04.04.2020: My friend who works at Copenhagen airport sent me two pictures today, which show balloons over the airport. One of them is even doing a low go-around, something you don’t typically see at a large international airport.
10.04.2020: Just a short update on the situation regarding private flying. Lommis Airfield (LSZT) is still closed due to the Corona pandemic. The same applies to most airfields in Switzerland, only a few allow their members to continue flying.
17.04.2020: Again a short update on the situation regarding private flying. The Swiss government announced yesterday some relaxations on measures taken to limit the spreading of the Corona virus. As a result our flying club announced today that limited flying activities are again permitted for locally based aircraft from Lommis Airfield (LSZT). This includes solo flying, or flying with persons living in the same household.
22.04.2020: I took advantage of the “new freedom” today, doing a two hour training flight. As most airfields are closed, or open only for home based aircraft such as it is the case in Lommis, there was no chance to go to any of the nearby controlled airports to include ATC in my usual start of season training flight. Instead I decided to do some crossing of controlled airspace, starting with the CTR of Zurich Airport. I expected this to be no problem due to the drastic reduction in traffic, which was more than confirmed already with first radio call. I can’t remember having ever spoken to such a relaxed Skyguide controller during my entire flying career.
Below a few pictures of the airport from 3’000 ft, which is around 1’600 ft / 500 m above ground.
Terminal E (used mostly for long distance, non Schengen flights) looked “normal” for the time of the day, but the truth is that the terminal is closed and all aircraft there are parked.
On the other side there were quite a few aircraft parked, and quite a few more have been moved to Dübendorf Airbase, which lies only 5.4 miles / 10 km southeast of Zurich airport. That must have been strange flights, probably less than two minutes and only a single 45 degree left turn if you take off from runway 16 in Zurich and land on runway 11 in Dübendorf.
For the first time I did not leave the CTR via Route Echo or Whiskey but via Route Sierra, which goes straight over the city of Zurich. Below a few pictures of the city and the Uetliberg, a hill right next to the city.
I then continued toward the mountains, passing the Rigi Mountain…
…to Flight Level 115 to enjoy nearly unlimited visibility.
On the way back I noticed strange yellow “pollution” on most lakes, I later read that this is pollen as most trees are blooming now. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture, but it was quite impressive to see that from 10’000 ft.
I then returned through the CTR of Dübendorf, again a very relaxed air traffic controller.
Having added a circuit at the end of the flight I now have again three landings within the last 90 days, which will allow me to go flying with my wife again. As mentioned above this is permitted, as we live in the same household 🙂
25.04.2020: I received a mail yesterday with a link to a YouTube video. It’s about a flight done by a pilot from New York with his homebuilt RV-6, doing low passes at Newark, La Guardia and JFK Airports in a single flight. This was only possible due to the dramatic drop in air traffic due to the Corona situation. The video is definitely worth watching, especially for those who can understand the communication with the air traffic controller.
As I have my three landings now I did another flight this morning, this time with my wife as passenger. That video above, as well as one posted by a friend about a low pass done at Copenhagen airport motivated me to try to do the same at Zurich airport today. Zurich airport (LSZH) is less than 20 miles from Lommis airfield (LSZT), and the reporting point E to request a transit through the CTR only five minutes from takeoff, so one has to have the transit chart ready on the kneepad when taking off. The air traffic controller was as relaxed as the one yesterday, he cleared me for the transit including low pass immediately, even asking which departure route I would lake after the low pass.
I was busy flying, but my wife took some photos. The first one show the airport from reporting point E2, from where you normally cross either via overhead the tower of via the intersection of runways 28 and 16, as instructed by ATC. Runway 28 is the one going left to right across the picture, so coming from E2 one turns left into the right base of runway 28.
The picture below shows runway 28 from the end of the right base, where I turned to the final…
…which is shown below. I descended to maybe 2 m above the runway, so some of the following pictures look nearly as having been taken from the ground.
To the right of runway 28 lies terminal E, where normally most non-Schengen flights are handled, especially the long distance ones. It is currently closed, all the planes there are parked.
To the left of runway 28 lies terminal A, where most Schengen-flights are handled. The tower sits on top of terminal A. Note the “K ->” sign, where one normally turns off the runway when landing with a small plane, but I was doing around 90 kts…
Below some more parked planes behind terminal E.
Below a look back after turning left around the town of Rümlang, one can see that it wasn’t the perfect weather as during my last flight on the 23 April, but still perfect weather for VFR flying.
We then overflew the city again, with the result that I got a mail even before we had landed form one of the club members who lives in Zurich. He heard a Rotax sound and saw us pass overhead, and then checked on flightradar24 whether it was really us…
From Zurich we flew again towards the mountains, passing the tourist hot-spot Rigi, with only a single person or two to be seen on top where there would normally be hundreds…
Also my wife noticed the streaks of pollen on all the lakes, this time I took a proper picture of some of them.
On the way back to Lommis we overflew a high moor, where turf was collected until around 50 years ago. Today it is a very unique natural reserve.
We still flew a bit into the mountains, but the weather wasn’t too good with broken clouds at around 7’000 ft.
Towards Lommis the weather got better again, below the Hörnli, a popular spot with a great view at the alps, which was however deserted as well. Different to other countries the Swiss government has not declared any curfew or lockdown, but instead asks people to voluntarily stay at home and to restrict their outdoor activities to e.g. hikes in the vicinity of where they live, avoiding popular spots such as sightseeing destinations or lake-shores, and vast majority is following these rules.
