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"AXALP 2008"
9th October 2008 - Meiringen AB and
Ebenfluh Firing Range, Switzerland
Normally
Switzerland is famous for its mountains, cow pastures, chocolate, watches and
banks…but for aviation enthusiasts this country is also famous for a 
particular event which usually takes place every year on October: “The Swiss Air Force's Axalp Air Power Demonstration”.
The “Axalp” is
a unique event in
Europe where you can see Swiss fighter jets (F/A-18C Hornet and F-5E Tiger II)
flying very close to spectators and shooting to a firing range. All
of this made in a narrow valley at 2300 m of altitude!
Indeed the “Ebenfluh” firing range is found at the top of “Axalphorn”
mountain in Switzerland's “Bernese Oberland” region at about 80 km
south-east from Bern and it has a strategic position because of the little
distance from the air bases of Emmen, Alpnach and Meiringen.
In particular the last one is at few kilometres from the firing range and is
often used as main air base for most of the aircrafts involved in the
demonstration.
The 2008 edition of “Axalp” was programmed for the 8th and 9th
October, so we organized the trip in this way: first day, Wednesday, dedicated
to Meiringen Air Base; second day, Thursday, dedicated to the activity on
“Ebenfluh” firing range.
Meiringen, headquarter of the “Fliegergeschwader 13” who operates
“Fliegerstaffel 11” with F-18s and “Fliegerstaffel 8” with F-5s,
is known for its curious planimetry.  The runway is located at few tens of meters
from the small village centre of Unterbach and is linked by two taxi runways (crossing
the green pastures and a part of the village!) to the cavern aircraft shelters
built inside the mountain at west of the air base.  All area is only limited by a
small low barbed wire except the entrance of the cavern shelters and the parking
area, restricted by gates and high fences.
These characteristics make this air base an excellent place where taking good
pictures very close to the aircrafts without having a special authorization by
authorities.
The day after at five o’ clock we were ready to face a tough  journey to reach
the “Ebenfluh” firing range at 2300 m. There was still dark and it was very
cold.Starting from Axalp village at
1500 m we took a chairlift that led us to 2000 m; from there, accompanied by the
sunrise, we began a long climb on a muddy ground that lasted about an hour and
half and finally we reached at 8.30 am the highest position called
“Ebenfluh” (there are moreover two lower called “Brau” and “Tschingel”).
All morning was dedicated to the exercise on the firing  range. We could see
F-18s and F-5s in action very closely, employing
their 20mm cannons to fire at two types of ground erected targets: two pairs of
6 m wide orange Day-Glo cloth targets on the  mountainside facing up and down the
valley and a pair of 2 m square orange metal panels which were bolted to the
rock.After shooting, the aircrafts
were turning close to the right and, making an half roll, they were disappearing
behind the mountains.
At about 11 am the flights finished to leave time for a lunch break.
After two hours of waiting the speaker told to the spectators that the afternoon
air show program expected for 2 pm was  cancelled for bad weather. In fact big
clouds were gradually covering all valley and the visibility was not enough for
visual and formation flight.
Just a bit sad we began the descent to Axalp village thinking to what we missed:
the spectacular acrobatics and formation flights by F-18s and F-5s and the
“Patrouille Suisse” display…all seen in front of you (aircrafts usually
fly at the same altitude where the spectators
are positioned or lower giving good and original angles to photographers) and
very close!
Sad but also excited about the experience of these two days, not yet reached the
Italian border, we were already thinking about coming back next year…hoping in
better weather conditions…
Luca G. Polidori
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"Axalp
2008"
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