Ben Wilhelmi

Italy and Switzerland, aerial photography

 

Italian coast near Brindisi.

 

 

lake Como

 

 

 

somewhere here lies the border with Switzerland.

 

aerial photography, Switzerland

 

same old ferry flight from Dubai via Sharm el Sheikh and Athens, here crossing the Italian border. Weather had been good for a while….

but just before the descent towards Zürich, straight ahead, things got a bit uglier

we even got some icing, my first experience of reasonable icing. As my whole flying career so far has been about bush flying in Africa…. I'm more familiar with tropical weather, muddy, short, bad airstrips, elephant crossing, overloaded and dodgy planes...but icing? Not much.

ferry flight, Europe-Dubai last week

 

It was a bit of a last minute call late May to replace a copilot on that same Twin Otter, just like last year. Weather in Europe was still awful so I didn’t really enjoy the lake of Constance possibilties, Switzerland side, while the plane was being readied for the 3 day flight. Anyway here are a few pictures over the 3 days.

 

St Gallen-Altenrhein airport is located in some stunning area, between the lake and the Alps. Not a busy airport but various planes come in like these 2.

 

We flew eastbound first to go Athens, again a longer trip than necessary, a flightplan due to Eurocontrol conspiracies? I don't know but we came close to Bratislava before finally taking a more south east heading. Here looking towards Austria.

Central Europe was again mostly cloudy this year for us. Pretty soon after we had taken off, we lost sight of ground and flew over a white sea of cloud with an occasional storm which gets boring after a while… the icing conditions we met were mild.

 

things got a bit better from Greece onwards, we stayed one night in the Athens airport Sofitel (!). I like companies that take care of their pilots….

 

Cairo looks like a giant slum… the limit between the green Nile delta and the desert looks artificially drawn.

Egypt was clear this year, finally! Leaving Cairo, the Nile on the right, a wet dark wet strip across the desert just before it spreads out.

 

the Canal of Suez flowing in the Gulf of Suez.

 

a bit of the Sinai where we stayed again for one night at the Hilton. Again some companies are really great….

 

then a huge dust cloud seemed to cover most of Saudi Arabia, we had a brief glimpse of those circular cultures in Saudi Arabia. I wonder how deep the farmershave to dig for the water table. How much did the water level drop over the years…

and things looked a bit better over the Persian Gulf but not that good in terms of visibility.

 

Dubai…nice weather so to speak, 38C but humid with an atmospheric veil. Not great for pictures and scenery….

Ferry flight, Dubai-Zurich, aerial shooting, part XIX

 

3rd day, the Athens-Zürich (Altenrhein) leg, northern Italy, flying at 16.000 ft... luckily the heater worked well in the De Havilland.

same picture, below slightly cropped.

 

 

The Alps on their way.

ferry flight from Dubai to Zurich and back

 

so I’m back in Tanzania after 6 weeks. Here are some random pictures of the ferry trip, I’ll be more specific in the next posts.

 

over the Persian gulf.

 

circular crops over Saudi Arabia.

 

A desert similar to Death Valley, still in Saudi Arabia.

 

Mount Sinai, Egypt.

 

The aeroplane to be ferried, a De Havilland Twin Otter or DHC 6, here being refuelled in Sharm El Sheikh.

 

Gulf of Suez, Egypt mainland on the left, the Sinai peninsula on the right. The canal is located much more to the north, we didn’t overfly that landmark.

 

Over Greece. Snow!

 

fields in Italy.

 

The beautiful lake of Como at the foot of the Alps, Italy.

 

Crossing into Switzerland.

Bad weather before landing near Zurich.

Some icing at 16.000 ft.

 

Snow and artistic patterns over Serbia.