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Swiss Tour  1st - 8th April 2009     Geoff Hyde

A visit to the General Aviation show at Friedrichshafen held between 2nd to 5th April seemed a good bet after the winters spotting lay-off. So to make it worthwhile a tour round Switzerland was proposed. In all it would mean 39 airfields in 8 days taking in a variety from airliners, biz, tin, military and museum.

Tuesday 31 March was departure day from Manchester by Easy Jet to Geneva. Viewing from terminal 3 at Manchester is not ideal.
Arrival in Geneva was in the dark so it was straight to the IBIS hotel.

Wednesday 1 April

First thing was breakfast then back to the airport to pick up the hire car. First port of call was the TAG terminal for the biz. Since my last visit the old hangar has been replaced by a new and bigger one plus a vast development alongside the approach road into the TAG terminal. I would suspect that when this development is finished it may well not be possible to visit this end but time will tell. Then round to the GA side. Looking across to the main airport I could see that the bottom end storage area was now full of biz jets so a visit was made. Easy to collect the serials. If you continue past this area there is a short track, after some rather dubious housing, which you can get some landing shots. A return to the GA side was made and a welcome coffee in the café. Geneva still provides an excellent variety of aircraft and is always reasonably busy.

So it was a lunch time departure to the first airfield at Yverdon about 60 miles. A quiet place. Few aircraft outside but most were locked in the hangars. A Swiss Air Force PC-6 was doing “touch and go’s”.

Next was Neuchatel/Colombier. Again very quiet. A request was made for access to what seemed to be the biggest hangar but no luck or you could come back tomorrow morning. Three other hangars were also shut. But as if by magic one opened and access was gained through another maintenance hangar and a short walk across the apron. Permission was granted to look in and then the other hangar was opened. So not a bad outcome.

Leaving Colombier I headed up into the mountains to visit La Chaux de Fonds. Snow was very evident. No problem with access to the airside and hangars. Last airfield for the day and off to find the hotel.

The hotel La vue de Alpes says it all. A superb view from the hotel room towards the Alps. I would have gone on the toboggan run but it was closed.  

Thursday 2 April

An hours journey took me to Grenchen. It was a grey morning and not good for photography. Grenchen is a busy airfield with lots of hangars and although I had e-mailed them about a tour, which they advertised, I never got a reply. No matter a request at the desk was greeted with no problem here is a high vis vest and be careful. There is an excellent viewing area at the terminal end plus a Best Western hotel.

Basle was next. Its split between the Swiss and French sides and it seems you cannot get between the two sides through the terminals. I choose the Swiss side. The viewing area was closed so I gave up. Very quiet on the movements side. A visit was made to the flying club area. Before leaving I decided to take the road signed to the CAA building. An excellent choice as you could look across to the Dassault facility and biz jet park. That made the visit all the better.

The hotel for the evening was located near Konstanz. Two further airfields at Schupfart and Birrfeld were visited on the way. Again there was no problem with access but some hangars were closed.

Friday 3 April

A short ferry trip over Lake Konstanz and a drive brought me to Friedrichshafen. I had pre-booked so no queing. The exhibition was mainly light aircraft, gliders and micro lights. It was spread around 10 large halls with a few aircraft outside. It took about three hours to visit all the halls. However, out on the main airfield was parked many visiting aircraft. There was no access so it was a matter of finding all the vantage points to read off the serials. The exhibition is held on the Zeppelin factory side and most aircraft parked on the terminal side. A ride round to the terminal provided many spots to read off the serials. In all around 400 aircraft were logged.

The return trip via the ferry was to Zurich and a B&B.

Full log available if anyone wants a copy.

Saturday 4 April

A grey morning with a hint of drizzle. A short drive to car park P3 – top deck. Information was that there was an observation deck on terminal B. There was viewing from terminal E and there was a coach tour which would take you to all the places you wanted to go. I parked in P3. From the top deck you have a view of only runway 34/16 and an apron in front of the terminal. The observation deck was closed and maybe for some time. I tried to find other spotting places but no luck. Anyway it was getting towards coach tour time at 11am. For 8 CHF you get a 90 minute tour of the airport and you visit everywhere. Part of the tour involves a 15 minute stop at an area at the intersection of the two runways which provides excellent photo opportunities. The tour continues via the GA ramp and then over to terminal E. It would seem that you can get out at this terminal to spot and then return to the main terminal- I choose not to. Also from the same point as the tour departs you can get a coach to terminal E. I would certainly say the tour is a must when visiting Zurich.

After Zurich I visited the excellent museum at Dubendorf. It has limited opening times so check before you go.

Leaving Zurich I headed for the next overnight stay near Altenrheim. The drive allowed further visits to Lommis, Amlikon and Sitterdorf. I had a guided tour at Lommis and access to all hangars. Amlikon was a glider field. Sitterdorf was strange as I had seen previous reports indicating a number of aircraft – but I couldn’t find them. Once again it seems that all these light airfields have a restaurant/café which is are well attended. After a coffee I went looking for aircraft but found a model car racing circuit. Fantastic to watch the speeds at which the cars travel. That’s it off to find a hotel.

Sunday 5 April

A visit to the nearby Altenrheim. Dead, a few hangars but all closed. So it was off to Balzers, a helicopter base. It was all closed up. Move onto Bad Ragas. This was much better – full access to the only hangar and a good chat with the local flyers. A coffee in the flying club and found out that Jenson Button had won the grand prix.

Further visits included Mollis, Schanis (gliders), Wagen, Buttwill, Beromunster and Triengen. All airfields were very friendly and once again no problems with access. As it was a Sunday the world and his wife were out. The airfield restaurants were all packed with families. A hotel was booked in Emmen.

Monday 6 April

The next few days involved some of the Swiss Air Force bases, but evidently they had decided that as Easter was approaching they would take leave so no activity –bugger.

Bases visited were Emmen then onto Buochs which has the Pilatus factory. Here you can drive across the main runway from one side to the other. The Pilatus factory is off base so aircraft taxi across the main road to take-off.
Alpnach followed. Here again there is a public road across the base. If the hangars are open you can get quite close for serials and photographs. Kegiswill was visited on the way to Meiringen. A single runway and one hangar- access no problem. Meiringen is a fantastic place for photographs. Its located in a steep sided valley. You can literally stand at the side of the taxi-way. With the backdrop of the mountains and the steep approaches a place to visit again. Interlaken then onto Thun and finally to Bern for the hotel. I decided to visit Belp that evening. Access to the hangars is not possible, although I did not ask.

Tuesday 7 April

A return visit to Belp. On the opposite side to the terminal is Heliswiss. The evening before I had looked through some of the windows with some success. With more to see I decided to ask at the reception. I said to the nice lady behind the desk “do you by chance speak English” I course I do I come from Basingstoke. A full escorted tour was provided of the facility.

Visits to Ecuvillens, Bex, Gruyeres and Sion followed.

Wednesday 8 April

I first visited Lausanne about 5 years ago. Since then there had been major changes to the airfield which included two huge new hangars. A request from the office to go airside meant no problem and be careful if you go into the hangars, which although they were closed, access through the doors was possible.

On my way back to Geneva, La Cote was visited and then Geneva. A final look at the various locations meant new aircraft. The flight back to Manchester was uneventful.

I can honestly say that I never had any trouble with access to airfields or hangars. Everybody was very friendly and spoke excellent English whereas my German was negligible but the French passable. Its expensive in Switzerland and if you are into military don’t go when the Swiss Air Force are on holiday and if you can go to Mieringen for the photographic location.

That’s yer lot.

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