Swiss Action
Jul 01, 2024
By Ed Parsons
The first trip of the year, a quick couple of days at Payerne Air Base between Lausanne and Bern, home to 17 and 18 Squadrons of the Swiss Air Force.
This trip was all about timing, I visited while the World Economic Forum was taking place in Davos which requires the Swiss Air Force to provide a continuous Combat Air Patrol each day of the conference, this leads to a demonstration of the amazing operational efficiency of the Swiss Air Force and it’s ability to generate a CAP sortie of a pair of F/A-18’s every two hours!
This tempo leads to movements in the form of either a pair of departures or arrivals every hour, with many great photographic opportunities as a result.
F/A-18 Departure from Runway 23
Payerne is today a relatively conventional airbase providing modern QRA facilities, many of the cold war era shelters and equipment to allow off field operations are still onsite but are no longer used, for example the taxiway to allow operations from the nearby A1 motorway is not longer used along with many aircraft shelters “off base” and possible to visit..
The beginning of the trip featured mild wet conditions, and I waited until the end of the day to shoot some night operations in the rain…
The beginning of the trip featured mild wet conditions, and I waited until the end of the day to shoot some night operations in the rain…
Night Operations in the Rain
Overnight the weather front passed with it’s edge running up against cold air to give a decent snow fall and then beautifully clear conditions the following morning. The snow clearing and deicing operations begun at first light was fascinating to watch and clearly a key element in keeping the airfield operational.
Winter Ops
The light as the morning progressed was wonderful. In January the sun is so low almost providing a spotlight on the Hornets coming and going, although to make the most of this photography is only really possible from the south side of the air field which has more limited viewing points.
By dawn's early light
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