GA Friendly Airfields in Switzerland
 

GA Friendly Airfields in Switzerland

Hi All,

I'm planning a trip to Switzerland and would like to know of any good GA friendly airfields preferable the northern part of Switzerland. Plan is to find a good base and fly locally for 4 days. Any advice on flying in Switzerland would also be appreciated.

SF

Try Bex, in the Rhone valley about 20 nm South of Montreux. Not sure if it is a Port of Entry - if not, perhaps look at Lausanne first.

There are Swiss restrictions on use of high-altitude fields, for which you need appropriate training and rating. I don't have the details, but Google might help.

Grenchen - customs airfield and said to be GA friendly. Hope to visit next month. Visited Saanen last year who will do customs clearance at 250 CHF.

wrote an account of flying from Bex in Switzerland acouple of years back and posted it on here.
Do a search and you'll probably find it.

Grenchen is super. I'd describe it as "what Elstree should be like".

Another positive confirmation for Grenchen. Sion and Reichenbach are both good fun being in the valleys and GA friendly. I think for Reichenbach you should phone for PPR and they are often active with parachuting.
At the larger end Berne is also very straightforward and not expensive.

If you want to visit Lake Constance, I can recommend <a href="http://www.fearoflanding.com/planning/destination-altenrhein-st-gallen/">Altenrhein (St Gallen)</a>.

I have to say that I dont really know of any unfriendly GA airports here apart from Geneva :E. Even Zurich is not really a problem. There is plenty of fun to be had. Lots of small little airfields to visit and as for the scenery....well it just speaks for itself.

I flew into Les Eplatures (LSGC) from France a couple of weeks back and received the warmest welcome ever, thoroughly worth the trip if you fancy a look at the Jura. Good entry point to CH as they will sort out customs blah blah for you without any hassle (via Colmar maybe, also a good customs choice as nobody ever there). Interesting approach too...

You can get a 1 month free trial with https://www.homebriefing.com if you register, should help with the Swiss flight planning.

Another place well worth a visit, quite near Zurich, is Birrfeld: Fliegerschule Birrfeld: Flugplatz Birrfeld

Watch out for the rules on entry and exit if flying in from France as CH are in Schengen but not the EU, and have a special mutual "(dis)agreement" with France which means you must use a customs airport on exit from France and entry to Switzerland. Other Schengen countries play nicely with CH I believe.

If you end up anywhere near Basel, give me a shout.

Enjoy..