Trip report Rotterdam – Lyon Bron and Exupery – Chambery – Courchevel
I just returned last weekend from a trip to Courchevel, which is my favorite airport in Europe. The weather was great enroute with almost clear skies, except for ground fog forecasted all days at night and in the morning with visibilities of 100 meter or less. With same alternates available I have given a shot at them and had to divert one time on a flight from Chambery to Lyon-Bron as the visibility there was only 100 meters, but was allowed to start the approach at the larger Lyon Exupery with still quite low RVR values but the high intensity approach lights available on their 2 parallel long runway(s).
Here are some of the pictures I took of the trip to show how “hard” it is to cope with the winter period :-)
Spraying the aircraft using a garden spray pump with TKS fluid, then dry wiping it (more or less) before departure.
Not too much visibility taxiing out to the runway at Lyon-Bron early morning for our departure to Chambery.
I think it says something on my MFD about ‘knowing my limits’
Short final 36R at Exupery on a diversion due to bad visibility.
In between RW36R and 36L taxiing out to the GA apron.
Parked at the GA apron at Exupery. Pictures taken right after landing.
Some de-icing in the morning to get rid of the ice on the aircraft.
Just to make sure. On departure I had virtually no visibility. On arrival at Lyon Exupery I had RVR 550 on the first part, 220 on the second part and 100 on the last part of the runway. At DA I could only see the approach lights below me (which is part of the runway environment). I needed some taxi assistance to get off the runway as on the middle and last part of the runway I could not see the edge of the runway and thus could only look at my MFD to know where I was. For me, I was established on the ILS, at minima I did see the approach lights and third had the runway (GPS synthetic vision based) on my PFD as well in front of me. That was enough for me to feel comfortable to land and I was not the only one landing there at that time. I was number 5 and there was a CJ3 that just landed before me (with no modern avionics and no CAT II or III training/equipment).
In the ende did you land at Courchevel? Chambery is also very nice, I have been there in the summer. But better stay on the ILS over the lake as the mountains are quite high on both sides.
I considered a trip to Courchevel recently but one needs training, right? Is it “just” 3 landings there? Where did you get your instructor for that training?
the instructors of the aeroclub in Chambery do the " familiarisation de site ".
http://www.aeroclub-savoie.com/voler-avion/vols-de-vacances,7189.php
I have my site license for Courchevel already for some time, so yes, I went to Courchevel. You need more than 3 landings. It is about 4 hours of training at one day and some more the next. Then, the site license is only valid for 6 months, then you must have made at least 1 landing at Courchevel to keep it valid for another 6 months. To get rid of this 6 months validity you can continue your training to get a mountain rating, which is what I am doing, but not done yet.
Overflying the Courchevel altiport when there is nobody in the tower to inspect the airfield.
Short final. You have to aim well as too high is not good and too low of course also not so good.
This image shows how steep the runway really is.
Parked at Courchevel.
Flying the Mont Blanc Massiv.
@AeroPlus you now my hero and I´m also a pussy … keep flying and posting
I removed mine. 
I think this is only possible with SVT or huge balls and normal gauges. I had SVT in my Arrow (G500) and it wasn’t really a problem to go to the minimums (or below by only seeing the approach lights below me…) because I had everything on my screen in front of me (in the hope it matches with reality). However, now, with a poor Sandel 3308 and the much faster and heavier plane I’m very careful.
I am no sky-god but landing in OVC002/550m is no problem if you have a nice stable plane on which absolutely everything works 100% (and anything that doesn’t is immediately fixed), you know intimately what every knob does, and you have an autopilot which works really well, and you get yourself organised (meaning: start reading the plates 100nm back and brief the (or every possible) approach long before talking to the approach controller).
I could do it by hand too but it leaves zero room for distractions. You aren’t going to request the NDB hold if your AP is INOP In fact I would not depart in serious conditions with an INOP AP.
The tricky stuff is hanging out in icing conditions, or convective wx…
and it wasn’t really a problem to go to the minimums (or below by only seeing the approach lights below me…)
You don’t bust minima if you only see the approach lights! This is a common misconception that I have been hearing since 20 years. Mathematically, on a 3 percent glideslope at 200ft you cannot see the runway lights with a visibility of 550m. Only the approach lights and this is what they are there for. Depending on your type of operation you must see a certain number of lights and you can safely and legally continue to descend below the minimum. With 550m RVR the runway threshold will be visible shortly after reaching 100ft. The important thing (a common mistake of most students and inexperiences co-pilots) is to stop flying on instruments after seeing the first sign of lights. Approach lights will give you no attitude information or glideslope clues. Especially if you are not precisely lined up it is very easy to go to excessive bank angles at very low altitude trying to fly “visually” on approach lights alone. Much better to follow the synthetic vision like AeroPlus if you have that luxury.
