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Axalp 2006: |
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Swiss fighters over the Alps
It was three years ago since our last Axalp experience (2003) an After spending a day at Meiringen on Tuesday we decided to torture ourselves on Wednesday 11 October by getting up too early for walking a too steep mountain… Really early in the morning we left and drove up to the nearest parking spot. There we met some friends and we cheered ourselves up with some pep-talk. At 05:30 AM we started walking and amazingly easy we got on top. The clear sky gave the moon a good chance to lighten the way up. At 07:00 AM we were already changing t-shirts at the tower.
After the Mirages also made a few perfect runs on the targets, they surprised us with a sneaky pass from the opposite direction. They approached invisible through the valley and appeared from behind the tower, let's say very low! So low I couldn’t even catch it with my 300mm lens attached. I wonder what the tower controller thought about this… After 11:00 AM we were requested to move away from the tower area. We had to make place for the hundreds of people which were brought up by Super Puma and Cougar. We decided to go to the Tschingel mountain top for pictures from a different angle.
Again the Swiss put up a stunning event. No regrets of climbing that mountain again! Also nice to meet friends up there like Jeff, Peter, Frank, Hans, Koji and many others who I might forget to mention here.
Every year rumours say it may be the last time. If there is a next time, we will be there again! Will you? |
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Home © Fred & Maurice 2001-2008 |
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d
even 5 years ago since the first time. Reason enough to set course south
again for Swiss action between 9 and 13 October 2006. We booked the
usual hostel in Brienz, near the foot of the mount Axalp. With clear
skies and temperatures around 20° C the weather promised to be good all
week.
Just
before 09:00 AM hell broke loose with no less than eight F-5s going for
each of the three targets at various positions on the mountain walls.
After the F-5s did several runs on every target, they were followed by
F/A-18s. Later on even French Mirage F.1CRs were announced. The reason
of their presence was also explained. One of the firing F/A-18s was
flown by a French exchange pilot while his Swiss colleague flew in one
of the two French Mirages. Well done!
After the Pumas and Cougars brought up all the VIPs, the show was ready
to start off at 14:00h. A Cougar had the honour to begin the display
with popping all the available flares in its pods followed by a stunning
display. Afterwards we were treated with 1,5 hour (firing-) displays of
the F-5s, F/A-18s, Mirages,