A couple of weeks ago we flew to Venice for a weekend. Here are some pictures:
The first leg Lelystad EHLE - Mannheim EDFM was done VFR. We arrived just before sunset.
Over the German Alps. We left early, to avoid CB's which where forecast-ed later on the day.
The autopilot is U/S, so handflying at FL170.
Austrian Glaciers
We asked to fly the ILS RWY04 on LIPZ (Venice Marco Polo), and breakout to the right to our destination LIPV (Venice Lido). The controller squeezed us in between the landing airliners and asked to keep a high speed...
Breaking out to the right...
Abeam Venice...
Our destination Venice Lido (LIPV), a grass strip of 994 meters...
The airport restaurant serves the food you would expect in Italy...
We used the free WIFI at the airport to book a hotel. We found this very nice renaissance style hotel for 79EUR / night for a single room.
Venice is one of its kind...
Very nice ice cream!
Plenty of places to eat in Venice. Beware for the tourist traps though!
The next morning the weather at Venice was brilliant. But looks can be deceiving... There is a low pressure area over central Europe, with lots of thunderstorms over the Alps. We skipped the plan to fly to Colmar LFGA and stay east of the weather and fly to Nürnberg EDDN.
Weather still good on our side of the alps. We filed Salzburg as an alternate, which was further east and reported CAVOK.
The Dolomites...
We asked to deviate 20 degrees to the right to stay clear of this cloud...
Innsbruck from FL180
Munchen Airport...
The handling agent was waiting for us. Handling is mandatory at Nurnberg, but not expensive and they arranged a very nice hotel for us in the historic city center.
We didn't know what to expect from Nurnberg, but it turned out to be a beautiful city!
Vibrant nightlife at Nurnberg around the Castle...
Next morning we where in the middle of an occluded front. Cloudbase at 400ft. Icing level was at FL100. No CB's forecasted so we decided to fly back at FL070. VFR-only you would have been stuck here the whole day.
The ride in IMC was smooth, but not much to see...
Very nice Lenthamen! I see that you are in for a little adventure. I am organizing a fly-in to Mallorca for aeroclubs from the Benelux during the weekend of May 1st next year. Have invited the KLM Aeroclub, and awaiting their response.. Maybe the Diamond Flyers would like to consider this too? We will probably succeed in convincing the local authorities to provide free hotel rooms and are working on some fuel sponsorship as well..
Jan from Belgium, what about you!
Hi Aart, a flyin to Mallorca sounds like a great trip! I'm certainly in for it. If you have more details, I could forward it to the Diamond Flyers?
Maybe best to set up some direct comms between us, plus we can use our lovely native tongue! There was some talk on enabling PM-ing (Hangar Talk - Introductions) but I don't think we can do that yet. Peter?
Hi Aart, just email me at
Hi Len,
what kind of DA40 is able to climb to FL180? I was assuming the max altitude is 5000m which is about 16K ft?= ;-)
And hand flying in FL170 - isn't that a bit flabby?
Cheers Andreas
Hi Muelli, It's a DA40 TDI with a 2.0 Centurion engine.
According to the PoH, the "Demonstrated Operating Altitude" is 16400ft. But the PoH is based on the "old" 1.7 Thielert engine, and the 2.0 Centurion is performing way better then book performance at altitude.
I've flown it up to FL200... It's true that the controls are getting very "light" at that altitude due to the thin air.
I've had a discussion on this forum on DA40 and altitude flying earlier this year, here:
I red that discussion but didn't found a hint whether I can go above the aircraft's ceiling by my own (I don't think this idea would even cross my mind). Beside that I'd need a licensed copilot IFR without working A/P I won't hand fly at that altitude at all. But I haven't tested it myself so I don't have experience.
Nothing much changes at FL200+, the controls get softer but they still work the same way.
There are two different ceilings: the certified maximum operating altitude in section 2 of your POH (limitations) which is a limit you are not allowed to violate and the ceiling as to where the climb rate is only 100fpm. That is not a limitation and you can go higher as you please. The DA40 does not have a limitation regarding altitude.
If the engine temperatures are good, I would see no reason to not go to FL200 and more. However, this needs a well working oxygen system with a good backup because the higher you go, the less time you have should your oxygen system fail.
No PMs yet but if you configure a visible email address in your profile it will be visible only to logged-in people so will be reasonably spammer protected.
