Portoroz

Since a sunny day lay ahead of us and we wanted to enjoy a bit of holiday feeling we decided to fly to the small airport of Portoroz (LJPZ) located at the Adriatic coast of Slovenia. We started with a short flight to Salzburg (LOWS) to pick up Isa’s sister. From Salzburg, we departed to the south enjoying a beautiful flight across the Alps and it’s valleys. Our routing took us along the Austrian highway A10 to the south overflying the Tauern-Mountains and the lakes of Carinthia. Just after a shallow descend towards Portoroz we experienced beginning turbulence and a significant wind blowing from the north which was soon followed by an ATC advisory of wind shear in Portoroz due to a phenomenon called Bora. ** We decided to delay our descend and ATC gave us excellent advise on how local pilots maneuver to minimize turbulence and avoid wind shear. Since the final approach normally leads over some hills ATC offered us a short approach which we gladly accepted. Although we experienced medium to severe turbulence from the top of descent until touchdown we did not encounter any wind shear during the approach.** ** On the ground, the staff of Portoroz airport welcomed us and helped us with tying down the aircraft as well as organizing transportation to the town center. We spent a few hours strolling around the beach and had a nice lunch at the waterfront. After one of the best icecreams we ever had, we went back to the airport to fly home. Fueling was efficiently done by Portoroz airport staff and was one of the cheapest and fastest fueling stops we ever experienced. Gladly the Bora was weakening already and turbulence was declining rapidly. From Portoroz, we took off towards the west overflying the town and Piran before turning towards Triest. On the flight back we again enjoyed the view of the Alps and after dropping off Isa’s sister in Salzburg we continued onward to Landshut (EDML).**