01.06.2012: Only today I managed to go flying again, partly due to my job and largely due to recent weather.
I wanted to fly to Locarno today, as I still have to do a checkride with the EAS Chief Flight Advisor as part of taking over the role as Flight Advisor, and he lives near there, but the weather was too bad to cross the alps. I gave it a try, as clouds on the moutain passes should have cleared towards noon, especially in the west, but without success. I flew all the way to the Jungfrau, trying both the Gotthard and the Susten Pass, but above 7^000 ft there was just a closed cover. In the mountain valleys there were also lower clouds, so not a chance.
Here a flew pictures of my attempt to cross the alps.
Already the Ricken pass did not look promising, some rain showers nearly made me turn back.
Behind the RIcken it looked a little better, with lake of Zurich more or less open.
Below Wangen-Lachen airfield (LSPV), it’s always good to know where to turn to if the weather gets worse….
Near the Sihlsee things looked a little better, but not much. In the background the Mythen mountains, more on them later.
Here the big Mythen, the tip covered in a small cloud. Towards the west the weather looked a bit better, but again not much.
I then passed south over the Rigi, through Buochs CTR (LSZC), which is home of Pilatus Aircraft, but also a former airbase of the Swiss Air Force. It is currently in “sleeping” condition, but can be re-activated.
Here Buochs airport from across the lake,…
..and here from closer. On the right side the Pilatus factory against the slope of the hill. ATC had their lunch break, so the CTR was not active, the same was the case for the CTR of Alpnach (LSMA), the main helicopter air base of the Swiss Air Force, which lies just behind Buochs.
I then approached the Brünig-Pass, with the Bernese Mountains in the back. Things started looking worse again, especially when not looking west, but south, where I wanted to go.
From the Brünig pass I continued towards Interlacken, where conditions looked again better towards the west, but not south into the mountains. That’s where I decided to turn back to Lommis, heading east again towards the Mythen mountains.
Both CTR’s of Alpnach and Buochs were now active, but no problem to cross, I only got he impression that I disturbed the controllers during their siesta.
Flying back towards Lommis things did not look better than when I started, so I guess it was the right decision to turn back.
All in all it was still a nice flight and a change to the usual blue sky flying. I intentionally do some poor weather flying once in a while, as it sharpens the sense for where one’s personal limit is. And of course I’m always doing it in a way that I always have a “Plan B”.
20.06.2012: My web provider changed some of his settings again, so my web-upload did not work for a few days until I had figured out what I have to change, that’s why this update is a bit late.
Dani decided that today was the day for the first flight with his Kitfox HB-YHO. He initially wanted to do the first flight on Monday, but I had to go on a business trip to Brussels on short notice, so he decided to shift it to Wednesday so that I could be there as an observer. Even though I am his flight test advisor he could have done the fist flight without me being present, but it was nice that he shifted the flight so that I could be there.
Dani currently keeps his Kitfox on a trailer, so he fist had to assemble and to fuel it. As the wings fold backwards and the tail is low on his trailer he can’t leave fuel in the tanks when the plane is on the trailer, as the fuel would leak from the vents.
Here Dani is taxiing to runway 24, the picture nicely shows that the wheels on his Kitfox are big enough for our grass runway 🙂
There was an instructor doing touch and go’s with a student, but they stopped in time for Dani to have the airfield fully for himself for the first flight. The sequence below shows the first takeoff , with an estimated takeoff run of probably around 50 m, thanks to the low weight and 5 kts headwind
Below the “ground observers” watching him climbing to around 4’000 ft above the airfield. We recommend pilots to stay above the airfield for the first flight, rather than leaving the circuit, so that they are always in gliding range of the runway and can also get support if needed from the observer on the ground. For this reason we normally make sure that no other planes are on the circuit.
Providing support was however not necessary, Dani was just getting used to the general handling characteristics of his plane (which he later described as being identical to the ones of the Kitfox of Thomas, with which he did some training flights before the first flight) for about 30 min before coming back for the first landing. Dani did some 40 or so landings on the Kitfox of Thomas before the first flight, which was an excellent preparation as he demonstrated probably the most perfect landing of a Kitfox I have ever observed.
The landing run was again well below 100 m, definitely a plane for short fields.
The first flight was of course celebrated with a bottle of champagne, except for Dani as he subsequently did a second half hour flight. We then put the plane back into the trailer, and 10 minutes later it started raining.
This was definitely a successful first flight, Dani can now start with the test flight program according to the EAS process.
23.06.2012: Nice weather was announced for today so I decided to fly to the Lodrino (LSML) Fly-In, which takes place on a military airfield in the Tessin, the canton of Switzerland which lies south of the alps. My older daughter complained recently that she had not been flying with me for some time, so we went there together.
The weather looked less good in the morning, with the eastern part of the alps more or less blocked by clouds (5/8th-7/8th with the base at 7’000 to 8’000 ft), so we chose a more westerly route. We decided to fly via the Jungfrau Joch (11’332 ft), past the Aletsch Glacier and then from the Wallis to the Tessin via the Nufenen pass (8’130 ft).
After takeoff we headed south toward Rapperswil, with perfect weather and no clouds.
Even Lucerne still had perfect weather with no clouds,…
but this changed as soon as we headed into the mountains. Below the Bernese Mountains, with a nearly closed layer of clouds in front of them at around 9’000 ft.
There were some holes in the cloud layer, so no problem to fly on top. We anyway had to climb to around 13’000 ft to pass the Jungfrau Joch.
Here Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau, the famous trio above Wengen.
Below the observatory on the Jungfrau Joch, with the Aletsch Glaicer behind. We flew over the Joch and then down the glacier, always an impressive scenery.
Here the mandatory crew shot, my daughter obviously enjoying the flight.
We then flew over the Nufenen Pass to Airolo, with no problem whatsoever with clouds. We later learned that several pilots from north of the alps had also intended to participate in the Fly-In, but had to turn back as they tried either the Gotthard or the Lukmanier pass, both more to the east..
Between Biasca and Lodrino we passed an impressive marble quarry.
Below a picture of Lodrino from the north when turning to the final of runway 16.
Here the flight line just after our arrival, many more planes arrived after us.
There were quite many planes attending, and also many spectators, which I found surprising as the Fly-In does not include an airshow.
I also saw the F+W C-3605, with which I flew once as a navigator across Germany (see the report), it has been nicely refurbished. I just wouldn’t want to polish all that aluminium.
The P-3 flyers did a short program, always nice to watch.
Parking space was quite limited, so some spaces had to be shared between cars and planes….
In the afternoon we flew back, here Thomas and Rita with their Kitfox and my plane just behind.
A last look at the airfield when taking off, Ciao Amici and see you next year. It’s always nice to come to Lodrion, everybody is so friendly and happy for every visitor.
We flew back over the Gotthard, which was clear by that time, as a three ship formation with the Kitfox of Thomas, the SportCruiser of Urs and my plane. Here two pictures my daughter too off Urs’s plane.
Thomas also sent me some pictures that his wife Rita took from their plane, which are excellent in flight shots of my plane (of which I so far only have a few).
Here the SportCruiser formation with HB-YNL and PH-URS…
…and here once we had finished the photo session. Urs flew back over the Klausen pass to Mollis (LSMF), I went via Brunnen and Rapperswil to Lommis and Thomas still went to take some other pictures before returning back to Lommis as well.
Here an enlargement of one of the pictures from above. It looks more spectacular than it was, we were at least 1’500 to 2’000 ft above ground but the mountains on both sides off the valley are pretty high and the picture is taken from a higher altitude.
23.06.2012: Today I also received a picture from Urs showing his view of the formation over the Gotthard pass.
