In theory, Swiss air law would prohibit us from flying at a distance of less than 5 km from the runway at Raron and less than 2.5 km from the Gampel helipad. The airstrips are clearly visible from the air, in the main Rhône valley just west of Visp. In practice, the airfield manager has allowed an exception in our case, so although we are banned from flying over the zones outlined in red below ​​1150m ASL, it has been agreed that the flight paths indicated by arrows are “to be avoided”, and the zones of 5km around the airfield and 2.5km around the helipad are designated as areas in which we are permitted to fly, but with increased caution.

This airspace has no relevance to your progress on a normal XC route, due to its low level, but as the Baltschieder landing field is located just 500m beyond the easterly border of the Raron exclusion zone, you may need to pay attention to avoiding it if you are coming in to land here.