Return to the Dolomites
For Saturday, December 7, 2024
Michael MacKuen

Today we have some fun sport-flying through the Dolomites (Dolomiti in Italian, Dolomiten in German) in the north-eastern part of the Italian Alps. This is a trip through steep jagged peaks and green alpine meadows sprinkled with clear blue lakes and fringed with firs. The mountains are distinctive for their pale grey limestone hue – the name stems from the characteristic mineral dolomite.

[We return to the region that we visited in June 2023. This adventure is offered again because only a few of us were free that day. It emphasizes mountain flying in a beautiful setting. And it is designed as a summer excursion which calls for good weather and green grass airfields.]

The Dolomites are renowned for their hiking. People from all over Europe (and a few from North America) come for week-long holidays in the mountains to enjoy the scenery and fresh mountain air.  We shall do the next best thing ... flying.


Summer excursion over the Dolomites’ Tre Cime di Lavaredo

We depart from Cortina D’Ampezzo [LIPT], the beautiful resort-center of the area. It is known for its après-ski scene and its jet set and Italian aristocratic crowd. [Think James Bond.] During the peak of the ski-season, the population swells from 7,000 to 40,000. Cortina hosted the 1956 Winter Olympics and will co-host the 2026 Winter games. The small airport was built for the 1956 games and there is talk of renewing the currently unused facilities. [We shall fly from here, thanks to our scenery author’s imagination.]

After crossing over the town itself, we turn west and climb up to the Valparola Pass with the steep Monte Lagazuoi looming above on the north. (Here and throughout, you will be aware of the region’s many cable car systems and ski lifts.) Further on, we encounter the spectacular Puez-Geisler massif on the right and Piz Boè to the left as we fly over the Gardena Pass to enter the tourist-friendly Val Gardena (Gröden) on the western side. We turn southwest and climb up to the Alpe de Suisi (Seiser Alm), “Europe’s largest Alpine meadow.” This is a beautiful high-altitude grassland that attracts visitors to its classic hotels and huts. At the western end, we quickly descend 2,000 ft to visit the small historic St. Valentin Church [VALEN] just above the village Suisi. Then a further descent into Bolzano (Bozen) [LIPB], an urban area of 250,000 and the cultural, commercial, and tourist center of the Dolomites.

We fly south and then east into the Fiemme Valley to a small airstrip Volavisio [LIFZ] alongside the Torrente Avisio. [This will take some care as the field is partly hidden in the trees. A low pass will suffice.] Nearby is the large town Cavalese, the valley’s administrative center. (The associated cable car from Cavalese to the nearby mountain Cermis has been the site of two major cable-car accidents, one in 1975 – the deadliest in history – and one in 1998 – due to USMC pilots flying very low in the valley. You should see and avoid this cable car system if you approach from the east.) After a brief stop, we proceed down the Avisio to the Adige valley, overfly the city of Trento (Trient), and land at Trento Caproni [LIDT]. Aviators might like to glance at the Caproni Museum of Aeronautics, the country’s oldest aviation museum – founded and nourished by Gianni Caproni (the early aviation design legend) and his heirs. In addition, the museum is blessed with an Aeronautica Militare F-104G Starfighter which, pointed to the sky, stands as a gate guardian.

We take off and turn immediately to the southwest, flying through and over the mountains to Asiago [LIDA]. (This is the home region for the famous cheese.) Asiago is the site of a major WWI battle – Ernest Hemingway fought here. Nearby is the Alpine War Monument that memorializes the Italian and Austrian war dead from the 1915-1918 war – well over a half million for those years. The Italians and Austrians attempted offensives but mainly settled down to four years of very deadly static mountain warfare. In the Dolomites, if you draw a line from Trento to Asiago to Cortina and the north, you will get a good idea of the battlefront. The brutally tough “White War“ was waged at an altitude over 2,000m where each side dug into high mountainside fortifications and fought to a standstill - in an rugged alpine environment where even ordinary life can be challenged by wind storms, snow and sub-freezing temperatures for most of the year.

We fly east toward Belluno. On the way, we optionally visit the Feltre Paragliding Club Launch Site [LI16D] located on Monte Avena. (The World Paragliding Championships were held here in 2017. And it continues as a popular site [here 2:20-6:40].) We can land on the mountaintop meadow – not an airport – and then taxi to launch out over the grand Valbelluna below... This can be a thrilling experience. In the air we continue to Belluno [LIDB]. Belluno is the most important city of the Eastern Dolomites. The large grass airfield is home to an Aero Club as well as glider and skydive operations.

Then up the Piave Valley to pass the high Vajont Dam, one of the world’s tallest. In 1963, during the initial filling, a huge mountain landslide above the new lake caused the water to overflow the intact dam by 250m [!] and cause widespread devastation in the valley below. The dam is now out of service with a dry basin behind the wall. We continue up the valley, over the pretty Pieve di Cadore Dam, and then turn up into the mountains for the Altiport Casera Razzo [PZ73], a grass strip up on the high alpine meadows.

Then northwest, staying high (8500’) to fly among the peaks. The most famous are the rock formations on the north face of Tre Cime di Lavaredo. We turn north at Monte Piana where in WWI the Italians and Austrians contested the high ground – Austrians holding the northern summit Piano and Italians the southern Piana. The two sides lost 14,000 men – without military effect. A mountaintop “Open-air Historical Museum” memorializes the events. Our descent down the valley brings us to the Dobbiaco-Toblach [LIVD] grass airstrip – in the middle of a set of farm fields.

This is the long east-west Puster Valley (Val Pusteria, Pustertal). To the north lies the current Italian-Austrian border. We head west for a quick diversion to see the Pragser Wildsee (Lake Braies in Italian). This beautiful scenic spot, with its blue-emerald lake immersed in a steep canyon, has earned the nickname “Pearl of the Alps.” It has become wildly popular with tourists (17,000 a day) and thus nowadays has restricted vehicle access. (Would-be photographers are advised to show up at dawn.) For pilots, special care is required here because the lake is at the end of a narrow canyon and a safe exit will require a slow circling 360 degree turn. [Niederdorf, the town at the head of the Pragser Wildsee valley, was the site of a confrontation in late April 1945 – at the very end of WWII. There a Wermacht captain, and Wehrmacht generals at a distance, we able to face down an SS detachment and save 139 prominent prisoners from execution. Fascinating story.]

We proceed west to Brunico (Bruneck), the valley’s largest town. We take a look at Bruneck Castle which was built as a fortress and later converted to a more elegant princely residence. Today it hosts the Messner Mountain Museum Ripa site, one of six museums in the Dolomites initiated by wealthy mountaineer Reinhold Messner to celebrate the culture and life of mountain people all over the world. Soon afterwards, we pass over San Michele Castle, built on a steep cliff in 1091 and the most important fortress castle of the Puster Valley.

Then we climb up to the top of Kronplatz (7,424’) between the Puster and Gader Valleys. This is a popular regional ski resort with plenty of slopes and accompanying ski lifts as well as a communications mast crowning the top. Especially interesting is the Messner Mountain Museum Corones site that celebrates the discipline of mountaineering. This is a distinctive structure built partly into the mountainside with portals leaning out over the cliffside on the southwest edge of the summit.

We remain at altitude to reach our final destination the Sennes Rifugio [LIVP]. During the Cold War, this location hosted NATO military flights in light planes to provide scouting functions in the Alpine setting. This “altiport” airstrip is no longer in use although the landing site remains. Sennes is a rather nice rifugio (hütte) here providing simple rooms-with-WC as well as the dormitory rooms one might normally expect in these mountain accommodations. Hot meals, Tyrolese and Italian, are standard fare. Thanks to our author’s resurrection of the airstrip, we shall land and enjoy the views. Parking is to the east of the main structure. And the staff aims to please with a good hearty brunch.

Documentation
The flightplan is available here.

Aircraft
Today’s flight is 218nm with a mix of established hard-surfaced airports and mountain altiports. This is a mission for lightweight sport aircraft with some STOL-capabilities and a speed of 120-130ktas. This might include the Pipistrel Virus, JMB VL3, CubCrafters Cub/NXCub, GotFriends Grravel and Carbon Cub. (Commercial turbine aircraft, though plenty capable, are not a good fit for the event.) I’ll fly the Asobo Pipistrel Virus in the Red/Grey livery by Rockview101. Built in nearby Slovenia, the Pipistrel is the signature aircraft for this flight. (Jeff suggests Virus pilots consider the Realism Mod by MGouge425 with its POH and flying tips.) The Cubcrafters NXCub (especially the GotFriends version) might be a more suitable choice. As ever, please fly what you like.

Additional Scenery
Many airports are in the default simulator, but not all. LIPT, LI16D, PZ73, and LIVP are not in the sim and are thus required downloads. In all, I would recommend the following freeware sceneries. Thanks to these fine authors.

Cortina D’Ampezzo [LIPT]. Fasoiben
Trento Caproni [LIDT]. mamu82 (his home airport)
or Trento Caproni [LIDT]. Alex (bmw969)
Asiago [LIDA]. Alex (bmw969)
Area Lancio Delta Club Feltre [LI16D]. erasam
Belluno [LIDB]. erasam
Altiport Casera Razzo [PZ73]. Photosbykev
Sennes Rifugio [LIVP]. Gianpa_PoL. (Fictional rendition of historic airstrip. Real rifugio.)
[Bolzano [LIPB] is nicely depicted by an Asobo handcrafted airport.]

You can get a full package here. (720MB)

In addition to this specific scenery, you will almost certainly want:
Project Lifts – Chairlifts, Gondonlas and Cablecars. mamu82
Powerlines and Solar Farms. mamu82
You may have these already. If not, they are now available for purchase at Mamu Design.

Finally, the Dolomites are famous for their very craggy sharp peaks. In the Italian Scenery Update, MS have done a pretty good job capturing the overall feel and adding a few areas of detailed depiction. However, the result is only an approximation of the real thing. You might consider a freeware terrain addon which sharpens up several famous “groups” through which we shall fly: Puez Odle by DemoKen. This is really pretty good work on a limited range. However, the package is 4GB so the download is large. And it demands computing power. My old machine could not handle the package without lots of stutters. Your machine may be more capable. If you are inclined toward this scenery, you might give this a test run before using it in the actual flight.

Time and Weather
For takeoff on Saturday, set the simulator at 9:00 am local for July 7, 2024. This flight asks for Summer mountain flying conditions: you might choose the default preset “High Clouds” or something else suitable for the mission. Pilots with seasonable foliage might select Summer rather than Winter conditions.

Multiplayer Particulars
Date and Time: Saturday, December 7, 2024. 1900 UTC
RTWR Multiplayer Discord Channel
Microsoft Flight Simulator Multiplayer: United States East server.

If you want to help others enjoy the multiplayer experience, don't forget to enter your aircraft details on the multiplayer spreadsheet (linked here). Please be kind enough to enter the title exactly as it stands in the title=”xxx” line of the aircraft.cfg file. Your courtesy will save others a lot of time and effort. Thanks!
 

A couple of additional thoughts on the addon-mesh for the Puez Odle section of the Dolomites – after reexamining it with a newer computer system. First, this is a really good portrayal of the sharp jagged features that make the Dolomites famous around the world. Kudos to DemoKen for his excellent work on this project.  But second, it looks “out of place” compared to the remaining 2020 terrain (or 2024 terrain). Also, be careful here because the 11GB rendition not only demands CPU and GPU power but it also takes up a whole lot of video memory.