LSMM-SPOT1
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May 17, 2017Meiringen Air Force Base – Spotting Guide
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- last modified on January 15, 2021
Meiringen Air Base (ICAO: LSMM), is located in the state of Bern. The airport is only used by the Swiss military air force and it’s the second busiest military stations in Switzerland. LSMM is also the only Swiss airbase that uses an aircraft cavern in daily operations. The runway is equipped with retractable arresting gear devices which is mainly used by the FA18 Hornets at some times.The traffic is mainly concentrated on FA18 Hornets and F5 Tigers. It is the home base to two fighter squadrons, militia Squadron 8 “Destructors”, equipped with the F5 Tigers and professional Squadron 11 “Tiger” equipped with the FA18 Hornets. The airfield has a small museum that is open on Wednesday afternoons from May to October.
More information could be find on Meiringen Air Base website by clicking here.
Written by Jeremy Denton and pictures by Neo-Falcon Photography (Last update December 2020).
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| Airport Information | |
| Runways | |
| 10/28 | 2,003m (6,571ft) Asphalt |
| Spotting Information | |
| Ladder | There is no need for it |
| Car/Public Transport | Car is necessary. |
| Restrooms | Available only at some spots. |
| Drinks/Food | Available only at some spots. |
| Hotels | Few hotels could be found next to the airport, many villages or small city are nearby. |
| Season | The best season is during winter time as you get some fantastic background shots with the snow on the mountain. Otherwise summer to get more chance on the sun. |
| Security | We recommend you to take some ear protection as you are pretty close from the jets and to respect the signs and the environment. People are really friendly even security AF but if you don’t respect the rules, the Air Base Security Soldiers will come to move you pretty quickly. |
| Runway Usage | |
| 10/28 | Depends on the wind direction. |
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Spot #1 – Runway 28 (approach) |
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| WHERE | From Meiringen Base, follow the road “Balmstrasse” until you cross the taxiway of the fighters where they come from the cave and a few hundred meters you will see some houses where you can park the car next to the road on the grass. Try to park your car on the best way possible. |
| WHAT | Good location to get arrivals shots on runway 28. |
| TIME | Mostly all day. Not early morning in Summer. |
| MISC. | Nothing nearby so take what you need before coming at this spot. |
| FOCAL LENGTH | 200-300mm |
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Spot #2 – Cave taxi way |
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| WHERE | This spot is located directly at the Air Base. Park your car at the public parking and then walk direction runway 28 along the road until you reached the cross road from the cave to the runway. |
| WHAT | Taxiing aircraft from the cave to the runway and conversely. |
| TIME | Mostly all day. |
| MISC. | Nothing nearby so take what you need before coming at this spot. |
| FOCAL LENGTH | 18-105mm |
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Spot #3 – The House |
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| WHERE | From the public parking, drive in the opposite direction of the spot2 on “Guntlerey” road until you reached a small house next to the road. Park your car on the taxiway “Golf” which is no longer in use (10 available places). |
| WHAT | Arrivals and departures both runway directions. |
| TIME | Mostly all day. Not early morning in Summer. |
| MISC. | Nothing nearby so take what you need before coming at this spot. |
| FOCAL LENGTH | 200-300mm |
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Spot #4 – Runway 10 Cross Way (South) |
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| WHERE | From the spot 3, continue on the same road and same direction. Once you are at the “Waldey” intersection park your car on the left side of the road next to the farmer house (refer to the map). Then walk a few minutes towards the spot. |
| WHAT | Good for arrivals runway 10 but you can also have shots of departures from rwy28. |
| TIME | Mostly all day. Not early morning in Summer. |
| MISC. | Nothing nearby so take what you need before coming at this spot. |
| FOCAL LENGTH | 200-300mm |
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Spot #5 – Runway 10 Cross Way (North) |
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| WHERE | From spot 4, just continue driving and cross the runway then on your left you’ll notice a small white building it’s here that you have to park the car (not much available space, 2 places). Then walk towards the horse field. |
| WHAT | Good for arrivals runway 10 but you can also have shots of departures from rwy28. |
| TIME | Early morning in Summer, no good during winter time. |
| MISC. | Nothing nearby so take what you need before coming at this spot. |
| FOCAL LENGTH | 200-300mm |
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Spot #6 – Runway 28 Cross Way (North) |
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| WHERE | From the spot 5, take the road direction Grimzel, direction runway 28, on “Hauptstrasse” until the roundabout where you will take on the right direction runway crossing way. Before you cross the runway theirs a car park on your right where you can park here and take pictures. |
| WHAT | Arrivals and departures both runway. |
| TIME | Early morning in Summer, no good during winter time. |
| MISC. | Nothing nearby so take what you need before coming at this spot. |
| FOCAL LENGTH | 200-300mm |
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Spot #7 – Line-up Runway 28 |
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| WHERE | From the spot 6, just walk few hundred meters on the small path until you reached the line-up position on runway 28. |
| WHAT | Good location to have face to face F5, FA18 pictures and also arrivals runway 28. |
| TIME | Early morning in Summer, no good during winter time. |
| MISC. | Nothing nearby so take what you need before coming at this spot. |
| FOCAL LENGTH | 200-300mm |
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Spot #8 – The Cliff |
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| WHERE | That’s a tricky way to go up to Mountain. Theirs two possible way to go up there. First, from spot 6, drive back on the main road direction right “Grimsel” and follow the road for maybe 5-7 minutes until the roundabout where you will have to take on the right and continue on the road “Balmstrasse” until you see the sign “Zaun” where you will have to take the road on the left. This road will guide you to the top of the mountain. It takes approximately 30 minutes. From there, I just recommend you to have a look on the map and follow the itinerary as it is pretty complicate to explain the location. |
| WHAT | This is the most dangerous spotting location of Meiringen. From here you are taking pictures near a cliff edge of 300 meters with only a small fence to “protect” you. We recommend you not to rely on the fence. It’s a tinny place, only 2 people can take pictures, the place is pretty narrow due to trees branches. Theirs the big waterfall on your left, approximately 50 meters.
Park your car next to the farm and ask politely the farmer in GERMAN if you can park the car here because you want to take pictures of the Swiss Hornets. Ideally 1 car. Good for night shots and park aircraft on the ground. |
| TIME | A lot of shadows during the day due to the trees and the mountain. Best night shots. |
| MISC. | Nothing nearby so take what you need before coming at this spot. |
| FOCAL LENGTH | At least a 400mm, bigger would be much better specially for landings and departures aircraft. |
11 Comments
SORRY, very wrong information because of the parking facilities !!! It is FORBIDDEN to park next to the street or in the farmers field. It would be very nice, if foreign photographers also respect that. I’m a local and grew up next to the air base meiringen / unterbach and i knwo the “ruels of the game”. sunny greetings from the bernese oberland, peter
Hello Peter,
Please tell us where should we change the parking position in that case and we will be more than happy to update the guide.
Kind regards,
Jeremy Denton
Hi Jeremy
at spot 3: 10 official parking spaces on the diagonal taxiway (golf). at spot 4: 3 official parking spaces at the intersection (Waldey) on the left side of the street at the barn. at spot 5: 2 official parking spaces at the transformer station next to the guard house (white building)
Kind regards and best wishes
Peter
Hi Peter,
Thanks a lot for your help. I have just amended the map. Please let me know if that’s not correct.
Have a good weekend.
Jeremy
Hi Jeremy
yes the new parking spaces are now correctly marked on the map. Thank you for customizing it. This way, no fotographers will get into trouble and everything is fine. I wish you a good week.
Greetings from switzerland
Peter
Please change the parking recommendations!This behavior is controversial for us spotters! Who behaves like this draws the displeasure of the farmers and finally it hurts everyone who takes photos at the air base.There is enough parking space that can be used, you have to walk a few meters.
Hi Olivier,
We would be happy to update the guide however with the information that you have provided we can’t do anything as we are missing the spot number and where we have to move the parking place.
Kindly ask you to use the following link in order to send us the update: https://www.spotterguide.net/missing-photos-location/
Thank you,
Regards,
Jeremy
A lot of wrong car parking. That’s not good. Please change that! And please dont work with Neo Falcon! He has no idea. 😉
Hi Michael!
Can you tell us something about the parking situations?
I think it’s our decision who we are working with and if you say “he has no idea”, you should consider he just provided the pictures and no information 😉
Regards, Severin
I have not been here but looking on Google Maps it seems there is a bus (174) which goes from Meiringen Banhof to Brienzwiler Banhof operating once per hour and stops right outside the base near spots 2 & 3. There is also a hotel/restaurant showing on the map at this point.
Getting vertigo just looking at that last cliff picture…….