Bruno Glaviano
Flight report February 2004

A series of flights around central Europe; always (as usual) with real weather, and planning IFR flights on published documentation.

HI 505 LIRF EGGL; FL360;799 NM; 1h 57min; a/c 747-400 PS1.
A smooth flight without technical troubles; but I disconnecetd autopilot during descent and forgot this, so I failed to engage autoland and realised it when I was on final. I executed a landing pattern via MCP, then engaged the ILS correctly and landed regularly.

HI 502 EGLL EBBR; FL270; 211NM, 1 hour 7 min; a/c Airbus A-320-100 X-Plane.
I entered the full flight plan in the FMS, and all the figures in the MCP, but for my personal satisfaction I flew all the flight by hand. All went well, thanks also to calm winds, but visbility on landing was very low, and I really had to trust the instruments (as the manuals often say).

HI 503 EBBR EGLL; FL240; 198NM; 39 min; a/c Airbus A-320-100 X-Plane.
This flight, too, was flown by hand. Chilling temperatures, with low visibility near ground.

HI 512 EGLL LFPG; FL240; 241NM; 45 min; a/c Airbus A-320-100 X-Plane.

HI 653 LFPG LSGG; FL260; 249NM; 44 min; a/c Airbus A-320-100 X-Plane.
Nice weather and light winds, so I disengaged autopilot during descent and continued my approach and landing manually, very smoothly and always better as I practice with the plane (I’m also familiar with this area and LSGG approach procedures).

(second leg) LSGG LIMC; FL180; 192NM; 41 min; a/c Airbus A-320-100 X-Plane.
Yesterday weather changed, and we had a lot of snow south of the Alps. So, I left Geneva in strong winds, flew around Mont Blanc along ROCCA2C departure, started my descend, reached TOP VOR at 9000ft and approched LIMC via GOLTO1A/VERCE1B STARSs. This side of the Alps wind was calm, but visibility marginal below 3000ft and it was snowing lightly. I concluded my ILS final and landed smoothly on runway 35R. Autopilot was set, but never used.

HI 656 LIMC LIRF; FL270; 37NM; 1 hour 2 min; a/c Airbus A-320-100 X-Plane.
For this flight, I carefully followed the flight plan provided by virtuAlitalia in it’s IFR lessons, including an elaborate approach to runway 34R.

LSZH ILS rwy 16 circuit, FL60, 15 min, a/c MD-81 ELITE.
Elite is a professional simulator, too expensive for hobby use, but a demo can be downloaded, that allows 3 minutes flights. I trained on this circuit at Zurich (take-off, ZUE, KLO, ILS16), saving the situation after each 3-min and starting again. OK all went well and I can add this training to my log.

Swiss air show; aircraft MiG-29U X-Plane; FL70, 368NM.
I took off from Cameri LIMN, crossed the Alps, reached beautiful Valais and did a first high-speed pass over Sion LSGS. Then I headed for Geneva LSGG were I performed a touch-and-go and some aerobatics. On the way back, I did a high-speed pass over Bex LSGB, then another touch-and-go and more aerobatics at Sion, were I also had to board some fuel. I crossed back the Alps over the Matterhorn, then flew a circuit at Cameri were at least I landed. Flight could seem somewhat toyish, but holding a fighter helps to stay smart on the controls of more conventional planes.

Total flights: 9, time flown 7 hours 52 minutes.