This leg looks quite promising, since we will visit the Dolomites and will land at Austria. Or will try to, since the runway has a length of 2,444 ft and the Baron takeoff distance is 2,643 ft. The valley seems to be open, so I trust I can maneuver to enter in stall and brake hard. I consider Innsbruck and Salzsburg as alternatives in case I have to abort the landing. Also because of the weather, since it seems that there are few clouds nearby and MSFS could do something weird. I check a webcam and everything is clear at Kitzbuhel so... let's takeoff, together with 5 passengers. Clear day, amazing views from the apron, not like yesterday, and very easy takeoff towards North.
I head towards Puez Odle and Sassolungo. The mesh is a mess (pun intended) but I can distinguish the last peak. Having been there in person helps a lot from now on, since there are some scattered clouds and too much snow to distinguish features from my maps. I use my knowledge of the area to recover when I get disoriented. I manage to find Marmolada glacier and Lago di Fedaia, leaving them behind towards Cortina.
At this point I get disoriented again, due to the bad mesh, but as soon as I see some good textures I recognize the Antelao, so I easily fly along the valley that leads to Cortina. From this iconic village, I head to Misurina lake and Tre Cime, very easy to spot from far.
I didn't mention that I flew the whole time in manual, no AP. Again, a pleasure to fly this plane by hand. From here I went to Dobbiaco, keeping high altitude to avoid an airspace, and then towards Lienz, first waypoint in Austria. Near Lienz there is a short runway so I decided to to a couple of fly-by's in landing configuracion to test how it would be at St. Johann. Also, in case of bad weather, I could return to Lienz. This runway is shorter than St. Johann's, but the approach looked feasible. I'm not entirely sure but if I manage to slow down near stall on short final, should be feasible.
From here, I headed north towards Grossvenediger, now knowing if there would be clouds afterwards. Lucikily it was clear, so I decided to continue towards Mittersill (where I did some sightseeing) and Kitzbuhel, the beginning of the approach for LOIJ.
The approach is beautiful and perfect. But now the landing. I reduced the speed as much as I could, full flaps, gear down and when I'm about to touch, I suffer a sudden strong crosswind gust. When I manage to touch, I rebound, and there are some gliders next to the runway so I'm afraid of hitting them. I push throttle to do a go around but I'm stalling and touch grass very hard. Definitely something has broken. Luckily they have some kind of workshop in this cozy airfield, so let's see how much it will cost.
For the next leg, I have thought about taking some passengers to Kapfenger (LOKG), near Leoben, but the runway is much shorter (1,900 ft) and surrounded buy buildings, so I think I won't take the risk. I'll look for something more feasible, even though there won't be jobs. In any case, I prefer not to take too much weight for takeoff, I'm not sure if I'll be able to leave this beautiful place.
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Distance: 120 nm
LOWS 271120Z 03010KT 350V060 9999 FEW060 21/09 Q1022 NOSIG
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