APEA

Hello from Switzerland

Just a quick introduction from my side: I am Michael Steffen, nicknamed "Mike" by all my friends and I am a planespotter for just about 18 years now. I am living just about in the middle between Bern and Zürich and call both Zürich and Basel my homebases.

I am also a member of Airside Foto Zürich from almost from the beginning on and have spent many hours on the apron and also on our trips. I am also a regular tourguide on the WEF-tours at the end of January here in ZRH and we always have portuguese spotters as well.

My experience about Portugal is limited to a trip back in 2000 I'm afraid. On the other hand, I have met many portuguese Spotters here in Switzerland and meeting them always was a pleasure. I had dinner once with a few of you I guess during one edition of the World Economic Forum (Was it last year? I don't remember I'm afraid) and we were in the Runway 34-Restaurant.. Hope some of them are on the forum here.

Well, I will (try to ) provide an insight view on the proceedings here in Switzerland and also in the AFZ and I will glady help with any questions related to our airports. I will also act as a link between our both associations and can point in the right directions if contacts or help is needed.

Best regards and read y'all soon.

Mike Steffen

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Best regards from Switzerland

Michael Steffen

Hello Mike

Welcome to APEA and to our forum.

We hope that you have a good time and that the cooperation between our two association grows with time.

And yes, you had dinner in 2007 with members of our Association in the famous restaurant Runway-34. I was one of them

Looking forward to your future posts with news and photos from Switzerland. Also, feel free to place here any questions on Portugal. I am sure everyone in APEA will be very pleased to help AFZ members with their doubts and to assist them in future visits to Portugal.

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Luis Gonçalves
Sócio Nr. 001

Welcome Mike to APEA´s forum.

It´s nice to have people from other countrys posting here.

Please feel free to put any questions and I hope to see many photos taken by you .

This forum is in portuguese, but I think that you will be able to "work" with this "butons" in portuguese

Enjoy this forum.

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Alberto Oliveira
Sócio Nº 110

Welcome Mike, looking forward to see some news from Switzerland!

Fell free to ask anything!

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André Garcez
Sócio Nr. 170



---> http://www.facebook.com/andregarcezphotography
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Hi all

Thanks for the very warm welcome, and yes, I already enjoy miself browsing through the pages...

By the way, this is me after a flight with our beloved Super Constellation to GVA.

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Best regards from Switzerland

Michael Steffen

Michael, you are a lucky man

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Alberto Oliveira
Sócio Nº 110

Mike, welcome to APEA
And that Connie You're very lucky! Do you have photos of the flight?

Regards!

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João Guimarães
Sócio Nr. 140

Welcome, Michael!

I am glad to see that APEA is becoming not only a "Portuguese Association", as its name said, but is also getting an international and open nature!

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Vasco Costa
Sócio Nr. 160
http://www.jetphotos.net/showphotos.php?userid=33445
http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?pid=46385

Hello

Thanks again for all the nice welcome-messages!!!

Yes, I do have quite a few pics of that Connie-flight, but most of them shot through the windows. Anyhoo, here are some very quick "5 minutes before bedtime"-edits... I hope you enjoy them anyway....

It was a flight from Basel to Geneva by the way, with an intermediate stop in Dôle. The stop in Dôle was simply made because in order to get "dutyfree" fuel, you would have to land at an airport in another country than Switzerland. In other words, if they flew BSL-GVA directly they would have had to pay taxes on the fuel. We just landed there, taxied back and took off again.

This is our Connie right before boarding...



A view of the interior... there is lots of open space between the seats to move around...



Already in the air and that was the view from my seat...



Another view of these engines from the front (Whish I had a wideangle lens by that time)



The (Cramped) front-office:



Our shadow grew bigger as we approached Dôle to land..



A view of the wing in landing configuration..



Good to know;-)



And here a view to the rear...




And to finish up a closeup of the engineers-station

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Best regards from Switzerland

Michael Steffen

I hate them, just because they're not mine...

Excelent Mike!

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André Garcez
Sócio Nr. 170



---> http://www.facebook.com/andregarcezphotography
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