In May, there was a chance to fly to Switzerland’s most restricted military airbase for the first time in many years. Meiringen AFB houses FA18 fighter jets and is one of the few remaining tactical airbases.
They do a nostalgia fly in every few years and this year the ILS (Interessengemeinschaft Luftfahrt Schweiz) got the chance to do their yearly fly in there at the occasion. All in all 60 civil airplanes landed there including a wonderful DC3 and an original Fieseler Storch. The latter has huge significance in Meiringen as it was from that airbase that a rescue mission involving this type was flown to evacuate the passengers of a USAF C47 which had crashlanded on a glacier. This rescue was the first airborne rescue recorded.
We took off out of ZRH in the morning.
South of Bern
Still quite a bit of cloud in the mountains.
Interlaken and the lake of Brienz
Griessbach waterfalls near Isletwald on the lake of Brienz
Approaching Meiringen from the West we were cleared into a left hand downwind for runway 28.
Final runway 28. This pic was taken by our passenger, Sara.
One thing I love about those fly ins is the presence of Peter Schneider, who does wonderful airplane pictures. This one shows us on final.
After landing with my crew.
One part of the flight line.
This wonderful DC3 used to fly as HB-ISC for Classic Air and is now in private hands. It is restored to then Swissair Specs.
Another shot of the Mooney by Peter Schneider
Line up for departure on runway 28
The former Interlaken Airbase which now houses a venue called “Jungfrau Park” formerly known as “Mystery Park”. It also had Red Bull races going for a while.
“Mystery Park/Jungfrau Park” close up. This is a rather interesting place to visit if you are nearby. The park was conceived by Erich von Däniken, well known author of several books about archeological mysteries and documents some of his key finds, without however trying to impose his theories. I’ve been there several times and it’s good fun and well worth a visit.
Lucerne and the Vierwaldstättersee in Central Switzerland
Lake Sempach. Near the town of Sempach, one of the defining battles of early Switzerland against the Hapsburg army was won in 1386.
The abby of Einsiedeln is one of the largest still functional Benedictinian monastries in Switzerland.
Lake of Zurich with the Seedamm between Pfaeffikon and Rapperswil. To the right of it is the airfield of Wangen Lachen.
Preparing for the “VFR arrival via Sierra” flown entirely by RNAV.
Due to strong winds, the airliners had to land on our normal landing runway 28. We got to land on 34 instead. Here a pic during the base leg in direction of Glattbrugg-Zürich.
A happy crew after arrival at Zurich. A 777 is on final for 28 in the background.
And the chance for Sara to take some more pics of our plan with landing traffic on 28.
It was a great flying day and chance to meet a lot of people at the fly in.
Here some links for those of you who’d like to see more.
Peter Schneiders photo collection
Documentary about the crash landing of the DC3 in the Alps. In German, a production of Swiss TV.
Wonderful photos! When making left downwind for 28 at Meiringen, how much room is there? It looks a bit tight in the photo, but it’s hard to tell.
I’m not always a fan of yellow but your Mooney just looks ‘right’. Very pretty.
PS the photos remind me of riding motorcycles from Andermatt, making a ‘loop’ and stopping at Innertkirchen (very near) for a short break. I wish I was there now!
Great report and pics, thanks for sharing.
Silvaire wrote:
When making left downwind for 28 at Meiringen, how much room is there? It looks a bit tight in the photo, but it’s hard to tell.
Maybe left downwind is not required, just do a right downwind, with an overhead join if necessary ;)
Silvaire,
the circuit is very easy to fly with a small plane. They had the Junkers 52 and DC3 fly there too, so it is not that bad. I’d say the downwind leg is about 700 m to the south of the runway axis, however at the end the valley opens and you can open your flight path to get a proper base and final turn.
The yellow livery was how the plane came in. I never found out why it was painted that way (it’s not the original paint) and was wary of it at first. It somehow started growing on my however. Someone mentioned it had to do with a Bond movie but I never found any colour scheme which matched. At least it is very easy to pick out in the flight line and the yellow actually holds better than red does for instance.
Nice report and great pics WN. If the weather is nice, Switzerland is heaven, for flying and otherwise.
That DC-3 is wonderful indeed. I bumped into her on Menorca a few years ago. I’d like to make a slight modification to your description and call it ‘better than Swiss spec’. She’s actually even better than new. One can easily use it as a shaving mirror..
There are seemingly so many unused airports in Switzerland that if you opened each for a special event only once a year, pilots could fly somewhere different every weekend without leaving the country.
(My ‘favorite", only because it sticks in memory for some reason is in Ulrichen, 16 miles south of Meiringen. If Google Earth can be believed there’s still enough runway intact for some planes, even at 4400 ft elevation)
Someone mentioned it had to do with a Bond movie but I never found any colour scheme which matched.
The only one i can think of is Little Nellie, but it is yellow on top and white underneath:
There is also a yellow JetRanger in "On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”:
Key word is “seemingly” – in fact most of the former military strips (there weren’t that many either) have been torn up, or are in the process.
Driving through certain alpine valleys one sees three airfields in a row and tends to extrapolate to the whole country. Unfortunately it is just a sampling error. Drive (or fly) through any valley away from the National Redoubt (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Redoubt_(Switzerland)) and you’ll see a grand total of zero (former) airfields.
With a grand total of 50 combat aircraft flying only during office hours it’s not like you need that many airfields either.
Thanks What Next! I think that Gyrocopter really has a very similar paint scheme. I never managed to find the owner who did this paint job but I also know that the seats are covered with original Swissair fabric out of the 1970ties. They had a flair for such stuff and thankfully took very good care of the plane.
aart wrote:
I’d like to make a slight modification to your description and call it ‘better than Swiss spec’. She’s actually even better than new. One can easily use it as a shaving mirror..
She was restored to the specs the DC3 had when it was new in Swissair at the time. But I agree, she is very nice indeed.
Shorrick_Mk2 wrote:
most of the former military strips (there weren’t that many either) have been torn up, or are in the process.
There are still quite a few in use, some of which people hardly realize they used to be military. Zweisimmen, St.Stefan, Reichenbach, Saanen, Kägiswil, Mollis, Ambri, Lodrino, are all former or active military airfields. In the Valais, Raron retains some of it’s runway, Münster is still there, Turtmann and Ulrichen have been demolished. Buochs and Alpnach are still active.
