Swiss aerobatic team performs for wrong festival

[steingar]

The Patrouille Suisse, the Swiss equivalent of our Blue Angels, were supposed to perform an aerobatic demonstration for a celebration of the centenary of the Swiss aviation pioneer Oskar Bider.

The Swiss pilots were unequipped with GPS technology, and were relying on charts and pilotage. Well, they blew it and got lost.

They performed their 15 minute aerobatic routine for a yodeling festival. Link on CNN to show I'm not making this up.

Edited July 9, 2019 by steingar

[aviatoreb]

Swiss aerobatic team performs routine for 11 year old's birthday party.  Oh well - just go with it.

Can I order up the blue angels for the block party we are having this weekend please?

[clh]

Switzerland is also a nation of small valleys separated by big mountains.  If you start up the wrong valley......

[aviatoreb]

12 minutes ago, clh said:

Switzerland is also a nation of small valleys separated by big mountains.  If you start up the wrong valley......

At least in a fighter jet you have a better chance of out climbing a box canyon.

I've been on hikes in the Alps in Switzerland and it is pretty exciting to see their Air Force practicing passes in the narrow canyons below altitudes where you are hiking in green grasss fields alongside cows wearing bells.  The Hills are Alive with the Sound go MUUUUUSIC....!

[thinwing]

Yodeling festival huh...can’t imagine what jet sound combined With yodeling ended up sounding like

[aviatoreb]

1 hour ago, thinwing said:

Yodeling festival huh...can’t imagine what jet sound combined With yodeling ended up sounding like

You can't even make up such a funny story if you tried.  The high pitched sounds of whirring jets and the high pitch sounds of the yodelers and those big horns they use, lader hosen, hats with feathers in them.  Cows with bells.  I can just see it.

[thinwing]

Yodel..aa..he ..hoooh...ralll......

[icurnmedic]

Why would those birds not have GPS?

[Jim Peace]

1 hour ago, icurnmedic said:

Why would those birds not have GPS?

There are still hundreds of airliners in the USA without GPS.....

[aviatoreb]

44 minutes ago, Jim Peace said:

There are still hundreds of airliners in the USA without GPS.....

..I wonder how many of those airline pilots are pulling out G196 and putting them on the glare shield.  That's what I would do.

[HB-JAN]

Hello from Switzerland :-)

The Patrouille Suisse don't perform a show over 15min (fake news ) , it was only one over flight in formation. 

Cheers from the Mooney-Swiss-Mountain-Flyer, Jan 

[Shadrach]

1 hour ago, Jim Peace said:

There are still hundreds of airliners in the USA without GPS.....

I’m not surprised. It would surprise me if the pilots of those birds were not carrying GPS tablet EFBs. I don’t know any current airline pilots but I do know many corporate and charter pilots. I think all of them have company provided tablets with company provided ForeFlight license.

[Urs_Wildermuth]

A few facts here....

The F5's are equipped with IRS systems so they don't actually need to be updated with GPS. Apart, Switzerland is small enough and I know some of the SAF pilots, they know every place by heart normally.

Langenbruck, the birth - and burialplace of aviation legend Oskar Bider, is a rather small town in the Jura. The place of the Jodel Festival is 4 km away, barely. See the pics attached.

From what has been reported, the Langenbruck event was on a cementary near the gravesite, the festival had a huge tent in position so it really stuck out of the landscape. While approaching, the leader was distracted by a traffic information about a helicopter near their flight path, then spotted the tent and falsely assumed this is where they were headed.

This was not a full display but a fly by. The attendees at Langenbruck saw the planes assemble and then fly past 4 km away and expected them to turn back to them. Instead they overflew the Jodel Festival (whose visitors were extremely thrilled and happy about the unexpected visit) once again. They only learnt about their mistake after landing back at Emmen. In the mean time they apologized and paid back the insurance premium which Langenbruck had to take out for the fly by....

Yea, this is a mistake and a one-off for this iconic team. But looking at the place, I'd have to say it could have happened to me as well at 150 kts, not 300 kts like them.

 

Overview. The red marker shows the intended fly by location, Mümliswil is labled 4km to the West.

The 2nd picture shows Langenbruck in the foreground and Mümliswil in the background. The third pic is Mümliswil where the Yodel Festival was. Both lie in a parallel valley, both have crossing main streets which cut into the hills to the south and north, Mümliswil is slightly bigger.

 

[steingar]

I don't care how understandable the mistake, it is still gloriously funny.

[aviatoreb]

24 minutes ago, steingar said:

I don't care how understandable the mistake, it is still gloriously funny.

...I know - and a Yodel festival no less.