Guided Switzerland Tour (Leg 2)
Dear fellow pilots,
Welcome to the second leg of our guided tour through Switzerland.
In a Nutshell
| What | Value |
|---|---|
| When | Friday (January 8 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 | Cub Crafter X Cub |
Fight Plan
Tell Tours - Locarno to Bern.pln (12.9 KB)
Introduction
This tour will guide us through the Alps and will put our little, but reliable X Cub to the test: the pitot tube will freeze. Our cockpit glass will freeze (but no worries, we have an “outside view”, so we can still enjoy the scenery ;)). Some valleys won’t be much wider than the wingspan of our airplane. We will climb to the top of Europe!
But we’re on a mission! I will link to some YouTube videos below to get you into the proper mood. And if you think you’re up to the job - think again! Our mission won’t end without the spectacular Inferno Race: dead-stick and follow the terrain from top of Piz Gloria down to Lauterbrunnen!
That all being said, the event is open for all pilots of all skill levels. The goal is to enjoy the beautiful scenery, get to know some interesting fun facts and enjoy flying together.
FLIGHT DETAILS
We will continue our tour from Locarno airport (LSZB). After a quick sightseeing of Locarno we will head north through the pitoresque Verzasca valley. At it’s very beginning there is already an opportunity to reenact the famous opening scene of GoldenEye (the X-Cub also comes visually closest to the Pilatus PC-6 Turbo-Porter used in the movie).
After a steep climb we will fly over some locations of Goldfinger, before we climb the largest glacier of the Alps, the Aletschgletscher, which will lead us to the Top of Europe.
In freezing conditions we will then “head over” to the next peak, Piz Gloria (also known as Schilthorn ;)), another iconic James Bond location.
In between you will learn a couple of more (fun) facts about Switzerland, land on a small airstrip built for gliders (not available in the FS 2020 airfield database ;)), do another break in Interlaken airport (LSMI - a former military airbase) and end this leg in Bern-Belp (LSZB).
PLANNING
Start is at airport Locarno (LSZL) where we ended our previous leg. We will meet just next to runway 26.
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 50% 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 | Few Clouds OR Live Weather |
| Time of day | 1000 AM local (0900 UTC) for great lighting |
UPDATE I just checked: the live weather is really good, almost no clouds (but freezing temperatures: our pitot tube and wind shield in the X Cub will freeze!) - and snow 
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 enjoy the scenery we will be using an Cub Crafter X Cub and cruising between 90 - 100 knots, but you are free to choose any aircraft capable of cruising at the same speed. A tight turning radius may become incredibly advantageous, too 
A .PLN file is provided by the following link: Tell Tours - Locarno to Bern.pln (12.9 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.
While I set the waypoints such that it is theoretically possible to fly the entire leg with autopilot (at around 100 knots) we will need to survive some steep ascends - so be prepared to intervene and turn around your airplane quickly, if (still) possible
Calendar Entry
An optional calendar entry Tell Tours - Locarno to Bern.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.
LET’S FLY
This is meant to be a fun and informal flight. Everybody is welcome, no matter the amount of experience.
