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Wiederhohlungskurses at Meiringen:


 




 

Meiringen action 

Meiringen Air Base is located near Brienz and the foot of the mount Axalp. Throughout the year the Swiss Armed Forces hold several wiederhohlungskurses (exercises). One of them is held during the week of the live firing event at Axalp – Ebenfluh range. As Meiringen is a very open base surrounded by mountains this creates great photographic opportunities. I guess it is one of the best places for photography from off base that we ever visited! Although ‘off base’ is sort of hard to define in Switzerland…

If you ever decide to go there, don’t forget to read the excellent guide from Meiringen Air Base at Scramble. There are so many good photographic points around the base and Scramble described them all perfectly.

The Pictures on this page have all been taken on 12 October 2006 from let’s say 09:00 AM until 05:30 PM. Almost every location described on the Scramble page has been used that day. The base was very active. The based F-5’s flew multiple missions each day of the exercise week. In addition to the Tigers there were also F/A-18C Hornet’s based for the first time. They too went out for several sorties per day. There really was no time to get bored! The last pictures we took were from the returning Tigers and Hornets at sunset. Sunlight couldn't reach the aircraft anymore but it did light up the mountain behind (see  Hornet picture on the right). Nice experience!

In addition to the locally based hardware lots of visitors could be seen as well. Many Super Puma’s and Cougars lifted from Meiringen to the top of Axalp as well as a few Alouette 3 choppers. Two PC-7’s showed off, one of which in a new experimental colour scheme. One old timer PC-6 Turbo Porter was on the scene too. After completing their display at Axalp Horn, the Patrouille Swiss did a formation fly by over the base as well.

The local air traffic control tried to frustrate us by changing the runway direction a few times but this wasn’t really a big deal. Every photogenic spot is easy and quickly to reach. The aircraft are being kept in so called caverns. These are large caves in the mountains where the aircraft can be parked safely. Standing near the taxi tracks which lead to the caverns provides you with great photographs too!

Also check our Axalp 2006 report from the day before!


 

                         

  


 

                         

  


 

                         

  

 

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