Aviation Tour - Maps on www.bankleft.com

The Bank Left web page indicates the route that we flew through the alps - from Constance in Germany south west, south of the Jura to Grenchen for the night.then over lake Neuchatel, south to Lake Geneva, around the north shore of the lake past Lausanne, up the mighty Rhone valley, ascending to 12,000 feet past Mt Blanc and the Matterhorn, over the central passes then south to the Italian part of Switzerland, on the south face of the range to Lugano.

After some coffee and Geleto (we had been eating sandwiches on board for lunch) we took a departure route from Lugano south over the lake to look at the area, then ascending again to 12,000 feet for a path direct over the range to central Switzerland.


The Jab has a ceiling of 15,000 feet and even with our prop set course was still climbing at a few hundred feet a minute through 12,000 feet.



Discussions with the alp locals in Annecy have since taught us that we should have climbed slower to acclimatise better. With our zoom to 12,000 I ended up with a dull headache after half an hour. In future, I'd make the small investment in some oxygen bottles for operation at that height.

Glacier!



Three weeks later after a loop through central Germany, we are back in the alp foothills at Annecy and I am extremely glad that we made the effort to make this 5 hour flight through the alps while the weather allowed. Although we have been in Annecy for several days now, the weather hasn't been good for heading into the alps and it is deteriorating for the remainder of the week. We have been planning for Italy, cycling, making short local flights over lake Annecy and eating great cheese instead.