Flying in Switzerland: A Different Kind of Airspace

Flying in Switzerland brings a different set of demands to those we are familiar with in Australia, including tightly controlled airspace, complex approach procedures to terrain-driven constraints and multilingual radio environments. In this article, friend of SFT, John Francis shares a practical perspective on how these factors shape everyday flying.

LSZF: Flugplatz Birrfeld

I fly out of an airfield called Flugplatz Birrfeld (LSZF), in the canton of Aargau in the plains of Switzerland. It’s about a half hour drive to the west of Zürich. I did my basic flight training here, and I continue to fly the fleet of Diamond Katanas and Piper Warriors that belong to the flight school there.

One of the Diamond “Katana” DV20 at Birrfeld

Similar to Bankstown, Birrfeld is situated near the busy Zürich CTR, with a little nook carved out of its airspace so we can do our thing. Around Switzerland, one has to be aware of airspace all the time. Since you’re rarely never more than 20 or 30 minutes laterally from controlled airspace.

LSZF Situated beneath and besides LSZH controlled airspace

Differences With Flying in Australia

Visual Approach Charts

Something unique to Switzerland is the concept of the visual approach chart (or VAC). These are published for every airfield and they depict how visual approaches to that airfield should be made (and sometimes departures too) and they often include some very non-standard looking circuit patterns. As I understand it, there are a couple of very good reasons for this:

• Terrain in this country can be… tricky, with the Swiss Alps and what not

• Noise abatement is taken very seriously here, and care is taken not to overfly towns. These are depicted in yellow in these diagrams

Following is a snippet from Birrfeld’s VAC. It has a two unique feature even here in Switzerland:

1. The circuit altitude is 700 ft AGL (2000 ft MSL), making for a somewhat short circuit time.

2. Arrivals must enter via an “entry circle” overhead the aerodrome, flown at 500 ft about the circuit (i.e. 2500 ft MSL). On a busy day, it’s not uncommon to see several aircraft waiting in the entry circle at 2500’, 3000’, 3500’... Waiting their turn to join downwind one by one.

3. Orbits for separation are to be conducted inside the circuit, again, to avoid overflying the residential areas.

Take a look at this lovely keyhole pattern at one of my favourite destinations, Wangen-Lachen (LSPV):

Readers can look up LSPH, LSZG, or other alpine airfields for interesting looking VAC charts.

International Flying

The German border is 15 minutes north of Birrfeld, and France, Italy, and Austria are also well within reach. I’ve made flights into German and Italian airfields, and through French airspace (around Mont Blanc). This requires filing flight plans, talking to information services, and also dealing with customs obligations.

Radio Comms

While pilots and controllers must be proficient in using English on the radio, they are not mandated to use it. So it’s normal to hear people speaking German, Swiss German, French, or Italian, depending where you are. It’s not great for situational awareness, but it seems to work out. People usually  get the gist of who’s on air and switch to English when needed.

Another difference on the radio is when to switch frequencies. In Switzerland, basically you never leave a frequency on which you’re already talking to a controller, unless the controller asks you to or you inform/ask them depending on the situation. This includes the ground to tower switch (and vice versa). I found this is handled differently in Australia.

Highlights

Being a small country with many airfields, means that you can do a lot in short time. One of my favourite routes to fly is LSZF-LSPV-LSZF. This takes 60 minutes flight time total in a Katana.

The author, John Francis

Another 60 minute flight from Birrfeld is a round-trip around the Grosser Mythen mountain. Take a look at this video.

Every year for the past few years, the flight school has organised a “winter flying camp” in Sion (LSGS). The reason for this is that from November to February, Birrfeld is very often encased in fog. Often for weeks on end. Whereas Sion, in the beautiful Rhone Valley in the canton of Valais, has a completely different weather system.

Perhaps the highlight of my flying life was spending a few days there in 2024 and skilling up on mountain flying while completing my differential training for a Warrior with a FADEC diesel engine conversion. 

Can you spot the Matterhorn?

Views of the spectacular Swiss Alps, taken by author John Francis

What else?

My YouTube channel, although I haven’t uploaded anything new in a long while.