Elektrojets over Dübendorf 2012

The 7th Impellerjet Meet was once again held at the Dübendorf Airfield. As is tradition, the IGJES (Interessengemeinschaft Electric Jets Switzerland) and the MG Dübendorf invited participants to a friendly flying event on the grounds of the military airfield. As in previous years, the 35 registrations came in very quickly, so unfortunately not all interested parties could be accommodated for this event.

The weather forecast called for sunshine and clouds that day. It also warned of some gusty winds. Early in the morning, the snow-capped mountains surrounding the Säntis were already visible, close enough to touch. A strong foehn wind over eastern Switzerland was responsible for this. As a rule, this is a reliable guarantee of a rain-free day. Soon, hurricane-force gusts were also making themselves felt at the airfield. The windsock could barely stay attached to its thin metal pole on the earthen embankment. The briefing for the pilots who had traveled to the event had to be held in the Hunter-Stübli, a wooden building next to the runway. At least the wind was expected to die down by noon—or so the weather forecast from the neighboring Kloten Airport predicted.

The participants eagerly awaited the new models for this flying season. Due to the strong wind, these were initially revealed rather tentatively. Around noon, the wind died down as forecast, and flying operations could begin. There are also various trends among impeller jets. Sport jets are often characterized by good aerodynamic design. As a result, they tend to fly rather fast, even vertically. A typical example of this type is the Spark, which is a regular sight in Dübendorf. In contrast, there were numerous new semi-scale and full-scale jets to be seen both in the air and on the ground. This category seems to be enjoying renewed popularity despite the high cost of construction. The trend toward foam models, however, appears to be on the decline at this event. By now, some of these aircraft are virtually indistinguishable from fiberglass models when in flight.

In the afternoon, the wind picked up again. This gave the pilots some time before heading home to examine the latest models—which hadn’t been flown yet—on the ground, or even to admire each other’s work. Group photo at noon. The traditional group photo at noon is also a staple of this event every year. The original image is composed of five individual photos and, due to its enormous size, can only be viewed in individual sections on a computer monitor at www.telesys.ch.

Outside, wind speeds were already picking up considerably again. Anyone who didn’t want to risk losing their equipment had already packed their planes into their cars for safety. The wind was now blowing relentlessly strong once more. After all, anything that wasn’t bolted down would have been blown across the field at breakneck speed. Only this time, it wouldn’t have been remote-controlled. So the debriefing took place once again in another storm-proof building.

A gentle breeze to dispel the rain clouds is certainly appreciated at the airfield. But when it picks up so strongly that it also drives all the pilots and model airplanes off the field, it suddenly becomes very unwelcome. Despite everything, this year’s Impeller pilots’ meet once again went off without a single model being lost. And next year, the weather conditions for this event will certainly be different. So there’s always plenty of variety here, too.

On behalf of all participants, the author of this report would like to thank the organizer, Nello Nero, and his helpers from MG Dübendorf for the careful preparation and flawless execution of this year’s Jet Meeting. Many more photos from the event can be found online at www.telesys.ch or www.igejs.ch.

Photo and text: Hermann Mettler