Text : Serge Van Heertum Pictures: Serge Van Heertum & Luc Dujardin - ©SBAP 2011


Meiringen Luftkommando	Payerne Luftkommando	Luftwaffe	Emmen Luftkommando	Dübendorf Luftkommando

A trip in Switzerland in October…this was of course to go to the well-known annual shooting exercise and Swiss Air Force demonstration held at Axalp-Ebenfluh shooting range.

At our arrival the Tuesday noon, the weather was perfect and the demonstration rehearsal was already ongoing heralding two perfect and well busy days in the Valais Mountains. But at the end of the afternoon we received a call from the Swiss Air Force communication command that the exercise and demonstration were completely canceled for the two coming days…

The days before our arrival the weather conditions in the Berner-Oberland were very bad with heavy rain. This area and mostly the village of Frutigen located at around 50 kilometers of Axalp were suffering of heavy flood and catastrophic landslides. Due to these circumstances, the Swiss Air Force decided to cancel the Axalp event, so the helicopter fleet foreseen for the security and emergency purposes could be used for securing the locals and the animals in difficulties and out of normal reachability. This was the good choice, an Air Force need to be in first place present for the population in emergency situation instead of any exercise or public demonstrations. SBAP would like to congratulate the Swiss Air Force authorities for this decision but also for the perfect organization. All the hotels around Meiringen airbase were contacted by the communication team to warn the customers that the event was canceled, so there was no need to go for a trip into the mountains.

But the week was reserved for a general fighter exercise and besides the Axalp demonstration, all the planned missions like air to air combat or air to ground shoot were maintained but not on the Axalp range. This was the opportunity to witness the operations departing from Meiringen airbase. As you will see in the photo pages, the activity was heavy and the participating aircraft did 3 or 4 missions a day. This was also the occasion to see much kind of aircraft used by the Swiss Air Force.

Regarding this cancelation, we have modified our program and decided to go at other bases and museum in this beautiful and aviation minded country.

Our program:

October 11^th: Meiringen operations
October 12^th: Meiringen operations
October 13^th: Meiringen operations (morning), Payerne operations (afternoon) and Clin d’Ailes air museum
October 14^th: Emmen operations (morning) and Dübendorf Air Force center (afternoon)