Garrett Fisher

Author, Pilot, & Adventurer

Email subscription form header
Subscribe
Your email address:*
Please wait...
Please enter all required fields Click to hide
Correct invalid entries Click to hide
Powered by FeedBlitz
  • Writings
  • Documentary & Interview
  • Press
  • Economics
  • Maps
  • Flying Videos
  • TEDx Talk: Forget Economics
  • About Me

Powered by Genesis

Flights: Days 4 & 5: Germany, France, Switzerland: Rhine to the Alps

December 11, 2021 by Garrett

The forecast for the morning, as of the night before, indicated morning fog that would burn off at worst before noon. It did not help that I was up at 5:30AM, which is a peculiar scorn when I go on long flying binges. My normal schedule, aligned somewhat with California time, becomes more appropriate for the Moscow time zone, owing to something close to clear exhaustion at the end of each long day of flying.

Hour after hour ticked by, where the view of Mannheim’s industrial skyline was obscured from my 6th floor hotel window by pea soup fog. It lifted 100 feet by 10AM, then 200 feet by 11:30AM then…back down to 100 feet. Meanwhile forecasts continued to indicate clear skies by this point.

Finally, by 1PM, there was a hint that the fog was shrinking around the edges, according to the satellite animation. It was solid up the entire Rhine valley from Switzerland to Frankfurt, though rather low level. The Black Forest in Germany and Vosges in France both basked in sunshine, whereas the valley might as well have been Seattle.

I checked out, rode the tram to the airport, and sat with a thimble of coffee while working on my flight plan. There would be a two-stop arrangement: one to clear customs in Switzerland, and another to arrive in Saanen.

As 2PM rolled around, the fog was not gone. That is where my emotional composition unraveled. There was a 2.5-hour flight preventing me from finishing an odyssey from south of the Arctic Circle to the Alps, and some ridiculous fog on an otherwise beautiful day was causing a problem! If the fog did not lift, there was no certainty that it would the next morning, which stoked concerns of my Norway flame out on the first day.

What is interesting is that I shall point what I said to my wife, before I got on a commercial flight to Norway to view the airplane two weeks before. I mentioned that “the problem will be terrible weather in Norway, foggy coastal weather through Sweden and Denmark, and IFR over the hills north of Frankfurt. I suspect I will have to come up the Rhine from Cologne, where fog will be a concern getting down to Switzerland.” That is exactly what happened!

I was aware of the fog based on advice given to me 6 years ago by a German pilot. He pointed out that the Rhine and Frankfurt is often bathed in fog while nearby Mainz, 500 feet higher, sits on a plateau, above the fog. I considered landing at Mainz though, for some reason (might have something to do with forecasts), chose Mannheim out of convenience for hotel purposes.

Finally, by 2:40, the fog evaporated in an instant. I hopped in the plane and scurried off, knowing full well that I would have to do the VFR on top routine again for another 50 miles. As I surfaced the skank layer, I ran into a headwind that I did not expect, which meant that I would not make it to Saanen for the night. In the middle of flying, I found an alternate at Ecuvillens, filled out elaborate customs forms in French on my phone, cancelled customs at the other location (also on the phone), and reconfigured the flight plan with French ATC.

The rest of the flight was straightforward, down the French side of the Rhine to Basel, Switzerland, over the clouds covering the Jura, then down the middle of the Mitteland in Switzerland, with the Alps in view, bathed in sunset light. It seems odd that a chunk of VFR on top could be described as normal, though so be it. I hope to not make a routine out of the practice.

The next morning, I came for the airplane at Ecuvillens and took a little joyride to Interlaken on the way over the hill to Saanen. It was pleasant to notice that the snows had finally come in my absence. After landing, I pulled the PA-11 out of the hangar, preflighted, and took a ride around the foothills of the Alps for posterity. There is only one first time when the two planes are together; memorializing it with a second flight seemed appropriate.

More paperwork, maintenance, and adventures to come…

VFR on top in the Fatherland. Note the industrial stacks sticking up above the clouds.

Le Rhine. 

Rhine again, from France. Thick haze was morning fog earlier and will become so again overnight.

South of Basel, in the country known for chocolate, cheese, and tax evasion.

Over the Jura Mountains, with the Alps on the horizon.

Alps, before sunset. Amen.

Day 5. Over the hill.

Thunersee and Interlaken, for posterity.

I hiked the foreground ridge in the fog a month before. Had I lost my footing….

 

Gummfluh, from the PA-11. Why have one airplane, when one can have two?

Filed Under: Uncategorized

  • Español
  • Français
  • Català

Blog Posts

  • Flights: Spain, Switzerland: A Crazed Aeronautical Bender…Seven Years Later January 25, 2023
  • Flight: France: Surfing the Wave December 19, 2022
  • Flight: Switzerland: A Mystery on the Eiger, 700,000th Photo November 16, 2022
  • Flight: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands: Losing My Flying-Over-Water Virginity October 24, 2022
  • Flights: Norway: Sognefjord, Longest Fjord in Norway September 24, 2022
  • Flights: Norway: Hardangervidda, Largest Mountain Plateau in Europe September 17, 2022
  • Flight: Norway: Galdhøpiggen, Highest Peak in Northern Europe August 20, 2022
  • Flights: Norway: Jostedalsbreen, Largest Glacier in Continental Europe August 7, 2022
  • Flights: Norway: Flyraseri ikke Flyskam July 17, 2022
  • Flight: Switzerland, France, Italy: 2,000 Hours & FL160 July 9, 2022
  • Flight: Day 4: Sweden, Norway: 56N to 59N July 6, 2022
  • Flight: Day 3: Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden: 53N to 56N June 27, 2022
  • Flight: Day 2: France, Belgium, Netherlands: 44N to 53N June 19, 2022
  • Flight: Day 1: Spain, France: 36N to 44N June 4, 2022
  • Flight: Spain: Rock the Casbah, Sierra Nevada, Africa on the Horizon May 8, 2022
  • Flight: Portugal, Spain: Promontorium Sacrum, Last Sausage Before America April 26, 2022
  • Flight: Spain, Morocco: Spanish Africa, Pillars of Hercules, Southernmost Point in Europe April 18, 2022
  • Flights: Spain: The Antipope, Package Holidays & A Clandestine Metropolis April 11, 2022
  • Flights: Days 2 & 3: France, Spain, Portugal: España Verde, Galicia, Aggressive Eucalyptus & Andalucía April 3, 2022
  • Flight: Day 1 of 3: Switzerland, France, Spain, Andorra: Alps, Mediterranean, Pyrenees & Atlantic March 30, 2022

Archives

  • January 2023 (1)
  • December 2022 (1)
  • November 2022 (1)
  • October 2022 (1)
  • September 2022 (2)
  • August 2022 (2)
  • July 2022 (3)
  • June 2022 (3)
  • May 2022 (1)
  • April 2022 (4)
  • March 2022 (1)
  • February 2022 (1)
  • January 2022 (1)
  • December 2021 (2)
  • November 2021 (3)
  • October 2021 (1)
  • September 2021 (1)
  • July 2021 (2)
  • June 2021 (1)
  • May 2021 (3)
  • April 2021 (1)
  • March 2021 (1)
  • February 2021 (1)
  • December 2020 (5)
  • November 2020 (5)
  • October 2020 (1)
  • September 2020 (1)
  • August 2020 (1)
  • July 2020 (1)
  • June 2020 (1)
  • April 2020 (1)
  • March 2020 (2)
  • February 2020 (2)
  • January 2020 (1)
  • December 2019 (3)
  • November 2019 (3)
  • October 2019 (1)
  • September 2019 (4)
  • August 2019 (3)
  • July 2019 (2)
  • June 2019 (2)
  • May 2019 (2)
  • April 2019 (2)
  • March 2019 (3)
  • February 2019 (1)
  • January 2019 (1)
  • December 2018 (2)
  • October 2018 (2)
  • September 2018 (2)
  • August 2018 (2)
  • July 2018 (3)
  • June 2018 (2)
  • May 2018 (2)
  • April 2018 (1)
  • March 2018 (4)
  • February 2018 (2)
  • January 2018 (2)
  • December 2017 (4)
  • November 2017 (4)
  • October 2017 (4)
  • September 2017 (4)
  • August 2017 (5)
  • July 2017 (3)
  • June 2017 (4)
  • May 2017 (5)
  • April 2017 (4)
  • March 2017 (5)
  • February 2017 (4)
  • January 2017 (1)
  • December 2016 (4)
  • November 2016 (5)
  • October 2016 (4)
  • September 2016 (6)
  • August 2016 (2)
  • July 2016 (4)
  • June 2016 (3)
  • May 2016 (1)
  • April 2016 (5)
  • March 2016 (5)
  • February 2016 (4)
  • January 2016 (6)
  • December 2015 (4)
  • November 2015 (5)
  • October 2015 (5)
  • September 2015 (8)
  • August 2015 (8)
  • July 2015 (8)
  • June 2015 (8)
  • May 2015 (4)
  • April 2015 (4)
  • March 2015 (5)
  • February 2015 (3)
  • January 2015 (2)
  • December 2014 (10)
  • November 2014 (4)
  • October 2014 (1)
  • September 2014 (3)
  • August 2014 (1)
  • July 2014 (6)
  • May 2014 (1)
  • March 2014 (1)
  • February 2014 (3)