In reply to Peter’s request for more VFR trip reports, here a small summary of my rather routine trip up to Samedan.
Every year I get to go to Samedan once to visit the Pro Aero sponsored youth camp of aviation. This very nice event brings together some 300 youngsters who will explore all sorts of aviation related subjects from building rockets to baloons and so on, as well as some introductory flights out of Samedan. I get to do a met brief there for the French speaking youths.
Samedan requires an introductory flight as well as an online test. I took that introduction 2 years ago and it was about to lapse, one more reason to take the chance and fly there.
Departing Zürich we follow the new departure route towards Sierra, which has been moved from the Bellevue to a shopping complex called Sihl City. Main reason is to place Sierra outside the approach sector for runway 34.
One of the highlights of the trip is coming swiftly: The islands Ufenau and Lutzelau in the Lake of Zürich.
View to the East with the Alpstein mountain range and it’s peak the Saentis.
Davos, location of the Word Economic Forum each year.
Long final into Samedan’s runway 21
Parked for the night in Samedan.
Samedan is a fairly expensive airport. For my plane, which is noise class B according to Swiss law, there is a noise charge of 40.- CHF. One night stop will set you back 80.- CHF and the landing fee is around 35.- CHF, all in all the rotation was billed with 180.- CHF. That makes Samedan more expensive than Zürich.
After Take Off on runway 03, we are passing the Albula pass road.
Not that I ever want to find out but still: This kind of altitude map could be very useful in the case of cases. I have to say, I love the Garmin 695’s map display.
Climbing with 500 fpm in ISA plus 20° through 7400 ft. I love the Aspen and the S-Tec 55x combo, which really work well together. I was most surprised how well the altitude capture function by Avionic Straubing works. With the VS normally used in the M20C, level offs are quite smooth.
Turning into the Flüela Pass
Weisfluhjoch and Peak near Davos. It is here where the Institute for Snow and Avalances has its seat, apart it is a great skiing area.
Coming up on the Arosa Valley.
“downtown” Arosa. I used to vaccation there a lot in my younger days. Still one of my favorite locations in the world.
Weisshorn Peak near Arosa.
Chur, the captital of the canton of Grisons
mountains in the morning sun
Baseleg for runway 28 in Zürich.
In Sector 3 I finally found some use for a Piper Malibu: It was conveniently parked to put my camera on it’s wingtip for the after landing selfie 
(Of course I put a hankie between camera and wing)
Whenever I report a flight to Samedan, the same questions come up. As it’s so expensive, why are you going there? Is it worth it?
A normal flight there with a short stop without nightstop in Summer is certainly worth it only for the experience and the scenery. It’s also nice to log the “highest in Europe” and if you don’t spend the night costs are not much worse than other Swiss airports. Where it gets expensive is nightstop or if you own a “noisy” airplane which is classified A or B in Switzerland, as they pay up to 40.- CHF of noise surcharge (B). And nightstops are even more outrageous with 80.- per night.
Yet, if I have to visit the Engadin I still very much prefer to fly there than to drive or take the train, particularly if I don’t have a lot of time to spare. Door to door by car or train is somewhere around 4 hours from Zürich, sometimes more. Flight time to / from Samedan was 45 minutes each, so I took off at 1630 Local for my 8 pm speakers slot and landed at 1715, more than plenty of time, and took off again around 9 am on the way home to get back at shortly before 10. This allows a speakers slot like that to be done between two pretty normal work days.
Technically Samedan is pretty straightforward in good weather. The biggest issue is Density Altitude and the exams / introduction flight one has to do these days. But I still find it worthwile provided you have business to attend to up there. Otherwise there are cheaper places to go. But I would not let cost and circumstances keep me from using the airport if it is convenient to use it. Just don’t let the introduction flight lapse once you have it.
Thanks very much for posting @mooney_driver great photos of fantastic scenery.
Brilliant report and photos, thanks for posting.
One of the tables on the Engadin airport website indicates that no introduction flight is required for mountain pilots. Do you know if that is still correct?
The runway is longer and lower than some of the French altiports, but being flat it could be tricky for conventional gear with a crosswind. Anyway, it looks well worth a visit.
PJ
Thanks for that!
I enjoyed reading it and loved the photos!
Brilliant pics 
I wonder how hard it is the get qualified to go there. It looks dead easy in VMC.
Peter wrote:
I wonder how hard it is the get qualified to go there. It looks dead easy in VMC.
It’s not hard at all, it’s just a major hassle (because you have to get a qualified instructor, and fly with him there; and you have to do this stupid online exam that asks about relevant stuff like marshaller signs; lots of people crashed in Samedan because they didn’t know the marshaller signs — not).
It is dead easy if the weather is good enough and you know how to calculate your takeoff performance.
This mandatory required training is only for small aircraft and serves to keep them away. Samedan is reserved for oligarchs who like to approach in solid IMC and set the whole town on fire by crashing their Beech Premier. As a result, Cat A aircraft need endorsements.
I used to go there before the disgusting oligarch rules were put in place and it is dead easy. All that with a measly C172 with three adults in summer. The valley is wide for Cat A aircraft.
Who conducts this mandatory training (as useless as it may be)? What cost is to be expected?
I would really like to fly there one day. When I was a kid, my parents always used to rent a flat near Samedan for the Easter Holidays. I remember very well watching the landing and departing aircraft and admiring the Vampire (Venom?) they had as a gate guardian …
The checkout flight can be done by any flight instructor who has preciously done the written test. But it has to be done in Samedan – it is not a general “mountain checkout”.
