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Sion LSGS

Neal, I used to be based at Sion and it’s really not a problem to turn in the valley, assuming you are flying an SEP of some sort. The mountains are either side of you and go way higher (the MSA is something like 16,000 ft), which is a bit intimidating if you are not used to seeing the ground out of both side windows at the same time! A few tips to get you started – this all assumes you are VFR (IFR is a whole special case at Sion):

  • The valley is V shaped, so the higher you are the wider the valley. Weather permitting, start higher – say 7,000 – and go lower as you become more comfortable.
  • Keep to the right side of the valley and maintain a really look out for gliders and paragliders, especially in summer. They are concentrated in the valley, along with everything else.
  • Assuming you are coming from Lake Geneva, expect turbulence in the valley in the Martigny area, even in otherwise beneign weather. Two mountain valleys meet at Martigny and this generates turbulence even with quite light winds.
  • About 80 or 90% of the time, Sion will be on runway 25, which is a left hand circuit, so the mountains will be close on your right hand side as you fly downwind. There is a white church at circuit height on your right hand side.
  • Check out the GAFOR routes for weather information – there is one fromLake Geneva to Sion – but rest assured, as the area around Sion is the sunniest part of Switzerland with around 300 sunny days a year.
  • All VFR traffic is handled by the tower, so go straigt to the tower frequency when you reach Martigny and they’ll probably give you Whiskey as the reporting point, which is on the endge of the TMA.
  • Ah, I almost forgot to mention the Geneva TMA. They are not welcoming of VFR traffic! VFR transits of their TMA are very rare, so don’t plan on the assumption you’ll get one. Fortunately, Sion are always very accomodating, even when the military are active with their F5s and F18s.
Top Farm, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom

Wow thanks @Raiz for that superb briefing.

@Peter and all the other forumites- I really love how helpful and friendly this forum is :) your contribution is very much appreciated.

Last Edited by NealCS at 02 Jan 18:05
TB20 IR(R) 600hrs
EGKA Shoreham, United Kingdom

I have been flying between Sion and the UK once a month or so for the last 15 years. Great airport.
In addition to all the great advice above, keep close tabs on the official Swiss weather service https://www.meteosuisse.admin.ch/home.html?tab=overview

If you search weather for Sion they include also a webcam from Ravoire. This sits at 1300m and looks along the valley to Sion in one direction and the lake in the other.

Sion has the best weather in Switzwerland so it is accessibly by air VFR 9 days out of 10.

Upper Harford private strip UK, near EGBJ, United Kingdom

Raiz and others have said it. Sion has some of the best weather in all of Switzerland with over 300 days of good weather per year. The valley is wide and not a problem at all to navigate in. There is no reason to go to a place outside and find rental cars, Sion is quite easy to fly to. Go for it, you won’t regret it.

LSZH(work) LSZF (GA base), Switzerland

Just digged out an older video from 2014 or so after the Euroga fly-in to Lausanne. Conditions were superb, so instead of continuing direct to Bern, I chose to discover the Rhone valley from Lac Leman, so it has some pretty ok impressions from the dimensions of the valley at its beginning and around Sion as well.



Last Edited by Patrick at 03 Jan 22:45
Hungriger Wolf (EDHF), Germany

Are there any updates on Sion for this winter e.g. new restrictions or other stuff worth knowing?

Is there still potential hangarage, just to warm the plane up to get ice off it?

I am looking at this weekend.

I emailed the airport asking about any special restrictions etc and got a fast reply:

crew_and_pax_announcement_pdf

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Peter is totally right. I live in Montreux and has my baby hangared at LSGL. Trust me, LSGS is walk in park. Very wide valley, usually good weather in Sion and very long runway. Feel free to message me if you need further assistance.

Molder
LSGL

I am now looking for someone for this

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Monday we flew to Sion LSGS for a one day trip.
We took off at 08:30 LT from EBST (Sint-Truiden) IFR to LFSP (Pontarlier) for a customs stop before entering Switzerland. I had sent a PR for the customs with our scheduled landing and take-off times but when we landed there everything was closed. We just logged our flight in the registry book.
We cancelled IFR on arrival but we were locked at FL090 because of an activated military zone and we had to spiral down when arriving at Pontarlier.
On the way back we landed there again for customs and filling the tanks at the Total Automate. All military zones where shut, so we could fly back home following a straight line at FL065. The Aeroclub was open but we didn’t see anybody again, so we logged and left. The runway is 1000 m long at 2700 ft. With 33°C, full fuel and 3 POB it was just enough to take off but not too much !
LSGS is very friendly to GA. We parked at I2 and walked to the terminal nearby. No control whatsoever. Same at the return we just payed the landing fees and walked directly to the plane. Very straight forward and nice. We paid 59.75 CHF 25 for landing, 14 for PAX and 16.50 for Skyguide plus VAT 7.70% (a dream).
We took a taxi to Nandaz and then the cabin to climd at Tracouet where we had lunch on the sunny terrace.
We were back home at 19:48 LT.
Very pleasant trip though a little bit long for a one day. The weather was perfect.





Jean
EBST, Belgium

Jean wrote:

Very pleasant trip though a little bit long for a one day. The weather was perfect.

Nice trip Jean, with super weather and looks you managed a full day out of it, I went Paris-Sion via Annemasse recently, I did not even make it out of the airports to see what’s around, let alone climb in a cabin

Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom
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