A Winter Aviation Hunt Across Central Europe
On Sunday 18 January 2026 the alarm clock rang early. Before daylight had properly broken, the car was already started for the first 4Aviation trip of the year. With a small group of aviation enthusiasts we headed south. After picking up participants in Arnhem and Eindhoven, our route was set towards Zürich.
The plan for the coming week was ambitious: to visit several countries in Central Europe in an attempt to photograph local military aviation in winter conditions.
That may sound romantic, but winter spotting trips always involve a fair amount of uncertainty. Will there actually be snow for those beautiful backgrounds? And just as importantly: will the weather allow decent photography at all?
Originally, the plan was to visit only Austria and Italy. However, due to the transition to the AW169 and limited activity at several airfields — at least according to our local source — we decided to adjust the route. Instead, we would travel south via Switzerland. The World Economic Forum (WEF) was taking place in Davos, which meant there could be interesting VIP traffic around. We also hoped to see armed F/A-18s operating from Payerne.
On this first day we chose to cover quite a distance. As a result, we arrived at Zürich Airport with just enough daylight remaining. The weather was far from ideal, but we still managed to capture a few interesting movements. Several US Air Force C-17s were photographed while taxiing out and departing. There were also plenty of business jets around, although unfortunately none of them were military.
As darkness approached we headed to a nearby restaurant. That was a sensible decision, as we still had almost two and a half hours of driving ahead of us to reach our hotel. Soon enough schnitzels appeared on the table, accompanied by a well-earned local beer — an excellent way to end the first day.
