Visiting Zurich

Introduction –

It’s always been a dream to fly to bigger airports, this time a country I’ve never visited; Switzerland. There were two choices to choose from that I fancied for my visit, Zurich or Geneva. Deciding between the both of them is a tough one, no doubt about it. They are both similar, but Geneva is smaller and the rivers and lakes that run through each figure heavily into their appeal.

Switzerland is often described as a “heaven on Earth” due to its stunning natural beauty, picturesque landscapes with alpine snow peaks and high quality of life – but it’s also very expensive, even more expensive than Scandinavia. The plan has been to fly to of Geneva or Zurich for the last couple of years so it was finally a ‘Dream come true’ to have the possibility come true.

The Plan –

During a flight to Rotterdam in November 2022 I discussed with my passengers, if they would like a long-haul IFR flight (although we would somewhat be limited in range, to 5 hours of endurance). Both Geneva and Zurich fall within this timeframe and I was keen to visit this in my 2023 to-do list.

Planning started with a timeframe and we all chose June as that’s when we all had time free and no plans in the calendar, i.e. Erlangen in May and my IR revalidation which was due to take place in July which meant this was the perfect time to discuss.

We looked at the options and all suggested Zurich.

Airport Choices –

Airport choices are based on a few things for IFR flying, accessibility – customs & police, handling charges not being excessive and a new one, Category A aircraft being accepted at the aerodrome. This is not permitted at airports like Barcelona El Prat, and in some cases, because airports are not allowed to ban, they ban by stealth, in effect charging you excessive fees. Jet A1 availability is not an issue at most major international airports for the aircraft that we fly.

International Entry

For a flight direct from the UK, you can only enter Switzerland through the following airports: Geneva Airport & Zurich Airport. Having done any necessary weight & balance, and winds calculated for both directions of the flight we worked out that you could do this flight directly easily without any stops, and this is both more economical and financially more productive.

Whilst Switzerland is not part of the EU, it is part of the Schengen area. So a stop could have been made in Europe, but the process still required customs checks.

Basel was an alternative, but didn’t look into this option as detailed as I did with Zurich – but there may have been parking issues. The formalities for customs and immigration are similar to Zurich if exiting into the Swiss port of entry.

Zurich

Zurich Airport serves Zürich, Switzerland’s largest city and with its railway links, much of the country. The airport mostly due to noise is known for being very particular with the patterns of take-off and landing runways which would provide us with a bit of a nightmare, more on that in the coming blog.

The airport is roughly 8 miles from the city centre and this was convenient as we would land here in the evening due to work commitments and would be a quick ride from the terminal area to the city. The journey time is roughly 9-12 minutes between Flughafen Zürich and Zurich HB.

The airport is a major hub for Swiss, and sister leisure airline Edelweiss Air.

Handling/Airport Quotations –

I had seen previously that MFGZ are the recommended handler for private/general aviation handling. They offer a low-cost solution for the compulsory handling of general aviation customers at Zurich Airport.

We emailed them with our details but were informed of some restrictions and couldn’t be given a slot till nearer the time. A few phone calls had to happen as the email may have not ended up in the inbox, but we managed to get the ball rolling.

Parking Hours are charged between 0600LT and 2300LT. The first six hours are free of charge. Pax Outbound is charged per departing passenger.

GZANY DA40 1150KG MTOW
IB 09JUN23 1845z from EGSG 2 PAX
OB 11JUN23 1430z to EGSG 2 PAX

Business/General Aviation Services

• Crew transportation (airside)
• SLOT management
• Catering*
• Assistance with Border Control
• Fuel services (JET A1 / AVGAS)*

Airport Fees:

• Approach / Emission – 18,85 Fr
• Landing MTOW Class 1 – 17,56 Fr
• Parking Hours – 23,69 Fr
• Pax Outbound – 40,93 Fr

Handling Fees:

• IB Handling – 53,31
• Additional handling fee (Flight after 20:00lt) – 75,39
• OB Handling – 53.31

Net Amount 262,80 Fr
VAT 7,7%
Offer amount – 283,05 Fr

Slot Restrictions for IFR/VFR –

As was discussed on the phone and further via email, Category A aircraft are restricted to certain ‘Quiet’ times of the day. It’s also possible that this can be further restricted, as we will discuss further in this thread.

I was sent a copy via email, but it appears it’s also available online.

Accommodation –

Laura handled the accommodation search, and we would stay with an Air BNB in Alt Weidikon. This was ideal as it would come with 3 sleeping spaces. A double bed to share plus a sofa bed, and was an attic loft conversion with an upstairs rooftop with a great view of the local area.  The building itself is centrally located in a residential area and is served with direct connections to the main station, the lake and other points of interest.

We would arrive fairly late on the Friday and check out by 11 am on the Sunday for an afternoon flight back to the UK. The Air BNB we stayed at is listed in the below link.

Attic Loft with rooftop terrace! – Flats for Rent in Zürich, ZH, Switzerland – Airbnb

Weather Forecast –

The weather forecast for the outbound flight was fairly settled with route weather very clear, similar to the flights I conducted just a few weeks back with light easterly winds and high pressure situated over mainland Europe and Scandinavia. This of course meant that winds wouldn’t affect the flight, so a flight time of 3 hours 50 minutes down to Zurich was forecast.

A slack area of low pressure and various troughs on the 10th meant some thunderstorm activity by the Alps was forecast and into Italy but this remained on the southern side of the mountains. However there was some activity to the North of Zurich later in the day, most likely summer heat storms,

During the morning of the 11th, the day of our flight home the weather forecast was for gusty winds which meant the runway in use would likely be single runway operations. This was likely to trouble our departure as Zurich’s runway capacity was significantly reduced.

Coincidentally the weather forecast for the route section of the flight was severe thunderstorm activity, associated with various troughs of low pressure situated to the east of a surface heat low situated over Zurich.

This was likely to be very risky because of our limited fuel with a heavy payload, so cancelling the flight was probably a safer option. The route options were limited due to weather across the France and BENELUX regions.

Because of slot cancellations, this meant that the flight had to be undertaken the day after with a better weather forecast, however after our arrival, there was significant thunderstorm activity forecast for London and the South East.

With areas of Thunderstorms located over Paris and significant areas of mainland France, this meant that the flight back to the UK might involve some weather avoidance, but our early departure time was likely to help.

Flight to Zurich –

Due to work commitments, we could only depart Stapleford at 1445z (15:45L), arriving in Zurich by 1845z (20:45L) – coincidentally this worked with the airport giving us a slot. This was a great feeling, considering we were informed the previous few days – due to strong winds, Zurich Airport was reduced to single runway operations and thus Category A aircraft are banned from using the airport, as the flow is restricted.

I had set off to the airport and arrived roughly 2 hours before departure. I awaited the aircraft to arrive which had set off earlier this morning for lunch, it returned and I quickly hurried over to the aircraft to prep for the 4-hour sector to Zurich.

I had ordered fuel, fitted the oxygen bottle that was refilled after the previous trip and began the preparations to taxi the aircraft over to the clubhouse for the sector. My friends, who would be my passengers for this trip to Zurich had arrived and were awaiting boarding at the clubhouse.

I taxied over just before we would have to close the doors and start up for departure. Once we had put all our bags into the hold area (tiny gap behind the rear seats) and donned our lifejackets we jumped into the aircraft for the flight to Switzerland. Today’s runway in use was 03R due to the winds, which makes for an easier life with the take-off roll downhill. Once all my checks were completed and we had received our release with London Control, we made the long taxi via a backtrack of Runway 21L(03R) to do our power checks for departure.

With everything checked, we went for a rolling departure and we soared into the sky, made the right-hand turnout and contacted Thames Radar. Initially, we had to remain outside controlled airspace due to City Airport being on Runway 09, and our route towards DET (Detling VOR) conflicted with a departure.

Once they were cleared up above 3000ft, we were cleared to 3000ft and then transferred to the London controllers for a continuous climb up to FL150. Because many of the other departures out of the major London airports route this way, we were turned slightly to the north and then vectored across Kent before being given a route directly back onto the airway system.

We were transferred to Brussels control, and then given a series of route directs to keep us clear of Brussels Airport and the departures. We flew over the top of Charleroi and then headed towards Luxembourg where the weather below became more cloudy.

This was a relatively benign flight, with minimal work to do except check fuel, en route alternates and what runways were in use. Another aspect to check in the route phase is oxygen levels in our blood, and the available PSI in the bottle – just to make sure that the system is operating as designed. Something that I’ve slowly become accustomed to on these longer sectors that I fly.

As we passed Luxembourg, the approach vectored us out of the way of a fast-moving departure before giving us further clearance and transferring us to French ATC as we tracked through the Reims FIR. I’d been down this way before and it wasn’t long till we were in German Airspace and passing Strasbourg, due south of Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden where I’d flown to last year.

One thing to note near Luxembourg was there were some nice houses, with the majority having swimming pools. We were pretty jealous, but then the view with the sun behind us made us realise how lucky we were to be experiencing the skies.

Thereafter we started planning which arrival and Runway we would be landing on at Zurich and thus started checking the weather, looking at the preferred runway for the airport for the time of day which appeared to be Runway 14. A listen to the ATIS confirmed this as the runway was in use closer to the time.

We shortly were transferred from Langen Radar to Swiss Radar and began a slow descent into Zurich, with the setting sun, provided us with a beautiful view of the sun that was slowly about to fade into the next day. With the confirmed runway, Swiss Radar then transferred us to Zurich Approach who vectored us in an S pattern behind other arrivals along with further descent instructions for ILS Runway 14.

I tried to anticipate a continuous descent approach, but then ATC reminded me to get down a bit quicker as we would then be too high for the glide path. A more substantial descent rate was required followed by a quick check of the approach plate which we established at 10NM out.

Behind us was a jet, which received a late landing clearance as I was significantly slower than him – but I ensured by advancing the throttle slightly till we could vacate the runway at taxiway H. ATC also asked us to expedite the vacate to ensure the traffic behind us didn’t go around.

This can be a significant issue for ATC with smaller aircraft (Category A) going into bigger airports and mixing with much faster traffic. This seems to upset the airport authority and thus they try to enforce bans or restrictions on aircraft in the most “legal” way possible without actually breaking any laws.

We taxied to Holding point K to cross Runway 28, then on our way to sector 3 for parking became lost with the complex taxiways near A1 for Runway 28. There are roughly 3 ways to park and the clue was the follow-me vehicle. ATC having ground movement radar quickly corrected us and we were on our way to the stand and met by the handler.

We pushed the aircraft back as it would block the taxiway if we didn’t, then admired the setting sun with a few ‘Tourist’ photographs to share that we made it to Switzerland.

ATC Flight plan and route flown –

Stay in Zurich –

We had arrived in Zurich for our short stay. Once the aircraft was tidied up, covered and prepared for the next few days of stay at the airport, we were driven barely 50 meters to the offices for the handler, to register any final details and then clear customs and have passports checked for our stay in Zurich. This was a barely 10-meter drive before we were then given instructions on how to walk to the main passenger terminal.

From the main passenger terminal, we would take a train to our Air BNB. This involved a short change at the Main station (Zürich Hauptbahnhof/Zurich HB). This is one of the busiest stations in Europe, and we had time for our connection we went to a local shop and got some beers that we could walk around with and enjoy on the train.

We took our further connection from ZB to Zürich Wiedikon railway station and walked the short distance to our Air BNB. This was roughly 12 minutes walk from the station, and is a great connection into the main city, either by walking or public transportation.

We did struggle to find the key for the AirBNB, especially as we had lifted all our luggage to the top floor of the block (4-5 flights of stairs to contend with) and the instructions to find the key were pretty difficult. We managed to find the key and entered the apartment, this was as expected and in some cases exceeded our expectations. It was very different to a hotel, with all the required amenities, the only concern was whacking your head as this was a rooftop conversion.

We arrived pretty late, so decided to get some food from the local Co-Op Pronto (Snacks and Breakfast) and myself some food from a place called Kebab Ararat, which at first you’d question if you would want to eat, but the staff were friendly and the food tasted good and went down well. Interestingly it’s advertised as a pizzeria, but they do kebabs also in addition to some pizzas – it has a 4.4 star on Google and 4.0 on Tripadvisor. It isn’t the best-rated in Zurich, but for this area it was great.

We went back to the accommodation, armed with drinks, snacks and food and went onto the rooftop to enjoy our evening, admiring what a great flight it had been and that we were finally in Switzerland (For the first time).

For breakfast we had boiled eggs, with salami in a Weggli and some fresh fruit on the side, this was required after a good night’s sleep and some drinking the evening before. It was great to have a cooker and oven at the accommodation, but we would likely be eating out for the rest of the trip.

We got ready, applied suncream and headed down to Lake Zurich – to be precise, a nice part of the lake we found was Bootsvermietung Enge (Which we later tried boating on the lake). Also nearby is Hafen Enge Beiz, which sells drinks and some snack food by the lake. This can be difficult to find it seems by the lake, but this location sells alcohol.

After a few hours of walking around and chilling, we headed to Quaibrücke and found this riverside beer garden called Bauschänzli. Whilst this is an iconic location, with great views – there is probably better, this was the first location we found in the sun, but is truly a tourist trap.

We walked to Zurich Old Town to have a look around, found some good photography spots and looked for a good rooftop. But we did come across Hasta Ice Cream, they had Vegan-friendly options too if that helps.

After having ice cream it was time to find a rooftop, but this proved fairly difficult – we went to The Nest at Storchen Zürich but there were very long queues and fairly long wait times. and we decided that it was likely to result in us missing out on a lot of our evening before the flight back tomorrow.

Here’s a great list of the Zurich rooftops if you would like to read it.

One place we found, that would combine food and drink was Hiltl Dachterrasse – the Hiltl Restaurant is a vegetarian restaurant in Switzerland. The restaurant holds the Guinness world record for being the oldest continuously open vegetarian restaurant in the world. This was a great option because we could serve everyone’s needs on this trip and also have great wine with an open-air rooftop, the view isn’t the best but it is still very pleasant to spend some time there.

The food is very tasty, especially the curries (the Bombay aloo style potatoes (Unsure of the name)) were extra yummy, but be careful – this place is expensive and charges you per grammes, so when you load up, don’t be surprised at the end if it’s expensive.

The plan now was to watch the sunset from the ETH Zurich, which provided a stunning view of the city below and the mountains in the distance, of course, I spent most of the time drinking great wine and watching aeroplanes in the setting sky.

We slowly walked back to our apartment, not knowing the fate of our next day would be completely changed by the weather gods and the shock to the system this was, with having to change our plans (for me the first time away from home).

Delayed in Zurich –

We received a very early call, but before 09:00 (so missed it as my phone was silenced) – I phoned it back and it was the Handlers, sadly with very bad news. Due to the strong winds forecast, see weather above for 11th – ATC decided to restrict Category A operations during our slot, which meant if we did depart it would be with low light and forecast severe thunderstorms on our route, landing either at sunset or just before. The other alternative was to call up ATC and see if they could get us out, but this meant packing completely, heading to the airport getting ready to go finding out we couldn’t then having to find accommodation again.

VLOG of return flight –

The original departure was 1425z (16:25L) on the Sunday. We went for the earliest departure possible on Monday morning that was available for CAT A, and this was 0620z (0820L) which meant that we would arrive by 1130L, enough time for me to get to work on time (Sadly this was not possible for my friends who would have to have started Monday AM).

So we looked at extending our Airbnb and had to wait a few hours for a response, which we then left in cash as the system is limited to extending the booking on the day. The alternative option was an airport hotel, as everything in central was very expensive.

We went for a walk and found a very interesting Breakfast/Brunch location called Gasthaus Zum Guten Glück – rated a 4.0 on Tripadvisor and #2 of 13 guest houses in Zurich. This was one of our favourite stops on the whole of the trip. I had a vegetarian omelette with some bacon (As it didn’t include that option) and it was rather nice with a side of some rocket and sourdough bread. This was the perfect way to start our 3rd day of the trip – it had an outdoor area but that was very busy.

On our walk, we stopped at Ma’adan Bakery, as many places were not open and we wanted to get a drink. I mention this place simply because what they had on offer was great. It’s a shame I was counting calories at the moment as I would have loved something from the selection.

We went back to the lake and kept a careful eye on the weather, because this day there was the possibility of Thunderstorms nearby, albeit the TAF didn’t show this and never materialised, there was however some significant activity north and south of Zurich.

We chilled by the lake, a similar spot to yesterday and the Boats on Lake Zurich appealed to me and would be fun to do an activity. We went to the company running the boats (Bootsvermietung Enge) and were told it would be a long wait, to come back in an hour or two, which I did and then was placed on the wait list.

It wasn’t long till we managed to get a go on the boats. We managed to pedal to the midpoint of the lake nearest to the top and return within 1 hour. This was a pretty cool but tiring experience and we probably had 20-25 minutes of chill time before we had to pedal back to ensure we weren’t charged any more than 1 hour. It did provide a few perfect picture opportunities.

We were very hungry at this point, and I suggested that we could eat by the lake and found Pumpstation on the other side of the lake. It was a fairly decent walk around and we managed to get a nice table by the edge of the venue looking over the lake.

Unfortunately, there weren’t many vegan/vegetarian options and they had run out of choices, so it was unfortunately a very limited choice. Sadly when we had ordered, he then came back and told us a fair few things were not available – which meant at this point we wanted to leave, but were guilt-tripped into not leaving.

I had ordered a chicken breast with a baked potato. The other options that were ordered weren’t fulfilling as a meal, so this wasn’t the best choice and the waiter took a very long time to take our payment, interestingly he seemed to become very flustered and annoyed by everyone’s presence.

This wasn’t a steal, it felt like we were robbed. A better view of the reviews may have prevented a waste of our time.

We then decided to take a lengthy walk down towards Blatterwiese Park & Garden. This was located in the Riesbach district, and on our way found a small shack that had a selection of drinks and some food available. We kept hopping and then wanted to sit at Fischerstube Zürihorn, but this was very busy and unless we wanted to order food – we could only stand/sit at the bar.

On a further walk down we came across Lake Side, which had better reviews and seemed more friendly. There was however a wedding reception going on, on the inside. We decided for our final evening, to enjoy the view and a nice bottle of wine. This was a perfect picture opportunity with the setting sun.

It wasn’t long and we decided to head back to our Air BNB for some much-needed sleep, before our flight back to the UK. This was a very early start, in fact probably 4 am back home, and we tidied up all of our bags ready for the flight home. We headed to the airport from the station, leaving at 6 am – this was a direct train that would stop briefly at the main station and arrive at the airport before our departure.

Bear in mind that it’s an additional 20-minute walk from the Terminal to the GAT, unless, of course, you get a taxi. This gave us roughly an hour at Zurich Airport to settle the bills with the handler, refuel the aircraft, load the bags and depart. Normally I’d give much more time, but the aircraft didn’t need a huge turn-around to get it ready for the flight home.

Whilst it was a great trip, we were gladly on our way back to the UK, after a delay of almost 24 hours.

Flight to the UK from Zurich –

Once we were in the aircraft, we called ATC for our clearance and were issued a VEBIT 4W from Runway 28. That meant a very short taxi and things felt a little rushed, but by the time we reached the hold, we weren’t held much after we completed our checks and readied the aircraft for the long flight back to the UK.

The weather was very calm, very cool but also nil wind and the visibility was outstanding. As we got airborne we could finally see the Alps in the distance. It was a shame the previous days were very hazy, but the heat storms must have cleared all the air.

Once we were high enough, we were given a route direct and a further climb to our final cruise of FL160. I was quite impressed with the aircraft because this was MTOW and it still managed to climb to FL160 continuously in about 33 minutes.

The route was very different to the way out, and once we passed near Langres (North of Dijon) we started making a further turn to the right to track east of Paris before being given a further shortcut. We were then given a huge route direct to Dover (DVR) which is an out-of-this-world route, roughly 120 miles

There were some Thunderstorms over Paris, but well to the west of our routing, and we may have got the odd light jolt – but smooth flying conditions prevailed for the flight and there was no need to make any weather avoidance.

Strangely enough, as we started approaching Dover I had to make a weather heading due to a cell that was appearing on the Golze in-flight weather system, this was also showing visually with the Mark II eyeball.

I did hear on the Frequency a departing easyJet that was climbing through FL270 that they had just cleared the tops. Not knowing what was below the tops of clouds below me however meant I did a gradual descent and told London I could start coming down once I was clear of this weather.

It was ominous looking, but nothing was showing on the weather radar – but with two passengers to look after, I didn’t want to put ourselves into convective activity on the descent into London. Having a peek we could see a few smaller cells below the big one, but these build-ups were easily more than what I would be comfortable flying through.

The rest of the flight was uneventful, leaving controlled airspace north of the River Thames and making a left base join for Runway 21L to save time. It’s worth mentioning on the drive back home, the cells started building and within an hour or two the region was engulfed in huge build-ups and thunderstorms for the next few hours.

ATC Flight plan and route flown –

Outcome & Costs –

It was great to finally fly to Switzerland, and of all places Zurich. Sadly this is one of the most expensive cities in the world and although the views and vibrancies were great, it wouldn’t be a regular visit for me by General Aviation, least with the unpredictability of the airport’s operation with the slightest winds or bad weather, changing the whole dynamic of the operation and forcing Category ‘A’ aircraft out of the slot system.

Nonetheless, don’t let that impact your judgement in choosing Zurich as a destination of choice, and take in probably some of the most breathtaking scenery and views in the Western world. Be prepared for some last-minute changes, especially in planning and how it may affect your ability to fly home. For sure if I could do it again, I would plan a bit better where to eat out and have a plan of places to visit.

Zurich Airport Costs –

Airport Costs:

• Approach/Emission – 17.50 CHF
• Landing MTOW Class 1 – 16.30 CHF
• Pax Outbound x2 – 38.00 CHF (19.00 CHF each)
• Parking Hours (x34) – 29.92 CHF (0.88 CHF p/hr)

Handling Costs:

• Inbound handling (Private/Training/Commercial) – 49.50 CHF
• Additional handling fee (Flight after 20:00lt) – 70.00 CHF
• Outbound handling (Private/Training/Commercial) – 49.50 CHF

Sub-Total: 270.72 CHF (VAT 7.7% – 20.85 CHF) – £258.52

Jet A1 Uplift: SWISS 215.50 CHF (£189.07 (90 Litres) @£2.10ltr

Sub-Total: £447.59

Zurich Costs –

Food, Drink & Leisure Costs: £389.50

Accommodation Costs: £111.41 per night

Additional accommodation costs

• Cleaning Fee £62.54
• Service Fee £48.35
• Taxes £13.40
• Extra Nights Stay: £111.41

Total Accommodation Costs: £458.52

Travel Costs: £18.11 (x3 Tickets one way)

Sub-Total: £866.13

Flying Costs –

Aircraft Charges: £1,372.50 (@ £183 per hour (07 hours 30 minutes flown))

Airport Fees: £258.52 (As above)

JetA1: (Wet Rate drawback) Credited £94.50 (-) (GZANY) (90 litres at EGSG rate)

Total Cost –

Total Costs (Non-Aviation): £866.13

Total Costs (Aviation): £1820.09

Total Costs (All): £2686.22

Version 1.1 – Last Updated 08/03/2024

Aircraft –

The aircraft is a DA40 TDI, which uses a Thielert “Centurion” 135 hp (101 kW) diesel engine and burns diesel or jet fuel. It has a constant-speed propeller and FADEC (single lever) engine control. G-ZANY is based at Stapleford Aerodrome, Essex, UK and was delivered as new in 2003. 

Read more about the aircraft on the dedicated page

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Welcome to The FLYING VLOG…

I am a current PPL(A), SEP (LAND), IR(A) SE/SP PBN, IR(R) & Night holder. Flying the world, exploring its hidden treasures. Taking pictures and vlogging the journey; I hope I can provide you with an oversight of my progression as I develop my skillset and airmanship in exclusive videos on my YouTube channel.

Now flying IFR in the Airways of Europe & beyond. Bringing you an exclusive niche to YouTube, flying in the same skies with commercial airliners.