Papa Sierra

We are back! Got up early this morning, looked at the weather, refuelled, did flight planning / customs etc. and off we went. The weather across the channel was decent (1700ft cloudbase) and we quickly made it across to Dover. Pretty standard flight after that, but further north the sky was clear & blue so we got some fantastic views of London as we went past. The Robin is unloaded, refuelled, cleaned & back in the hangar at Bicester!

Here is today’s trace:

And I have just noticed that the google maps thing doesn’t work in Internet Explorer – should’ve noticed that earlier in the week! Well, here are all the flights combined. 19 flying hours, 9 countries overflown (we stopped in 8 of them), distance covered…… lots!

Finally, here are the pictures from today:

So close yet so far….. We are in Calais. Had to change our plans completely this morning – we were almost weathered in at Neuchatel, the only route out of the mountains was along the lake, past Lausanne & Geneva, down the Rhone, and then up north again. So by 2pm we were out of the mountains, but no further really than the day before! Never mind. We pushed on as far as we could, and finally arrived at Calais 10 minutes after they shut customs, so we couldn’t cross the channel despite it being a beautiful evening. Oh well we ended up having beers & dinner in a brasserie where a French pensioner group were celebrating a birthday!

Here is our trace for the day, three flights (Neuchatel – Dole – Reims Pruney – Calais):

Here are the best photos from yesterday. No photos from today – there really wasn’t much to see. But the mountain flight yesterday was pretty amazing – take a look:

Had the most amazing flight this morning. The weather was perfectly clear, so we managed to depart Lugano and do the full scenic tour of the high Alps – Matterhorn, Mont Blanc, Eiger, Jungfrau….. absolutely amazing.

We landed at Neuchatel at roughly 1pm, and after preparing for tomorrow’s flight home, went into town. What a pretty lakeside town, much more lively than Lugano. Went swimming in the lake, and then took a boat across through a canal to another lake (where they speak German not French!). Had dinner in a fantastic old town (Murten) and then headed back. Staying in a wacky Swiss B&B – explaining to the owner in French that we were pilots was interesting…..

No time for all the photos right now – we took 399 today! Just to prove where we were, here is Mont Blanc:

Made it to Switzerland today – but not as far as we hoped. We left Venice early this morning, stopped at Verona to clear customs, and made our way to Lugano in Switzerland. Very very pretty flight, approaching over the lake, behind the hills, and onto a nice airport with lots of biz jets. We then planned to go to Sion / Zermatt but it had gone too hazy for the big mountains, so we turned back and landed at Lugano for a second time.

Had a nice evening in Lugano – pizza, beer and a walk by the lake. Very quiet, I think people come here to retire!!

Here is our trace from today:

And the photos from yesterday (Pipistrel factory & Venice) and today (Venice – Lugano) – enjoy!

As mentioned previously, we’ve made it to Venice. Only a very short hop from Slovenia, but a very scenic one along the coast. We decided to throttle right back, fly slowly, and enjoy the view (but still had a 20kt tailwind… this seems to be a recurring theme on this trip!!).

After landing at Venice Lido (an island off Venice) we decided to quickly file a flight plan for the next morning to be ready to go to Switzerland – but oh no! Lido has no customs which is apparently required before flying to Switzerland, so we need to make another stop first tomorrow morning. After many phonecalls and more or less helpful advice from the local staff, we decided on Verona tomorrow, then Lugano, and if we have enough time, feel like it, and the weather is good, we might continue to Sion.
Anyway, the next challenge was to find a hotel – it seems that everything is fully booked here. “Film festival” we were told. In the end we found a decent hotel room right Marco square, quite convenient.
Finally, three hours after landing, we left the airport and went to the beach. Quick swim, quick sunbathe, and then off to find the ferry (which is called a “bus boat” here) to go to central Venice.
After checking into the hotel we went exploring (not without a few scoops of Italian ice cream though). Saw all the usual sights, and discovered that Venice is full of romantic couples (no surprise there). In the end we found a suitable looking Pizzeria in one of the back streets that was full of locals, with prices more reasonable than the ones by the main tourist attractions. But once again we felt ripped off – whilst the Pizzas were very reasonable, they were extremely salty, and each beer cost 5 Euros. What a cunning business model…..
Walked around a bit more – back in the hotel now. No photos tonight, we have no 3G connection here.

Just landed at Venice Lido airfield – very pretty! Staying here for the night.

This is where we are right now. A pleasant town in the middle of Slovenia, that just happens to have an aircraft factory in it.

We got there in one hop from Zell am See this morning. Here are yesterday’s flights and today’s flight combined:

We got up early this morning and feasted on an Austrian breakfast of bread rolls and cold meats. Made it to the airfield just in time as the early morning fog was clearing and took of at 9.30am. The flight into Slovenia was simply stunning. We couldn’t have been more lucky with the weather – clear blue sky and no turbulence to speak of. We climbed to 9500ft and followed the big valleys along the motorways – easy navigation! We passed plenty of snow-capped peaks on the way, spent 10 minutes crossing through Italy, and then descended into Slovenia. The approach to Ajdovscina was very turbulent – they have their own local wind system here (which is why there are stones on all the roof tiles). Anyway all was fine and we landed safely & smoothly.

We had lunch with the Pipistrel general manager and got our own private factory tour by the chief test pilot (thanks Tine!). Pretty impressive stuff – an extremely modern factory, high-tech and top quality control processes. Very interesting to see – it makes me want to buy a short wing “Virus” aircraft!!

They were kind enough to put our Robin in their hangar (see photos below). We went off to our “Gold Club Hotel Casino” – which despite the name is extremely modern and nice inside (I’m sitting on my bed writing this blog right now). After some flight planning for tomorrow (we are planning Venice, and then Lugano as next stops) we went for a long walk up the hill. Well, we missed the turn and spend half an hour walking through the valley, but eventually managed to be on a sort-of-hill for the sunset. Went back into town, had a couple of local beers, discovered the local castle and the local pizza place.

Off to bed now – got another busy flying day waiting tomorrow!