My hardest flight ever - Crossing The Alps - VFR into IMC

ready to copy clearance go Moscow me atomic Libya but flight to Lima curriculum at Blackburn route when I don't and let me talk this was my most challenging flight to date it up we're at hula in Croatia and planned to fly in my pa-28 to Linz in Austria the route takes us over the Alps with peaks of seven and a half thousand feet I'm flying with two other pa-28 each with an instructor on board and they have planned this trip I'm tagging along [Music] [Music] this seems quite surreal yeah it's lovely to see the aircraft in the air I fully expect to get criticism on here for attempting this route what I will say though is that we have multiple diversion aerodrums in the vicinity and it's not that easy to accurately predict cloud bases and cloud tops oh I presume we cross the border now we've crossed a border I think we're in Slovenia now it's difficult actually to know which country you don't quite know unless you know which what the name of the you know the the information provider that you're talking to you know where they are you wouldn't know God Moscow wrote me a trip yeah request routing director go well folks the romantic to go for a movie Luther proof threat to call for a music they thought was funny correct enter enter poop the problems first began on this trip when we entered Austria and tried to cross the mountains firstly some very thin cloud that wasn't visible until we were in it forced us to do a 180 okay I metrics biopsy here at golf Oscar Romeo request we need a certain set thousand feet set the pre-conference Crimea we stay where we can see do you see yeah see how I did a 180 yes but I want to go I know I know that behind me was fine [Music] and to that little bit there to my home do we didn't see it coming really you know they do check why can't we not fly through there why yeah because of the mountain the other side I could I don't want to be flying and imc around this mountain right I'm not legally entitled to this code after a short respite things only get worse there's towering cumulus cloud reaching up to about ten or eleven thousand feet sitting on top of the mountain peaks and it's difficult trying to get a route through it knowing I had difficulty ahead I was very conscious of our endurance by this time I had already been flying for two hours look at our fuel state so we took off at 6:27 six seven eight nine ten 27th so we've got another two hours before we start getting anywhere near most to running out we're near a narrow track we can divert to at the moment red blue go so you've seen gaps underneath the cloud oh I think I am yeah but it's jolly difficult to tell at the moment yeah copy that there is for higher ground in that direction it's still looking promising this way on had enough about law okay he's given me pilots discretion on helical camper one feel above people climb one zero thousand feet and continuing deviation to remain free to my child I'm talking to James Lee from buddy's aviation in one of the other pa-28 he's organized this trip and he's told me he can see a gap through but we're just a few miles from each other and I can't see it close this vent because I'm starting to get a bit cold with that bill right that's where blueprint negative temperatures now so it's a Claire we get we get iced up what funny you feeling now what boy apprehensive that I was are you a little apprehensive we've got a narrow track down there we can land that right yeah so yeah no bother yeah that's that's what I'm thinking right now our nice feeling is it sort of heading towards the clouds like this but yeah we can always turn back yeah all this room to turn everyone for returning appalled come on pick not penguicon 1 2 9 December 475 go back up to 9-under small force f5 sell fake radar go horse money Delta their grade art golfer Bravo Hotel Oscar Romero tempest 200 feet one zero one Niner cause probable cause it'll fill oatmeal it took a good morning to cross little determinate the idea to the loss for the Grange one perfect way to cross control this place uh10 article describing gradually all those gaps between the clouds disappear leaving me with narrow corridors and I'm starting to have problems with my iPad navigation I sky demons frozen again Oh God they bloody annoying in them rip up anything that should trouble us yeah about two thousand three thousand feet high speak we were ahead of us is seven thousand seven a half thousand feet right but three thousand yeah of it James gives me an update from the other pa-28 before on our briefing off door that I can even see ground on the other side of the cloud all right I can only see cloud ahead maybe just a couple easily headed just heavy for a few minute James is trying to be helpful but this towering cloud to the east and I can't go that way just now we're just going over Hampton forgets Lima ah stop Gulf Coast rubble Hotel Oscar Romeo convict the links reader on the wall tonight this mostly suffice no coaching for Philadelphia proper no Tosca Romeo we're just struggling to get through about here just on a 180 and we'll be taking a different track you sure you want me to change frequency to Linux right now I'll stay with you have the diamond okay you'll let me know if you're going am hurt or not you may hear prepare the frequency for links Reiter yeah the frequencies prepared what tonight falsified we'll stay with you for the time being we'll call you tracking off go hospira me and do we have visual contact to your company aircraft I can if not at the start course brother okay yeah it is in the easterly position and three mile east of a position three bars course crooked air traffic control can obviously tell that I'm finding this hard and they're doing their best to help the problem is there's very high cloud between me and the other aircraft Roger the second of the other pa-28 reports that it's routed underneath the cloud and is making good progress there's a valley beneath me so I descend into it the co-hosts go at MiraCosta set in the convention because we have an eye for out on out of crowd presently seven six driving into one what year on Roger stop by it's gonna be heading north and come down initially to 7,000 please go omere improved him except I was not only had a Goswami a bit better isn't it try and go under it yeah [Music] yeah I think we'll get through here about it's not quite so high I'm gonna get through Barney there's a bigger one over there just need to keep it to keep them in sight that's all yep I am this is a new experience for me I'll tell you that yeah three two over six 37 38 39 33 6 7 8 9 10 ever but now 9 so I've got two hours of fuel once safely in the valley I studied the chart and while there is a route to Linz this way it's a very very long diversion and while handling the aircraft around the clouds and the mountains it's going to be difficult to accurately estimate how long it will take at this point I've been flying for getting on for two and three-quarter hours and I feel now as if I'm routing without a plan what's more I'm starting to get tired Advent golf Bravo hoteles carribean golf Oscar a me I would like to divert to NEPA Oscar whisky estimated time of arrival Nemo Kawasaki course stop by estimate for the about Oscar whiskey golf is Zulu time I've been it 35 minute to five cause your 9 to 5 they thought they lost cause I almost got it thank you good Oh convict spell card reader on that night at the goodbye Kress radar one one nine at a small three office crying goodbye that's right our golf Bravo Hotel Oscar he passed 200 feet 1 0 and what finer if BAP develop the logical formula hello again information tail both current and girls the connection to honey barbecue loosened Delta's current one zero nectar into the gospel sorry we're not gonna be able to meet up with him nope that just was not getting that wasn't working out so what I'm gonna dive out here net my workout all we're gonna do okay one two six one two five poor things we just need to get on the ground now and we're gonna day 2 + 2 5 0 degrees 3 knots runway one seven touchdown zone variable between one Niner zero and two seven zero degrees 5 knots visibility 3 five kilometres clouds few 3,000 feet temperatures one 92.1 one zero one eight aerodrome trend no thick yeah so that just wasn't working out we were wasting time and we were going to be low on fuel right if I'm conservative about it we would have we were going to be getting low on fuel yeah fair enough though I decided that we would go here you know the weather's good here yeah yep well a little bit about good it's fine I've just checked it just a few cloud at 300 feet so the we need to be above 6,000 100 feet for this for this leg to looks like we're gonna be able to make looks pretty flat ground all around a pop-up to the right yeah go Oscar up me I do I have discretion over heading and altitude of do I prefer pilots discretion heading an altitude to grass yeah sure continue VFR in VMC no real service provided continue VFR heading altitude by discretion commerce fire not the correct time what I can offer you any time is to join I if I feel like negative volleyball I don't airport is down there I think I thought the airport made in the airport runway go foster I've been filled inside yama-chan final for them live on live in 10 - final round we want seven septic or scanner xjx la carte power on one one eight the humour talked about or I guess my favorite our course for it to be flat over Vaughn Cooley or breaks undercarriage mixture fuel burning heart RP di altitude one zero one minor one Sarah wants to put your thought of a proof at night it directly and if you're actually going up a bit of kilometer duty apologies go proper Hotel Oscar honest with you we aren't that base runway Watson on their very but they do think can't let move on seventh intricate than it probably what's up Santa Clara Valley [Music] but certainly tested everything I've got yeah that has also a respected potentially could they feel the importance of until I make sure that dropping [Music] okay so we've just landed at grass aerodrome wasn't our intended aerodrome sadly we I couldn't find my way through which I'm a bit gutted about because the rest of the group was able to get through one above one below I don't know I must have taken a wrong turn made the wrong decision on the cloud corridor and couldn't get through so we're here for now we're going to go in take a break because that was a hard flight trying to navigate through all the cloud and the mountains take a break have a cup of coffee and think about what we're going to do next ideally we will head up to Linz later this afternoon when maybe the weather cools off a bit I'm left feeling as if I failed but a short while later we took the low-level gaffe all routes via Vienna and the Danube River to Linz [Music] we may have been split up from our friends but I know in retrospect the timely decision to divert have been the right one in the next episode we'll head home via Germany Belgium and France thank you for watching please subscribe and share the video it really does help [Music] you [Music]

Channel: The Flying Reporter

Views: 47,426

Keywords: PA28, The Flying Reporter, Linz, Graz, Pula, ATC, Diversion

Id: SVDRQqE7gV4

Length: 19min 9sec (1149 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 07 2018