Low & Slow Over Italy
By Joe Thompson (18 April 2007)
“For my part, I travel not
to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to
move." - Robert Louis Stevenson
“The
world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” - St.
Augustine
Preface
In
Part 1 of our Italian travel
adventure we covered the northern region of Italy
from Milan in the west to Trieste
in the east. We went from Bolzano,
in the Dolomites, southward to Rome,
where we spent our first night. Day two
began with our departure from Rome
and a flight westward to the island
of Sardinia and then to Sicily,
where we landed in Palermo for
lunch. And so we now continue our adventure – climb aboard Mercator
VA’s (http://www.flymercator.com/index.htm)
twin Beech “N18MC” and make yourself comfortable.
DAY
TWO (Cont’d)
Rome
– Olbia (Sardinia) – Cagliari
(Sardinia) – Palermo
(Sicily) – Catania
(Sicily) – Lamezia
– Brindisi - Bari
After
a very relaxing lunch at the Ristorante La Tartaruga, near the Palermo airport, we roared off on the next
leg, which would take us east to the vicinity of Termini Imerese, a city in the
province of Palermo, on the northern coast of Sicily, founded by the Greeks. From that way point (WP) we would track east
southeast and skirt the southern flanks of Mount Etna (at 10,900 ft tall the largest
volcano in Europe) and land at Catania (LICC/CTA). By early
afternoon we were parked on the transient line at Catania in the shadow of Mount Etna.
Once again we stretched our legs and
chatted up some of the local airport officials who we would be working with in our
future revenue endeavors. From Catania we flew straight up the Straights
of Messinia. Once we spilled out over
the Tyrrhenian
Sea, just
to the north east of the city of Messina, we tracked northeast over the Golfo di Gioia.
We continued over a hilly portion of the
Calabria region then more water, this time
the Gulfo di Sant’Eufemia, and finally landed at Lamezia Terme
(LICA/SUF). With beautiful, romantic
rocky bays and sandy beaches, Lamezia Terme is an untouched and unspoiled
region of Calabria. Tourists in this area however are well advised
to know some Italian because few locals speak English. OK, five legs down today and we still had two
to squeeze in and the light is fading.
We got something to drink in the terminal and in a few minutes found
ourselves climbing away from the airport heading northeastward. We transited Calabria then flew out over the Gulf of Taranto and coasted in just south of the
city by the same name. A short hop over
the ‘boot heel’ and we landed at Brindisi (LIBR/BDS), the capital of the province of the same name. After a quick look around the ramp area we
were airborne once again. We followed
the coastline northwestward to Bari (LIBD/BRI) where we would spend the
night. Day Two was in the logbook with 7
segments, 729 nm, give or take a couple, and 7.2 hours flown. We looked forward to a hot shower, some
delectable local cuisine and a good night’s sleep.
DAY THREE
Bari –
Naples – Pescara
– Forli – Florence
– Venice – Brescia
– Torino – Milan
The 0430 wakeup call in Bari was a jolt. I had slept well but I was still a little slow
getting up to my normal “operating speed”. A peek out the window revealed drizzle and low
clouds. Once we had ‘topped off’ with
espresso and some local sweets we boarded 18 Mike Charlie and
everything was deemed in order. Levers
were set, switches thrown, and in a couple moments the two radials belched
voluminous plumes of smoke and roared to life. We taxied out, were immediately cleared for a
straight-out departure off runway 25 and in a few minutes the relatively flat
area around Bari gave way to the rising eastern terrain of the Apennine Mountains. The mountains lend their name to the Apennine
peninsula, which forms the major part of Italy. The mountains are mostly green and wooded and
the eastern slopes down to the Adriatic Sea are steep, while the western slopes form a plain on which
most of Italy's historic cities are located. Our next stop would be one of those historic
cities – Naples, which was 100 nm almost due west of our present position. Forty eight minutes later we were on deck at Naples (LIRN/NAP). The drizzle
that had kept us company all the way from Bari now beat a louder tattoo on the
fuselage of the old Beechcraft. Mount Vesuvius, the infamous volcano south of the
city, had all but disappeared in the rain. During a session of meet & greet with
local airport representatives the rain continued to fall and visibility now
dropped to 2 miles. I filed IFR to get
out and after breaking out just north of the city I cancelled IFR and drove on
to our next destination VFR.
Pescara, our next stop, was due north, and
we would re-cross the Apennine Mountains once again. Soon though, I was talking to Pescara Tower who gave me a left base for runway 22
and as we passed the looming hulk of Mount Amaro, just off my left wingtip, the town
of Pescara and the Adriatic Sea came into view. Pescara (LIPB/PSR) lies on the shores of the Adriatic in the Abruzzo region of Italy. The city is divided into two distinct sectors by
the River Pescara, which flows down out of the mountains into the Adriatic. Turning final over the town's small, quaint harbor
I could hear Byron’s camera shutter firing away as we flew the approach. I carried a little extra speed due to some
wind burbles off the mountains and got the nose a little lower than I wanted. With the squeal of rubber we ‘crow hopped’ on
and I pulled the yoke back and got the tail down onto terra firma. Momentarily we were on the ramp and listening
to the familiar clicking of the props as they wound down to a halt. “Sorry about the crow hop” I said
embarrassingly! “What’s a crow hop?” asked
Byron. I told him that when an airplane lands and bounces or balloons up into
the air and then back to earth, sometimes several times, it’s referred to as a
crow hop, (after the peculiar hopping motion crows are famous for.) However an old aviation maxim came to mind, “Any
flight where the aircraft can be used again with little or no repairs is cause
for a celebration!”
From Pescara
we hugged the coastline up to Ancona
where the land swings a little more west northwestward. We continued up the coastline until we were
directly abeam the city of Rimini,
on our starboard wing, and San Marino
off our port wing. The Most Serene
Republic of San Marino
is the third smallest nation in Europe (after Monaco
and Vatican City). It is an
enclave surrounded by Italy,
and is one of the European microstates. According
to legend, San Marino
is the oldest constitutional republic in the world still in existence
today. From abeam this Most Serene
Republic our next destination, Forli,
was only 24 nm more. And after a
brief stop in Forli
(LIPK/FRL) we headed back across the spine of Italy
and the Apennine Mountains
once more.
The
magnificent city of Florence (LIRQ/FLR),
the capital of the Tuscany region,
lying on the Arno River
would be our next stop. Present day Florence
has a population of around 1 million people counting the surrounding
environs. A center of medieval European
trade and finance, the city is often considered the birthplace of the Italian
Renaissance and was long ruled by the Medici family. It is also famous for its magnificent art and
architecture. We wouldn’t be visiting
any museums today but the approach to the airport should provide us with some
spectacular views of the city, not the least of which would be the Ponte
Vecchio Bridge spanning the Arno River, and the Duomo (Duomo is a generic
Italian term for a cathedral.) and Campanile (Bell Tower) in the city center. Twenty five minutes after leaving Forli
the Florence controllers were
giving us vectors to put us on final for runway 05. As we crossed the Arno low and slow on short final
the city center, off our starboard wing, looked as if we could reach out and
touch the brick dome of the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (The Duomo). Byron’s camera shutter sounded like a machine
gun as he rapidly took picture after picture.
Seconds later we settled onto the active runway and taxied to the GA (General
Aviation) apron and shut down. Not far
away, hovering above the roofline of the city, I gazed at the brick dome of the
Duomo. They don’t build them like that
anymore!
Less than an hour later we were
airborne again and headed northeastward to Venice. We crested a ridgeline and as it passed
behind us the city of Bologna made
its presence known not far to the left of our track line. Now the terrain dropped in elevation as we
skirted the northwestern terminus of the Adriatic Sea
and approached the Laguna Veneta (Venetian Lagoon), in which the city of Venice
is situated. The lagoon is comprised of
8% land, including Venice itself
and many smaller islands, 11% permanently water, (or canals as the dredged
channels are called) and the remainder (80%+) is mud
flats and salt marshes. The lagoon is
connected to the Adriatic by three inlets. And since its at the end of a closed sea it’s
subject to high variations in water level, the most extreme being the famous spring
tides known as the acqua alta
(Italian for "high waters"), which regularly flood much of Venice.
Venice’s
“Marco Polo” tower (LIPZ/VCE) cleared us for a long, straight in approach
to runway 04R. I adjusted mixture,
propellers, and throttles and made sure the fuel boost pumps were on. The
landing light was activated, wing flaps were fed in and cowl flaps set. As we tracked down the glideslope at a
breathtaking 95 KIAS the RPM needles
twitched nervously around their approach settings but the Manifold Pressure pointers
were rock solid. Over the threshold I
assumed slight nose high attitude and held the yoke back a bit until she
settled onto the runway. No crow hop
this time – life was good! I took the
first available exit off and in no time we were sitting on the cargo ramp
tucked back away from the passenger terminals.
Welcome to Venice. Venice's
nicknames include "Queen of the Adriatic",
"City of Water" and
"The City of Light." but no matter what one calls her she is spectacular
in every sense of the word. Time however
was moving on and we had to have this aircraft back in Milan
before the next morning.
Venice
was the fifth leg of the day and the end was getting nearer. We had three more segments and our junket
would be over. Before long we were climbing
to the northwest, over the Laguna Veneta, heading to Brescia
(LIPO/QBS). After a brief stop in Brescia
we were on to Torino. We skirted to the south of Milan,
crossing from east to west, and then landed on runway 36 of Torino’s
Caselle Airport
(LIMF/TRN), in hazy
conditions. Not long after we were up
again and on our final, brief leg back “home” to Milan.
The light was fading into a blend of
soft pinks and blues as we headed east out of the Torino
area. The Alps Cozie,
a part of the Alps mountain chain that separates Italy
from France,
disappeared behind us in the waning light.
The firefly-like lights of surrounding aircraft became more pronounced
as night fell and before long we were on our approach into Milan’s
Malpensa. Another nice landing and a
long taxi back to Terminal 2 and we were done.
On Day Three we had transited 744 nm in 7.0 hours of flight time and
visit seven airports before returning to Milan.
Now the trip was over and the
Baby Wasps fell silent. Byron and I just
sat in silence for a moment, savoring the experience that had just been
afforded us. We collected our gear and
as we walked across darkened ramp I thought to myself “Where will the next
adventure take me?” Only time would
tell but there is definitely no shortage of aircraft to fly or landscapes to
visit.
“Arrivederci
i miei amici
fino alla nostra avventura seguente” - Good-bye
my friends until our next adventure.
CREDITS & REFERENCE
LINKS
Once again, without the
unselfish and tireless efforts of many aircraft and scenery developers this
trip would not have been as dynamic and as realistic as it was. To all those
very talented people listed below and to the thousands of others that daily
contribute their efforts to sites such as FlightSim.Com and Avsim.com for our
enjoyment I can only say is - Thank You!
AIRCRAFT MODEL:
·
Beechcraft D18S by
Milton Shupe, Scott Thomas & Andre Folker, is
available at various sim sites. At FlightSim.Com see
files:
D18SVC2.ZIP for the FS2002 version or
D18SVC4.ZIP for the FS2004 version
·
Also highly
recommended is Milton Shupe’s website for additional files or suggestions regarding
this aircraft at FlightSimOnline @ http://www.flightsimonline.com/
·
Mercator livery
design, aircraft repaint, and panel modifications by the author.
SOUNDS:
·
See
Shupe website for recommendation.
AIRPORT SCENERY:
·
See http://walhalla.mine.nu/fs2004.php
and http://walhalla.mine.nu/fs2002.php
for airport scenery links for all the airports in this story;
or just search the
FlightSim.Com file library
·
For alternative
payware scenery for some Italian airports used in this story
(e.g., Florence) see
here
MESH SCENERY:
·
70m Global Terrain
Mesh - converted & compiled by Stephen Rothlisberger available at here
ITALY TERMINAL CHARTS:
·
http://usa-w.vatsim.net/charts/#Europe
WHERE TO STAY- EAT & THINGS TO SEE & DO IN ITALY:
·
Too
numerous to list - consult your local travel agent!
PREVIOUS FLIGHTSIM.COM
FEATURE ARTICLES BY THE AUTHOR:
·
Flying the
IL-76TD
·
Atlantic Canada in a YS-11
·
A Tale of a
Whale
·
A Long Haul
in a Hercules (Part 1)
·
A Long Haul
in a Hercules (Part 2)
·
Around Thailand in a DC-6
Postscript
If you enjoyed the article or
have comments please let me hear from you. I always look forward to your
feedback.
Joe Thompson
joe308@zianet.com
ceo@flymercator.com
