Yes, lovely news indeed. So maybe one day I can revisit the very airport where I spent some of my Airforce days taking care of Hunters. lovely place and nice area too.
Yes, that was for local pilots from neighbor airfields the only chance to visit Mollis in the past. Switzerland has actually quite a few fly-ins on airfields or airbases, which are normally “off-limits” for GA pilots. Also military bases like Meiringen, former base St. Stephan and Emmen do have some fly-ins, but (unfortunately) not on a annual basis.
That is great. Didn’t they do an annual fly-in for locals?
There is a positive update on one of Switzerland’s most beautiful airports, called Mollis (LSZM). The airfield was military in the past (former ICAO-code: LSMF) and during the transition into a civil airport only opened for home-based aircraft below 2t. One exception was, if you knew a local pilot how could do some kind of “handling”, you were possibly able to get a PPR (but still not guaranteed). This quite crazy restriction has come to an end, as the airport offers now PPR to everybody. Currently, you still need to cross a public bicycle road between the runway and the parking position, which is only allowed powered-off or when someone from the aeroclub stops all “traffic” (bicycles and pedestrians) by hand. Soon, a new bicycle way will be opened, bypassing the critical area, so this restriction will also be relieved when the airport becomes officially completely civilian. The airfield will also be introduced into the official Skyguide VFR Manual by mid-november. The former taxiway will however remain closed (mandatory backtrack) and the thresholds are replaced with a shorter landing distance.
This is actually very good news, especially for the autumn and winter period, when the flatlands of Switzerland are often covered by low clouds and fog, while the Alps are completely CAVOK. A train into Zürich from Mollis costs only around 1 hour travel time, so it might be even a serious VFR alternate for Zürich, in case you’re used to mountainous terrain.
that turboprop (one of many) is likely a Pilatus testflight. They are made in Buochs and subsequently test flown in these areas.
Having now seen on the map that Buochs is adjacent to where I was watching, that makes sense 
He was using a lot of altitude to do the aerobatics over Lake Lucerne, the plane could fly straight up for some time. Fun to watch.
I’ve looked over at the Pilatus factory on a different trip but it’s hard to piece them all together into a consistent whole. So many lakes, so many valleys… It’d sure be fun to fly to some of those airports.
Ambri:
Samedan:
Slivaire,
that turboprop (one of many) is likely a Pilatus testflight. They are made in Buochs and subsequently test flown in these areas.
I did a flight last year from Zürich to the Matterhorn and back via the lake of Constance in about 3 hours in the Mooney. Saw several of those airports on the way.
What really impressed me with all these airports is that these airports were used by high performance jets, Hawker Hunters, F5´s and others. Landing there in such airplanes is a real challenge!
Those pics btw are not mine but simply linked from several sites on the net.
Yes, thanks Mooney Driver. Those are really great photos and they surely illustrate what I was talking about!
If you were ‘out and about’ and crossed Klausen Pass, Gotthard to Andermatt, then Furka Pass and along the valley in the direction of Brig, I think you’d pass three of those runways pictured. You might also see a turboprop doing aerobatics over the Vierwaldstattersee (Lake Lucerne), presumably military but a pretty good show regardless
Lodrino was one of those that caught my eye too, heading south from that area towards Bellinzona.
Thanks again.
@Mooney Driver: thank you very much, wonderful pictures. Only such a shame my microlight isn’t allowed in the Swiss skies.
And yes, it was Ambri I meant, sorry.
Sion/Valais Alps – spent week hiking beautiful, beautiful place…
