Inspired by Peter’s last great trip write-up and the sunny weather on yesterday’s King’s Day holiday in the Netherlands, a plan was born to swing by my family near Ulm for coffee in the later afternoon, and use the midday to have a look at the Swiss Alps in preparation for either some summer hiking trips or skiing next winter. The general idea was to make a refueling and breakfast stop in Leutkirch EDNL, and then route – depending on the weather of course – via the St. Gotthard- and Nufenen-Pass into the Rhône valley, overfly Sion and head back to either Leutkirch oder Biberach EDMB via Thun and the pre-alpine lakes. The GAFOR for the Gotthard route on the morning was closed to marginal, and the webcams of Andermatt and Airolo showed clouds hanging around the lorries, but the nearby Grimselpass alternative route was forecast as open and promising, so the plan changed to route via Meiringen up the pass.
First leg Rotterdam – Leutkirch routing via Eindhoven, Geilenkirchen, Hahn, and Stuttgart was uneventful on FL75 or thereabouts with very little wind and 150KTAS almost always also GS; Refueling in Leutkirch with 67l 100LL quite economical.
The updated weather for the Swiss route was still looking good, so I left Leutkirch around noon and headed first towards St. Gallen.
Along the Alps towards the Vierwaldstättersee, a bit hazy.
Zürich Info was despite flying around 8000ft not easy to receive, and in the end I think that it would have been better to call up the dedicated frequency for the status of the Buochs and Alpnach military CTRs on 134.130. In the end, Zürich Info did provide the information that these zones were inactive, but that I had to call Meiringen for a CTR crossing; following the lakes, Meiringen was inactive and answered by a taped message which is kind of nifty. From Meiringen, I headed up next the valley southbound towards the Grimselpass.
Clouds were scattered around but not really a factor, and flying high up in the valley at around 9500ft – 9800ft kept gave me enough room to manoeuver around and turn back in case the pass or the other side would be too clouded.
Beautifully snowed caps on top of the pass, and a nice view a few moments later into the Rhône valley:
The weather was wonderful and sunny, and despite a scattered cloud cover around 10.000ft or thereabouts, I enjoyed the flight tremendously. Contact with Zürich Info 124.7 was lost soon after the Grimselpass, so I changed to the Swiss mountain frequency 130.355 and made some blind calls along the valley. Close to Brig with the Simplonpass valley turning off towards the left:
Having acquired my PPL in the Netherlands, it’s quite an enjoyable and refreshing reminder of my motorcycling days in the Alps to fly along the valley below the peaks!
A bit east of Raron I could make contact with Geneva Information shortly before I switched first to Sion Radar for a TMA and CTR crossing. Radar handed me at VRP E over to the tower who was very relaxed and gave me immediately a crossing clearance towards VRP NW. Since only one other aircraft was on frequency and it was very quiet, I asked if a technical stop for refueling and a toilet break would have been possible despite the Corona measures, and the controller answered that in principle it should be possible, one would just need to file a flight plan and call in the morning for last-minute information. So while not necessary yesterday, it is good to know that next time I could pack a Leberkässemmel and thermos flask, land in Sion and have a break. Overhead Sion with Martigny in the distance visible.
Onwards to the Lac Leman where the very nice Swiss-French controller enquired if I would be familiar with the active military firing area nearby (which I already knew from the DABS bulletin).
Via Vevey, Gruyères, Schwarzsee, and Thun back to the string of lakes; here overhead Interlaken I believe with the Brienzersee in the sunshine:
The journey was getting a little bit more eventful since – being back with Zürich Information – FIS advised me that Meiringen would now be active but I could not reach them yet on the radio, probably because being behind the bend in the valley the transmissions were too garbled. In the end no big issue as I flew below the Meiringen TMA and could make radio contact near Unterseen with the tower who immediately cleared me through the CTR with the clearance to remain south of the field.
Leaving the Meiringen CTR towards Alpnach, the Alpnach tower which was now active as well cleared me through their area and also coordinated with Buochs and probably Emmen as I was cleared to Küssnacht from where I resumed own navigation and headed abeam Wangen-Lachen back to St. Gallen. A last view towards Buochs enroute to Küssnacht:
And without further issues overhead St. Gallen-Altenrhein towards Friedrichshafen and Biberach where family picked me up for coffee and cake. Friedrichshafen airfield:
Refueling in Biberach after landing: 75l 100LL for 2:45h flight time, mostly around 65% power and 140KTAS to 150KTAS.
The evening flight back to Rotterdam was again uneventful, with the only fly in the ointment that the setting sun in the west combined with the hazy air below 10.000ft or thereabouts was a bit straining on the eyes. After take-off I climbed to my usual FL85 and asked FIS to coordinate a Stuttgart class D crossing REUTL DCT KRH which was granted quickly; what surprised me a little compared to similar crossings in the past was on both occasions in the morning and now the radar controller gave me an IMHO rather superfluous clearance statement that I had to remain VMC and had to follow the controller’s orders while in controlled airspace … yeah, what else did she expect me to do?
2:05h flight time later in almost no-wind conditions an evening landing at my home base which – as I found out while filling out the logbook today – was my 500. landing since I started my PPL in summer 2019; so my colleagues were treated to a homemade cake today :)
Summarising, a wonderful way to spend the day sightseeing and getting a bit away from the 2D Dutch landscape. Route planning and navigation with Skydemon (on two backup devices in the plane) was making such a single-pilot short-term VFR trip much less strenuous, and I am so enamored with the wonderfully capable RV-7 due to the magnificent uninterrupted view (tip-up bubble canopy) and relatively economical consumption (one can plan reliably with 150KTAS@8000ft@30l/h, and dialing back to 20"-2000RPM still gives 105KTAS@20l/h, so more than 7h endurance if needs be with the 160l tanks).
Nice trip report from an area, I’m very familiar with! 
You did the routing in the absolute correct way: First off to Grimselpass and then leave the valley via Martigny and Lake Geneva. The Grimsel and Furka are very tricky when approaching from the Rhone valley, as they’ve often some strange leeward winds. Especially with some clouds and possible bad weather on the north side, it can get a dangerous trap. Other famous wind systems are south of Gotthard and east of Maloja. Nonetheless, with 9.800 ft, you had plenty enough space and your airplane a powerful engine. But it would be a no-go in a common Cessna 172 with 1 or 2 passengers below 9.000 ft. Especially in summer with high-density altitudes.
Sebastian_H wrote:
A bit east of Raron I could make contact with Geneva Information shortly before I switched first to Sion Radar for a TMA and CTR crossing. Radar handed me at VRP E over to the tower who was very relaxed and gave me immediately a crossing clearance towards VRP NW.VFR traffic can always directly call Tower in Sion. They’re reachable already around Brig in your altitude. Radar does the service for military traffic and IFR approaches.
Since only one other aircraft was on frequency and it was very quiet, I asked if a technical stop for refueling and a toilet break would have been possible despite the Corona measures, and the controller answered that in principle it should be possible, one would just need to file a flight plan and call in the morning for last-minute information. So while not necessary yesterday, it is good to know that next time I could pack a Leberkässemmel and thermos flask, land in Sion and have a break.Be very careful with that. For the Swiss, it’s indeed no problem as long as you stay airside, but as soon as you land back in Germany, you trigger all quarantine and testing measures. And you need to take care of customs. I heard that the Netherlands also makes quarantine mandatory soon somewhere in May. It’s a very sad continuous development within the Schengen-Area these days.
Leaving the Meiringen CTR towards Alpnach, the Alpnach tower which was now active as well cleared me through their area and also coordinated with Buochs and probably Emmen as I was cleared to Küssnacht from where I resumed own navigation and headed abeam Wangen-Lachen back to St. Gallen.You was probably above 4.500 ft, so you did not penetrate the Emmen CTR in that particular part.
But normally yes, they do coordination all the time more or less automatically. They hear everything from each other via an internal intercom (Emmen, Alpnach and Buochs). If they’re inactive, pilots are expected to transmit blind calls within the CTR’s. Zurich FIS sends pilots often off to do so, including for Meiringen and Payerne.
Frans wrote:
Be very careful with that. For the Swiss, it’s indeed no problem as long as you stay airside, but as soon as you land back in Germany, you trigger all quarantine and testing measures. And you need to take care of customs. I heard that the Netherlands also makes quarantine mandatory soon somewhere in May. It’s a very sad continuous development within the Schengen-Area these days.
That is indeed one more planning obstacle. Customs-wise, my home base Rotterdam is an international port of entry with H24 customs available, and for intra-Schengen flights, the Dutch AIP GEN 1.2(4) requires only a flight plan for notification, and no immigration pre-notification (GEN 1.2(3.2) does not apply to Schengen flights: “The obligations of the captain related to the General Declaration form for flights from/to countries outside the Schengen area, are as follows […]”). But that would mean either a direct flight to or from Sion, which would be around 3:00 depending on the head/tail wind. If I route back to the Allgäu area, Leutkirch EDNL can arrange customs on a pre-notification basis, Memmingen EDJA is next door, and otherwise Friedrichshafen EDNY should work. If routing from Montreux back to Rotterdam directly, I have no idea yet where to make a customs stop; that needs to be investigated further (fellow forum member Jean used Pontarlier LFSP which might be worth a look).
Quarantine-wise, until now I fell under one of the Dutch exemption clauses, so that was not an issue yet; let’s see how the new rules will pan out for my travel plans. From a practical perspective, I keep anyway to myself these days, see the same five colleagues on a daily basis since over a year, and most further human interaction comes from the shopping trip every ten days or so …
Frans wrote:
If they’re inactive, pilots are expected to transmit blind calls within the CTR’s. Zurich FIS sends pilots often off to do so, including for Meiringen and Payerne.
That’s a good piece of information to know! In my case, Zürich just advised to call up Meiringen on my own (which was OK with their automatically-triggered taped answer), but for next time, I will remember to do that.
Beautiful scenery – thanks for posting it
I landed at Sion many years ago. Must do it again soon. The area is a good place for skiing too – at least for good skiers.
Peter wrote:
I landed at Sion many years ago. Must do it again soon. The area is a good place for skiing too – at least for good skiers.
Fingers crossed that this winter season skiing trips will be doable. I was in Zell am See last fall for hiking in similarly excellent conditions, so St. Johann LOIJ, Zell LOWZ, and Sion LSGS would all be about 3h flight time away. Combined with the massive shift of my employer to enable work from home or remotely as a default, I would pack my work laptop and can ride out the weather if needs be without even losing vacation days.
Sebastian_H wrote:
If routing from Montreux back to Rotterdam directly, I have no idea yet where to make a customs stop; that needs to be investigated further (fellow forum member Jean used Pontarlier LFSP which might be worth a look).Yes, Pontarlier is possible upon prior notice (minimum 12 hours). I did it last year together with @boscomantico. You need to send a form by e-mail to the dedicated customs office.
Strasbourg LFST, no prior notice.
T28 wrote:
Strasbourg LFST, no prior notice.
Thanks! In general, a direct flight back LSGS – EHRD would be possible easily w.r.t. fuel, but in case the weather towards the north might be a bit more shifty, I would prefer to be already inside the customs union to have a more free hand to choose a weather alternative (I assume apart from an emergency situation it would be illegal to divert to a non-custom airfield).
Sion valley is just beautiful !
one can plan reliably with 150KTAS@8000ft@30l/h, and dialing back to 20"-2000RPM still gives 105KTAS@20l/h
Looks surprisingly very linear between 150TAS@30l/h and 105TAS@20l/h, will you get 170TAS@34l/h ?
In M20J, I get 110TAS@20l/h and 150TAS@30l/h, then it goes non-linear 165TAS@55l/h
Sebastian_H wrote: Sebastian_H wrote:
If routing from Montreux back to Rotterdam directly, I have no idea yet where to make a customs stop
Annemasse LFLI, it’s 1h PNR, the nice guy at reception desk has “NYPD police hat” and he use it to make smiles for Switzerland arrivals
Annemasse LFLI
He’s flying to Rotterdam, not Royan…
