling IFR at SNU we headed towards Kapfenberg and later Trieben. Weather was just fine with 1-2/8 of Cu well above the tops.
Somewhere around Liezen it was clear we won´t make it VFR to the north – a solid layer of overcast was visible in the north indicating the TAF for Linz was right. Our ultimate goal was lake Hallstatt but it became clear in some more minutes we will not make it neither– next to 3/8 of CU there were low clouds in valley. So the instant idea was to turn back home and fly the same routing but I checked weather for Linz again – it was FEW011 SCT015 BKN026 with western wind – making visual approach to Wels after ILS at Linz very easy.
Some of mountains tops between us and Wels were covered with clouds but there was nothing above. So I climbed somewhere to FL 110 giving us chance to glide and asked Wien Radar for IFR clearance to Linz with landing at Wels. Few minutes later I was speaking to Linz radar and IFR again. Looking at METAR there might had been chance to find some holes to descent but in really it was almost OVC so an ILS 26 at LOWL was the best choice. Next time I´ll just make sure to cancel IFR instead of just informing Linz Tower I a mat VMC heading to Wels.
Long story short –it´s good to have IR and to be current, it expands options you have.
this is about the moment we didn´t pursue to get to Hallstatt
climbing above the tops
few seconds after we break out of the cloud on ILS
at Wels
VFR chart is very usable and informative on IFR flight above OVC ;-) This is the leg back home LOWL-LKTB, nothing to report, poor VFR→ IFR.
