Euro 2011 - Day 3 - Bolzano to Sondrio
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Follow our flight with the photo journal below, however, to find out how Dan missed a day off and ended up swatting cyclists with the Binder trailer on a mountain pass, click on his diary |
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| Expecting a day on the ground waiting for the weather to clear, we were pleasantly surprised by appearance of sunshine and what looked like soarable conditions. The wind was fickle but with a northerly component, so we took off over the parked jets and turboprops, missing the light stanchions by a margin of sorts. We could also see the solar installation on the SE side, which did a good job of powering most of the rest of the airfield. Today's plan was to relocate to Sondrio, about 125Km to the west | |
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We climbed up over the ridge in the centre of the valley |
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| Due to a) lift and b) not many landing opportunities in the rest of the valley... | |
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| Most of the bad weather was being modified by its passage over the high mountains but there were still a few showers getting through, with a large amount of spreadout forming | |
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We climbed up to 9,000' over the plateau then worked our way SW round the flanks of the high ground. The cloudbase was very variable but we found a drier side valley which enabled us to sidle up just north of the pass Tonale and into the Sondrio valley |
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| The pass itself had cunims just to the south that were flooding the valleys with cold, damp air | |
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| Once into the main valley, the skies opened out and looked reasonable | |
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| But although the sky appeared good, the thermals were rather reluctant | |
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| We did a slow tour of the Engadin, then came out SW towards lake Como | |
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| The clouds slowly died away to leave a clear evening | |
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| We descended gently into the main valley, with Sondrio Caiolo airfield below | |
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| Vaulting wooded ridges on the way | |
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| The area to the west had almost completely blued out | |
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| The Po plain was visible, which is unusual | |
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There were still build-ups to the south of Sondrio but they were now receeding |
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| It looked very green and fertile compared with the higher alps | |
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We sank gently down below the tops |
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| Sondrio airfield, a gem in the Italian Alps with a superb tarmac runway, lots of space to park and very friendly people | |
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Finishing the day about half an hour after the trailer arrived from Bolzano The trailer had a story to tell, well at least Dan did |
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