Read on Twitter
1. My winter flight today from Klagenfurt, Austria (LOWK) to Ljubljana, Slovenia (LJLJ), in Microsoft Flight Simulator - which came very close to ending in (virtual) tragedy.
2. Ever since I landed in Klagenfurt on Sunday evening, I've been grounded by a snowstorm that has blanketed the region (in real life).
3. Either the snow has been coming down in heaps ...
4. Or the airport has been blanketed in a thick frozen fog.
5. But finally today, both airports - origin and destination - were showing VFR (visual flying conditions), with broken clouds overhead.
6. With snow expected to last well into next week, I figured this might be my chance.
7. Still, let me say up front that if this had been real life, I would not have gone. As you can see from my flight plan, I need to cross the mountains to the south.
8. And while the clouds are high enough to take off, those mountains (to my right) are still shrouded in clouds.
9. The clouds are not just a visibility issue. Even on the ground, it's -2 degrees Celsius - below freezing - and flying through any clouds at all will almost certainly cause ice to form on my airplane.
10. Still, there are breaks in the clouds, and with a little luck I can get up and fly above them, and over the mountains that way.
11. Taking off from Klagenfurt, which is already at 1,500 feet above sea level, and turning north to see some nearby sights.
12. The region of Carinthia, in southern Austria, was established in 889 AD as a march (military frontier district) of the Holy Roman Empire. Earlier, in Roman times, it had been the province of Noricum.
13. Just over the hills to the north of Klagenfurt is the small town of Maria Saal, home to a large church devoted to Mary that is the object of local pilgrimages.
14. Here are some photos I took at the Marienkirche in Maria Saal, when I visited a few years ago: https://twitter.com/prchovanec/status/1042467911468822528?s=20
15. Just outside of Maria Saal, by the small patch of woods straight beneath my front wheel, stands the stone Duke's Chair, where the new ruler was sworn in - Carinthia's version of the Stone of Scone.
16. Here's what it looks like: https://twitter.com/prchovanec/status/1042469199388573696?s=20
17. A short distance away, you can see a tiny building in a clearing in the wood, right below my nose ...
18. That building is this little shed, by the ruins of an old Roman amphitheater: https://twitter.com/prchovanec/status/1042454276705079298?s=20
19. A bit further north is a small mountain called Magdalensburg, the location of the old Roman capital of Noricum.
20. Near the top of that mountain, to my right as I climb, are the archaeological remains of that capital.
21. To see and learn more about it, check out this thread I wrote when I visited: https://twitter.com/prchovanec/status/1042458318491594753?s=20
22. Flying over the top of Magdalenburg.
23. Just on the other side of Magdalenburg, to the north, is Hochosterwitz Castle, perched atop a steep hill, down and to my left.
24. Hochosterwitz is considered the inspiration for Disney's Sleeping Beauty Castle, and you can see more of it in the thread here: https://twitter.com/prchovanec/status/1042473150779404288?s=20
25. Somebody should really put in the effort to render it in a mod, but all in all, not bad. I remember driving past a little airfield nearby where you can go up and see the castle from the air, like this.
26. Leaving Hochosterwitz Castle on its hill behind me, I need to start thinking how I'm going to get over those mountains to the south.
27. The clouds directly to the south look, if anything, all the more ominous.
28. However, the clouds to the east appear broken, and I can break through and get above the clouds, I can cross the mountains that way.
29. To the east, it does look there's a way to get above at least the first layer of clouds.
30. Climbing past 7000 feet, and turning over the clouds to the south.
31. Climbing through a break in the clouds over the Drava River, east of Klagenfurt.
32. I'll get over the mountains easily at this rate.
33. But I need to keep climbing - up to 12,000 feet - to stay clear of the clouds. It's -11 degrees Celsius up here, and passing through any moisture will form ice.
34. But so far, so good. The only real question in my mind now is, how will I get down? But my GPS has weather radar, and I can see some breaks in the clouds east of Ljubljana. I might have to give Lake Bled a miss, but I can head there, if necessary.
35. Climbing to 13,000 feet, just to be safe. There's some turbulence as I pass over the hidden mountains below.
36. I didn't fly through any clouds. But maybe the air pushed up from mountains below carried moisture? In any case, I've got frost forming on my windshield. This is NOT good.
37. From outside, I can see my wings and tail are coated in ice. This disrupts the airflow over my wings, making me lose lift.
38. You can see that, to maintain level flight, I have to raise my nose higher and higher. That gives the wings more lift, but also creates more drag, slowing my air speed.
39. I'm almost at stall speed (where my wings will stop providing lift) and I'm still losing altitude.
40. The only solution is to put the nose down and descend, in order to gain airspeed. Even that is a struggle. The nose doesn't want to fall, perhaps because ice is weighing down my tail. I have to push the yoke full in.
41. I'm flying entirely on instruments now. At one point, my airspeed reading cuts out entirely. I realize: my pitot tube has frozen. I flick the pitot heating switch on, and in a few seconds my airspeed reading comes back.
42. It's a rough ride, but I'm guiding the plane down through a valley. If I can make it below the freezing level, and onto the plain, and get below these clouds, maybe I have a chance.
43. I keep descending, but I can't seem to get out of these clouds. I know the ground at Ljubljana is 1,300 feet, so even when I'm out of the mountains, I need to stay above that.
My kids wander in and see me struggling to keep control. I tell them I'm probably going to crash.
My kids wander in and see me struggling to keep control. I tell them I'm probably going to crash.
44. Then when I'm at 1,900 feet, I see some light to my left.
45. And there it is, the airport at Ljubljana.
46. I've got one shot to make this, because I'm basically a hurtling piece of ice and I can't climb. Even though the temperature is slightly above freezing, the ice covering my airplane isn't going to melt.
47. Under normal conditions this landing would be easily do-able. There's good visibility over the airport itself.
48. But the closer I get to the runway, the less I can see it through all the frost on my windshield. I can barely see a thing.
49. Somehow I maneuver myself just above the runway and cut my throttle.
50. Bump ... bump.
51. If I could get out and kiss the ground, I would.
52. It's a sim. This is what sims are for, to experience situations before you encounter them in real life, and hopefully learn to avoid them.
53. Takeaways? Unless you have nearly clear skies, flying over mountains in freezing winter weather is incredibly dicey. I thought I stayed clear of moisture, but something happened and I found myself in a very bad situation.
54. Another takeaway? Never give up. It looked bad, especially when my instruments started going blank, but I understood what was happening and worked through each problem until I could get a landing field not just in sight, but under my wheels.
55. I can understand why someone grounded for days, with even worse weather predicted for another week, could get impatient and try their luck. But having been through it once, even "virtually", I know I'll think twice - or maybe ten times - before rolling those dice again.
56. It seems the authorities have arrived to take my report.
57. Here's my actual "flight" path, compared to my flight plan, on Foreflight. That place where I turned south, just on entering the mountains from the north, is where the icing set in. From there it was a wild, blind toboggan ride downhill.
58. Next time they delay my airline flight to douse the plane with anti-icing fluid, I'm going to say "Pour it on!"
59. All in all, though, seeing what can go wrong and why, and what you can do about it, was a very valuable, if nerve-wracking, experience.
