Flying the newly restored Gö 4 in Arnborg

Sunday morning in Arnborg was a bit chill and grey. I didn’t want to get out of my sleeping bag, and stayed in the camping caravan – drinking tea in bed, reading e-mails, going through the pictures from yesterday’s sunset flight with Bjarne… When I finally made my way to the club house, it was around 11 a.m. and a nice breakfast awaited me there.

All other had finished their breakfast long time ago, and were preparing for the day of flying.

Soon the sun came out of the clouds, it became warm, and I cleaned up my Aeroprakt:

The weather became really nice; both vintage and modern gliders were taking off one after one:

Bjarne had his scooter in Arnborg, and it was very handy to drive around:

At the take-off, we had a good company of pilots:

I wanted to fly the newly restored Gö 4, and shortly I had a chance to do it:

The Göppingen Gö 4, or Goevier, is a German glider of the late 1930s used for training pilots. It was manufactured by Schempp-Hirth, and with its most notable features as dual controls and side-by-side seating, was it an ideal plane as a trainer. Approx. 125 aircraft of that type were built. In 2010, only 8 of them remained on the civil registers.

A fun fact about Gö 4: In a flight of 1–3 June 1939, Josef Füringer and Hofmann flew a Goevier to a new world duration record of 49 h 45 min.

The Gö 4 I flew in Arnborg, came to Denmark in 1943 as a construction kit. It was a form of partial payment for some work done at a German glider factory. The aircraft was built by Stamgruppen at a workshop in Copenhagen and was completed in 1945, registered as OY-69 on 10th January 1947. The glider changed a number of owners, and in 2015 it was donated to DaSK – The Danish Vintage Gliding Club (that has its home in Arnborg EKAB).

In March 2018, DaSK began a comprehensive restoration of the aircraft in order to make it airworthy again. And now, in 2021, it is flying!

Bjarne was the wingtip holder:

And we were airborne. I flew with Niels Peder – it was first time I tried flying in a glider where you sit side-by-side, and the view from the cockpit was fabulous:

It was a great fun to fly it! And also a great honour – imagine how many working hours were put in by the team of DaSK!

After the flight, I enjoyed sitting there in the sun and watch the gliders:

There were lots of those yellow flowers, and they attracted many butterflies. I was running around taking pictures of them, and it made me so happy:

Eventually, I had to leave… Beautiful clouds near Arnborg:

It was a wonderful weekend – relaxing, with good friends, good food, good flying.

Many thanks to the pilots from DaSK for the hospitality and for making this weekend memorable!