38th Pro Aéro JULA Youth Camp 2022

In late July 2022, the 38th youth camp to promote aviation (JULA = Jugendlager) took place in S-Chanf (GR).

Under the patronage of the Pro Aéro Foundation and organized by the Swiss Aero Club, approximately 160 young participants from all language regions gathered to explore the various aviation disciplines that fascinate them and to get answers to all their questions about entering these professions and what they entail.

These young people, aged 14 to 16, with an interest in aviation will spend an intensive and unforgettable week in Graubünden.

This year, 42 participants from French-speaking Switzerland have registered, including 8 girls (26 girls in total), which is a magnificent record.

To welcome these young people, an impressive infrastructure has been set up to provide meals, guide them, inform them, and teach them in their preferred language. This infrastructure consists of volunteers who are dedicating a week of their free time—not to mention, for some, weeks of intensive preparation.

Every morning, participants will attend workshops where they will build a glider, a kite, a hot-air balloon, a rocket, and two boomerangs. Weather permitting, they’ll be able to fly their creations on a large grassy field nearby. These creations belong to them, and they can take them home.

Free time between activities is devoted to sports. In the evenings, they attend an aerodynamics class and presentations on various aviation careers: disciplines of the Swiss Aero Club, military pilot, civilian pilot (Swiss), Skyguide, Swiss Meteorological Service, or space interest groups, etc. They have the opportunity to spend a day at Europe’s highest airport in Samedan. There, they

They’ll rub shoulders with model aircraft builders, military paratroopers, military pilots and their aircraft (army helicopters and PC7s), the Réga, and glider pilots—with Cougar flights and FA-18 patrols as the highlight. They’ll even have the chance to take a tethered hot-air balloon ride.

The formula remains the same, and the program is successfully updated every year. Registration is already open for the 2023 edition, taking place July 24–30, 2023, at www.jula-proaero.ch.

Thierry Ruef