14.09.2013: Today I went to observe the first flight of an RV-12 in Mollis (LSMF). Of course I went there by plane, even though it’s only a 20 min flight. Mollis is a former military airfield in the mountains.
I’m the flight test advisor for the builder of the RV-12 below, a role which is more a kind of support to properly follow the flight testing process than anything else, as I’m not a flight instructor. The role does not necessarily require me to see the first flight, nor to participate in any of the actual test flights, but I wanted to see it none the less. Below a few impressions from the flight:
The first takeoff…
…and the first landing, which was very smooth.
A happy builder, which is now looking forward to doing the reminder of the test program, which has to cover at least 25 hrs.
Unfortunately I could not have a glass of champagne with the pilot and his friends, as I still had to fly back to Lommis.
19.09.2013: I flew for my job to Berlin today, with Swiss, not with my SportCruiser. I am planning since quite a while to do one of my business trips with my own plane, but the weather was not too got and the trip was also scheduled on a too short notice. I however still managed to take some nice pictures.
We had one of the new A320 with sharklets, they really look differently.
Below the famous Berlin Brandenburg Airport, for which there is still no opening date set. It should have opened in November 2011. I read recently that they want to open it partially in spring 2014, probably for freight only. (Note from January 2019: It still hasn’t opened yet, the latest “official” date is October 2020).
The light above Berlin was quite spectacular.
20.09.2013: During the flight home from Berlin we has a spectacular view of the full moon, note the standard winglets on the older A320.
21.09.2013: The weather forecast for this weekend was promising two days of sunshine for Switzerland and the south, but mixed weather for central and northern Germany. We had planned for some time to fly for a weekend to Dresden, but decided to go south instead. Vencie is on our “to do” list too, but first of all two days is a bit short and then I saw that they had a three day fly in and airshow this weekend, so we decided to fly to Bozen/Bolzano instead.
We only took the decision at 10 in the evening on Friday, so I quickly filled the customs forms for Lommis and filed a flight plan. It is possible to fly direct across borders from Lommis, but one has to register via the club’s website for customs and the form then has to be sent by fax by the person on duty to customs at least one hour before departure, respectively two hours before landing. Once in a while police shows up for a random check, as they did when I returned from Denmark this spring, but often they don’t so it’s just paperwork.
Bozen/Bolzano (LIPB) is only around 1:30 from Lommis in my plane, so no problem to fly there and back without refuelling. That’s important as they currently don’t have Mogas nor Avgas, only jet fuel is available.
Even though Bozen is not far one has to cross the alps to get there, meaning at least 9’000 ft, but with today’s weather that was no problem as can be seen below.
We flew via the Ofenpass, where one is supposed to switch from Zurich Information to Padua Information, but radio coverage in that area is poor so we did not manage to reach Padua. That’s however no problem, as one anyway has to contact Bozen soon after the border. Below the Ofenpass….
…and the Lago di Livignio, an artificial lake whose dam lies across the border Italy-Switzerland. The power station lies in Switzerland, the water that feeds the lake comes from both countries. The power station can also be used to pump water into the lake to store excess energy from the grid.
Soon after the Ofenpass one enters the Italian province of Südtirol (Alto Adige), the first lager town is then the city of Meran/Merano.
From there it’s only a short flight to Bozen.
The valley floor around Bozen is less than 1’000 ft aboe sea level, and blessed with 300 days of sunshine a year, so it’s extensively used for fruit orchards. One wonders where one could make an emergency landing…
The approach was to runway 19, straight over the industrial / business area of Bozen/Bolzano.
After tie down we left the airport. We had decided to spend the weekend in Meran, which is more touristic than Bozen, and only 45 minutes away by train. We took the bus from the airport to the main train station of Bozen, only realising in the train that there would have been a train station only 15 minutes on foot from the airport. So much about proper preparation….
While Bozen is quite a large town, located on the Brenner pass route to Austria and Germany, having a lot of road and rail traffic and a large industrial area, Meran is just the opposite. It is a beautiful, small town, with lot’s of tourism and only some agriculture business.
22.09.2013: There was a thin layer of cirrus clouds this morning over northern Italy, but it was clear already early in the morning that flying back across the alps wouldn’t be an issue. We did a little hike of around two hours in the morning, enjoying the view over Meran and the valley towards Bozen.
In the afternoon we drove back to Bozen, this time only to Bozen South, from where we could walk to the airport in less than 15 minutes. Arriving there we noticed a number of emergency response vehicles, ambulances and police cars parked outside the terminal, but mixed with a very relaxed atmosphere. It took us a while to realize that they were producing a film, and were using the airport terminal as a film set. It took us a while to make the security guy understand that we were not part of the set but actual users of the airport.
Wed had to put our luggage through the x-ray machine, but nobody was saying anything even though we had significantly more liquids than permitted according to IATA rules. I called Lommis to register with customs, and then paid the landing and parking fee. The total was only 29€, but that included that we were then driven to the plane in a golf cart by a friendly young lady.
We took off on runway 19 again, then a right turn with a nice view back over the airport and the city of Bozen.
We flew back more or less the same route as we had arrived arrived. Shortly before the border was saw a spectacular Lenticularis above one of the mountains.
Below a last look at the city of Meran.
The flight back was exceptionally calm, with not the slightest turbulence even over the alps and excellent visibility.
Below the national park, which we overflew at 9’500 ft not to disturb the wildlife.
And here Piz Buin, or as I would call it “Toblerone” mountain.
ATC was quite busy, so they let us in peace with only two reporting points between the Italo-Swiss border and Lommis, one of them being “abeam Wahlensee” below.
On the long and slow descent from our cruising altitude of 9’500 to Lommis we passed underneath a balloon, one of more than ten we counted in a relatively small area.
Conclusion: a great weekend combining flying with visiting a nice place, definitely to be repeated.