On the first Friday of November, members of Danske Flyvere got together for the annual gala dinner at the Radisson Blu Copenhagen, the same place and occasion as last year. Many arrived early, and used the time for socialising by the bar. I had my first drink together with Povl, Egon, and Jens Peter:
Danske Flyvere is the oldest associations of pilots in the world. It was established on the 18th August 1917. We are around 1000 members, from whom 50 are women. King Frederik IX of Denmark, and later Prince Consort Henrik of Denmark were the patrons of the association. Last summer Danske Flyvere rounded 102 years!
Ladies in red – with Anne, having drinks:
Pilots from different corners of Denmark coming for this event. For many of us, if not for all, it is the only chance to meet so many of our friends at once:
By the front table on the photo below (by Bent Toft) are Claire, Christian, Victoria, and Helle:
We are all pilots with different backgrounds – commercial, military, private. Our association is a place where everybody is welcomed, respected, and appreciated. We only talk about flying at our gala dinner! This is the passion we all share, and as we say – because we fly, we envy no man on Earth.
With Christian, Thomas, and Carsten:
Karsten and Thomas:
I’m proud to be a member of Danske Flyvere, and wish I had more time to talk to our members. All of them have inspiring backgrounds, and bring valuable insights to our meetings. Danske Flyvere has a very rich and well-documented history, and strong traditions. Gala dinner is a special event where we celebrate the association and honour our members.
Søren, our chairman, introducing the key speaker of the event – Erik Lyngholm:
It is a tradition to welcome new members on stage. This year we had 32 new ones in Danske Flyvere, and 17 of them attended the celebration:
Each new member received a personal welcome from the chairman and the general secretary who handed them a wings-badge and a certificate of the membership. And of course there was a very warm welcome from the audience.
We had an excellent company at our table:
Delicious dinner, pairing wines, nice people…
Coffee with cognac or liqueur after the dinner, and more socialising. Stig and Brian:
Photo below is together with our beautiful female pilots. Not all of them that attended the party are on the photo, we tried to gather as many as we could. Left to right from the top row: Claire, Helle, Anna; middle row: Iben, Victoria, Birgitte, Anne; first row: Simone, Dorthe, me, and Kathrine:
It was an eminent evening with Danske Flyvere, and many of us stayed longer – so extraordinary good it was.
