Coordinates: 46°35’58″ N 8°30’19″ E 1540m ASL

Although there is no official landing field at Realp, you may find that you need to land around here, and I have done so many times without anyone appearing to mind in the least.  It is not only the first option beyond the Furka pass which is neither unsafe nor inconvenient, but may also provide a suitable retreat from Andermatt, 8km to the east, when the landing conditions there are unfavourable due to the strength of the valley breeze.

The village comes into view fairly soon after you have crossed the Furka Pass, depending on your altitude. The image above shows the view from about 3000m, above Tiefenbach (see map below), which is around 4km beyond the pass, with three landing options marked A, B and C (my order of preference).

The valley breeze in Realp is nearly always an easterly, typically blowing at 15-25km/hr in the afternoon.  Having arrived in Andermatt from the north via the Schöllenen gorge, it swerves to the right to continue up the Urserntal, typically losing around a third of its speed on the way.  In north overpressure or very thermic conditions, 30km/hr is not unusual, and occasionally it can blow even more vigorously, but this breeze is likely to be laminar.  When I have found it too strong there for a safe landing, the lift which it produced on the slope where the Furka pass road zigzags back and forth (to the sout-west of the village) made it very easy to soar up there to land in gentler conditions on the flat alpine meadow at 2,000m (and then hitchhike down).

A meteo flow from the west or south-west may produce a significant tailwind east of the Furka pass.  If you can still feel it below 2000m, this westerly breeze can accelerate down the slope above the village and overpower the usual easterly, causing too much turbulence for landing in Realp to be safe.  In that situation, I would fly a few kilometres downwind, but not as far as Hospental, in case there is a clash there with a breeze blowing down from the Gotthard pass.

Rarely, south overpressure or föhn can cause a southerly flow in Realp; I have only experienced this once, and the conditions were horribly rough, probably because of conflict with the usual easterly breeze or maybe a flow coming down from the Furka pass.

My first choice these days is the area marked A, as it is a long flat field running along the valley (and hence more or less in line with the breeze at ground level).  However, I have been lucky every time to find that it has been free of livestock and contained short grass, which may not always be the case.  This area and C are shown on the club website and Burnair map as suggested LZs and I have seen XContest tracks ending here, so I can see no reason why they should be problematic.  I used to choose area B because of some banners very close to it showing the wind direction, but these were not in place in summer 2024.  This field inclines downwards slightly towards the road, which may be a help rather than a hindrance, as you are likely to be coming in across this slope, so can edge uphill to avoid overshooting.  I would advise against landing to the south of the river, as much of this land is used by the military (you may be able to make out a firing range on the right in the image above).

This short clip, shot from a helicopter overflying Realp from the east, shows area A on the left on the far side of the railway line between 0:04 and 0:10, and area B beyond the church just as it fades out, but of course you are likely to be approaching from the opposite direction, against the usual valley breeze.