23.06.2020: Despite weather, work and Covid-19, I managed to go flying this afternoon. That’s one of the advantages of working from home for me, as I live on 15 minutes from Lommis airfield and can therefore spontaneously decide to go flying and be airborne in around 45 minutes. If I’m at work in my office near Zurich then I have to go home first by train, which only runs every 30 minutes and takes 50 minutes door to door. So from the office it takes me typically around two hours till I’m airborne.

The weather was very nice in Lommis…

…but there were quite some clouds in the mountains, especially those closest to Lommis.

I had to climb to FL100 and fly east to get around that area, south of it conditions were better.

After around one hour enjoying the scenery I headed north again towards Lake of Constance, where there were no clouds at all.

Tonight we also had the annual general assembly meeting of our flying club. It should have taken place on the March 27th, but had to be postponed due to Covid-19. Today it was scheduled as an electronic meeting using Zoom, which was kind of strange as the social effect of physically meeting friends and having also some face to face chats and pilot’s talk just wasn’t there. From a technical point of view it however worked well, including all the voting required to elect board members, approve the budget etc.

25.06.2020: I decided to fly to Samedan today, at 5600 ft the highest airport in Europe. They require pilots to do an online briefing, followed by a test, before being allowed to fly there. This is due to a history of many accidents caused usually by either density altitude (which can climb to above 9000 ft on a hot summer day) or downdrafts caused by special wind conditions, both combined with difficult terrain. Once one has passed the test they send you a certificate, which is valid for two years. I did that yesterday evening, as my previous one had expired.

Knowing that it will be a hot day I decided to fly there as early as possible, which meant takeoff time at 7:30 local time, the start of the operating hours on weekdays in Lommis. Samedan airport only opens at 8:00 LT, but that’s no issue as it takes me around an hour to fly there.

It was a beautiful morning, with no clouds whatsoever in the plains.

Some clouds were predicted in the mountains, but they were no issue as the base was somewhere between 9500 and 10000 ft.

I chose the route vial the Julier pass, for which a minimum safe altitude of 8600 ft is marked on the charts, below a view of the road across the pass.

Even though I flew at 9000 ft that’s still significantly below the surrounding summits, mountain flying at it’s best.

Soon after the pass one turns into the beautiful Engadin valley towards St. Moritz, beyond which Samedan airport lies.

I was cleared for a straight in approach to runway 03, which can be seen below. The approach is however not straight due to the terrain.

As it looked I was the second plane to arrive, but there was quite some helicopter activity.

I only stayed on the ground briefly to pay my landing fee, taking off again at around 9:00.

I took off on runway 21, but as the terrain rises in that direction, as can be seen below, I did one circuit go gain altitude before heading south.

I had planned to head towards the Tessin before returning to Lommis, but as can be seen above and below there were dense clouds south of the alps.

I therefore decides to turn north again, passing the Avers valley where I spend holidays as kid and the Piz Platta, which thrones above.

As mentioned earlier I love early morning flying, the air is calm and you have to share the air with few planes, especially during weekdays.

27.06.2020: Not only the general assembly meeting had to be postponed, but also our annual airport cleaning day, which was finally scheduled for today. I spent the day with a friend checking and greasing the four lifts we have in the hangar, including the one on which my plane is parked.

The airport manager asked me to borrow my plane, as they wanted to redo the markings on the ground to park planes in the hangar. He told me that an additional SportCruiser is scheduled to arrive on Sunday, owned by a private pilot who years ago had a Mooney stationed in Lommis. So there will be three SportCruiser in Lommis, the only other type of which there are three in Lommis is the Bücker Jungmann.

When we moved my plane to the hangar where the new one will be stationed it started raining, so it got a free wash…

28.06.2020: I’m preparing the annual maintenance, which is scheduled for next week, always quite some paperwork before one can actually start. This year I will have to weigh the plane, which one has to do every 10 years, amazing it’s already that long since I did the first flight.

30.06.2020: My friend from Denmark arrived yesterday for a visit, so we decided to go flying this morning.