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VFR Flight from Samedan, Switzerland, to Bolzano, Italy

LSZS - LIPB 

Comments

I jumped in my Otter to take a late passenger from Samedan in Switzerland to Bolzano in northern Italy. Because of the summer time I figured we could just about make it before nightfall and the weather didn't look too bad. Although it is always dangerous in the mountains to rely too much on weather forecasts. Bolzano was clear and so was Samedan, so I decided to go for it.
Since this was a VFR, I decided to follow the rivers and roads, thereby staying over the valleys and cross as few mountains as possible.

The flight first took me north, following the river Inn through the Ober Engadin valley. I kept to the left at Zernez, barely visible through the sudden upcoming clouds. I had to decide whether to continue or not at that point. The clouds (from FSMeteo, so the 'real' thing) seemed broken enough to continue. I decided to climb to 11.000 feet to keep the overview. On then to Nauders, still following the valley NE.Just before Nauders I turned south towards the Reschensee and Reschen Pass, now following the Etsch (or Adigel in Italian). Fly south until the valley turns east towards Merano. Some beautiful sunset pictures at this stage of the flight.

But it was getting dark quickly, the lights in the villages below started twinkling and by the time I reached Bolzano it was getting rather dark. I had the green airfield light in sight and headed west before making a 180 degree to get me on final for Bolzano.

The Flight

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