As we lost the original thread I think :

Thanks to grumpygrapefruit and stephanwolf for the following two links allowing monitoring of ZRH traffic and ATC comms:

http://radar.zhaw.ch/radar.html
http://www.liveatc.net/feedindex.php?type=international


Hours of fun for none of the family.

dave

Incidentally if you have any other good aircraft-related general interest links, then please share...

Thanx
Dave

AirDisaster.Com

Plane Spotting at Zurich - Kloten

ATIS:127.875Tower:118.1Runways: 10/28 - 14/32 - 16/34
"Zurich has a large observation deck on top of terminal B from where most of the international movements can be seen (Swissair + partners use terminal A). The light for photography is only good in the morning. Another spot for photography is on top of car park F overlooking the cargo area, although the view is sometimes obstructed by some parked turboprops. The taxiway for RWY 28, used for most of the takeoffs, goes right in front of the car park. Telelenses are needed. Light good until early/mid afternoon. At the end of RWY's 16 and 14 (main landing runway) are two car parks offering excellent opportunities for approach shots in the morning and in the afternoon. Drive around the airport in the direction of "Bulach" to get there. One car park even offers a refreshment bar."

Taken from Planespotting.com

Web forum in German for aviation enthusiasts, pilots and (lots of) spotters

http://www.flightforum.ch/forum/

Swiss Airforce. Mail them and ask about the noise in Bern yesterday

Skyguide Swiss Air Navigation People

Pilatus make some nice little single props aircraft in Stans, south of Luzern, if you are so inclined

dave

This is better than Mike Shiva! More hypnotic!

Hopefully you wont need this link to the swiss Air Accident Investigation Investigation Bureau, but its interesting reading in any case...

dave

Oh this guy is just North of the ZRH airport and has a very good range of aircraft models, ideal for Christmas pressies. Real models not the toys.

http://www.flugzeugmodelle.com/

In fact I have a Typhoon,GR1 , F5 and F18 on my desk in front of me, and very good quality they are too...ideal for demonstrating low yoyos.

dave

Pah. Give me a 1/5 Mustang any day, not something for my desk...

...that is "as-well-as", not "instead-of".

dave

Oh thank you for these links!

When I used to sail around the British Isles, we'd often huddle on the rail, sipping coffee, eating chocolate and trying to shelter from the rain. The only entertaining relief from the cold, miserable nights would be listening in to the 'Channel 16' open radio frequency.

We'd be hoping to hear the soothing voice of the cashmere pullover-wearing, curvaceous, auburn-haired beauty on duty at Liverpool Coastguard. We'd picture her leaning over the radar, a single dim bulb illuminating her long eye-lashes, making notes with her 'rouge-noir' nail varnished fingers in impeccable handwriting, looking out for us miles out to sea and reassuring us all was well...

Of course, she doesn't exist, it was some bloke called Tel in a neon-lit office block, but it helped keep us warm.

"Flight level Three Five Zero..." ohh, the memories...

I used to get hypnotised (literally) by the Radio4 shipping forecast.
dave

If any Microsoft Flight Simulator fans are reading, there are various flight plans and links to other stuff for Switzerland available at

http://crhop.hopto.org:83/home.html

The third-party swiss terrain is good too, although rather expensive...

dave

There is a free FS2002/2004 swiss terrain with update.

One day I've got to put together the 1/24th Hurricane I got in about xmas 1976. It was always going to be the masterpiece but I never felt I was good enough.

Nice Mig29 with panels too. Watch this Pugachev's cobra manoeuvre

Bah , thrust vectoring is for girls. The SU-27 can do it without. Which is nice.

dave

When I was in Switzerland, I used to work in insurance for the now defunct Swiss Pool for Aviation. I worked there for 11 months after which they closed after being in business for 60 years! I'm sure that was just coincidence though

The offices used to be on the 7th floor of the Operations Center in the Airport, so I was overlooking the runway.

It was always interesting to see what was going on...especially around the time of the economic forum in Davos as private aircraft came in and out. Seeing other celebrities, forom time to time such as Barbara Streisand getting in her plane the morning after her concert, was good.

I was a bit miffed to have missed the only accident in all the time I was there though. Not a bad one, just a plane's landing gear collapsing, but one that got all the fire engines and other resources of the airport in attendance. Unfortunately it happened on a morning after a night before for me (I was probably rocking to the sounds of the Cana Bar DJ or something like that), and I was somewhat more tardy than usual getting in that day and missed all the excitement. All I had to look at was a video on my mate's mobile phone

Oh, they have some big fire trucks there! Over three meters wide.
Here's one
Here's another one
Here's the last resort

Okay... back to the toys of your choice.

On flight simulators and other software snafu's: