61th Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett in Gruyères (Canton of Fribourg) - the pictures

EDIT September 10th, 2000h LT: Congratulation to the 

Winner team of 61th Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett - FRA-1 🏁🏆🏆🏆

Switzerland's Team SUI-1 on 2nd, SUI-2 on 4th place. 3rd place team ESP-1 ! It was a incredible time to watch the teams live on air, fabulous ! 

A big  thanks to the organisation comitée, the volounteers and all the people not named - 

thank you all and c u 2018 !

The preview with a lot of information you can find by scrolling down - here are my results of yesterday and today 👍

Very nice exhibition with the help of many school classes of the area and of course the Volounteers and the Organisation comitée.

Swiss Championships in FS / WS / SPEED SKYDIVING are also held in Gruyères

The Morane was one of many unannounced visitors on the sunny first day

REGA (Swiss Air Ambulances) on approach

World famous Swiss Air Force PC-7 Team arrives above Gruyères Castle - and yes, the name ist the same like one of the most known Swiss Cheeses coming from this area ;)

Takeoff of the Balloons for the Coupe Cordon Bennet in the last light of the day
You can track them live on Internet: http://yb.tl/gb2017fr

And now one of today's demo in the rain - PC-7 Team brought the sun, but only after the show the mountains where alle visible and it's stopped raining. Anyway - what a show ! (they made the nice weather program today !)

Axalp (Ebenfluh) Shooting Range Airshow, October 2017

Yes, each year more people are coming to watch the show on the shooting range. And yes, the weather can be our enemy or our friend - like every year.

But some things have changed with the event in 2017 - the most important are the following:

Tickets

Tickets are sold beginning today September 1st, you are saving much money to the prices on the event itself:

https://v3.ticketino.com/v3/de/EventGroup/Fliegerschiessen-Axalp/1301

Date:

Wednesday, 11 October and Thursday, 12 October - Trainingday Thuesday 10th.

2017 Axalp Swiss Air Force live fire event 

This year’s air force live fire event at Axalp above Brienz will take place on Wednesday, 11 October and Thursday, 12 October The event will again attract thousands of spectators to the Bernese Oberland to see the Swiss Air Force demonstrate their power in the alpine environment. The programme, which begins at 2pm and ends at about 3.30pm, is the same on both days, featuring F/A-18 Hornet and F-5 Tiger II combat aircraft, PC-21 trainer aircraft, Patrouille Suisse, military helicopters, rescue and fire extinguishing operations, and parascout missions. 

The weather in the mountains can change rapidly. If the conditions are unsuitable, the Swiss Air Force reserves the right to cancel the event at short notice. Important further detailed information on the event is published on the webpages for Meiringen Air Base, click on Axalp Air Force live fire event above Brienz; the official flyer may be downloaded as a pdf file. The application form for the accreditation of media representatives is available on the website for the Axalp Air Force live fire event above Brienz; click on the “Media” tab at the foot of the page.

Webcam (Source: https://www.axalp.ch)

61th Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett in Gruyères (Canton of Fribourg)

 

World famous Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett will come to my living area in a few days - bringing the worlds best balloon teams to the small airfield of Epagny near the castle of Gruyères.

date: September 07th - 16th, 2017
homepage: https://gordonbennett.aero
airport Epagny with webcams: http://www.aerodrome-gruyere.ch

The stars of the event will be gasballoons from all over the world, but you can see some iconic aircrafts of aviation history too (scroll down for the program).

Takeoff in moving images due 39ème Festival International de Ballons, Château-d'Oex (CH) in January'17:

The last time we saw the Display Teams of the Swiss Air Force there was 2003 (Patrouille Suisse, Super Puma and Hornet).

This year only one Team there - but the famous PC-7 Team will be enjoyed by the professionals AND the growd ! Other participants including T-6, Su-26 and Boeing Stearman of the show program:

Weiterentwicklung der Armee (WEA) - the future of swiss armed forces

With the actual structure, Swiss Army is still too big and uses much time for responding to the needs. The Weiterentwicklung der Armee (WEA) will offer more flexibility.

The four main goals:

1. Improved readyness
With 140'000 soldiers (meaning minimum 100'000 available) there should be always an important number ready to respond to natural disasters or other crisis. With up to complete mobilisation in short period of time (like in the cold war).

2. Improved training of the cadre
Future cadre has to make the full training (Rekrutenschule) and will be trained one full week before each Wiederholungskurs (repetition course)

3. Complete equipment
With the smaller number of soldiers, each one will have again he's (her's) own equipment, special troops in logistic bases.

4. Locally based
Military units available on short notice in each area of Switzerland.

Future Assets of the Swiss Army

With the already permanent availability of army services for the civil autorithies, for example the use of Swiss Air Force Helicopters and Drones for the Border Guard - our Armed Forces know also a predicted status including 8000 soldiers for conferences/guard duty (WEF World Economic Forum) and 2500 soldiers for Air Superiority duty. With the not predicted status there are up to 35000 soldiers available in 10 days.

With the reformation of the Swiss Army, the Panzerbrigaden (Pz Br 1, 11), the Infanteriebrigaden (Inf Br 2, 5 (will be named Mechanisierte Brigade 4 beginning 2018), 7) and the Gebirgsinfanteriebrigaden (Geb Inf Br 9, 10, 12) will be disbanded December 31st, 2017.

More Info about the WEA: http://www.vtg.admin.ch/de/aktuell/themen/wea.html

As a Swiss Air Force Pilot on the Nuclear Carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower

Swiss Television had the chance to visit 'our' actual exchange Pilot, Cap Andreas 'NUK' Kuhn, on its Carrier Qualification. He will be back in Switzerland in 2019.

Source: http://www.srf.ch/sendungen/reporter/ein-schweizer-auf-dem-flugzeugtraeger

The exchange program started with the arriving of our Hornets in 1995, here you can see 'NACHO' of the US Navy during one of his missions out of Meiringen:

Hunterfest'17 with the famous Patrouille Suisse

In a few days the idyllic Simmental valley will host again an fabulous airshow around the local Papyrus-Hunter of Hunterverein Obersimmental.

Hunterverein Obersimmental: http://www.hunterverein.ch

After 2004 and 2008, the Swiss Air Force Jet Display Team PATROUILLE SUISSE will perform inbetween those high mountains surrounding former Air Force Base of St. Stephan.

Programm vom Samstag, 26. August 2017

• ab 8.30 Eintreffen der Besucher und Flugzeuge
• 9.30 GV des Hunterverein Obersimmental
• ab 10.00 Verkaufsstände
• 10.00-12.00 Passagier- und Jetflüge (Papyrus-Hunter, Hunter, Vampire usw.)
• 10.00-14.00 Heli-Rundflüge
• 11.00 Apéro für Ehrenmitglieder, Sponsoren und Ehrengäste
• 12.00-13.00 Mittagspause
• 12.00 Mittagessen (Ehrenmitglieder, Sponsoren und Ehrengäste)
• 12.00 Mittagessen in der Hunter-Beiz oder bei den Verpflegungsständen neben dem Hangar und bei den Jets
• 14.40 Patrouille Suisse (Training am Freitag ab 14.10 Uhr)
• ab 16.00 Passagier- und Jetflüge (Papyrus-Hunter, Hunter, Vampire usw.)
• ab 17.00 Rückflug der meisten Flugzeuge
• 17.30 Apéro in der Hunter-Bar beim Unterstand
• 20.00 Nachtessen für Hunterverein-Mitglieder, Helferinnen und Helfer

Änderungen im Programm vorbehalten

Also the special decorated Pilatus PC-6 'Felix' can be seen in St. Stephan

 Patrouille Suisse training will be held friday 1410-1450h, display on saturday 1410-1440h LT

 Hunter's like in the good ol'time - flying low !

Swiss Air Force sent three Super Puma / Cougars for fighting the fires in Portugal

Portugal is again harassed by big forest fires. Many monocultures with eucalyptus trees and no rain is dangerous ground. Last year the Russian governement sent two Beriev Waterbombers, this year Switzerland helps. After dispatching a Helicopter of the Kosovo-based KFOR to Montenegro (wildfires) in mid-July, three helicopters where sent from Switzerland Saturday 19th and will be based in Monte Real, 120km north of Lisboa. Crew consists of 30 army personel and a humanitarian team of four by the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs FDFA.

Brände in Portugal: Die Schweiz entsendet Helikopter zur Unterstützung der Feuerbekämpfung

Bern, 19.08.2017 - In Portugal wüten Brände in mehreren Regionen. Die Schweiz reagiert auf ein Hilfsersuchen der portugiesischen Behörden und entsendet drei Helikopter sowie Personal zur Verstärkung der Brandbekämpfer.

In Portugal gab es im Verlauf des Sommers zahlreiche Brände. Tausende von Hektaren Wald wurden ein Raub der Flammen. Im Moment verwüsten Feuer mehrere Orte des Landes; die Behörden baten um internationale Unterstützung.

Der Bundesrat hat der Entsendung von drei Armee-Helikoptern des Typs Super Puma und einer Crew bestehend aus rund 30 Armeeangehörigen zugestimmt. Die Helikopter und die Mannschaft haben die Schweiz heute verlassen. Nach einem Zwischenstopp im Norden Spaniens, werden sie die ersten Löschoperationen von der Stadt Monte Real aus (120 Kilometer nördlich von Lissabon) beginnen.

Zudem begibt sich ein Detachement der Humanitären Hilfe der DEZA (EDA-Direktion für Entwicklung und Zusammenarbeit) in die Region. Die Gruppe, bestehend aus einem Teamchef, einem Verbindungsbeauftragten, einem Logistiker und einem Waldbrandexperten, wird die Schweizer Armeeangehörigen unterstützen und die Koordination mit den portugiesischen Behörden sicherstellen.

Es handelt sich um die zweite gemeinsame Aktion der Humanitären Hilfe der DEZA und der Schweizer Armee in diesem Sommer. Letzten Monat hat die Schweiz Helikopter zur Brandbekämpfung nach Montenegro entsandt.

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Adresse für Rückfragen

Information EDA
Bundeshaus West
CH-3003 Bern
Tel.: +41 58 462 31 53
Fax: +41 58 464 90 47
E-Mail: info@eda.admin.ch

Stefan Hofer
Kommunikation der Armee
Tel. +41 58 463 37 41
Stefan.hofer@vtg.admin.ch

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Herausgeber

Eidgenössisches Departement für auswärtige Angelegenheiten
http://www.eda.admin.ch/eda/de/home/recent/media.html 

Generalsekretariat VBS
http://www.vbs.admin.ch  

becoming Swiss Air Force Pilot is faster soon

Due shortage in the recruitement of new pilots for the Swiss Air Force, the schooling will be shortened beginning autumn 2017.


After the tree blocks of military service (Recruit School, Caporal and Officer School) new pilots needed six semesters for Bachelor of Science in Aviation degree at ZHAW Winterthur. This part will be postphoned to a time after the new pilots served in the Air Force, individually.

Old Model:

New Model:

a short introduction to the schooling in the Swiss Air Force (still the old model, sorry)

Link: SPHAIR.CH - searching new Military Pilots

Actual Pilot Schools in the Swiss Air Force:

Pilotenklasse 2011, PK11

Pilotenklasse 2012, PK12

Pilotenklasse 2013, PK13

Pilotenklasse 2014, PK14

Pilotenklasse 2015, PK15