[Tell Tours] Switzerland - "Hot Potato" (Leg 4)

Steeler2340 · January 1, 2021, 4:02pm

Guided Switzerland Tour (Final Leg 4)

Dear fellow pilots,

Welcome to the final leg of our guided tour through Switzerland.

In a Nutshell

What	Value
When	Friday (January 15 2021), 1930Z (2030 Zurich local time)
Duration	2 hours (approx.)
Server	North Europe
Voice Chat	On the official FS 2020 Discord event channel: https://discord.gg/msfs
Aircraft	Textron Aviation Cessna Citation CJ4

Fight Plan

LSGG-LSZS-Flightplan.pln (11.9 KB)

Introduction

It’s urgent! We need to bring a VIP - codename “hot potato” - from Geneva to Samedan in Graubünden. Maybe hot potato needs to attend the WEF in nearby Davos. Maybe hot potato wants to go skiing for a day or two. Or maybe hot potato needs to go on an emergency shopping spree in St. Moritz - who knows!

And who are we to ask, we are just the pilots of a fancy, shiny Textron Aviation Cessna Citation CJ4, ready to scream through the small valleys of the Alps, covered in snow and beautifully lit by the little villages over which we’ll do a low fly-by.

All we know is that hot potato has asked for several airplanes taking the same route, as anonymity for hot potato is essential!

FLIGHT DETAILS

We will continue our tour from Geneva airport (LSGG). After creating some waves in lake Geneva we will turn into the valley of the Valais and do a quick stopover in Sion (LSGS), to stock up with Valisian Pinot Noir wine. We then follow non-stop various (smaller) valleys to Samedan (LSZS).

This will be a scenic flight. Our hot potato has asked for a “quiet flight”, so not much commentary will be given during the flight this time

PLANNING

Start is at airport Geneva (LSGG) where we ended our previous leg.

It is advised in this flight to turn off both aircraft collisions and terrain collisions. If you do crash, you can use “slew” mode to join the pack. The default amount of fuel should be sufficient.

MULTIPLAYER SETTINGS

Please adhere to the following settings so you can see everyone / be seen by everyone.

Variable	Setting
Server	North Europe
Multiplayer	All
Live traffic	As desired
Weather	Live Weather (if feasible; otherwise Scattered Clouds + Snow Depth: 20)
Time of day	16:30 local (15:30 UTC) for great lighting

COMMUNICATION

To communicate with others, a voice channel on the "Official Microsoft Flight Simulator Discord” at https://discord.gg/msfs will be available to join.

FLIGHT PLAN

In order to fully satisfy our hot potato we will be using a shiny Textron Aviation Cessna Citation CJ4, or any equivalent aircraft that provides enough comfort, luxury and especially enough oomph to speed with 250+ knots through the small vallues.

A .PLN file is provided by the following link: LSGG-LSZS-Flightplan.pln (11.9 KB)

To use the flight plan, follow these steps:

Download the flight plan to a easy-to-remember location
Open MSFS
Go to the globe
Click “Load/Save” on the bottom of your screen
Click “Load”
Navigate to the downloaded flight plan
Click load.

Calendar Entry

An optional calendar entry Tell Tours - Geneva to Samedan.ics is provided, if you want to set yourself a reminder.

Download as follows:

Chrome / Edge: right-click and “Save target as…”
Firefox: click on link, save the shown text (*.ics) file: “Save page as…” (right-click, “Save target as…” does not seem to work)

Then simply open the downloaded *.ics file and the default calendar app should import it.

Optional Scenery Add-Ons

We will visit the following locations. Free scenery add-ons are available which may optionally be copied into the “Community” package folder of FS 2020 before the flight:

Description	Download	Comment
Geneva (city)	https://flightsim.to/file/2848/geneva-city-switzerland	Same scenery as suggested for previous leg 3
Saint Moritz - Samedan Airport LSZS	Saint Moritz - Samedan Airport LSZS (Swiss) v2.0 • Microsoft Flight Simulator	Requires the Airport Assets
Airport Assets	SDR Scenery Pack V1.1 • Microsoft Flight Simulator

LET’S FLY

This is meant to be a fun and informal flight. Everybody is welcome, no matter the amount of experience.

Ianrivsmith · January 1, 2021, 4:04pm

Did you intentionally miss spell potato?

Steeler2340 · January 1, 2021, 4:08pm

Whoopsie! At least I am not the first one:

https://publicapologycentral.com/apologia-archive/political-2/dan-quayle-potato-incident/

Steeler2340 · January 14, 2021, 6:48pm

Places

Valais

Grimselpass

Oberalp

Furka Pass

Caumasee

St. Moritz

(Note to editor: all photos taken by me, @Steeler2340)

Steeler2340 · January 14, 2021, 7:43pm

Lake Geneva

Valais

Sion (LSGS)

Graubünden (Canton of Grison)

Samedan (St. Moritz)

Steeler2340 · January 15, 2021, 12:10pm

Geneva Airport (LSGG - also still known as Cointrin Airport) is an international airport. In order not to clutter the only runway we will meet at Parking / Ramp 24:

Note that after you have loaded the LSGG-LSZS-Flightplan.pln (11.9 KB) you should modify the starting location only via the dropdown menu on the top of the map - not on the map itself, as this will reset the flight plan into a straight line between Geneva and Samedan (if that happens, simply load the flight plan again).

The Business Aviation Terminal, or Terminal 3 (T3), is located at the south-west end of the airport. This terminal is a hub for private charter jet companies that offer facilities including VIP lounges, private immigration, and customs screening.

Or in other words: it is a perfect meeting point for picking up our hot potato.

VFHUBPickle · January 15, 2021, 6:07pm

I love the storyline behind this event! CJ4 isn’t really my favorite, but I wish more events would make a story like you did.

Steeler2340 · January 15, 2021, 7:02pm

Feel free to choose any jet of your likings (except airliners perhaps ;)), for as long as you manage to keep up with crusing speed at around 250 knots. This is going to be more a “fun flight”, but the scenery - especially with the chosen time of day and weather settings - will still be gorgeous.

Initially I only planned for three legs, but I thought I’d also want to cover “Graubünden” (canton of Grison), in order to have covered all language regions (Switzerland speaks for languages: German, French, Italian and Rätoromanisch).

As we have to “backtrack” a bit some of the paths that we have already covered previously - and since we have to cross almost the entire width (“west to east”) of Switzerland - I opted for a somewhat faster airplane

And I chose this airplane because it is also available in the “Standard Edition” of FS2020 (I do have the “Premium Edition” myself).

Diogenes2581 · January 15, 2021, 9:06pm

Thank you very much [Steeler2340] (https://forums.flightsimulator.com/u/Steeler2340), that was a great series! I hope you will be back some time later with a Leg5, 6, 7 …: wink:
I just found your documentation on [GitHub] (Tell-Tours/Europe/Switzerland/Steeler at main · till213/Tell-Tours · GitHub) - very interesting!
I never thought that I could learn so many interesting things in one game (sorry, simulator: thinking
My wife and I agree: Our next trip, will lead to some of the places that you have shown us in Switzerland, if Corona allows it
Diogenes