Being at Aiguille du Midi level would put you around 13000ft, did you need o2 for that trip ?
It seems impressive what your Rallye can do ! I know this area by heart but it’s not necessarily the first thing I’m going for since it’s heavily condition- and experience-dependent (as well as aircraft), but I may ask you questions in the future :)
Thanks for the inspiring reports !
We peaked at 12700ft during our time around l’Aiguille du midi. The whole 1st hour was around 9000ft, only the time around massif fu Mont Blanc was above 11K, and it wasn’t much more than 20 minutes. So we actually didn’t legally needed O2.
It wasn’t our first trip, we’re in MOU rating training. and we also ensured that we could all bear these levels without too much symptoms of hypoxia.
Great pictures @greg_mp! Would love to visit that Altisurface in Mayere once. It looks so cozy! 
No flying for me this weekend, as I had a trip planned to Corsica on Thursday, which is a holiday in most Swiss cantons (Feast of Corpus Christi). The weather forecast looks however not good at all, so I have to postpone that trip, unfortunately. Next year, I definitely plan for the long Feast of the Ascension weekend again, with the weekend of Feast of Corpus Christi as a backup plan. Planning with only one weekend, is way too risky. (And the weekend of Ascension was flyable this year yet again. Bad luck.)
Took my plane for an engine-running-in trip to Perpignan. It was mostly a beautiful VMC day, though I did get a few minutes of actual at 4500 feet on the approach. I still can’t get my KFC225 to fly a coupled approach – it failed to capture the glide slope despite declaring itself in APR mode. I’m sure I’m doing something wrong, but WHAT?
It was a bit hazy so most of my pictures didn’t come out so well. But here are the Iles de Lerins just off the coast at Cannes, complete with hundreds of weekend sailors. If you look VERY carefully you should be able to see the pizza boat somewhere amongst them (yes, really – instead of motorbikes, they use inflatable dinghies to deliver pizza to the moored boats).
greg_mp wrote:
greg_mp26-May-24 07:2106
A flying day in the mountains of north Savoye. Tiring flight training around Valloire AS (that one is very tight, no return point when you turn base…), Meribel LFKX, Courchevel LFLJ, a Lunch stop on the beautiful Mayere Altisurface with the kind owners of the refuge, eating in Front of the Mont Blanc we just flew around. Then the trip back to Cannes stepped by Megeve LFHM (under a shower), l’Alpes d’Huez LFHU, and an amusing lasr leg between glider places and « Cunimb » before the long final 17 at LFMD. We landed on grass :D.
Interesting minor modifications done to that Rallye. I see that she actually has the “new” style wing tips, but that this aircraft does not have the position/nav lights installed in the tip leading edge? Have they been relocated to physical installation on the wing tips, behind the (strobes)? Also, do you know if those strobes are an STC or CS-STAN installation (I´m guessing CS..). That rallye is being used like it was build to be used. Good life.
greg_mp wrote:
A flying day in the mountains of north Savoye
Great pics! Makes me want to do the MOU rating. 
A mountain rating with or without skis is very hard work. Hats off to greg_mp.
And once you get it you have to use it regularly, even more so IMO than the IR.
I realised, that living in a flat area I was not going to be able to maintain the necessary currency.
Quick hop to EHMZ and back to EBGB via Brugge and Knokke. First flight with my brother, weather has not been good lately but managed to go Saturday afternoon after a morning of rain.
We flew to Nuremberg on Thursday for the Erlangen Bergkirchweih. This was significantly more challenging than my previous two visits.
The afternoon prior, we had to adjust our plans from a fuel stop in Cologne to a double stop for extra fuel endurance, first in Rotterdam and then in Polderborn. The PROB30 for EHRD swiftly became CBs, and after we arrived, the weather would have an impact on our departure. JetA1 could not be refuelled at the club, therefore we had to taxi to F with Jet Aviation. This caused a delay.
A wall of weather that I had to outclimb out of Rotterdam, with a quick fuel break in Polderborn, landed in Nuremberg shortly after 2100, with a massive lightning storm system approaching about 10 miles to the south of the approach path. An isolated CB prevented me from accessing the reciprocal runway, therefore I managed to change runways and land on runway 10. An hour or so later, a massive lightning storm was overhead Erlanagen whilst we drunk beer.
After a few days of enjoying the festival, we flew back yesterday, and the weather out of Nuremberg quickly became interesting, with TCU reaching up to FL120, which I struggled to outclimb – we managed to circumnavigate with a few deviations and get above it at FL130, which would be impossible without oxygen.
On the route to Saabrucken, the weather quickly deteriorated, with an embedded wall of CBs heading towards us, which the TAF did not have until it was corrected at 1147, shortly before landing.
Once it cleared, we flew little over an hour late to Le Touquet, where I planned to either skip the IFR leg if I couldn’t outclimb the front, or divert into Paris and wait until the evening before clearing customs via Lille if I couldn’t VFR northward. Despite landing beyond my scheduled departure time at LFAT, I was able to proceed on my delayed SLOT to the London FIR. The fact that IFR managed all six areas was intriguing.
Fly IFR across the Swiss Alps, to a beautiful VFR approach into Ajaccio yesterday.
Down to Sardinia this morning.
