Crosswind at La Salette (French Alpine grass strip)

[facthunter]

I've seen a few where the chute didn't open properly but no deaths fortunately. We used to joke about "Roman Candles" and putting your arms out to limit how far you went into the ground. Nev

[Garfly]

Did you catch Bertorelli on dodging meat bombs? 

(He has a little sting in the tail for we of the "perfectly good aeroplane" brigade  ;- )

[sfGnome]

4 hours ago, Garfly said:

The man on the Clapham bus thinks the same about anyone who goes up in one of them little aeroplanes.

That’s one of the things that really surprised me when I started taking passengers. Some couldn’t wait to get on board, while others were not so sure. One niece declared “it’s so tiny; no way I’d go near that”. I’d always assumed that everyone was obsessed with flying… 🤷‍♂️

 

The memory that really niggles at me was that we had a low wing plane, and both my parents were too weak to be able to climb in. If only we’d had a high wing. Mum would have been out of her skull with excitement. Her brothers flew gliders before the war, and she was so proud that I was flying too.

 

Hmmmm…. I think I’ve taken thread drift to a new level. Sorry! 🙄

[rgmwa]

My niece had only ever flown RPT and was pretty hesitant to go up with me because the plane was so small, but after some persuasion, a careful walk around explaining how everything worked and a pax briefing she finally plucked up enough courage to fly. She’s a doctor and currently in the NT. She recently sent me a text saying she had to fly in a small plane to one of the remote communities but she remembered our flight and didn’t panic. I asked her how big the plane was. She said it was small, so I asked how many engines did it have. She said two! I guess ‘small’ means different things to different people.

[Old Koreelah]

8 hours ago, sfGnome said:

…we had a low wing plane, and both my parents were too weak to be able to climb in.

Low wings can easier for infirm people. In NZ I was among a bunch of Jodeleers that flew into a remote strip punctiuated by rabbit burrows. The last to land was guided in by radio and made an impressive arrival: just as he was about to stop in front of the aseembled pilots, his left wheel found a deep bunny hole and his Jodel spun around to be parked with wing almost on the ground. This made it easier for his wife (who was recovering from a stroke) to step off.

[Garfly]

 

Anyway, it looks like La Salette is a mere piece of cake compared to Valloire Bonnenuit. 

But again, our intrepid Jodel and Skyranger drivers show they know what they're about.

 

 

 

 

From the Description (via Google translate):

"As promised, here is Valloire Bonnenuit, well known to cycling and Tour de France enthusiasts, on the Col du Galibier road.
The north/south oriented runway is located at 5600 ft, is 340 m long with a 9.5% gradient. We face south.
The terrain is delicate with valley wind (downslope), with a venturi effect that can be pronounced. The final approach is very engaging, you really enter a funnel (at the origin of the venturi). Go-around is only possible as long as the valley is wide enough to turn around. It quickly becomes impossible. Pilots have died here for forgetting it.
So if we get too high, too fast, we land anyway and we stop against the embankment at the end of the runway, sorry but alive!
The visual of this rising valley makes it difficult to mentally represent the 5% plane on final, which can be tricky and cause us to approach on too weak a plane. If moreover that day, the wind is tail (mountain wind this time) and accelerates in the venturi when approaching the track, it is a blow to not being able to reach the track, even full throttle.
It is therefore necessary to take the altimeter reference of the runway threshold during the low reconnaissance, then climb outward to the altitude of the downwind (here 6100 ft). Finally, once on final, check the plane with the vario once the runway is stationary in relation to the bonnet mark.
Based ULM pilots, who are at home, must have other benchmarks.

The next video will take us to La Tovière Val d'Isère, still in Savoie.

Explanation of the venturi effect in detail:
The AFPM field sheet indicates that the approach can be tricky in valley winds. It is important to fully understand how this may influence the approach in order not to make the decision to go around.
Valley wind is created by the radiative cooling of air aloft in the mountains that flows up and down the valleys as it becomes denser than the surrounding air. The analogy with flowing water is quite telling. The stronger the radiative effect (cold soils at altitude), the larger the valley (supply surface), steeper and narrower, the stronger the wind will be.
By watching my video you have surely noticed this small hill on the right on the short final which creates a pronounced restriction at the bottom of the valley. If the valley wind is present, it will increase sharply at this location.
Now let's imagine an airplane on stabilized final. Approaching the venturi he will encounter a very strong positive wind gradient which will have the effect of increasing his indicated speed and/or causing him to pass above the plane and which may lead the pilot to believe that he is much too high and too fast to land and that at the same time, he has such climbing performance that he can turn around by overshooting.
It is a decoy, because once past the venturi the opposite phenomenon occurs. It is therefore necessary to resist and be patient when aiming for the threshold of the runway, even on a very strong plane. Runway excursions at the end only exist if the speed relative to the ground is too high, but this is not the case. The indicated airspeed parameter will naturally decrease when exiting the venturi allowing the landing.
Once the phenomenon is well understood, it will come naturally that it is suicidal to attempt a take-off in these conditions, the venturi can get the better of the planes that have the best climbing performance, unless they can pass well above the hill."

SPEEDJOJO Blog: http://speedjojo.blogspot.com/
Shop SPEEDJOJO T-shirts: https://www.tostadora.fr/speedjojo/ca...

[Student Pilot]

Gotta love google translate 😁