30 years of SPORTHILFE

Another view into my archive ... this time nearly an quarter of an century back in the summer of 2000. There I've loaded my bicycle with my photo gear (main gear that time was an Nikon F4S and Sigma's 170-500mm lens) and rode about 2 hours from Emmen Airfield to the Bürgenstock mountain. No radio scanner available - just waiting for the show going on.

Parts of my gear back then - the beloved Cannondale 3T700 was stolen one year later and never came back

There was an celebration for the 30th anniversary of Switzerland's Sporthilfe (Swiss Sports Aid), an private Foundation and one of the most important sports organizations in the country. The official announcement was about 300 Top Athletes, multiple sport disciplines for testing (BMX Parcours, those where the days) and the famous Swiss Air Force Display Team Patrouille Suisse.

1st surprise where the two flybyes of Airbus A321 HB-IOC (the olympic one - International Olympic Commitee, nice preparation for an sports event) of Swissair, 2nd Surprise was an power demo of Pilatus Aircraft Ltd's flagship back then, the famous Pilatus PC-9.  Other participants like the mixed Pilatus formation, the two Junkers Ju-52 and the Super Puma Display Team where also not known to me as I'm remember. The Patrouille Suisse was no Surprise, but a nice catch anyway.

 

COVID19: Grimmi has still to go at work by bike - but scans it's old Kodachrome64

Yes, the Virus will not kill me (I hope). The most dangerous thing is my way to work - 12-15km each way and each day, but with a bit lesser traffic these days then a few weeks ago. My new eBike with Gen4 Bosch engine has much more performance than my old one from supermarket and the Spikes are a bit overdue in this winter - still, in the early morning some icy parts on my way.

Free time for the hobby is limited by that, but a few glimpses in my scan work of my archives is permitted ....

RIAT'99 Fairford - some unworked scans out of only five rolls of Kodachrome64 films (36 pictures each)

Yes - very different lineup to airshows these days. And reworked they are looking awesome - some of my shots available here: 

https://www.airfighters.com/photosearch.php?&phgid=955&loc=2707

Thank you for visiting 👍

Evaluation NKF - Mission Super Hornet - Arrival, Media- and Spotterday and Departure

With the arrival of two Super Hornets and an KDC-10 as support aircraft, the second candidate began it's evaluation in Payerne Avril 29, 2019. Unfortunally the two Fighters lost there squadron insignas for the trip to Switzerland.

This time also normally civil spotters where informed about the guests - there interest was mainly the KDC-10 ofcourse.

The Nightflight mission was also very hot - never ending afterburner 😍

Very good point made - sending a female pilot is quite normal in the USN, in Switzerland on military jets very seldom.

January picture in the Aero-Revue calendar

Switzerland's Aero-Club official publication has chosen two pictures by me for there calendar 2019 - enjoy ;)

http://www.aeroclub.ch

This month's picture taken at balloon festival Chateau d'Oex, 2019 edition january 26th 'till february 03 !

50 years of the Aero L-39 Albatros

Maybe the half of actual military jet pilots had trained on this little jet - today 50 years ago was the first flight at Vodochody !

My first real encounter was Air'94 airshow in Buochs (Stans) with the retirement of our famous Hawker Hunter. Albatros and western counterpart BAe Hawk each had a demo.

Two years later I was already steering those beauties (from the backseat, and only some minutes each flight) with the famous russian display team ! Great memories and flights, repeated the following years too.

Just a little flight - RIO Ecuvillens, 1994

This time you can travel quite a lot of years into the past - my first flight in an Boeing Stearman was made out of Ecuvillens due one of those fabulous RIO's (Rencontre Internationale des Oldtimers). I helped with the parking organisation as 'Bénevoles' and enjoyed this little tour around the Gruyères area.

The star of the event was the Dassault Flamant, after the Mirage 2000 demo and the famous Patrouille de France a year before a much more rare bird to see in Switzerland. Film was expensive and camera all manual, but soon I was buying my first own camera back then, an Minolta Dynax 700si with lenses (kit) up to 300mm for the Shows in Ambri, Buochs and Langenthal in the autumn of 1994.

 

If the actual US President will ever know about this place, he whould be travel each weekend to switzerland ...

The end of the Gruyères lake and a view in direction my home with the 'Guggershörnli' in the background: