Dan wrote:
Nobody mentioned superior. It is additional. As in gives you more tools, an insight to learn about mountain flying.
Indeed – flying in Switzerland and avoiding the mountains would be pretty limiting, so the training here has a lot of focus on mountain flying for both fun and safety. It only takes one “holy crap” moment to teach you respect for the natural elements. This can be mountains, storms, CAT, wake vortices, etc. Lots of stuff out there that can cause us to have a bad day no matter where we fly – mountains or flat land.
Tres beau!
greg_mp wrote:
approaching Barcelonette, the day after huge snowfalls
Do they clear snow at Barcelonette?
greg_mp wrote:
MOU rating in Valberg
Nice, smooth landing! Keep it up!
Antonio wrote:
Do they clear snow at Barcelonette?
Yes, but we can’t really say they urge to clean up. But they publish snowtam, and people around know that we have to call there before coming.
It’s a pity that there is no more restaurant on the base, the previous one was famous for its food. Now you have to take a taxi to city center, which is still a very nice place to visit.
When coming, the pattern is very close to the trees as the video is showing, and the runway is curved, but threshold been lower than the middle part. And you have to take a great care when winds are east-west oriented. When wind are north or south, the flow doesn’t descent into the valley and it’s very quite until you pass over 9000ft (where I took 50kn tw going back to cannes, 189kn TAS in a DA40 :p). It’s not an altiport nor altisurface.
greg_mp wrote:
Now you have to take a taxi to city center
hey guess what, during my last visit there we even managed to walk into town, about 30 minutes one way 
Nice place with good food and plenty of history.
And also the place to meet a fascinating character, Matthieu De Quillacq, ULM helicopter ambassador Fly for your Life!
His paradise is just on the Eastern side of Barcelonette…
This is definitely a place to go. I’ve also heard that a famous actor that ads coffee capsules comes from time to time here from lago Como in a pc12 to bike around in a Harley, get nice food…
I’ll try to reach this place next time.
Mooney_Driver wrote:
One of the first movies made in the Swiss Alps
Naaaaice!
Naaaaice!
Indeed, but flown a teeny weeny bit high, no?
I particularly like the climb of what seems like 5000ft at 70 degrees pitch paralleling the mountainside…try that in our SEP starting at 150KTS…
today’s Alps flying was, or could have been pretty interesting… the picture below was taken a few miles West of the Breithorn, in the Rhône valley. The Simplonpass leading to the Italian Domodossola is in the foreground. Just behind the Monte Leone and other peaks, natural borders between Switzerland and Italy. In the middle, far away, the area of the Monte Rose, and on the far right side of the picture, the Matterhorn aka Cervin.
The picture is admittedly pretty lousy, due to shooting toward the sun, and some reflections from the canopy… I still find it interesting to pinpoint one of the biggest, albeit not always as nicely visible, danger when flying in (or thru…) the Alps: Wind. What looks like snow flurries, is snow torn off the upwind slopes and propelled into the lee side of the mountains. Visible rotors of tremendous force…
now this picture was taken about 5 minutes earlier… my Garmin system is pretty acurate and yes, the actual wind reading says direction 320° with a strenght of 65 knots.
I had looked at the actual and forecast weather before setting off… my personal Alps flying wind limit is 30kts at 10K. Today’s value were slightly more than that, but I thought I’ll have a go. One can always turn back, and it sure wouldn’t be the first nor the last time.
Having to avoid some military airspace, I suddenly realised the slow motion of my pace approaching the next ridge I had to cross. A glance at the display provided an instant clue as the wind strenght was already 50 knots, and on the increase. The air was smooth alright, so I decided to continue, now routing along upwind slopes for the remainder of the flight. Turbulence was moderate with only one headset to canopy contact jolt. Still, I was happy to be flying a good performance aerobatic machine in these conditions.
Training for Alps flying in Norway? Sweden? The UK? Sure, go for it, but don’t assume you’ll be ready for fighting severe downdrafts and turbulence at 12’000ft in a hostile environment.
