Tom,
yes, ZRH requires slots and it therefore requires pre-planning and basically a phonecall at 8am the day before the flight in order to secure one. And it is pricy, no question.
Still, it is pretty much the only airport available from 6am to 10pm, 365 days a year, Schengen and non-Schengen airport of entry and it is the only IFR airport in the region of Zurich.
I still keep it as homebase as long as I can. In the long run, it is still more economical for me to stay there than to move to one of the smaller airfields where I do not have non-schengen airport of entry, have to pay partly ridiculous membership fees just to fly there and then be told who can fly MY airplane and all that.
quite a few of the mentioned airports can NOT be flown to direct from the UK, nor from them to places like Croatia or so, because they only have Schengen customs and some of those at quite high prices (up to 30 CHF per movement!). It can, in certain cases, make a landing and departure on each of these almost as expensive as ZRH or Altenrhein, with the only (small) difference that you don’t have to get PPR for customs and landing (most of the private fields in Switzerland are PPR) but all you do need is the said slot.
Thanks for all the advice. Plenty of info to work with.
the airway south from there is FL160.
You can get over the alps at FL140, roughly over the Gotthard pass, IFR.
Weather planning will be crucial I guess.
Apart from the usual (IFR) weather briefing, I’d check the QNH north side (eg. LSZH) and south side (eg. LSZA) of the alps. If the difference is 5hPa or more, expect turbulence, and clouds on the side with the higher QNH.
ZRH requires slots and it therefore requires pre-planning
You’re a meteorologist, you know how well the weather can be preplanned for a VFR trip in conditions less than widespread CAVOK. Especially VFR, when weather doesn’t allow departure on your pre-planned slot (the famous 4500m visibility with refusal to grant SVFR) and you phone your ear red to get your slot and the weather align…
I still keep it as homebase as long as I can.
I’m glad you and a few others do and don’t make it too easy for the airport authority to throw all GA out, but really, it’d be too much hassle for me to be based there…
Tom,
You’re a meteorologist, you know how well the weather can be preplanned for a VFR trip in conditions less than widespread CAVOK
Well, 24 hours ahead should be reasonably “safe” to make a good guess if you need to preplan the slot or not. Generally, if the weather is fine, you need to block slots the day before, if it is flyable but not great usually you can get slots on the same day too.
I am well aware of the 5000 M / 1500 ft requirement… as one of the observers who do the Metars there. And we have discussed this before, particularly in November to March, where this is not really available very often.
I’m glad you and a few others do and don’t make it too easy for the airport authority to throw all GA out, but really, it’d be too much hassle for me to be based there…
Let me tell you I used to think the same way before I came back to flying in 2009. Actually, we have a pretty good understanding with the airport authority and the people who work with us directly. It is some higher folks who have a pet hate in GA plus some newly enforced rulemaking which has basically halfed the slots we used to have (wake turbulence adherence on RWY 28). But at least they still let us do it, not like in Munich for instance. At least in FRA they have sufficient alternatives in reach, not so here.
Yet, if you live 3 minutes by car away from the GAC and the nearest alternative is 45 mins (VFR) to over an hour (IFR) driving time away, it’s clear what I want to do. The cost of operation in ZRH is quite high but if I calculate driving, time loss and regular taxes at the other private fields, it still is quite without alternative.
I do hope we will get a solution in Dubendorf but I won’t hold my breath as the people around are quite vocally opposed to any GA use.
An IFR airport with decent hours is almost priceless.
On Wednesday I cancelled a trip to Sweden because of likely bad return wx. It was made worse by bad wx the day after and the day after that. Shoreham has an IAP but it’s near-useless, and like nearly all in the UK it has difficult opening hours.
If I was based at an ILS airport, my cancellation rate would immediately halve.
A diversion to the nearest ILS airport (Biggin) costs at least 300 quid (with taxis etc).
They are talking about LPV but that will be a ~20k refit for me (and actually most others unless they are happy with a box with a tiny screen e.g. a single 650) even on a “self managed” install basis.
Well, 24 hours ahead should be reasonably “safe” to make a good guess if you need to preplan the slot or not.
Lets talk about that next fall 
Fog forecast is notoriously unreliable, I’m not talking about an hour off, I’m talking about completely wrong, such as dissolution forecast for 11LT, but not happening at all during the whole day.
And there’s always fog at LSZH in fall, it used to be swampland (same for LSMD), I guess 100 years ago the swamps were the only uninhabited areas large enough to house an airport.
There’s way more often VFR weather further down south, at LSPV or LSMF, for example, where the influence of Föhn winds is much stronger. LSZK is about the northernmost location that’s still ok, sometimes one needs to scud run for a few minutes. The only thing to be aware is that fog can form quite quickly in the evening, that’s why LSZK closes at sunset during the winter half year instead of end of civil twilight.
Are any of the Swiss ‘cavern airports’ or other outlying (ex)military airports ever available for GA or microlight use?
Perhaps this gives a taste of what you’re after?
http://www.hunterverein.ch/
The airfield is LSTS St. Stephan. As I read the website, it is normally closed to visitors, but there appears to be an annual fly-in.
http://www.p-c-a.ch
Tom,
yes, that is true. I consider ZRH 80-90% IMC in winter, which is one reason why I will take the (expensive) plunge and get both airplane and pilot IFR again asap. Fog / high stratus dissolution is one of the bits I have come to hate to predict. I’ve seen identical days condition wise with totally different outcome.
Yet we try to be a bit more positive about it than certain far eastern places which simply put TEMPO0300FG into their TAF in October and leave it there until May…
Speck is generally better, but I have been stranded there in winter several times due to runway conditions. Nearest concrete airfield is Birrfeld which is as foggy as ZRH, then Wangen Lachen or Mollis, both more than 2 hours driving time from my home. Actually, Donaueschingen is often better too.
Silvaire, they aren’t used because there’s not enough money around to maintain them now that the air force has released them…
My interest was only that in riding around CH, you come across quiet runways in the countryside and it just seems a shame that they aren’t used. The one I mentioned in Ulrichen, at the intersection of Furka and Nufenen passes is a good example: