Swiss Air Force by Grimmi

Long time no Post ... Sorry for that, but quite a lot to do

Sion was holding a special Exercise during the annually Repetition Course of Fighter Squadrons 18 (Hornet) and 19 (Tiger). During that, ground and air based units had to defend the Airport and the city, quite a difficult Thread with a busy and also civil used airport. But Photographers Heaven - everywhere around you only Aircrafts and Air Defense Systems

Taxiing Hornets in BIG

BIG double Takeoff in the late afternoon

Afterburner of the BEAST in BIG

C u there at 70ème anniversaire de la Base aérienne de Sion -  25th Mai 2013, 09h00 - 17h00 LT

The last two days Payerne got crowded with spectators ....

Not for the EC635, ...

... nor for the Hornets and the Cougars.

The big Crowd Magnet was the first Jumbo Jet landing at Payerne - we hope not the last !!!

Turning in and seconds before landing

This spectacular visitor came to 'eat' the Solar Impulse Aircraft and will transport it to the USA.

Emmen is also arrived in 2013 - with nice visitors like Antonov An-124, Gripen and our star in the sky, the beloved sun

Early morning Hornet departs after Revision to Meiringen - in a couple of days there will be held some event called WEF (World Economic Forum) in Davos and our Air Force have to use every airframe possible to secure this conference.

Other nice and overmotorized aircraft at Emmen where for example the famous Pilatus PC-21 for Pilotschool PK'07 (http://www.parkingbrake.ch). Those day's they where visited by there comrades from France and will make a lot of publicity for this Racehorse

Also the new Fighter paid again a visit to Switzerland - the Gripen NG was presented to civil and military authorities and fills again a lot of paper in the media. But the Helmets are already very COOOOOL !!!!

Up up and away - see you again in ... a couple of weeks

The world was not doomed in december by the calendar of the Inkas and also not smashed this night by Apophis - so it's

Business as Usual

Welcome in 2013 and enjoy your life

This year is now near the end and in January is already again full programm in aviation for Switzerland - Gripen in Emmen and WEF out of Meiringen, nice things to catch.

This year I decided to crawl very low in my archives - with 17 I began to take pictures of aircrafts ... this Beauty was later in use in South Africa, but last pictures on airliners.net where already a bit old...

I whish you all the best and I'm still in some big scanning sessions of my archive ... nearly 20 big case binders are full with Negatives and Diapositives, quite a thing to scan :D At the Moment I'm scanning some of the years 1995, 2001 and 2003 - with Phantom's, Mirages and quite a lot of different aircrafts visiting Aerosalon 1995 in Le Bourget !

I think I will show you some of them here in the new year - it's very fascinating to find some pictures you had forgotten about

C u in the new year - somewhere near an aircraft or two ...

This year's pictures where worth of using some High Definition Range - with some clouds and snow it gives nice effects

 F-5E Tiger II - what a Beast !!!!

Capt Ralph 'DEASY' Knittel on one of his last Displays - Thank you for two very nice years !

And the finishing Artwork belongs again to our future Fighter - Gripen NG

Yes - sorry for the delay with more of my pictures. But work was hard, garden had not seen an human being for two weeks and needed winter preparations and last but not least - there was quite a lot of videos to edit ! Here you can see now the result:

I was two weeks in the area, on six days I was making aviation footage for my videos and pictures. In the Making Of at the end of the movie you can see with which equipment and trail we had to work with - I hope you will enjoy this Video (and the pictures here also) ...

Tiger on Air-to-Air Grimmi-Style and two Tigers together at different points of the Shooting Parcours

Yeah - yesterday Saab's own JAS-39F Gripen NG Demonstrator paid two visits on the Ebenfluh Shooting Range. Very nice Photopasses for the few Spectators on the Range and the Photographer in the Chase-Hornet - Thanks a lot to Saab and the Swiss Air Force !

Saab JAS-39F Gripen NG over Axalp in BIG

Saab JAS-39F Gripen NG with Chase-Hornet over Axalp in BIG

Two days on the other side - sleepy and with a lot of nice Actionpictures back on the way to a nice bed

Hornet ducks into the next valley, avoiding the rocks in the foreground

 Pilot School locks on on target Alpha and Hornet flyes in front of the only two spectators - next week a couple more are expected, someting like 5000 or so ...

 Finally some Tigers in the Range - enjoy them as long as you can !

Hornet Low Level and 'Deasy' on his 1st of two Display Trainings today

The Season 2012-2013 started today, with a lot of surprises and a challenging mix of Sun, Clouds and Wind

Together with Cougar T-339, this EC635 (in BIG) finished preparations for next week's Airshow on the Shooting Range - info: http://www.lw.admin.ch/internet/luftwaffe/en/home/verbaende/einsatz_lw/flpl_kdo_mei/fliegerschiessen_axalp.html

One of the many surprises today where the target-runs of the Pilot School on Pilatus PC-21

Tomorrow I'm hiking again to the 'other side' - can't wait to discover some more highlights !

The WiederholungsKurs (WK) 2012 had startet with flight activity from 0800-1800h LT - but it looks like the Air Force had stopped the flight activity over lunchbreak beginning from wednesday. Anyway - Payerne had a lot of activity those days and all Jets are based on the south side of the runway - the regular boxes of the Hornets will be upgraded the next two years.

So - let's have some fun and enjoy some kerosen

 Panther in front of the 'not yet old' Tower - he will be replaced in 2017.

Some F-5 Tiger are flying with live ammunition

The french exchange Pilot has no problems converting to his new toy for the next two years

up up and away ... c u at Payerne !

 Oldtimers in Action on the Street and in the Air, where else than in Berne - the swiss capital - this is possible ! 

On the streets there where such well known brands like Corvette, Lotus and Jaguar ...

 ... and in the Air those Beauties I know the name since long ago (I've never made a drivers licence) - Boeing Stearman, Pitts, C-36 Schlepp, Mustang and the well known Bücker Squadron where performing against the heavy wind in the western part of Berne. Well done and absolutely fantastic !

With the bases of Payerne and Meiringen closed, the Swiss Air Force flew most of the training missions with Jets out of Emmen near Lucerne. The local newspapers and always the same bunch of  people had a hard time to accept this 'music' - but hey, what would they say when the Air Force is shutting down this airfield and the big RUAG Factory nearby with all it's money and good tax payers is gone to Payerne ....  People should really think bigger than only to there garden fence, in Switzerland and elsewhere.

Anyway - it was strange to visit my old home again with all those Pilatus Aircrafts not normally seen in the daily operations of Payerne, like the PC-9 in Emmen and all those new PC-12's at Buochs. Now it's Emmen in holidays and I hope for a lot of action at Payerne this month.

Testflight of an PC-9 with VISTA-Pod in BIG

At last one of the new PC-7MkII of the Botswana Defence Forces - other side in the air and in BIG

Due the Nostalgieflugtag of this spring, a Ju-52 and a couple of other aircrafts representing the history of flight where flying out of Meiringen. Enjoy the Video !

This video ist a work of different persons - filming/editing and have fun together during those two weeks of the exercise and latenightwork in processing the data 

I hope you can enjoy the result - and the Film is the best enjoyed during reading of the article in Magazine Cockpit 06/2012

http://www.cockpit.aero