20.10.2019: After having been on standby since August I should have gone abroad again yesterday, but the trip was cancelled a good day before departure. So this plus decent weather gives me the chance to catch up a bit on my flying hours, which have barely reached 12 this year.
I took off for a local flight only, as it was pretty windy, but visibility was good once I got out of a very low layer of haze.
The mountains were largely in clouds, and there was quite some wind too, so I headed for the lake instead.
Just to give an idea on the wind, my Dynon EFIS showed 33 kts from 188 deg at 4180 ft.
24.10.2019: I made another flight today with my friend from Denmark, who came for a short visit to Switzerland. We have been flying quite a bit together during the last eleven years, around 26 hours according to my electronic records, including a flight from Switzerland to Denmark. Today, however, the weather was not as good as during most of those flights. Visibility and clouds were ok, but there was a strong wind from the south creating pretty heavy turbulence the closer we got to the mountains.
So after heaving been hit by some pretty nasty turbulence we diverted towards the lake. There we met some low clouds, which were however no issue for flying.
Visibility was better the more west we got, below the Rhine fall near Schaffhausen.
I’m happy we managed to do this short flight before my friend returns home, which was actually quite interesting, but not as long as we have been hoping.
And by the way, a video of the landing can be found here.
25.10.2019: I made another flight today. The weather was better compared to yesterday, especially the wind. It was nice weather in Lommis, but there was a low layer of clouds trapped north of the alps, somewhere between broken and overcast. It was too thick to climb up through one of the small holes, and also to climb above near Lommis as is lies below the TMA of Zurich, so I headed south under the clouds over the Ricken pass toward the Glarnerland, where things looked better.
And indeed, as soon as I had passed the pass the mountains of Glarus became visible. In that area there is also no TMA sector, one can climb to FL130 in class E airspace. Below the view I had of the cloud layer while climbing towards the mountains.
Looking west one can also see the layer of clouds over the plains, but also the nearly unlimited visibility above over the alps.
I climbed to FL 120, doing a loop around the Tödi, which is with 3614 m / 11’857 ft the highes peak in the area. Due to the still pretty high temperature of 5 C at FL 120 I actually flew at 13’840 ft, so nearly 2’000 ft above the peak. The wind was only 15 kts from 155 degrees, which at that altitude did not result in any turbulence.
I just couldn’t resist making a selfie and sending it to my colleagues in the office…
Below a view of the Churfirsten mountains, with Lommis somewhere in the background, north of the layer of clouds.
One can see how the clouds are being pushed against the Churfirsten from the north.
I did the usual loop around the Säntis, with the cloud layer suggesting that I was flying entirely on top of clouds…
…but looking north-east one can see that the edge of the layer was quite near, always allowing me to return with ample margin. Beyond that edge of the clouds are both St. Gallen Airport and Sitterdorf Airfield, both easily reachable in case the clouds would have moved north over Lommis (which they didn’t).
Below a last picture I took of the cloud layer taken when heading north towards the lake.
Two more pictures, this time taken along the lake where there was beautiful weather.
I also took a picture which for once shows what my complete cockpit looks like, with all the gadgets in operation. I’m still fully happy with the equipment installed, which allows for relaxed flying as it always gives me a good overview and redundancy for all critical indications. Looking at the EFIS one can see that the autopilot is engaged, one piece of equipment I wouldn’t want to miss. I use it a lot, it really contributes significantly to reducing workload, especially during longer flights and when flying alone.
And below a picture showing the runway of Lommis when approaching from Sector North, just to confirm that the airfield was well outside the layer of clouds, as predicted.
26.10.2019: Continuing the attempt to catch up with my flying hours I made another longer flight today. The weather was better compared to yesterday as it was blue sky nearly everywhere as can be seen below.
I did a longer tour over the alps, over the Klausen and Gotthard passes to Airolo and then east towards Chur from where I returned back to Lommis. As can be seen below there is hardly any snow yet, but that will probably change next week as the temperature will drop to around 10 degrees daily maximum in the plains with significant amounts of rain, which will probably mean quite some snow in the mountains.
