JULIA BUCHER BRINGS THE SMV'S SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS TO LIFE

SMV President Adrian Eggenberger and Julia Bucher met at various model aircraft events. When Eggenberger organized the 2025 F3P World Championships in Widen, he asked Bucher if she would like to help out with the Communications and Sponsorship Department. She agreed. “It was a cool project, and I enjoyed working with him and the highly capable organizing committee.”

Even back then, it came up that the association was looking for help with communications. After the World Cup, this became more concrete. “I told Adrian Eggenberger that, alongside my day job, I didn’t have the capacity to take on this role full-time, but that I’d be available to help out.” Bucher is not a member of the board, but he does participate in various association meetings and workshops. “I find it very interesting to get a glimpse into everything that goes on within the association. As an ordinary member of a model flying club, I would never have been so aware of it.”

Her primary responsibilities include managing the association’s Facebook and Instagram pages. These have been largely neglected in recent years, but that’s set to change now. “But,” says Julia Bucher, “it’s a big challenge because we lack content. Although I’ve attended many events, my focus was always on my professional work. As a result, I filmed our team pilots, our models, and our people.” Footage that Bucher doesn’t primarily intend to use for the SMV channels. Her family—or rather, soon she and her business partner—owns the company HEBU. She wants to keep her business and association work strictly separate, but she’s under no illusions. “If someone’s looking for something, they’re sure to find something that can be spun to make it seem as though I’m doing it solely for the company. But the family business is part of who I am, and that’s what defines me!” Bucher is certain that without this background, she wouldn’t be involved in model aviation at all.

On social media platforms, Julia Bucher wants to focus in particular on the sport and show that getting started in model aviation is easy and affordable. She has already reached out to the various clubs. “They have the information I need, but unfortunately not the video footage required for social media. That’s why the channel is still a bit empty,” says Bucher. She doesn’t want to publish content haphazardly. “It’s meant to be an informative channel, not an entertainment channel—a reference guide for young people,” she says, summarizing the idea.

She herself lacks the time to produce this content on her own. That’s why she welcomes video footage from model airfields and workshops—in short, things that interest model aviators. “It’s okay if it’s amateur footage, and I don’t expect fully edited videos. I actually prefer raw footage,” she emphasizes. If possible, this should be recorded in portrait orientation, as required for uploading to these platforms. She’ll edit this into social media-friendly videos that are no longer than 30 to a maximum of 60 seconds. That’s the limit of people’s attention spans on these platforms.

Despite her family background, Julia Bucher didn’t get into model aircraft flying until her team pilots drew her into it. “Her enthusiasm for the hobby is simply contagious.” As a teenager, she tried it herself, but she didn’t have much success and lost motivation. Now she mainly supports her partner with flying, building, and programming. She currently owns five models of her own: high-wing and mid-wing planes, as well as indoor models that fly stably and are forgiving of small mistakes. She flies model airplanes for the sheer joy of it, with no competitive ambitions whatsoever. “I don’t like to compete,” she says. “But I’d love to fly jet models someday. They’ve fascinated me ever since I was a child.”

Bucher would love to see more women take up model flying as a hobby. “But there aren’t many women who are interested in the technical aspects. That’s just human nature,” she’s convinced, “and for the few who might be interested to get started with model flying and stick with it for the long haul, there needs to be a shift in how we treat (young) women,” says Bucher. She has often been troubled by the language and tone used by some of her contemporaries. “Aren’t you the lady from HEBU?” she has actually been asked. “Such disrespectful behavior happens more often than you’d think,” she says. When she was promoting the SMV at an event for beginners in model aviation and listing the various model aviation disciplines, the speaker cut her off mid-sentence. “That makes you feel neither welcome nor comfortable.” Bucher won’t let this deter her, which has mainly to do with the fact that she’s involved in model aviation professionally. Other women, however, might put up with it once but turn to other things if it happens again.

In her free time, she volunteers with the Samaritan Association, serves as a sergeant in the fire department, and leads the medical corps. Her other leisure activities include competitive shooting (300 m with an assault rifle). Paintings she has created herself adorn the living rooms of her family and friends. “I love variety and don’t overdo anything. Everything I do gives me something different in return—that’s what I’ve always needed.”

If one were to call foreign languages a hobby, that would be another passion of hers. She says she can communicate in English, French, and Chinese, and can get by in other languages as well. Her desire to learn Mandarin developed after a family trip to China. After completing her education, her parents made it possible for her to spend half a year in Shanghai. Although she has forgotten much of what she learned over the past ten years, she still tries to communicate with Chinese suppliers in their native language. This is greatly appreciated. “In the age of AI, it’s becoming increasingly important to possess human skills. Even if you don’t master the language 100 percent, you’ve engaged with the culture and thereby understand the people better. It’s not just the words—the people and their culture also fascinate me greatly.” ■

*The interview was conducted by Andrea Bolliger.*