Not much to add to what Avenger and Bosco have said.
From my desk (doing weather briefings for this region as my day job…) there are two things which can make alpine flying challenging. Cloud and Turbulence
First and foremost clouds. To cross the alps VFR, the best forecast you can get (apart from a personal briefing) are the GAFOR and GAMET forecasts for Switzerland and Austria. They are available (amongst other sources) from homebriefing and flugwetter.de as well as the Austrian weather site. All of them need registration/pay. If the alpine routes are XXX’d then for people who do not know the area very well and for most of those who do that is the end of the story.
Now, this does happen a lot less than it may seem or it happens selectively, that is if one alpine crossing is closed, others are open. Personally, I do not cross the alps VFR if I do not get a fully open GAFOR for the routes I wish to fly, that is I won’t cross them on Marginal or Difficult either, particularly single engine. If the top of the clouds is within my mission parameters, that is below the (SE) service ceiling of my airplane AND if North and South of the Alps there is VMC, then a crossing on top is an alternative. However, realistically this means a multi engine plane with a one engine out service ceiling of more than the minimum enroute altitude (preferrably more than the coud top).
The weather situations where the alps are likely to be closed along the whole alpine chain from France to Austria is a no-go for VFR are usually the “Föhn” situations, that is when there is a northern or southern wind exposure and fronts laying themselfs onto either the northern or the southern ridge of the alps. This will cause a “wall” someplace near the main ridge with the exposed side in cloud and the other side wide open. This situation also will cause mountain waves and turbulence, so most of the time it is a no go if it happens.
In Summer, it is a good idea to cross the alps early, as during the day there may be massive CBs developing in the alps in rather startling speeds. Prime areas for TS activity in summer is the Lyon region, all of Northern Italy and the Austria-Slovenia Border area. In May, this should not be a problem yet but can also not be disregarded.
Best conditions for an alpine crossing are found in either a stable high pressure area over and around the alps (watch out for CB’s in the afternoon in that case) or the 1-2 days after a frontal system has passed and the cold front is some 200 NM east of where you want to cross.
Turbulence is usually a problem if you have strong winds going over the ridges. In most cases this also means cloud as the worst of this happens in the aforementioned “Föhn” situation. If the GAMET shows turbulence or if there are Airmets indicating turbulence, it may be a good idea to go elsewhere if you can’t climb above the layer indicated.
Specific routes:
- The easiest alpine crossing in terms of minimum height and also landscape is indeed the Brenner. Not only can you do it at reasonably low height, the pass itself is also fairly wide and therefore not very challenging. It is also one of the shortest crossings. South of the Brenner however you end up right in the Italian airspace maze. If you can turn east (or west depending where you want to go) north of the Aviano Sector, you are fine, but it will mean that you end up diagonally crossing a pretty long stretch of mountains until you reach flat lands again. The other route from there is south towards Vicenca and then through the airspaces there. Philipp (Boscomantico) can say more about that route, I have never flown it and don’t intend to due to the airspace complexity, but if you are not scared of airspace, you can get through there direction Venice and from there to Portoroz.
- The Gotthard route is also reasonably easy to fly (once you have negotiated the airspaces around it in Switzerland) and requires about 9000 ft crossing altitude. After the Gotthard you end up in Italy however, where the airspace structure is a major problem if you are not really familiar with it. I use the Gotthard and the subsequent 1500 ft AGL crossing if I have to in direction of SRN-VOG-GEN. You can fly towards the east as well but need to be very careful with the massive Milano TMA in the immediate South of the Swiss border. It is mostly “A” airspace so no VFR possible.
- What I found rather practicable in recent years going in the direction of Croatia or further is the route via Salzburg-Tauern-Villach-ILB VOR. It is often available when the western alps are closed. Comfortable altitudes are above 12’000 ft in this region, highest I did there was FL170 northbound with a FL150 cloud top.
If none of these work, there is the way around the alps but it is considerably longer.
Nowhere is it so important to remember the limitations of VFR flying than in the alpine region. Every year unfortunately we do loose some crews in this area due to their blissful unawareness of this region. So if you go there, do so with prudence and choose a really lovely day to do it for the first time. If that is the case, the Alps can be one of the most rewarding flying experiences ever. If at any stage you ever have a doubt, turn back. Always keep an “out” open, either backwards, either sideways or whatever suits, but make sure it is there and keep careful watch.
In this regard, for people who have NEVER crossed the Alps, I have to say, a Fly In like this is the worst possible event to try. There will be “pressure” to get to the venue, something which is not good in the Alps VFR. So unfortunately, if you have never crossed the alps, I would not really feel confident to do it in a time pressure setting (which in any case for VFR is is not a good thing).
So unless you have PLENTY reserve of at least 2-3 days for each way, those with no alpine experience should strongly consider the risks involved and maybe rather consider attending a specific training avaliable from many schools around the alps before attempting a time critical first time crossing.
Sorry, but that is how my experience lets me judge this. That is also why while I am planning to attend, I wil not reserve hotels or anything just not to give me any pressure at all. With the Alps, you can be lucky, but most of the time, they are hard to plan with any certainty before maybe 3days ahead.
(Salzburg – Tauern – Villach – ILB)…. .that is the same route i described above.
Very easy to fly in good weather.
My VFR strategy for the Alps was always: as high as possible. For me that was FL130, without oxygen. It is easy to give up altitude and do some sightseeing if the weather is great, but it’s hard to get on top with 160 hp airplane if it’s not good enough for the valleys. Also in FL110 or 120 you rarely have much turbulence. Crossing the ridges low in a wind from the south with 15 or 20 knots can be pretty nasty already. And with more wind than that I would never cross the Alps low.
Alexis,
fully agree.
Just checked my flight logs. I basically have 2 routes I have used to get from/to Croatia out of ZRH.
The eastern one goes KOGOL-LOIJ-OBEDI-VIW-ILB, basically a shortcut of the Tauern route. There is the Innsbruck TMA to cross as well as a Danger Area LO-D022 Hochfilzen which goes up to 14000 ft, but which can be easily circumnavigated or overflown.
The Southern one, if the east is bad but the west ok, was from LSZH-UVULA-SUXAN-LIVD-URAVA-ILB. The variant over the Brenner would be LSZH-INTEG(Feldkirch)-KUSAM(Arlberg)-LOWIS (Sierra of LOWI)-GOGEM(Brenner) and then along the motorway to Sciaves (IT) until you can turn left to LIVD safely, followed by the same leg URAVA-ILB, or, if that is bad, via MALUG-LOKN (Gailtal Route).
What I found twice by now is that the mountain range south of Klagenfurt (Karawanken) can be the trickiest part of the exercise. Once, coming back from Belgrad to ZRH, we negotiated our way below clouds from Ljubljana along the Loibltal towards Klagenfurt in medium turbulence, seeing a “tunnel” from Trcic all the way to Klagenfurt. Would not do this again. The other times we overflew the clouds in FL120-150. (with oxygen). In both cases, after the Karawanken we had clear view of the Austrian Alps thereafter until reaching the north border of Austria, where another cloud barrier would loom up to again FL130-150 but with a ceiling in FL100 or so.
This is from a flight along the Fluela Pass route to Samedan (UVULA) on a day with “Oscar” in the GAFOR. Tops were at FL120, but as we needed to land in Samedan we stayed below.
One day later on the Southern route over the Dolomites in FL125. That is what it all looked like in the South until passing into Slovenia at URAVA.
Karawanken ahead (near ILB), this time we climbed over the cloud at FL130.
That is what the Austrian Alps looked like between Klagenfurt and Zell am See (Eastern Route)
Followed by a 10 NM thick cloud bank at the very northern edge. We decided to overfly it in FL150, there was a ceiling of about 9000 ft (well above the terrain) below this.
Here are a few trip reports along these routes:
ZRH-BEG-PDV via the Southern route
Trip report Plovdiv-Belgrade-Zürich (2011) via the Eastern route
ZRH-Samedan-Rijeka-ZRH in 2012, Outbound via Southern route, back via Eastern route
The cloudbase looks awfully close to the terrain
I did that in 2004, when I used the infamous Swiss ICAO chart which mixed up feet and metres in the elevations 
I thought the cows looked a bit too big, which was odd because Switzerland was not in the EU so they could not have been EU-fattened cows.
Peter, the Hotel you recommended in LDLO seems to have only one room left and it looks like it can’t be reached by eMail. If i take the family we’d need two rooms (althought that’s not sure yet), if i take only my son then that’s fine (if it’s still available) In any case I could only come if wx is somewhat stable, because kids/son has to be in school Monday.
What’s your general idea, what are your plans, ideas for LDLO?
the Hotel you recommended in LDLO seems to have only one room left
If it really has only one room left, we must have a very large number of people coming to the fly-in
I suspect you are looking at the typical online hotel booking site. They always show a small # of rooms, to make people rush and book. I suggest you give them a phone call. I have just emailed you the email address I used to correspond with them. But today is a Sunday…
Anybody booking hotels is obviously taking a risk on the wx. You don’t need me to say that, of course! But Losinj doesn’t have a huge # of hotels, if you exclude the “family” hotels (read: full of screaming kids) so if you are prepared to possibly throw money away, you ought to book something ASAP. Achim should know more about the options “around the corner”; we have normally stayed at the harbour.
There is also a fair amount of self catering apartments. In 2013 we stayed in a very nice one. We got it from a taxi driver, and the tourist office should have loads of them. Self catering is 1/3 to 1/2 of the cost of a hotel booked at short notice and you usually get more room to spread out, but it tends to be less comfortable (often no aircon).
The other very nice place we stayed at was Mare Mare Suites, but that was a lot more € than the Apoksiomen should be right now (€63 for a single room is what a number of us booked at).
Some online bookers are scams. Always book direct with the hotel, or if a 3rd party is a lot cheaper then immediately verify the booking with the actual hotel. But that is standard, too. I got conned at Brussels once and it cost me a few hundred € (the cost of a burger at Brussels).
What’s your general idea, what are your plans, ideas for LDLO?
When we land, I am going to head for the airport bar and have a beer (5hr flight; will need it). Then get a taxi to the hotel, then have lunch. Everything else is flexible
I think different people will want to do different things. Losinj is a nice place.
Also, while my plan is to fly on the Friday (dep 0900, nonstop as always), the chance if getting away is perhaps 70%. The chance of getting away on Friday or Saturday is perhaps 90%. And the same will apply to the others, especially if going VFR and especially if having to stop on the way. So different people will arrive at different times. So a fixed timetable is not a good idea.
Please make any suggestions
Screaming kids is fine with me! I’ will even BRING some :-)
Don’t worry about me finding some other place, i know that place well.
After 5 h flights i always drink coffee – which i can’t do before the flight :-)
Ran a simple sky vectors with fuel/comfort stops at Metz and Jesenwang – at Super Cub warp speed only 9h45m flying time – not as demanding as my Atlas suggested.
Side note: can’t fly Jesenwang direct Losinj due to lack of immigration at Jesenwang…
A tip: Hohenems (LOIH) can do that with appropriate PPR and has best-price mogas for 1,43 Euros. Also, a good starting point for the Splügen Pass into Italy…
Boscomantico good suggestion – air time now around nine hours.
