If memory serves well, the first time I saw an airplane up close was when I was around 8 or 9 years old. We had moved to a new home in Bombay (yes, it was still called Bombay) and our apartment on the 4th floor was abeam the approach flight path to the airport. Every day after school, I would stand in the balcony and watch the huge birds with exotic liveries from all over the world slowly descending in my line of sight towards the airport in the middle of the city. One day I declared to my mother, I want to become a pilot and nothing else. This was acknowledged encouragingly but soon forgotten as a childhood proclamation. When I passed my 10th board exams in 1987, I had no clue on how to follow my dream, given at that time only two airlines existed, Air India and Indian Airlines. Studies were exorbitantly expensive and unaffordable and the Internet didn’t exist then so I couldn’t explore opportunities beyond India.
Fast forward to 2007, we moved to a town in Switzerland with a small regional airfield nearby. Driving to work or visiting friends, I would pass the airfield and watch 2 and 4 seater airplanes taking off and landing with high frequency. My dormant Virus Aviaticus was back! I finally started learning in 2010. One year, lots of theory, many flying hours and hundreds of landings later, I was the proud holder of a Private Pilot´s Licence – Aircraft.
One of the most beautiful things in flying in Switzerland are the Alps. The aircraft I fly are robustly built, safe and reliable but due to non-pressurized cabins and low power, they cannot fly over the mountains like one does in an airliner. One has to fly lower in the valleys and cross them over mountain passes while carefully monitoring the geography, weather, winds and other parameters. Especially during winter when the mountains are laden with snow and the winds are quieter, it is a serene and indescribable feeling.
I have experienced my most memorable flying moments around the Alps in Switzerland, Austria, Italy and Germany. One such experience remains etched in my memory is in Switzerland. One flies from the so called Schweizer Mittelland (Swiss flat lands) towards the mountains. The route takes you directly towards three famous peaks: the Eiger (with its famous north wall), Mönch (a monk) and Jungfrau (well-known as Top of Europe among travelers). You fly at more than 13000 feet above MSL towards the point between the Mönch and Jungfrau, right over the Sphinx observatory and onto the great Aletsch Glacier. Now for a bit of science: when two glaciers merge, the lateral moraines join and form a medial moraine. As three large firn fields meet at Concordia, the Great Aletsch Glacier has in fact two medial moraines. These appear as dark lines running along the length of the glacier and continue towards Brig in the next large valley which is the Rhône valley. Science lessons apart, this magnificent view of this phenomenon alone justifies the presence of the Virus Aviaticus in me. I have taken along many friends on this particular route in the Alps and no one has ever come back without being mesmerized and enthralled and wanting to do it again.
I encourage anyone visiting Switzerland to try out this experience. Everyone goes up the mountains in trains and cable-cars – try something different – see the Alps from a bird´s-eye perspective. I can bet that it will be an experience you will never ever forget.
And who knows, you may catch the Virus Aviaticus too!
Fast forward to 2007, we moved to a town in Switzerland with a small regional airfield nearby. Driving to work or visiting friends, I would pass the airfield and watch 2 and 4 seater airplanes taking off and landing with high frequency. My dormant Virus Aviaticus was back! I finally started learning in 2010. One year, lots of theory, many flying hours and hundreds of landings later, I was the proud holder of a Private Pilot´s Licence – Aircraft.
One of the most beautiful things in flying in Switzerland are the Alps. The aircraft I fly are robustly built, safe and reliable but due to non-pressurized cabins and low power, they cannot fly over the mountains like one does in an airliner. One has to fly lower in the valleys and cross them over mountain passes while carefully monitoring the geography, weather, winds and other parameters. Especially during winter when the mountains are laden with snow and the winds are quieter, it is a serene and indescribable feeling.
I have experienced my most memorable flying moments around the Alps in Switzerland, Austria, Italy and Germany. One such experience remains etched in my memory is in Switzerland. One flies from the so called Schweizer Mittelland (Swiss flat lands) towards the mountains. The route takes you directly towards three famous peaks: the Eiger (with its famous north wall), Mönch (a monk) and Jungfrau (well-known as Top of Europe among travelers). You fly at more than 13000 feet above MSL towards the point between the Mönch and Jungfrau, right over the Sphinx observatory and onto the great Aletsch Glacier. Now for a bit of science: when two glaciers merge, the lateral moraines join and form a medial moraine. As three large firn fields meet at Concordia, the Great Aletsch Glacier has in fact two medial moraines. These appear as dark lines running along the length of the glacier and continue towards Brig in the next large valley which is the Rhône valley. Science lessons apart, this magnificent view of this phenomenon alone justifies the presence of the Virus Aviaticus in me. I have taken along many friends on this particular route in the Alps and no one has ever come back without being mesmerized and enthralled and wanting to do it again.
I encourage anyone visiting Switzerland to try out this experience. Everyone goes up the mountains in trains and cable-cars – try something different – see the Alps from a bird´s-eye perspective. I can bet that it will be an experience you will never ever forget.
And who knows, you may catch the Virus Aviaticus too!
Ankit
