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Weber Hansueli

Spreitenbach/AG, March 1950 - Hansueli Weber (first from right) attended the first course for helicopter pilots organized in Switzerland. At the controls Dr. Max Ras talks with the instructor Albert Villard and Sepp Bauer (HAB)
Spreitenbach/AG, March 1950 - Hansueli Weber (first from right) attended the first course for helicopter pilots organized in Switzerland. At the controls Dr. Max Ras talks with the instructor Albert Villard and Sepp Bauer (HAB)

Hansueli Weber was born in Berne on December 27, 1921 and grew up in Willadingen/BE in the Emmental region. After the compulsory school he attended the college and then the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) of Zürich to learn chemistry. In Autumn 1941, after two semesters, he temporarily left the ETH to fulfill the compulsory military duty. He was selected to become a pilot and continued his training up to the officer rank. Unfortunately he was forced to interrupt his training for medical reasons. In the period from 1942 to 1943 he alternated the military officers school with the ETH. In January 1944, after his marriage, he left the ETH for good and took active service as an army airplane pilot. In July he accepted a job as a technical officer and test pilot for the Swiss Army (Direktion Militärflugplätze - DMP). In June 1947 he did a period of stage as a flying instructor for Aero Union of Grenchen. In the period between 1944 and 1947 he worked on the military airfield of Lodrino and lived in Biasca/TI. On January 1, 1947 he was appointed by the Federal Office for Civil Aviation (FOCA) as vice inspector of the section "powered airplanes". In March 1950 he was trained along with Josef Bauer as a helicopter pilot by Albert Villard. This was the first helicopter training course ever organized in Switzerland. Both were trained to fly with the Hiller 360 HB-XAI of Air Import (the first civil helicopter registered in Switzerland) on the airfield of Spreitenbach. On March 29 Weber obtained the private helicopter pilot licence n° 2.

December 1952 - Hansueli Weber at the controls of one of the Hiller UH-12B purchased by the Swiss Army (HAB)
December 1952 - Hansueli Weber at the controls of one of the Hiller UH-12B purchased by the Swiss Army (HAB)
December 1952 - Hansueli Weber on the right gives some technical indications to the first Swiss military helicopter pilots (HAB)
December 1952 - Hansueli Weber on the right gives some technical indications to the first Swiss military helicopter pilots (HAB)

In the period between the 1st and the 13th of December 1952 along with Josef Bauer he organized the first military helicopter pilot course. In that occasion the Army put in service two Hiller UH-12B (KAB-201 and KAB-202), the first military helicopters purchased by the Swiss Army that autumn.

Swiss Alps 1954 - Hansueli Weber photographed along with the French pilot Jean Moine during the evaluation of the Bell 47G HB-XAE in service with Heliswiss (HAB)
Swiss Alps 1954 - Hansueli Weber photographed along with the French pilot Jean Moine during the evaluation of the Bell 47G HB-XAE in service with Heliswiss (HAB)
July 1962 - Hansueli Weber (first from left) photographed during the evaluation on the Agusta-Bell 204B I-AGUG (HAB)
July 1962 - Hansueli Weber (first from left) photographed during the evaluation on the Agusta-Bell 204B I-AGUG (HAB)

By February 1, 1952 he started to work for the Army technical service. As a test-pilot and aviation technician he had the opportunity to fly with a lot of aerodynes. Weber did technical evaluations on several helicopters and also wrote the reports. He tested, for example, the Bell 47G, the Sikorsky S-55, the Sikorsky S-58, the SO 1221 Djinn, the SE 3130 Alouette II, the SE 3160 Alouette III, and many others.

It must not be forgotten that Weber was one of the first pilots of the Swiss Air Rescue Guard (SARG) and did various SAR missions using the Hiller UH-12B.
In 1979, at the time of his retirement, he had a total flight experience of 6'200 hours under his belt. During his aviation career he had the opportunity to fly at the controls of 124 different aerodynes.

HAB 07/2009