VRF adventure: Weekend in Zurich

So there’s a demand for more VFR content on this site. Not every schnitzel run is worth a report, obviously, and this year, I’ve focused more on capturing several trips on video rather than writing about it – but last weekend was centered around a VFR trip that introduced a number of new factors to me and I find it worthwhile sharing some details.

After I didn’t make it to the euroga meetup in Slovenia last weekend due to unfavorable enroute weather, I was still looking for a “mission” for me and the C182 TRG that I had recently been checked out on. I spent more effort (read: hours (read: money)) on this than on previous conversions and wanted to make sure to put this to good use during this season because otherwise I’d risk forgetting everything and starting over next year. Initially, during conversion, the increased workload compared to the C172 and PA28 surprised me. On the ground, the additional elements that require in-flight attention seem manageable (and, of course, they are) but retractable gear, constant-speed prop, cowl flaps, a turbo-charged engine and the general nose-heaviness of the type came out as things I felt I needed to spend some time on getting used to. This resulted in an additional flight with an instructor after the initial checkout. On this second flight (different instructor than on the first flight) we did around 13 circuits until landings were satisfactory and I consider that time and money well-spent. Additionally, I grew the habit (if I can say that, after four types) of flying at least once on my own before I take the airplane on a trip with people, so I did that two weeks ago.

Last weekend, then, it was time to add purpose to all this. I still thought Portoroz or even Mali Losinj would make great destinations for a weekend trip, but I couldn’t convince Marie, my girlfriend who was to come along, to fly that far – even if at the speed I was expecting, it wasn’t such a big deal. Weather to cross was forecast to be alright at the Eastern end of the Alps – not so much in the West (that ruled out places like Torino or Verona, which were also considered). She would have been happy with some local flying, but that would sort of defeat the purpose of flying a fast type such as the C182 and in the end, we settled for Zurich to visit some old uni friends of mine.

Departure was Friday afternoon. I had arranged for a VFR slot at LSZH on Thursday evening as well as handling (mandatory unless you have an exceptional self-handling authorization which, I understand, is reserved for locals) through MFGZ. There was a bit of a deja-vu with one of the last trips that started on a Friday afternoon in terms of calculated buffer being eaten away by horrible rush-hour road traffic on the way to the airport (in this case, from Düsseldorf where we are based to Paderborn EDLP to pick up the airplane). This will come into play a bit later.

I figured there were two ways to deal with the large chunk of controlled airspace around Frankfurt EDDF:

• Stay low and circumvent the reverse wedding cake (see screenshot below)
• Fly high into General Class C and get cleared across

While the lower route would have cost a maximum of 11 NM and would have been the way to go with any of the types I’ve flown before, I was curious to fly at altitude. I had bought two sets of Mountain High kit (i.e. Oxymizer cannula, MH 4 flow meter, mask, and the appropriate adapter for the 1982 Cessna 182 to connect to the inbuilt oxygen system) and I was eager to use that, too. Clouds were easy to penetrate VFR (i.e. it was a scattered layer or two and we found lots of holes to fly through and the same was reported for our destination – albeit with some local thunderstorms passing overhead LSZH). I still kept the lower route ready in SkyDemon, but as soon as we had left the control zone of Paderborn, I started to climb right away and asked Langen Information to coordinate at which (if any) flight level we could fly over Frankfurt on our current heading. A few minutes later, we were given a “go” to continue the climb and to contact Radar. We were then cleared over Frankfurt at FL 140. Using the cannulas proved to be okay for the two of us in terms of comfort. I checked my oxygen level frequently (as a first time “user”) and was steady around 93%. I have no data points to compare, but oxygen consumption with the mustache-style cannulas and the flow meters calibrated to our altitude seemed to be almost negligible even after the return flight.

What unnerved me was that we were not traveling as fast as I had planned for due to head winds. This in addition with the traffic earlier and a queue at the AvGas pump left us approaching nightfall precariously close. I have landed in twilight several times on local flights on purpose. Once, on a flight from Bern to Mannheim in March, I decided enroute that it was going to be too close to EECT and diverted to Baden-Baden and to carry on in the morning. This time, the diversion option was Stuttgart. By the time we were abeam Stuttgart, I decided to continue – our ETA was just about within evening civil twilight. It was very close and in retrospective, from a safety point of view, a conservative diversion would have been a smart thing – being so close to darkness in a newish type. At the end of the day (literally), mostly due to the VFR routing via E, we touched down some three minutes after EECT. Legalities aside, it was a stunning and beautiful experience with a surprisingly smooth landing. Getting the night rating done has just risen very high up on my To Do list for the upcoming winter season.

As we had a dinner appointment with friends, it was important for us to get going quickly – I was quite happy with LSZH in that respect. After backtracking on runway 28, we were welcomed by a follow-me car and a few minutes after parking, we walked through the GAC and the MFGZ handling agent called a taxi for us that took us to the center of Zurich in 15 minutes for a home-made carbonara.

The next day, we considered a flight into Italy (because my friend from Zurich has family there) but conditions on the Southern side of the Alps didn’t allow it. We could even see the built-up clouds in the South when looking out over the city and the lake while having breakfast. Zurich, however, was beautifully sunny so we spent the day in the city and near the lake. As the WX outlook for Sunday was so-so and not very clear and I didn’t want to risk being stuck in Switzerland while I had to be at work in Lübeck on Monday, we opted for a return flight on Saturday late afternoon. This time, we saved the money for a taxi and went to the airport by train. It’s convenient enough to get to the main terminal by train. From there, the GAC is easily within walking distance, but not sign-posted. I suppose few of their customers arrive by public transport to then jump into their private jet…

We asked for a Southern departure to enjoy the marvelous landscape of the Zurichsee area before heading back North. We were cleared via route S and were rewarded with some spectacular views. At 4000 ft, we remained below Zurich’s controlled airspace for some free and fun flying.

Abeam Bodensee, we began our climb to our desired cruising altitude of FL140 – we intended to follow the same route back as on our outbound leg. This was cleared soon enough and we continued climbing. As we approached FL140, it became clear that we needed to climb further to be above the cloud layer. During the climb, I had to change the heading once or twice to remain VMC. Eventually, we cruised at FL160 – my highest altitude so far.

Unfortunately, sometime into the enroute phase, we saw some even higher built ups ahead towards the Taunus/Frankfurt region, while it looked pretty clear in the East. I briefly considered climbing even further, but I didn’t want to become trapped up there and we opted for a diversion to the East to descend back into class E and to continue the flight in traditional “scud running” style rather than in sunny VMC over the top. We were cleared to change our heading immediately but couldn’t descent yet due to IFR traffic below. During this leg, I flew my record ground speed so far at 199 knots – unfortunately not on our homebound heading.

Some minutes later, we were cleared to descend below FL100, which we did. The following picture shows what in German I would call “Loch vom Dienst” (best translated as the “hole on duty”):

We were greeted below the cloud layer by dull, grey weather and entered a rain shower. Visibility was still really okay, but not “nice” anymore and Marie became a bit uneasy. As the visibility ahead didn’t look so well, I used the autorouter bot to get the current METAR at EDLP (which was CAVOK) and a radar image via the DWD interface. Truly helpful stuff! The radar confirmed that the weather was coming in from the west and the precipitation would end a few miles ahead so we continued North-East bound for a while in order not to fly into the center of the precipitation area. Soon enough, we were clear of rain and had better visibility again. Even while the visibility wasn’t great temporarily, this didn’t pose a threat in terms of terrain clearance as the ceilings were around 5000-6000 ft and we cruised high enough to be clear of any terrain even with the hills of the Sauerland region, which came up next.

At this point I noticed two odd things about the aircraft. We were flying slightly askew, leaning towards the right wing. Secondly, the right tank was much emptier than the left tank (it’s hard to notice immediately with full tanks, as the gauges aren’t very precise and fluctuating somewhat – but as the flight progressed, this became more obvious). I didn’t notice the apparent solution, but rather considered some issue with the fuel system, possibly a leakage. For the time-being, i.e. the rest of the flight if nothing “more” happened, I switched to the left tank and during approach to land, back to both.

The last 30 minutes of the flight were uneventful indeed and the evening ended, after putting the airplane back into the hangar and cleaning up, with a nice Schnitzel at the club’s restaurant.

The next day, I filed a report about the fuel situation in the online booking system. When I checked later, I saw that the instructor who did the type checkout with me had been flying this aircraft on Sunday afternoon. I called him up in the evening to discuss what I had experienced. Turns out the rudder trim was deflected quite a lot, which caused the airplane’s unusual attitude and the preference for the right tank. Why didn’t I notice this? I think there’s three reasons:

1. While the instructor noted I should have noticed the ball to be out of balance, I’m pretty sure that this was not the case during cruise flight, when I used the auto pilot most of the time.
2. During take-off and landing, indeed I didn’t notice the odd attitude. I accredit that to my relative inexperience on the type. I’m pretty sure that on the 152, 172 or PA28 that I’ve flown mostly, I would have noticed the aircraft handling differently (in terms of rudder input etc.). But the C182 still felt “new” and I think I was still in the phase of taking in how it “should” feel. A strong argument for more extensive checkouts/conversions – but of course, in reality, you can’t realistically cover every eventuality within a reasonable (financial) framework.
3. I really hadn’t been familiarized (or familiarzed myself…) with rudder trim. Most other planes I fly don’t have rudder trim and the in PA28, I never used it. Unfortunately, we hadn’t covered this during the check out and it really, simply didn’t occur to me during flight (or even during the preflight where the checklist says “trim for take-off”) to check rudder trim. Another argument for more extensive checkouts, but in any case, THIS won’t happen to me again.