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VFR Alps Crossing

Much of this is an “attitude to risk” question but if you can fly high enough, say 15000ft or more, I would say that 90% of the time in the Alps you are within glide to a big flat bottomed canyon.

The Big Q is what to do if the mountains are overcast. On many of my crossings they were essentially overcast. I run a topo map of the Alps on a tablet and the idea is that you can see which way to glide should the engine stop. With this, I have always been comfortable crossing the Alps.

The Pyrenees are very different however and one can easily be 30-45 mins with nowhere good to land.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

I came across a video today of two pilots doing mountain flying this week.

Nice. There really isn’t much more to it than that, except when the wind start blowing it gets bumpy and the wind will also blow up and down.

The elephant is the circulation
ENVA ENOP ENMO, Norway

A short article from an instructor using 172s in Telluride!

http://www.swaviator.com/html/issuesAS00/basicsas00.html

…and the late Imeson’s site

http://www.mountainflying.com/index.html

Last Edited by RobertL18C at 21 Jul 19:02
Oxford (EGTK), United Kingdom

Perhaps it is easiest and safest to just make a very steep banked climbing turn, keeping the airspeed around the best rate of climb. Turbulence can mean that you cannot use a steep bank angle, resulting in a much wider turn than anticipated

If you’ve the height, why not a descending turn, throttled back, reducing speed first to allow for increase in speed?. Lower G. Less lateral distance. Less risk of spin.Everything else I agree completely with.
(As regards mountain wave, I think it has been reported over 100 miles from New Zealand at over 70,000 ft by an SR71 Blackbird)

Maoraigh
EGPE, United Kingdom

I accidentally found an email I got from an experienced Alps pilot in 2004:

  • 30 kts aloft: dont fly unless a test of conditions shows it’s OK.
  • 20 kts aloft: try to fly with caution 2000 ft agl or (if more) 50% above the distance between the peaks and general surrounding terrain elevation.

Two big rules:

  • Always have some falling ground available that you could turn to.
  • Dont fly upslope beyond the point where you could glide away downslope if the engine quits.

Think of the wind as a liquid, to predict where it is flowing, especially when you have to fly across valley mouths etc.

Avoid heading into the sun unless safely above everything.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

A short article from an instructor using 172s in Telluride!
www.swaviator.com/html/issuesAS00/basicsas00.html

I noticed that, sadly, the author of that article has since died in an aviation accident:

http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20051123/NEWS/111230024

Fairoaks, United Kingdom

Think of the wind as a liquid, to predict where it is flowing, especially when you have to fly across valley mouths etc.

Easier said than done. You have to actually be there in the winds to have any chance of “predicting” anything. It’s a continuous process of anticipating/guessing the winds based on how the aircraft behaves and the surrounding geography.

The elephant is the circulation
ENVA ENOP ENMO, Norway

I noticed that, sadly, the author of that article has since died in an aviation accident:

Not really a mountain flying accident though – he hit a wire across the canyon.

Maoraigh
EGPE, United Kingdom

A wire strung – very – low across a canyon.

Not really a mountain flying accident

Yes, absolutely. I didn’t mean to suggest it was. Rather that it is sad that such a capable pilot met with tragedy.

Fairoaks, United Kingdom
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