Aviation Specials – May 2018

Captains Hoch and Hitsch became the

fi rst teachers. During each detail, each of

the trainees fl ew three circuits, take-off s

and landings at the altiport that sits 2,006m

(6,582ft) above sea level. Before the last

landing, a go-around was performed. The

unique aspect of this manoeuvre was that

it had to be started around 2,625ft (800m)

before the runway threshold, otherwise

there wouldn’t be enough room to turn

away from the mountain slope. There was

a gorge at right-angles across the bo om

of the runway and while overfl ying its

deepest point the decision had to be made.

Once we had fl own past that, the only

choice was to land.

The flights to Courchevel only

operated during the winter months

and the training programme had to

be repeated at the beginning of each

December, after a summer break. Only

once it was completed could the pilots

fly passengers again. The difference

with the refreshers were that they didn’t

have to be done with a training captain

in one of the front two seats, although

the trainer sat on a cockpit jump seat.

It was all done in a single session. All the

Courchevel pilots were assigned places on

the aircraft, and the remaining seats were

sold to the public. We fl ew to Chambéry,

where the passengers disembarked and

were taken to the slopes by coach to

spend a day skiing. The pilots continued to

Courchevel in the Dash 7, completed their

training and parked the aircraft. In the

late afternoon, the passengers skied down

to the aircraft, checked in, and we fl ew

them back to Innsbruck.

Approach and landing

We fl ew Paris-Courchevel-Paris for French

regional airline TAT, and at the same

time operated Innsbruck-Courchevel-

Innsbruck with our own fl ight numbers.

Whether we were coming from Innsbruck

or Paris, the inbound route took us to the

PASSEIRY VOR navigation beacon near

Geneva. From there, we followed the 160o

radial straight to Courchevel. Shortly

before we left the Geneva control zone

our instrument fl ight plan was cancelled,

and we continued under visual fl ight rules

• as long as the weather was good. We
  then overfl ew the town of Albertville,

Around 40 circuits

of the altiport were

fl own during the

approval procedure

COURCHEVEL

Extreme Airports // 57

ABOVE AND LEFT:

The view of the

approach from the

cockpit is quite

dramatic. (Captain

Gerhard Beer)

LEFT: The airfi eld

can be used by

light aircra fl own

by pilots with a

mountain rating.

(Captain Gerhard

Beer)

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