> 1 <
| Author | Message | |||||||||||||
Hunter Mk58
See my 4,162 Photos  
|
2013-07-11 GMT-5 hours 
|
|||||||||||||
|
Interlaken, “my homebase”…
I grew up less than 1 km from the runway. When I was standing on the balcony, I could see the planes flying away or sometimes approaching. It was the time of the deHavilland Vampires and Venoms, the Hawker Hunters and the old lady, Ju-52! Yes aunty Ju was still serving in the Swiss Air Force then. I think it was in 1974, when I saw two shiny F-5E Tigers approaching Interlaken. After school I was driving to the airfield with my bike and could not believe what I saw…… Two Tigers in shiny silver and US Air Force Markings. The first time for me to see the F-5 Tiger in real live. After the evaluation, the first swiss built Tiger (J-3014) was handed over in Oktober 1978 in Interlaken. I was there and remember the aircraft, wearing some flowers. Many important people and the press was there for the ceremony. I remember the evaluation of the Maverick-Missiles….. and, and, and….. What I great time it was to grow up next to Interlaken Air Base! Some pictures from the old days…..
Last year in August was a small event in Interlaken. The 20th anniversary of the Hunter-Verein Interlaken. As you can see, there were some Hunters flying and some on the ground. Like in the old days…..
After 1983 it was the first time, that the Patrouille Suisse was flying at Interlaken. Back in 1983 they flew still the good old Hawker Hunter…..
I wish back the good old times, when their was every day a busy day on swiss airbases… If someone has more pictures, movies or anything else from this airbase, please feel free to share with us. I hope, that there are many older guys like me with some old pictures to share. Cheers Martin I wish back the good old times, when a picture was a picture and not only bits and bytes and when the people knew the meaning of the word respect. Respect is a very rare thing in our days… |
| Author | Message |
Soundbarrier
See my 9,256 Photos 
|
2013-07-11 GMT-5 hours
|
|
Great base Martin, I can imagine you missing the good old days.
Although I sadly never visited Interlaken during its operational years I drove by a few times and made only this picture : http://www.airfighters.com/photo/89548/L/Switzerland-Air-Force/Pilatus-PC-6-B2-H2M-1-Turbo-Porter/V-633/ Used for parajumping it was impressive to see the diving PC-6 touch the runway before the parajumpers landed ... I also remember the huge mountain at the base of runway 05. This must have interfered with jets taking off from runway 23 or perhaps it was only the optics ... Rgds, Carl. |
| Author | Message |
Hunter Mk58
See my 4,162 Photos
|
2013-07-12 GMT-5 hours
|
|
Thanks Carl for sharing the picture.
The PC-6 was/is allways impressive, when it is diving very quick…… The problem about the mountain at the base of runway 05 was not that big. The older jets like venoms und vampires flew between the mountain and the hill called Rugen. So they had “only” to reach a overflight hight of about 200m from the ground. The Hunters could climb a little bit better, but only the tigers had enough thrust to overfly the Abeberg. That was allways very impressive! The Props like Pilatus P-2 and P-3 and the Ju-52 had to make several rounds in the valley to reach the hight to fly away…. Cheers Martin I wish back the good old times, when a picture was a picture and not only bits and bytes and when the people knew the meaning of the word respect. Respect is a very rare thing in our days… |
> 1 <