First Solo in the Mountains: Fricktal (LSZI) to Sion (LSGS) via Gemmi Pass

Описание: This is a video of my first flight in the mountains since carrying out a mountain familiarisation flight with my flight instructor the previous week.

I had planned to fly from Fricktal to Sion in the morning across the Swiss Alps via the Gemmi pass and then back in the afternoon via the Grimsel and Sustan passes.

Local areas of moderate turbulence were predicted all day over the whole of Switzerland and wind speeds in excess of 30 knots were predicted for 10'000 feet after noon.

I spoke to two flight instructors to get some expert advice concerning the weather and both felt the morning flight would be no problem but I should keep an eye on the weather for the afternoon.

I managed the flight via the Gemmi pass in the morning encountering some turbulence and gusty winds near the pass. As a result of this I decided for the afternoon to come back via the Rhone valley past Lake Geneva avoiding the narrow valleys of the other route.

Given my concern for the weather I filed a flight plan and contacted Zurich Information for flight following. Unfortunately Zurich passed me off to Sion before I was able to contact Sion due to the mountain valleys and at a time when I was flying in the mountains which is exactly when I wanted somebody following my flight.

Because of the rough air in front of the Gemmi pass I stayed further from the wall of the mountains then would ideally be desirable. This meant I had less space to turn in case I couldn't cross the pass. I still had room for a turn on the path just less room.

Given more time to think through my options a safer approach would have been to turn back at the first sign of turbulence and climb a bit higher before making the crossing. As it was the pass was wide with good visibility and I was confident I would be able to cross or know early enough if I couldn't. That weighed more in my decision process to go forward than my concern for the turbulence. In the video the turbulence doesn't look that severe and probably wasn't but my lack of experience to judge it and to know what to expect as I got closer to the pass as well as the weather prediction for moderate turbulence made me slightly nervous.

The aircraft was a Diamond DA40, HB-SDJ, which was hired from the Motorfluggruppe Fricktal (MFGF).