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Off topic - Swiss / Europe trip

Tankerpilot75

Well Known Member
I have a new appreciation for our Swiss RV owners after a recent river cruise vacation. Beautiful and very scenic country side and mountains. However, I wonder how they afford to eat, sleep and by gas for their airplane.

Particularly the Swiss, because their food and shelter costs are close to twice that of Germany and neighboring France and about three times the cost of where I live in Oklahoma City. Hat off to our Swiss RV owners. Love your flight pictures!
 
I have a new appreciation for our Swiss RV owners after a recent river cruise vacation. Beautiful and very scenic country side and mountains. However, I wonder how they afford to eat, sleep and by gas for their airplane.

Particularly the Swiss, because their food and shelter costs are close to twice that of Germany and neighboring France and about three times the cost of where I live in Oklahoma City. Hat off to our Swiss RV owners. Love your flight pictures!

It’s the exchange rate Swiss Franc with the USD. 40 years ago the exchange rate was 2.1 SFC to a dollar. Now it’s almost on par. The Euro in Germany is much better.
 
HA!! My wife is French. We used to go to Paris all the time. Every time we were there, I was just blown away at the price of stuff and all their taxes. I used to make the joke, "Everyone in France makes a million dollars a year, but it costs them $900,000.00 a year to live.":D:D
 
I cant speak for the cost of homes or rent. But I have visited Switzerland several times. I have taken the cable cars to the top of their mountains and eaten in those restaurants. Now it has been a while, but in the 2002 time frame a meal at the top of the ski slopes cost less than $20. The same could be said for any of the smaller towns (if there were 4 houses at least 2 had a restaurant). So something has clearly changed if you think it is really expensive.

I have a new appreciation for our Swiss RV owners after a recent river cruise vacation. Beautiful and very scenic country side and mountains. However, I wonder how they afford to eat, sleep and by gas for their airplane.

Particularly the Swiss, because their food and shelter costs are close to twice that of Germany and neighboring France and about three times the cost of where I live in Oklahoma City. Hat off to our Swiss RV owners. Love your flight pictures!
 
I wonder how they afford to eat, sleep and by gas for their airplane.

"They" work to be able to afford all that stuff ;)
Yes, everything is quite expensive around here... and yes, accordingly, wages are generally higher. Taxes on the other hand are probably the cheapest around :)

To keep it RV related, insurance rates are more or less on par with those in the US, whilst hangarage is probably cheaper. Gas is at least twice as expensive, though only is a small part of the yearly budget for most of us.
Another expense are landing fees... my airfield is one of the cheapest around, and for each landing I have to cough up the equivalent of $9.00. Most fields charge around $20. For each single landing... fee varying on MTOM and noise class.
So yes, private flying is expensive around here, and building/maintaining/flying your own RV is one good way to offset some of the costs :D

beautiful place to live and fly
I would rephrase as in "it used to"...
Flying thru the Alps sure still is a fantastic experience, but the rest of the country is vastly overcrowded and overbuilt. At the rate they pour the concrete, we'll have to call it Switzerland City in a few years from now :(
 
I would rephrase as in "it used to"...
Flying thru the Alps sure still is a fantastic experience, but the rest of the country is vastly overcrowded and overbuilt. At the rate they pour the concrete, we'll have to call it Switzerland City in a few years from now :(

I agree there was a lot of construction and building rehabilitation going on but OTH there is so much scenic land, rivers, lakes and mountains that I believe there’s not much worry that Switzerland will be “paved over” soon. I just wanted folks to know that those beautiful pictures Dan57 periodically posts here don’t come cheap.

BTW, the exchange rate difference between the Euro, Swiss franc and US dollar is less than ten cents and that’s what brought my attention to the difference in cost of food between Switzerland, Germany and France. The dollar is internationally strong right now.

I can’t imagine $20 landing fees for every touch and go. At that price my tires would last forever and my landings would get pretty ugly!
 
I cant speak for the cost of homes or rent. But I have visited Switzerland several times. I have taken the cable cars to the top of their mountains and eaten in those restaurants. Now it has been a while, but in the 2002 time frame a meal at the top of the ski slopes cost less than $20. The same could be said for any of the smaller towns (if there were 4 houses at least 2 had a restaurant). So something has clearly changed if you think it is really expensive.

What I like about places in EU and for that matter much of the world, you pay the price that you see as compared to the US where the price of a meal is $20 on the menu but you end up paying nearly $25 (tip and tax) thanks to all the hidden cost.
Same thing can be said about taxes, yes our tax is lower but our total deductions not so much.
 
Yeah, Swiss enjoy beautiful scenery, but you get to enjoy dust storms, ice storms, and tornadoes... and proficiency landing in 40KT winds...
The Pacific Northwest has a lot of similarities to Sweden, including high cost of living, and flying an RV up in the Puget Sound region is a blast!
 
I used to live in Geneva. You're spot on about the expense.

One of the prettiest places on the planet, but insanely expensive.

The only two things I ever saw in the entire country that cost less than 1 chuff was a store brand chocolate bar at migro and maybe a fly swatter.
 
Yeah, Swiss enjoy beautiful scenery, but you get to enjoy dust storms, ice storms, and tornadoes... and proficiency landing in 40KT winds...
The Pacific Northwest has a lot of similarities to Sweden, including high cost of living, and flying an RV up in the Puget Sound region is a blast!

My bolds… sooo, nothing’s changed then :eek:

store brand chocolate bar at migro and maybe a fly swatter.

Which are the most useful commodities around here :D
 
It’s the exchange rate Swiss Franc with the USD. 40 years ago the exchange rate was 2.1 SFC to a dollar. Now it’s almost on par. The Euro in Germany is much better.

The Euro is trading at 1.04 right now to the USD and it's been as low as .80. In 2008 it peaked at nearly 1.60. The USD is on a tear right now against the G10 and some other large currencies like CNY. Buying anything right now denominated in USD (like RV's, Lycoming engines, US made avionics, and petroleum products) is becoming very expensive. The Swiss economy is heavily dependent on exports of precision equipment, luxury goods, so they tend to like a weaker currency, but the world wants a strong franc as a safe haven - much like the USD and JPY. Very interesting times with FX markets right now.
 
Switzerland, a nice place to visit

It is a beautiful place to "leave" and I left that country more than 40 years ago when I was 18 in pursuit of a flying career.
Flying in Switzerland is an endeavor for the financially privileged, it is highly restricted and choked from all sides be that regulations or public outcry over noise etc. On several occasions years ago (1982) I would visit and rent a C172 for whopping SFR 200 per hour about $120 at the exchange rate in those days.
I had enough friends who were willing to share the costs for sightseeing flights to accumulate about 40 hours in Swiss airspace. The scenery was grandiose and I still have the pictures to prove it. The following year I spent in Vancouver Canada where I acquired my commercial license and spent my summer spare time towing gliders in Hope a town along the Fraser river.
Upon returning to Switzerland and working in Geneva I joined a glider club in Montricher where I hoped for an opportunity to continue with glider towing and building hours.
The membership fee for the club was one thousand Swiss Francs and I quickly realized the intense competition among tow plane pilots vying for "free" power plane time. Long story short, I ended up getting 3 tows that summer plus a couple of check rides. The last straw was watching one of the tow plane pilots eat his lunch in the cockpit just to make sure the new guy wouldn't get in it.
At the end of that year I left for good and before too long got paid for my flying services here in the United States
I do not begrudge anyone who is fortunate enough to afford flying in Switzerland but it is and always was a rich man's hobby.
 
I love watching all the videos in all of Europe. Well, the US for that matter too. I lived in Aspen for 10 years and know about expensive! But, I would still love to fly around Switzerland and some of the videos Luca posts are amazing.

Maybe someday I will make it over there. Too many kids and grandkids to visit now!
 
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