Hello everyone.
Starting from the Italian city of Torino at 930 feet, you shall be heading north-northwest, following the Susa Valley, to cross the Italian-French border at 12000ft over the Frejus pass, and then descend to land at the airport of the Swiss town of Geneva, Cointrin Airport (1380feet).
With our Cessna 172 , this means climbing constantly all through the Susa Valley up to Bardonecchia, carefully managing the fuel mixture to keep the rpm always around 2500 rpm. You can expect the climb rate to drop from 500 to 200 feet per minute.
After clearing the Frejus pass, the second part of the flight is a long careful descent over the Alps to the French town of Chambery before veering east, following the Rhone river, to reach the Swiss town of Geneva overlooking the Lake Leman (Lake of Geneva).
Flight Altitude Profile
In vfr conditions you can clear the Frejus pass at 10500 feet, finding your way between two peaks:
In IMC (instrument meteorological conditions) don’t risk it, climb to 12000 feet.
After the pass, you can start a slow descent (-400fpm) to 8000 feet along the Val de Maurienne to Saint Remy.
In VFR conditions you can cut from Saint Remy to Chambery descending slowly to 5000 feet, otherwise delay you descent until you *strong text*are over Aiton.
From Chambery to Geneva keep 5000 feet until the airport is in sight.
ILS final altitude for landing at Geneva Cointrin runway 22 is 2700 feet.
Oxygen
Over 10000 feet it is mandatory the use of the oxygen mask. So pause strategicalli your climb at 9000ft so as to delay the final climb to the last practical moment. After the pass initiate the descent to 8000 feet as soon as poassible.
If you want a relaxing flight choose a summer day, clear skyes, and temperature (at Torino) above 18 degrees Celsius. If you choose live weather, the scenario is much more challenging: except in the summer, clouds will close on you as you approach the pass, the temperature will decrease to under the freezing point, and once on the French side of the Alps you have a long way to go before finding better weather conditions. Definitely be ready to change over to flight following and trust the autopilot to take you at least as far as Chambery. Here you can descend to 7000ft, and once over Aix Les Bains you can start a descent to 5000ft when the Geneva lake is in sight, heading for the Passeiry VOR.
If the windshield freezes, don’t panic, as long as you have Pitot heat on and warm air flow in the cabin (seemed to work for me) just wait for the Geneva lake, descend to a convenient altitude (2500 feet) and stretch your approach to the Saint- Prex VOR to let the ice melt away.
Load the flightplan, select departure at parking 6 by selecting it from the top down bar (selection on the map with the mouse would reset the flightplan).
Here is the flightplan.
Torino Ginevra.PLN (4.5 KB)
Here is how it looks in the MFD:
Images from the flight in live weather:
