Fly to ski

We are aiming to fly tomorrow to Trento LIDT for a ski weekend with the kids. LIPB seemed too restrictive and also we were aiming for Madonna di Campiglio for the easy slopes which is a bit closer to LIDT.

Unlike LIPB the rental car scene at LIDT seems rather deserted so we may end up with a taxi ride to and from the slopes. Lodging at Madonna was not easy at short notice, but at least wx is looking good with fresh snow today and sunny if cold wx for the weekend.

Any tips as well as any EuroGA members planning to be around this weekend welcome to chime in.

Of course I already reviewed the useful report on LIDT on the EuroGA database from Oct 2022.

Thx

So that’s what the Matterhorn looks like from the “poor” side!

Still thinking Aosta for Cervinia or Courmayeur around 25th Feb. The fall back maybe Chambery or Courchevel but I’m keen to visit Aosta after hearing all the good reports.

Advanced to expert skiers will be more happy with Zermatt though, including landscape and village. Good reachable by GA via Sion Airport from abroad or Raron nationally.

I‘m still amazed though that Aosta remains Nr.1 „ski to fly“ destination here. Do try also other destinations! Vars-Risoul from LFNC, 4 Vallées from LSGS, Kaprun/Zell am See from LOWZ, Kitzbühel from LOIJ, Engelberg or Andermatt from LSZC, Les Trois Vallees from LFKA or LFLE, Pizol from LSZE, Dolomiti Superski (Sellaronda, Plose, Kronplatz) from LIPB etc. etc.

There are just too many ideas! Sure, Cervinia is nice and Aosta relatively easy to fly incl. immigration+customs O/R, but every time the same would bother me actually. And if you like Cervinia, you would definitely like Dolomiti (Sellaronda) for example!

I’m currently hoping to do LOIJ for a week-long family ski trip at the end of February as long as I don’t face any icing threats.

Antonio wrote:

We are aiming to fly tomorrow to Trento LIDT for a ski weekend with the kids. LIPB seemed too restrictive and also we were aiming for Madonna di Campiglio for the easy slopes which is a bit closer to LIDT.

Just a quick notice on weather from nearby (Val Gardena, so a little further north-east). It’s rather cold, even if I would call it “normal” for January (around -15°C in the morning, going to -10°C during the day), with strong winds forecast for saturday and sunday. But really good snow and great slopes :)

Grazie @lukepower

We are already on site and yes it is cold (-10 now) , but not as much as Cervinia (-18) which drove us a bit off from there.

Cold does not bother me much, but wind may do at 5-10 kts forecast in Madonna town, likely more on the eastern slopes…we shall try!

Wind did bother us on the flight here with heavy unforecast NW blow on the Gulf of Lyon which luckily receded later as temps at altitude came down to -37C. Never flown so cold: had to adjust my usual LOP power settings (too much air mass flow for the usual MP) and good thing I put some IPA in the fuel. Our usually powerful cabin heating was only marginally OK this time around

Small report on Trento+Madonna.

We aimed to do a short ski trip taking advantage of the kids’ bank holiday weekend on Jan 20th-22nd. The Pyrenees was our preferred option but both of our preferred airfields were totally snowed-in and anyway the weekend wx was going to be bad. Southern Alps seemed good, though. We thought of Barcelonnette-Pra-Loup but 50 cm snow on the runway dictated otherwise.

Aosta-Cervinia was next on our list, we even checked with the airport but max temp for the weekend was a chilling -10C .

A quick look at Bolzano showed up parking restrictions whereas Trento LIDT were happy to welcome us. It seemed convenient for a weekend at Madonna di Campiglio if reasonable ground transportation could be found. When we were facing a 300-400EUR return taxi ride the AFIS operator came to the rescue (on the phone, in English) and suggested we try Europcar at Trento downtown, who coul deliver to the airport for a fee. Our request could only be taken care of on the phone but our counterpart at the Trento office spoke good English and it was all sorted in a matter of minutes. They were very flexible and reasonably priced and offered a small Lancia for three days for 120EUR. We ended up paying 60EUR more for a larger car because we wanted winter tyres, which later proved unnecessary, but you never know.

The day of departure had reasonable wx at our Mallorca base with a BKN cloud layer we would have to punch through on ascent. A rather typical 50KT NW wind was forecast on the Gulf of Lion at altitude but we nonetheless planned to face it on our northbound leg flying at FL200 since lower altitudes had a similar wind and for risk management I don’t fly long distances over cold winter waters at low altitudes. Temps at altitude were planned under -30C so IPA mixture with the fuel was in order, just in case.

So I set off around 9 in the morning with our 11YO and 13YO kids for a planned 3h30 mins.

Inspiring view of Alcudia, Port d’Alcudia and Alcudia Bay while leaving Mallorca under a BKN layer

We were IMC from 6000ft up to FL100 but we were through in 5 mins which left but a trace of clear ice on our leading edges, without measurable impact.

Reality soon set in when we realized winds aloft were much stronger than forecast, settling at over 100KTS once at our selected FL190 cruise (see pic in previous post). Oh well, I had never flown with such a headwind or such low temps! A quick check showed ROP cruise vs my usual LOP setting may be in order (MPG loss is little in such a headwind). Fuel calcs still showed a hefty 3h reserve on arrival after what was to be a 15min longer flight than planned.

As we exited the Gulf stream turning Ewards S of Toulon we switched to LOP cruise saving 7GPH, gained on GS but temps dropped 10 degrees from -26C to -36C and our engine started running slightly rough. We feared some ice but at that temp it just does not accrete plus we were well in the clear…MP was OK anyway. What was it? Enriching the mixture slightly fixed it but we did not want to fly so close to peak EGT so preferred a lesser FF…

Eventually upon further reflection we realized the colder air meant we were pumping too much air mass for our typical ref FF and MP so we were simply too far LOP…1" MP less fixed the problem at the same FF.

Arriving over Lake Garda we cancelled IFR and continued along the valley into Trento in excellent wx.

LIDT is a nice airport with relaxed atmosphere, easy procedures and four fuel types available (usually, I see gasoline is now notamed U/S, but it was OK last weekend). Much more easily available than Bolzano LIPB. It however does not have an instrument approach nor customs. The former should not be a deterrent since elevation is quite low and Brescia LIPO and Verona LIPX some 40nm to the South do have ILS/RNP approaches, respectively.

AFIS confirmed on the radio they had the keys to our rental car…hurray!

An impressive Starfighter looking like Mach 2 shooting for the stars at LIDT…

After a quick refuel (both for our Cessna and our tummies) we ste off on the 80 min drive to Madonna.

Madonna di Campiglio was all it promised:

-Excellent snow (especially so in the morning) after the very cold spell and fresh snow fall of the preceding days
-Cold (-10C to 0C) and a bit windy but the latter only at the top of the slopes.
-Easy slopes for our kids (and myself ;)
-High prices. OK for a day or two, think twice for a week!

We arranged ski rental and ski pass in the evening and enjoyed the Christmas-like atmosphere in the cold night.

The next day we set off for a full day of great skiing

Even half-hidden the face sais it all

Some quality if pricey apres ski

including great food with lots of choices!

The next day we set off for some strolling at Trento

Stairway to …Heaven?

The city has an excellent science museum, but we instead went to visit the Caproni aircraft museum on site at LIDT which claims to be the oldest historic aircraft collection in the world.

After a good lunch Wx was good for departure. However medium-altitude cloud with FEW-SCT cumuli at different levels clinging to rocks in different parts and a solid overcast around FL100 would have made it difficult to depart VFR to the North. The natural terrain-guided departure is to the South following the valley 10nm SW to lake Garda, then once with Padova or Milano ATC , changing IFR should be straightforward. Departing to the North, you will find Bolzano 30NM away and you can follow the road to BrennerPass (5000ft elev) into Tirol. I am presuming an IFR pickup will be more difficult than to the SOuth due to terrain.

Temperature at 5C after a freezing night was a bit low for comfortable engine start but I managed to jury-rig a power connection to the terminal building for engine preheating . Again Trento were quite relaxed (if not supportive) about it. They did not have connectors, extension cables or whatever, so we used our own means, which we had carried in our Cessna for the occasion.

On departure, it is LIDT that you can see at the LH centre of the pic

Lake Garda

Overflying an icy Lombardia before getting into smooth IMC at FL210 for 30 mins, but no fear of icing at -35C..

Unfortunately the wind had relented for the return so we only had a small tailwind

but it was enough to mean we were back in Mallorca in just under 3h. Some beautiful cloud over the island

meant instead of going direct we had to go from the NE all around the island to overfly Port d’Andratx at the SW

for an ILS into LEPA 06L adding 20 mins to the flight before a landing back home at sunset.

All in all a great experience sharing with the kids what GA can do for them :)