I flew a business jet into Samedin real world yesterday

[Guest Peter Sidoli]

I flew for the first time into Samedin yesterday in a Citation. This has to be one of the trickiest most awe inspiring airports I have ever visited.The airfield is way down in a valley with massive mountains off your wing tips. I approached over frozen lakes into this pure VFR airport which is approaching 6000 feet up onto runway 03.There is a sharp hill on the centre line which means coming in at an angle and then manouvering to line up with the runway.All the time there are those massive mountains close on both sides and an over shoot and circuit is a worrying thought without climbing up through the valleys to clear the mountain tops and then coming all the way round to start the approach again.You really have to watch your speed as because of TAS you feel as you are going too fast an dthe temptation is to slow.As it was I thought we were going to have to go around as an idiot in a small aircraft lined up on the runway to taxi to the main terminal and stopped. Another Jet waiting at the holding point warned me of this aircraft which made no calls to enter the active runway and was almost invisible against the numbers and sun/snow glare.He cleared when I was no more than 300 feet up an dI managed to land.The scenery is amazing but very different from anything I remember in flight sim.My question is this "Is there some really stunning scenery for Samedin and its mountains which is very accurate and gives the true feel of flying into this airport as well as the sense of danger?My second question is that I am thinking of loading FSX onto my Laptop can you connect some flight controls to a laptop or am I wasting my time?Its a new laptop with Vista, mid range and a Toshiba Thanks Peter

[Gavin 99]

Hi PeterRegarding the laptop, I think it's safe to assume that a mid-range laptop with Vista may not be the best option for FSX - especially if it doesn't have a good quality graphics card - which I feel may be the essential issue.Best regards.

[Guest stevehow]

Hi peter.I knew it,as soon as i read your post i would be GREEN with envy!!F+C - SWISS VFR X quite expensive 115 euro.but looks very good.box only i think.being sold on simmarket. steve

[Guest cbuchner1]

Google doesn't find a Samedin airport, but a Samedan instead. It is in Engadin, Switzerland. Did you mean that one?

[Guest Peter Sidoli]

My apologies its my spelling :-) You are right its Samedan or sometimes known as st Moritz LSZS. It is probably one of the best known high altitude airports in flight sim.I had flown it in various releases of flight sim but having tried it for real was struck by how lacking flight sim was in giving the feel of flying these mountains.Maybe its a number of things? You really need every detail, every little hill, outcrop of rock, cliff face.You need the air mass, the turbulence associated with those unforgiving mountains.Maybe because you fly flight sim in the comfort and safety of a home you dont get the fear factor, the adrenaline and the thought factor that if you mess up thats it.I was lucky in my first visit to have clear blue skies so I admire the pilots who go in there when the weather is less than perfect.Then you would have to know every landmark and every valley as it would be easy to turn up the wrong valley.In a jet its not so bad because you have a good climb rate but in a light aircraft unless its turbocharged you would have major problems starting at nearly 6000 feet to clear over the surrounding mountains.Peter

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

There is free scenery mesh for Switzerland available in the avsim library.Search for:Mesh Alpes LOD11 V2 for Microsoft Flight simulator FSX & FSX SP1Copyright

[bkeske 0]

Peter, that Samedan approach is one of my most memorable landings I ever made in FS, with fairly dense cloud cover, following the terminal procedure by the book, and not getting visibility of the threshold until about 8-1,000 ft. Then I had to correct in order to get lined-up for the non-precision very very quickly.I can only imagine what it would be like in real life, but I can tell you, even though it was FS, my adrenaline was pumping as well. ;) Very intense.Thanks for sharing.