It’s basically a cloud breaking procedure which can bring you into the valley when the VFR routes are marginal. It brings you safely over the Hahnenkamm (which you can’t see because you’re in clouds), and then you descend VFR along the valley into Zell. Provided you’re instrument and PBN rated.
And a WAAS GNSS would be a good investment in that case, no ?
mooney_driver wrote:
Hopefully there will be something like this coming up for Samedan as well.
But the Samedan GNSS approach was there last year (2017) for the “World Alpine Ski Championship” – Why was it abolished afterwards? Do the Swiss need ATC at the tower for legal reasons?
Fenland_Flyer wrote:
am somewhat confused by this statement. You seem to be saying that an abolute minimum on approach to land VFR is 400’. I am sorry if I misunderstand but what is the relevance to 400’, is it something in your country?
400’ is the system minimum for IFR circling approaches, e.g. even with zero obstacles the circling minima cannot be less than 400’ above the airport.
boscomantico wrote:
Yes, VFR. The plate says "IFR status ends when starting to descend below OCA/H.
For the particular case of LOWZ, yes. But you made a general statement:
These airfields don’t have “instrument runways”, hence they cannot have “real” instrument approaches to those runway ends.
You can have “real” instrument approaches to a non-instrument runway but the straight-in minima can’t be lower than the circling minima.
nobbi wrote:
But the Samedan GNSS approach was there last year (2017) for the “World Alpine Ski Championship” – Why was it abolished afterwards? Do the Swiss need ATC at the tower for legal reasons?
I think that they are working on it to get it going, the period of its use last year was some sort of a trial phase. I am not on top of what is going on with it but the goal afaik is to get it permanent asap.
boscomantico wrote:
have you seen the minima for this approach?
No way this procedure will really change typical GA dispatch rates in and out of this airport.
I tend to see it, like some follow-up posters, as a cloud breaking procedure in situations where access to the VFR routes isn’t possible or marginal or where the non-Alps portion of the flight over Germany has been done IFR.
boscomantico wrote:
Still, it really is a far cry from a real IAP.
Fair enough – but while it may be a far cry from a real IAP, I disagree that it has no impact on the GA dispatch rate.
Bobo wrote:
IMC in winter you’ll surely be dealing with ice too.
That is true regardless of the Approach Layout/Technicalities. Also, skiing trips to that area are worthwhile far beyond winter in a “winter flying” sense.
“Also, skiing trips to that area are worthwhile far beyond winter in a “winter flying” sense.”
Very true! Spring skiing is the best skiing! You have the whole season of snow to provide cover, more sunlight, and better temperatures/weather
Also, skiing trips to that area are worthwhile far beyond winter in a “winter flying” sense
Practically icing will be an issue (not necessarily a showstopper in every case, though) in IMC more or less during the whole skiing season in Zell. The minimum IFR altitude at the IAF is 10000, and the MEA to get to/from there is probably even higher. Very rare for the freezing level to be above that in the Alps during March or April…
It’s always good to have a procedure to fly, even in VMC, because it makes life more predictable 
Of course not everyone agrees…
The real Q I would have in this case is this and this IAP definitely qualifies for that Let’s say you get a GPS failure or some position shift. This is not a VOR/DME procedure where the VOR and DME will “always” work even though you are actually flying it with the GPS. When a big jet flies some RNP into say Innsbruck, they use their INS (inertial navigation).
I would fly this IAP through a thin layer but not in heavy weather. It is useful in this case because often there is just a cloud layer, whereas if you are limited to VMC then you practically need blue skies all the way up to outer space. This is the sort of scenario.
I wanted to fly to Zell am See on Saturday, where all Germany had more or less CAVOK apart from the Northern Alps, where despite the cold, dry air coming in from the North East, a thick layer of cloud was lingering. I’m pretty sure the procedure could have helped us arrive on that day.
We got there a day later, though – blending in an extra stop in Augsburg for one night. I had never been, so the stop was worthwhile, in any case.
It’s nice that you can have the taxi drive right onto the apron to load skiing equipment in Zell am See…
