Seaplane Ride Attraction at the Brunnen SZ Harbor Festival

The “Nüüi Schiffig” association hosts a harbor festival every two years at the Fönnhafen in Brunnen. For this year’s event, OK member Andreas (Res Merz via Peter Hofer, Modellflug-Zentral, Altdorf) invited the model seaplane pilots to participate as a special attraction.

Since Peter Hofer was on a well-deserved vacation at the time, Walti Wuhrmann (MG Zurich) took over the organization of the model aircraft display. Thanks to the infrastructure provided—such as a tent, tables, and electrical hookup—we were able to set up a comfortable display area for the aircraft. “We” are

René Signer, Gerard Kesseling, Paul Gutknecht, and yours truly. With a total of 11 models (including three Multiplex Mentor models alone), we had quite a fleet to show off. The weather gods were very kind to us, because although a light westerly wind had been forecast, we had clear skies in the morning until around 11:00 a.m.

At that time, the Föhn was still having an effect. But then the Föhn and the westerly wind began to battle it out, causing the water to become very choppy, making it impossible to fly without taking too great a risk. Besides, it was already time to enjoy the refreshments that had been offered.

Since even our electronics can fail from time to time and/or the current became too strong, we had to deploy our “rescue boat”—which, incidentally, was also good for our fitness. After a day of flying until we dropped, we wrapped up

our demonstrations around 7:00 p.m. and once again enjoyed the excellent food and drinks at the festival. The fact that Carlo Brunner and his band were also playing was just the icing on the cake of a fantastic day. Many visitors, especially those of a certain age, were very surprised by how quiet our models were. We were, of course, very pleased to receive a well-deserved mention in the local press!

*Walti Wuhrmann, report
by Andreas Merz, photos*