26.10.2014:  It was beautiful weather today, and as I have just bought a new little camera as a replacement for my IXUS 100, which recently started to show strange behaviour, I just had to go out testing it. The new one I bought is an IXUS 255, which has a 12x zoom in comparison to the 3x zoom of the previous one, which is quite an improvement. It is however still small enough to always take it along, and it also has a battery life which is long enough so that it don’t have to take the charger along as well.

The weather was perfect VMC, or rather HAC (hardly any clouds) for at least 30 miles around Lommis.

I took off heading towards the Säntis first..,

…before turning north-west towards the lake and Stein am Rhein. 

There I decided that the mountains looked like a better place to test the camera, so I turned south again.

There was a solid layer of clouds towards the mountains, but far below my cruising altitude.

I continued climbing, heading towards the Tödi…

…having a look at the peak from the top which required me climbing to 13’000 ft.

When the weather is so nice I often fly quite high, just to enjoy the view and to have my piece. The air is usually much calmer at higher altitudes, there is very little traffic and visibility is nearly unlimited. And over the alps the controlled airspace only starts at FL130, or even FL150 if the air force is not training.

As can be seen on the screen shot of my EFIS below there were 25 kts of wind from the North, which explains the good weather in the plains but clouds towards the mountains. One can also see in the lower left corner o the screen that the autopilot is engaged, with heading and altitude hold. It’s a really great instrument for taking pictures, keeping the plane steady while flying hands free.

I spent about an hour up there, relaxing, enjoying the views and of course “testing the camera…”.

I then headed South, passing lake of Zurich…

…and the Säntis…

…with the hut on the Rotsteinpass. I guess it is closed by now for winter.

Below the telecom installation with the big antenna mast and the 10 storey building below it.

On the way back to Lommis I also passed our house, taking a picture with the sun already quite low.