We are seeking pilots with mountain and bush flying experience to ferry University students conducting various geological surveys around the glacial valleys of Mount Blanc. Pilots are authorized to fly VFR. Incident encounters of IMC due to the cloud layer, mountainous terrain, and some potential for icing may occur.
Aosta Valley, Italy
The University of Colorado, USA and University of Padova, Italy are teaming up for a geologic survey of the area immediately surrounding Mount Blanc. The American and Italian passengers will need to be picked up in Turin, Italy, and flown to various destinations in the mountains to capture soil and vegetation contrast lines on the ground, identify fault lineaments, and practice aerial orientation and identification of landmarks. Finally, the University staff are treating the pilots and students to a skiing trip and dinner in Megeve, France.
Aosta and Mount Blanc
Event Details
Theme: Mountain bush flying with aerial scavenger hunt
Date: Saturday, January 16th, 2020
Time: 11 AM PST, 2 PM EST, 7 PM UTC (subject to change)
Discord: https://discord.gg/GRYwahVZPk
Settings: All Players, Custom Weather
Weather: Details to follow
Flight Planning
The area immediately around the LIMA airport is a relatively flat 3 - 3,000’. Twenty miles West and North of the airport are ridges at about 5 - 5,000’ and peaks up to 15 - 15,000’.
The valley into Aosta remains at about 3 - 3,000’. However, the saddle between Aosta and Megeve (SW of Mount Blanc) is about 7 - 7,000’. Pilots will need to climb to and maintain approximately 8,000’ to safely clear the saddle while also remaining below clouds.
Topographic Navigation Map
Above is a topographic map of the route. Departure airport LIMA is to the bottom right, the enroute airport LIMW is the top center, and the arrival airport LFHM is top left. Especially note the terrain elevation between the midway airport, Aosta, and the arrival airport, Megev. Also, note the VOR radio locations and frequencies in the event of GPS equipment failure or IMC.
We plan to depart Turin heading N-NE, turn into the valley toward Aosta following the river, follow the river-valley W until it reaches Mount Blanc, turn left and climb heading SW until we’re out of the mountain range. Finally, we land at Megev.
Relief Map showing Route
Landmark Map showing Route
Scavenger Hunt
Details to follow. The scavenger hunt is completely optional but will include VOR navigation/triangulation, identification of man-made structures, and topographic and terrain landmarks.
Here is a teaser of one of the landmarks to find, located in a glacial valley:
Final notes
This is a draft version of the event. For the most up-to-date version please visit: https://github.com/eskunu/msfs-fe-2
Our previous events: https://www.reddit.com/r/MicrosoftFlightSim/comments/ihzag0/calling_all_bush_pilots_a_search_and_rescue/
Sincere thank you to all pilots interested and I hope to see you next Saturday!
