Did a short trip to the Bernese Alps last Saturday and landed on the private factory airfield St. Stephan (LSTS). It was pretty windy with some rotors. Especially during my flight back, the Garmin G5 displayed up to 33 knots of wind, while passing the valley from Zweisimmen to Wimmis/Spiez. It was uncomfortable for a few minutes, but nothing to worry about in the Robin. While staying away from the leeward side of the mountains, I faced no downdrafts at all.
Thanks to the wind shadow of the mountains, the approach into St. Stephan was extremely smooth with almost no wind on the runway. Also, the departure was very calm up to 4.500 ft MSL. The airfield is strictly PPR, but the operational chief was overly welcoming on the telephone. He tries to sensitize pilots for mountainous terrain, since the approach is not quite trivial. If you’re used to Münster, Saanen, or Ambri, you’ll be fine, but it’s definitely more challenging, compared to Samedan, Sion or Locarno. The runway itself is located on a narrow part of the valley. In addition, the pilot needs to operate the barriers using short radio signals, since two public roads cross the runway.
From the parking area, it’s only 10 minutes by foot to reach the local railway station, with connections to Lenk and Zweisimmen every 30 minutes.
View on runway 14, while walking from the railway station towards the parking area
Parking area
Railway station Lenk
That’s wonderful. Switzerland must have so many wonderful places like this. Flying over it at FL150 or so, one sees so many little runways…
Peter wrote:
That’s wonderful. Switzerland must have so many wonderful places like this. Flying over it at FL150 or so, one sees so many little runways…
Indeed…as I was looking up this beautiful St Stephan place in Google Earth , not an easy approach…
I zoomed out a bit and Zweissimmen appeared in the frame too…there you go!
Switzerland is chock a block full of the most interesting, quirky and wonderful airfields in addition to the two above. Saanan (worlds most bizarre overhead approach), Samedan (worlds fanciest high mountain jet airport), Sion (worlds most bizarre instrument approach), Langen Wachen (v short runway in the middle of a lake – splash!), Gruyeres (fly over a magnificent castle on downwind), Ambri (dont take off into the wind if it is coming from the NW as the downdraft off the St Gotthard Pass will smash you into the ground) etc etc.
Switzerland is chock a block full of the most interesting, quirky and wonderful airfields in addition to the two above. Saanan (worlds most bizarre overhead approach), Samedan (worlds fanciest high mountain jet airport), Sion (worlds most bizarre instrument approach), Langen Wachen (v short runway in the middle of a lake – splash!), Gruyeres (fly over a magnificent castle on downwind), Ambri (dont take off into the wind if it is coming from the NW as the downdraft off the St Gotthard Pass will smash you into the ground) etc etc.
Peter wrote:
That’s wonderful. Switzerland must have so many wonderful places like this. Flying over it at FL150 or so, one sees so many little runways…Yes, that’s absolutely true, and I’m very lucky to have them right next door!
Some nice gems are however closed forever, like Ascona, Hasenstrick, Interlaken, San Vittore, Turtmann, and Ulrichen, but on the other side, some old military bases are opening up to the public, like Mollis and St. Stephan. Also, Lodrino in Ticino should be available to GA real soon, as the airfield has changed its status from military to civil. San Vittore is also still used for a glider camp every year, but they get temporary permission for it. It’s not an official (glider)airfield anymore.I zoomed out a bit and Zweissimmen appeared in the frame too…there you go!Yeah, they are just as close to each other as Alpnach (military-only) and Kägiswil (GA), Turtmann (closed) and Raron (GA), or Münster (GA, only in summer) and Ulrichen (closed).
Langen Wachen* Wangen-Lachen
Langen is in Germany, where ATC is located. It’s also a small village in Austria.
Since today is holiday in Croatia, I used this opportunity to finish my modular CPL training – CAA said I had to fly 15 hours VFR in ATO according to EASA regulation. To make it more interesting, I did some instrument flying with steam gauges and it seems I can still do it with all needles aligned.
