Christmas Visitors to Samedan:

(more…)

HB-JVC is the first of the Fokker 100 of Helvetic Airways to receive the companies new color scheme. It arrived on 30 November 2006 from the paintshops at Dinard (France). The aircraft first flight in the new scheme was on 1 December 2006 to Brindisi (Italy), followed by an night flight to Valencia.

(more…)

Impressions at Zurich from December 2006:

Impressions at Zurich from November 2006:

(more…)

The forth Nordic Air Meet (NoAM) took place between 27 September 2006 and 5 October 2006 at the home of 338 Skv in Oerland.

Supporting aircraft included both the Learjet 35A (T-781 on 29 September) and the Cessna 560 Exel (T-784 on 3 October) of the Swiss Air Force. Larger spare parts such as a replacement engine returned to Switzerland onboard of Transall 5099 of the German Luftwaffe (5 October).

Aircraft deployed to Norway included:

Hans Prisi spend a big part of his working life at the military airfield at Dubendorf. He was very interested in the military aviation and started early to collect pictures of these aircraft. In the last couple of years, he produced several rference-books on aircraft of the Swiss Air Force which can be obtained directly at the authors.

The C-36 has been developped shortly before the outbreak of WWII and was produced by the Eidg. Flugzeugwerk F+W Emmen, Doflug Altenrhein and Pilatus AG Stans. The engine was a Hispano-Suiza HS-51 12Y of 1000 hp which was produced by Adolph Saurer AG at Arbon and SLM Winterthur in licence.

This type was introduced in 1942 with several squadrons. After the war, sixty aircraft were modified for target-towing duties and in 1975, 23 of them were modified with new engines to meet the increased demands of the AAA. These aircraft were auctioned off on 12 December 1987 at Lodrino. The author describes in detail the history and fate of each individual aircraft

The Swiss Air Force has suffered more than 400 accidents since 1914 with the loss of more than 350 crew member, passengers or even people on the ground.

Peter Brotschi, aviation journalist and officer with the Swiss Air Force has searched in the archives, looked at thousands of pages and interviewed many of the surviving crew members in order to prepare this extraordinary book.

In this book, the course of events leading to the accidents are described, followed by detailed information to the accident site, time, aircraft involved as well as names and pictures of the killed crew members. Images of the crash sites, but also of the aircraft prior to the accident and drawings complete the reports.

One is easily tempted to call this just another book on the history of the Messerschmitt Me 109 in Swiss service. Yes, that is correct, but this book is probably the best researched book on this topic to have been published. The author describes in detail the troubles and shortcomings of the procurement during WWII as well as all the rumours and stories related to the purchase of the Me 109G.

Besides alot of historic and technical information on this masterpiece of its time, one also learns that the Me 109E were delivered to Switzerland without armes. Tremendous work was necessary to fit Swiss made guns into the wings with the consequence that the Swiss Me 109 could only carry 960 rounds instead of the 2000 rounds in a German Me 109E with was equipped with MG17.

This book would not be complete without a full rundowns of each aircraft including its fate.

Impressions at Arrecife from September 2006:

(more…)

Impressions at Zurich from September 2006:

(more…)

Impressions at Zurich from October 2006:

(more…)

(more…)

(more…)

(more…)

(more…)

(more…)

(more…)

(more…)

(more…)

(more…)

(more…)

(more…)

The Portuguese Aerobatic Team "Asas de Portugal" spent the week-end of 9 and 10 September at the airshow in Grenchen thus making the first appearance of this team in Switzerland. The team – which consists of 2 aircraft – was based at Buochs (near Stans).

(more…)

This squadron exchange between the Belgian Air Force and the Swiss Air Force took place between 22 and 31 August 2006. A total of 6 F-16 of 349 Sqd was then deployed to Payerne.

Aircraft involved were:

On 22 August, 5 F-16′s arrived as BAF441 and BAF442 together with Embraer 145 CE-04 who was using the callsign BAF654. The support aircraft returned to Brussels Melsbroek the same day. On 24 August, C-130H CH-05 arrived with additional goods.

(more…)

Impressions at Zurich Airport from August 2006: