I was invited to a conference in Nova Gorica in south-western Slovenia at the end of October. I planned to go there together with one colleague who although a non-pilot shares my passion for using an airplane for business trips. There is a small airfield in Gorizia located conveniently very close to the conference venue just across the border in Italy. However it was quite obvious that we would need an instrument approach to get there so LIPQ – Trieste Ronchi dei Legionari was the destination.
Since the aircraft we took for the trip was PA28-181 the route was planned around the Alps way to the east from the direct course:
VOZ/N0110F090 IFR M725 GRZ N737 DOL P63 RIFEN
Several days before the trip models consistently forecasted that this route would more or less correspond to a weak cold front line. The front exactly as forecasted passed over Prague the evening before with little convective precipitation.
The GRAMET looked relatively fine except for the TCUs forecasted in Slovenia/Italy however I suspected it was too optimistic about the low level clouds.
Nevertheless quick check in the morning showed no thunderstorms, acceptable METARs/TAFs, very low probability of any convective weather all the way to Graz and positive temperatures up to FL 100-120 so I decided to go.
We have departed from Benesov in nice weather
and soon picked our IFR clearance with climb to FL90 direct LANUX on the Czech/Austrian border. Approaching the frontal area we were in between two cloud layers.
With some gaps crossing Danube
or Graz.
I took advantage of radio silence on the Graz Radar frequency and asked the controller if he had any precipitation on the radar. I got an excellent meteo briefing in response confirming that thunderstorms should not be an issue at least for several more hours.
In Slovenia climbing to 10,000ft (transition altitude in Slovenia is 11,0000) we managed to stay just above most of low level clouds. Some of them however already had noticeable vertical development and were growing up to the layer above us.
Also the wind forecast proved to be very accurate so we were now making barely above 70 knots groundspeed with head wind component around 40 knots. Approaching the Italian border we were handed over to Ronchi Approach and cleared for the STAR and the ILS approach. I was expecting to fly the full procedure having read the NOTAM about the radar being U/S. The descent was almost 9000ft in IMC and quite bumpy with rain showers. Also the wind changed from almost 50 kts at altitude to calm on the ground. Having flown manually since the aircraft had no autopilot my workload was quite high.
We asked for refueling immediately after landing and were directed to a fuel pump where everything was sorted within ten minutes. The AVGAS was EUR 2.70 per liter. Handling is mandatory at LIPQ however the price is relatively reasonable. The total bill was EUR 70 and everything was surprisingly efficient. It didn’t take more than 5 minutes to get to the aircraft 2 days later for the departure (which included the payment of the fees).
The forecast for the flight back was a large area of high pressure over central Europe implying fog and low stratus in the morning but clearing during the day. The route back was slightly different and was promising amazing views over the eastern part of the Alps.
RCH P63 DOL N737 VAMET/N0110F110 N737 GRZ L604 LNZ Z33 VOZ VFR
The departure was into broken clouds at 500ft but we were on top at FL60 and enjoyed sun and beautiful views on the Slovenian Alps.
The clouds started to dissipate as we were approaching Austrian border
soon disappeared completely
and we finished the beautiful flight in perfect CAVOK.
Very nice report and pictures similar to trip reports from Peter. So far I understand an AP is a precondition for flying IFR, how does it work legally without ?
No condition for an autopilot for IFR unless single pilot public transport which then requires it. I am also unsure if this affects private flights, but if you don’t at least have an AP that can couple to an ILS then the normal minimum RVR of 550m becomes 800m.
I post these words suddenly feeling unsure of myself possibly having totally misconstrued what applies to commercial and private stuff!
> So far I understand an AP is a precondition for flying IFR, how does it work legally without?
I can only comment on German registration. There’s no requirement for an AP on private IFR flights ( don’t know about commercial), but if you don’t have an altitude hold function, you need to have a second guy/girl in the cockpit who has an AFZ (unrestricted radio telephony certificate) :-) …
>if you don’t have an altitude hold function, you need to have a second guy/girl in the cockpit who has an AFZ (unrestricted radio telephony certificate)
Before I got involved on EuroGA I never knew anything about these weird bits of gold plating around Europe….
I hope that somebody has the balls to challenge Germany on these deviations from EASA regs. Especially as Germany will have to allow IFR in Class G, which will make such a reg look even more silly.
> I hope that somebody has the balls to challenge Germany on these deviations from EASA regs.
German national rules will continue to apply to German operators until it adopts Part-NCO, which it must do by August 2016.
> German national rules will continue to apply to German operators until it adopts Part-NCO, which it must do by August 2016.
I wonder what will happen to the “standard overhead join” then ;-)
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