Alps and landings
2009.09.23

Learn every day.
One of the most fantastic phenomena in aviation is that you are learning every day.
At the moment I am in Grenoble to do my mountain rating. For a guy from the flat country (pays bas/ Netherlands) it is a great experience landing at 7000 feet at a 300 meter short runway with a slope of 21 degrees, and…….in a narrow valley. A great aeroplane to hop around in the mountains is the Mousquetaire. At the fotoalbum on this site you will have some pictures of this tail dragger. The aeroclub Dauphiné is a good place to go for mountain flying. It is based at Grenoble Le Versoud (El. 725 ft) LFLG for the aviators. To get to this place was an interesting story. The planned day of departure, Holland was in bad visibility. Max. 2 km’s till 4 O clock in the afternoon, so not an option.
The next day the weather frog (meteo man) told me the Ardennes were not coming out of the mist the whole day. An interesting observation is that in Holland we have to pay, quite a lot, to listen to a meteorological interpreter to inform you about the weather. Roughly one Euro per two minutes. And of course those guys speak slowly!!! Personally I disagree completely with this system as I believe it is against safety and not in favor of safety. I think weather info should be free, all over the World. The information I received via Orbifly at the internet was a little bit different form my weatherfrog so at 15:25 hrs LT I took off from EHTE to LFLB (Chambèry). As you expect a rather uneventful flight at level 80 brought me to LFLB.
(I hate quiet airports where ATC and security have nothing else to do than annoy an aerobatic pilot at a completely deserted airport. The Yellow jacket syndrome hit Chambèry as well! (Tip: Avoid it)
Now 10 minutes to Grenoble, a good night’s sleep and fresh to the class room.
My instructor came from Lyon. Olivier Gerbier is his name. A friendly guy, about the same weight as I have, but only shorter! J He is working as ATC-er and flies because he loves to fly! (Straight and level)
As the clouds were low this morning we had sufficient time to go through all the procedures.
The main topic is to be aware of density altitude and realize that you can NEVER make a go around.
You will end up in a wall and be very dead for a long time! I was looking fwd to the full flap stall at 5000` in order to calculate the approach speed at high altitude.
Day one I made 21 landings at alti surfaces and the next day another nine. The pictures will give you quite a good impression of flying in the Alps.
I though Calcinate del Pesce was the best airport I ever landed but this has been topped many times by landing at Roch XXXX today.
We had lunch here with Adam Shaw from the Captens. What an unbelievable view of the Mont Blanc and surrounding mountains.
To hear nothing else than the odd cowbell at this level is rare. It is lifestyle!
It was another boaring day from the best office you can find. The cockpit of a light airplane!
Just for the fun! Because it makes you SMILE!
You know……….like it is your PASSION.