what_next wrote:
Not talk to some ATC guy who you have not been in contact with before and who may know nothing about you
Yeah well… Meiringen, a military – only airport, so in IMC they won’t talk to many people. Switzerland – not exactly the biggest airforce in Europe. Flight of two takes off, Element calls on the radio minutes not even after takeoff. How unlikely is tower controller doesn’t know who Element is?
Rwy20 wrote:
OK, but where do you get this safe altitude from?
Experience? Seriously, think about it. You are a mil pilot, based at Meiringen and you look at these mountains every day. Wouldn’t you know that 10k ft is too low?
PS: this of course assumes the pilot was, in fact, based at Meiringen. Doesn’t say anything wrt this in the report.
172driver wrote:
this of course assumes the pilot was, in fact, based at Meiringen
If this wasn’t the first time he was flying a swiss F/A18, then in all likelihood he was based there, as that’s where they normally operate out of.
@tomjnx this is incorrect (I have spent numerous years in the Swiss army).
Those planes are actually based in Payerne usually, Payerne was closed that weekend due to a national sporting event held on the base (swiss wrestling) and as such the planes and squadron were moved to Meiringen to be able to continue their mission which consists of policing Swiss airspace (usual interceptions when loss of comms, airspace violations etc). Although the pilot would have definitely been familiar with the area (we have a small country) it is safe to assume he would be less familiar than the surroundings at his home base.
pashab wrote:
@tomjnx this is incorrect (I have spent numerous years in the Swiss army).Those planes are actually based in Payerne usually,
Unless of course it was a Fliegerstaffel 11 plane, which is based in Meiringen…
This is an interesting read on the Swiss Airforce – lots of history there…
http://www.airspacemag.com/flight-today/dont-mess-with-switzerland-1833740/?page=2
Zoom climb might conflict with civil traffic. Is the area busy at altitude?
It is one of the busiest areas of airspace in Europe. I wonder as well how much this thought influences the pilot’s actions in such a situation. If you compare it e.g. with some MOA in an American desert.
Actually, the busy airspace is a bit further East (corridor where all the airliners are). Also, as a private pilot based somewhere near Payerne, I am well aware of this situation. I usually cross the Alps via Meiringen at min. 9’200ft. And this is not above the Alps, that is flying between the mountains. I fully expect a military pilot to know this stuff. Come on, our country is tiny for an F18 and they usually know our mountains and valleys like the back of their hands. He could’ve zoom climbed and turned away from the class C corridor as he went through FL130 or so.
However, all of this is just my opinion, who knows what else went wrong on this flight… Maybe there were many other holes in the Swiss cheese we don’t know about and he was just very, very unlucky on that day.
