22.08.2014: I have not found the right combination of spare time and good weather to go flying recently, with the latter one being the bigger issue, but I had reserved this weekend since a long time for it. We had the annual fly-in of EAS, the Experimental Aircraft Association of Switzerland, and I would have flown there even in pretty marginal weather as it is always a great event to meet all the other homebuilders. This was however not necessary, especially on Friday when I departed, as we had probably the nicest weather in more than two weeks.
The meeting took place in Langenthal, a small airport around 45 minutes flying time from Lommis, but I managed to extend this to around two hours. I took off direction south, heading towards the alps.
Around the lake of the four cantons there were quite some low clouds, but once I had passed the area…
…some serious mountains appeared between the clouds.
I continued via Buochs, Alpnach and Meiringen, with all three CTRs being inactive due to lunch break. What an Air Force which does not operate during lunch breaks….
After Meiringen I started climbing higher, enjoying the view of the majestic peaks in fantastic weather.
I continued past Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau, with Stairways to Heaven from Led Zeppelin blasting from my headset, what a combination.
I was rocking the wings when passing the Jungfrau Joch to greet the tourists, but could not see any reactions. Ignorants.
I then started a shallow descent over the mountains of Fribourg, where I decided to turn right and head for Langenthal, the location of the fly-in.
To reach it I had to pass the CTR of Bern, with a great view of the parliament building.
From the radio messages I figured out that something bigger than my plane was on approach, until I noticed a big business jet passing underneath me.
The approach and landing in Langenthal was uneventful, as I was one of the first planes to arrive. I straight put up my tent, as they had announced rain for later in the afternoon.
Only four planes had arrived before me, of which there was Viktor with his Dutch registered SportCruiser and the two RV-12s for which I was the flight test advisor.
A few more planes arrived on Friday afternoon, but not too many as most members usually stay only from Saturday to Sunday.
23.08.2014: The first planes started to arrive quite early in the morning, around 9:30, including an Archaeopteryx (in a trailer). That’s a foot launched glider, but this one had an electric motor with a pusher propeller (more on this later).
More planes arrived, including some canards…
… which are the main reason for organizing the event only on airports with a paved runway. Canards don’t like grass…
There was however also the other end of the performance spectrum well represented, such as the Volksplane shown below.
Some of the planes were 30+ years old, while others just recently had their first flight, like the RV-6A below.
In the afternoon there was a flight demo of the Archaeopteryx, which took off silently with it’s electric drive, with a takeoff roll of maybe 20 to 30 m.
It showed excellent climb rate, doing a number of low passes and steep turn manoeuvres, displaying a turning radius of not much more than the wing span. I don’t know its stall speed, but being foot launchable it can’t be too high.
Low speed is also a key feature of this Rotax powered, shrunk version of a Fieseler Storch, it took off in what was probably less than 100 m.
Contrary to other years only one helicopter arrived, the owner displaying his skills to reduce camping gear to the absolute minimum (it has no cargo hold, only some corners in the cockpit where one can stuff some gear into.
Still another rotorcraft arrived, the first Gyrocopter built and approved in Switzerland. The owner had to go to court to force the Federal Office of Civil Aviation to have it registered! From the front it looks like an X-wing Starfighter from Star Wars, an impression which was reinforced by flashing lights in both wheel pants.
The gyro did some amazing demo in between the regular landings, the owner being a certified demo pilot.
There was also this marvelous Hatz CB1 Classic biplane.
Later in the afternoon the jurors evaluated planes for a number of prices, such as best planes built, best kit built etc.,…
…the best built one of course being the Hatz.
More and more planes arrived, but some returned home later in the evening. Still there were maybe 30 to 40 camping on site.
24.08.2014: As every year Viktor has brought a camping stove along with him to make coffee for those who get up early in the morning.
Unfortunately there was a shortage of cups, so some of us had to drink their coffee from any kind of container they could get hold of, such as an old pickles glass.
The first plane arriving on Sunday morning was a Robin from our club in Lommis, they must have taken off from Lommis with a special permit, as the airfield only opens at 11:00 on Sunday.
Below a picture taken in the club house, where a landing gear is sticking out of the ceiling.
In the afternoon the list of participating planes had reached 67, there have been more in other years.
I left shortly after lunch, flying back around the northern limit of the CTR of Zurich Airport.
The Robin of our club overtook me…
…and one of the passengers took a photo of my plane.
24.08.2014: I was hardly home from the fly-in , and in high spirit after the great weekend when my phone rang. The guy on duty at our airfield asked me to come back immediately, as there had been a midair collision between one of our club aircraft, operating on a commercial sightseeing flight, and a plane from another airfield.
He told me that our aircraft had crash landed, while the other one could return to it’s nearby airfield but with two heavily injured passengers. I immediately went back to Lommis and from there to the crash site, which took me around 20 minutes, were I found all emergency services already at work. I was told to my big relief that even though all persons on board were injured, and two of them heavily, none of them was killed. We can just hope that their injuries are not too bad, and that they can recover.