Grenchen/Granges is a popular entry point to Switzerland due to being a port of entry with permanent customs and IFR approaches.
There are new opening hours announced just yesterday via NOTAM WEF today until end-October that make the place much less convenient. Basically, the airfield is closed/open/closed/open/closed/open during the course of the day so timing is critical for any flight planned there.
LS B0835/17 :
B)2017AUG28 0600 C)2017OCT28 1600 EST
D)0600-0700 1015-1145 1500-1600
E)AD CLSD FOR ALL ACFT.
The reason given is a staff shortage at Skyguide who provide ATS for Grenchen. The airport will attempt to get FOCA approval to operate without a tower during the time that Skyguide can’t provide ATC, so that the airfield can at least remain open. It appears that the airport was caught by surprise and is now in reactive mode. Who knows how fast the wheels of administration will move on this.
It looks like Switzerland has joined Greece, Sweden, and other European countries with 3rd world airfield operating hours and conditions.
Unfortunately, Switzerland is not friendly in this respect. Airports have limited opening times, with almost no possibility e.g. for night flights, especially in the summer. I once had to just stay in the air for 90 minutes because I had to return to LSZR (worse weather than expected) and I was 1 minute late to land before their lunch break (yes, an airport with international airline traffic has a lunch break of 90 minutes, opens at 10am on Sundays and closes at 8pm) and all other airports in the area were also closed for lunch. So a couple of hours closure of LSZG doesn’t really make a big difference.
chflyer wrote:
3rd world airfield operating hours
In the 3rd world, labor costs and employee rights are on the lower side so H24 is more common than in Europe in my experience.
There is more to it than that. In some countries international air carrier fire fighting regulations are applied to GA traffic, which is absolute nonsense. Closing an airport to all traffic and thus excluding GA traffic just because there are no commercial flights and the associated fire fighting equipment isn’t available is in my opinion 3rd world class.
Same applies to closing an airport simply because ATC is not available. France has always (or at least as long as I can remember) used the approach that an airport goes to AFIS when there is no ATC. In this context, AFIS does not necessarily mean “manned”, and traffic can come and go using air/air pilot-based communcation although in most/many cases there is at least a local ground radio operator who airport-provided and doesn’t need to be fully trained and authorized as a controller.
Grenchen is again open at “normal” working times: https://www.aeroclub.ch/index.php/de/aero-club-der-schweiz/medias/archiv/854-regionalflugplatz-grenchen-wieder-mit-normalen-oeffnungszeiten
chflyer wrote:
In this context, AFIS does not necessarily mean “manned”, and traffic can come and go using air/air pilot-based communcation although in most/many cases there is at least a local ground radio operator who airport-provided and doesn’t need to be fully trained and authorized as a controller.
You got the concept almost right, but the underlying terminology is not used correctly. AFIS means that you have someone on the ground manning the radio. ATC means it is a controller with the corresponding training who can give you orders. The air to air (A/A) radio case is called “auto information”. But you can have multiple combinations of these three cases on one airfield depending on when you turn up. IFR is possible in all of them.
I understand what AFIS means, just saying that certain France airfields don’t necessarily stick to that meaning all the time even though published as AFIS.
Rwy20 wrote:
AFIS means that you have someone on the ground manning the radio.
Actually it means more than that. It means that the “someone” will keep track of traffic and provide traffic information, will pass you official weather observations etc. It’s not just any guy.
Vladimir wrote:
Grenchen is again open at “normal” working times: https://www.aeroclub.ch/index.php/de/aero-club-der-schweiz/medias/archiv/854-regionalflugplatz-grenchen-wieder-mit-normalen-oeffnungszeiten
Back onto the thread subject and per Vladimir’s link for those who can’t read the German ….. Grenchen LSZG is now open again through the day with adjusted conditions per following NOTAM (thanks to autorouter and Achim):
2) ★ ATC HR SER DAILY 0700-1015 1145-1500 ONLY.
OTHER TIMES RMZ (RADIO MANDATORY ZONE) ACT.
ALL PROC REF SUP 008/17, AIC A007/17, AIC B005/17 AND
WWW.AIRPORT-GRENCHEN.CH.
The 3 periods that the airfield was closed per the previous NOTAM have now been approved for operation as RMZ (class G) with VFR and IFR traffic. So the previous RMZ times have now essentially been extended to cover the 3 impacted closure periods. Best to check the referenced AIC for details on RMZ operations for both VFR and IFR traffic. There are links to these on the airport web site.
So back to a more reasonable situation after two weeks of madness…
