When the Italian IFFR Section announced their June meeting in Verona it was an instant attraction to us. Seeing the opera, Carmen, in the magnificent setting of the Roman Arena and landing on a grass strip on Venice Lido Island were incentives enough. The flying there and back was also a big attraction and it is that that I will concentrate on. That is not to take anything away from a truly excellent weekend, which was organised with classic Italian flair.

The principal flight planning issue was how to route. Down through France to Cannes and along the coast to Genoa before tracking North East to the Po Valley would avoid the Alps. The shorter track across Switzerland would save 200nms but would put us too close to Mont Blanc for SWMBO’s comfort. I must confess that I had got myself rather too locked into these too contrasting alternatives to look at others. That was until the day before we left. Surfing the net I came upon an excellent site covering Innsbruck. This gave clear details of a VFR routing by way of the Brenner Pass from Italy, around Innsbruck and into Germany. The problem was that I had 30-mile gap between my Italian and German charts and as this was in the critical area it had to be covered. A call to the Pilot Warehouse got the promise of an Austrian chart in the first class post that day. A back up call to John Ritchie got an email attachment of the critical section by return - it was 20 years old so was not ideal – but I don’t suppose the mountains had changed. In the event the post did what it should and we got the 2003 chart the next morning. I still planned however to route by the South of France on the way out as this gave more options if the Alpine weather turned difficult.
We set off for our traditional French entry point of Troyes in reasonable weather. All went well until we entered France and were advised that there was extensive military activity and that Northern France was in effect one large Danger Area. When we asked for a crossing clearance we were told that it was not necessary only that we should keep a good lookout. As it was we saw nothing. The Met had warned of the possibility of thunder but although the weather deteriorated as we approached Troyes we did not encounter any CB’s. Troyes is an excellent airport and after a quick snack at the nearby Novotel we returned for a Met briefing at the first class on-site facility. Things were OK at that time down the Rhone Valley but CB’s over the Massif Central were threatening to move into the Valley south of Lyons at about the time we would be getting there. With this warning off we set. And yes, ten miles south of Lyons we met a black wall illuminated by ‘silver forks’. A hasty 180 avoiding a nuclear installation (over which the French are now very sensitive) was performed as we quickly considered the options. St Etienne to the west appeared to be the best and in 15 minutes or so we were on the ground there. In contrast to Troyes’s on-site facility St Etienne only had an unmanned computer Met service. Try as we might we could not get any sense out of it and not being prepared to trust to visual observation in these conditions we decided to call it a day.

After an early start the next morning we set off for Avignon. The weather had cleared and with the benefit of a strong Mistral we had a cruising speed of 160kts. Landing into this gave us one of the slowest touchdowns ever! After a quick refuel and an up-to-date Met forecast for our route we were on our way over the hills towards Cannes. Clearances were quickly given for the various en-route restricted areas.
As we approached the coast there was a build of cloud but this did not, at that time, present any difficulty. Talking to Cannes and then Nice we were cleared through the low level VFR route over the sea – ‘not above 500ft’. After being given clearance to climb we called Milan Information as instructed - but, probably due to the hills, failed to get an answer. We instead contacted Genoa. We had become concerned about the amount of cloud on the mountains that act as a barrier between the Mediterranean and the lower inland areas. To clear these we would have to climb to 6500ft. and there appeared to be no way of getting there legally and indeed what lay on the other side remained uncertain. We decided that discretion was the better part of valour and that we would divert to Genoa to review the situation on the ground. We were instructed to hold – 5 minutes became 10 as one of our Trans-Atlantic IR brothers had difficulty in sorting his A’s from his O’s in trying to establish the location of his reporting point, Aosta. Out of misfortune however comes good fortune. We recognised that the apparently solid cloud that we had faced had in fact in a thick herringbone structure. We cancelled our diversion and climbed steadily northwest in the clear. At about 7000 ft the cloud fell away and so we headed back northeast onto track. As we cleared the hills so did the cloud and it was back down to 1800 ft as we flew along the Po Valley. The approach to Verona was stunning – flying directly over the city we had a low level bird’s eye view of the ancient arena and other parts of this classical old city.

The next day we had our much-anticipated flight to Venice. The Italian section had worked particularly hard to get a safe routing around the various airfields in the locality. Our ten aircraft then took off at regular intervals and apart from a local non-IFFR aircraft having an altimeter problem as it approached two of us at 12 o’clock we landed at Venice Lido without incident. The base leg join had put us in direct line with St Mark’s Square giving a memorable view of the famous city skyline. The return routing was slightly shorter but was, again, achieved safely.

In planning our return to England I had discussed the Innsbruck routing with Karl-Heinz Netsch who had come that way from Germany. It appeared straightforward so long as the weather remained clear. SWMBO had by this time accepted the benefit of a quicker return and had become relaxed about crossing the Alps. We awoke to heavy rain with the dark clouds moving, helpfully, off to the east. By the time we got to the airfield the local hills were clear and the mountains in distance had only pockets of cloud on them. Before we set off the manager in the Aero Club looked me in the eye and said, “Make sure you don’t lose sight of the road”. I took the warning to heart. After initially talking to Garda we transferred to Bolzano – an airfield deep in a valley with mountains at 8000ft on either side. It was just north of Bolzano that the significance of the manager’s warning became apparent. The valley branch to the northwest looked the more obvious route being wider – but the one to northeast took the motorway and that was the way to go. We were now at 8500ft and talking to Innsbruck. As the road crossing point at the Brenner Pass came into view we were instructed to ignore the low level VFR route and route directly to the northern reporting point on the German border. The cloud had built up – so we requested a climb to11500ft. This was the highest we had taken the Robin and it was impressive it was still climbing strongly before we levelled out.

Crossing into Germany we gradually descended and cruised at 3500 ft avoiding cloud and a multitude of gliders. We routed around Stuttgart heading for our planned stop at Luxembourg. All went well until our approach to Luxembourg. We had had to hold to allow an airliner to depart and were then given an expedited join from our orbit straight onto base leg. Flying out of Netherthorpe with its 490m (long!) strip I have the ingrained habit of landing on the numbers. Given that Luxemburg’s runway is 4000m I resolved on this occasion to land a bit in to avoid a long taxi and speed up runway clearance. Big mistake! As we came down the runway we hit the remnants of the departing airliner’s wake turbulance, which had not been dispersed in the still air. Having an aircraft at almost 90°at less than 50ft. is not fun but a hefty tweak on the stick got us the right way up and safely on the ground. A Belgium friend had warned us that Luxembourg was not cheap – but that’s all relative. Return transport from the aircraft park to the terminal and landing cost less than £13!!

After the alarms and excursions of Luxembourg the rest of the flight was relatively straightforward A helpful Charleroi and, on this occasion, a very helpful Brussels saw us across Belgium at 3500ft before we left the coast at Koksijde. I had then some 35 minutes of very useful instrument practice as the sky merged into the sea in the summer haze. Landing back at Netherthorpe we had done some 1950 nms in just four days. From a flying and social point of view it had been outstanding and as with any good flying experience we had broken new ground and learned a few lessons on the way. Don’t go near the big ones, son!!

Angus Clark