Alpnach,  13/14 March 2007

After a perfect day at Florennes and a nice stop at Ramstein AB in Germany we drove towards Meiringen where we arrived around two o'clock in the middle of the night. We parked the car at the zuschauerplatz where we watched billions of stars as the sky was very clear. Half an hour later we decided to catch some sleep in the car, but as you can imagine it was pretty cold during the night.

When we got up around 6.30 o'clock in the morning it was minus 2,5°C and even the windows of the car were frozen on the inside! Anyway, we did get some sleep, so on we go! When we found out that there was no flying activity scheduled for today we decided to leave Meiringen and drove up north, towards Alpnach.

Half an hour later we arrived at helicopter base Alpnach where a lot of flying was going on. First we had a look at the viewing area and soon the first helicopters came in to land. Later on we walked along the taxiway to take some shots of the departing Cougars and Super Puma's.

During our stay at Alpnach we noted twenty different helicopters and two Pilatus PC-7's so not a bad score here. Around 10.30 o'clock we left Alpnach and drove towards Stans-Buochs but nothing much happening overthere, so we drove on to Emmen.

History of Alpnach AB

Alpnach is the home base of the Lufttransport Staffel 6 (Air Transport Squadron 6) and is located in the middle of Switzerland. The airbase was build in 1941, first the Morane and P-51 Mustang were stationed here. In 1956 the DH-112 Venom made it's appearance. The first helicopters arrived eight years later, the Djinn and the Alouette II. Also the Hunter and the F-5 Tiger flew from Alpnach Airbase. However since 1994 only helicopters were stationed here and Alpnach became the mainbase of the Air Transport Command.

Emmen,  13/14 March 2007

When we arrived at Emmen around noon it was pretty quiet as they all had a well earned lunch brake. Despite that the flightline was filled with PC-6's and PC-7's. Around 1.30 o'clock flying activity started again with lots of flying Turbo Porters and lots of visiting aircraft. It was also a nice experience to see the ADS.95 drone fly together with a Alouette III. During the day we took lots of pictures of the flying aircraft and the aircraft parked at the flightline near the ATC tower. And as you can see the weather was awesome, in the afternoon it was even 22°C!! Around 4 o'clock we drove back to Meiringen.

After a good night rest in our Zimmer Frei in Brientz (near Meiringen) we found out that there was still not much going on at Meiringen. Only some firing practice and some exercises for the fire department. So again we decided to go towards Alpnach and Emmen. Alpnach was pretty quiet this morning so we went to Emmen where again lots of PC-6's and PC-7's were parked at the flightline near the tower. This time we decided to take some pictures of the landing aircraft. Unfortunately we had some bad luck as they kept changing runways, so we missed five landing PC-6's. Around 12 o'clock  we drove back towards Meiringen where finally flying activity started.

History of Emmen AB

Emmen, it all began here in 1937 when it became a location to build aircraft. In 1942 the Swiss Parliament decided to build a full scale production plant here which eventually became the RUAG facility we know nowadays. Emmen became a full Swiss Air Force base which was mainly used for pilot training, in particular with the Hawk. After the withdrawal of the Hawk in 2002 the future of Emmen as a Swiss Air Force base became in danger. But in the end of 2004 the Swiss Parliament reorganized the Swiss Air Force and decided to keep Emmen as an airbase. Nowadays a lot of different aircraft can be seen here as RUAG maintains several aircraft here. Also the Lufttransport Staffel 7 with PC-6 Turbo Porter, Patrouille Suisse with F-5 Tiger and the Drohnenstaffel with ADS.95 are stationed here.