Breakfast before leaving Helgoland Düne, the island we loved. Vagn was having his morning fruit – crispy fried bacon:
We waved goodbye to the North Beach and our camping site:
The main reason for leaving was changing weather, the wind was going to greatly increase, especially on the coast of Netherlands. We therefore decided to head inland and visit a place that was long on my wish list – Bourtange Fortress. For two years ago I was in contact with the Stadskanaal Flying Club EHST located 5 km from the fortress; I contacted them again and we were very welcome.
Stadskanaal flying club is an old ultralight flying club with around 170 members. They have 60 ultralight aircraft in their hangars! MoGas fuel station is on site. What a luxury! The hangars are two-store, meaning some of the aircraft are “parked” hanging on the ceiling. They can be easily moved to the ground and used – we saw a demonstration. The aerodrome is only open on weekends and Wednesdays, so if you need to land there on a different day of week, make prior arrangement.
Members of the club told us the story of this airfield. The founder of Philips was a pilot, and he used his aircraft to visit his factories. So when a new factory was established somewhere close to the city of Stadskanaal, there came the airfield.
Whilst we were having coffee, a Rans S6-S landed. Vagn was excited to speak to the pilot – it is not very often Vagn meets the same aircraft he owns, in other places. Who do you think was the pilot? I learned his name when we exchanged contact details later – Hank Lilienthal. When I heard the last name I asked him whether he was from the Otto Lilienthal family – and Hank humbly confirmed!
We proudly told Hank that just a couple of weeks ago we visited the Otto Lilienthal memorial in Stoelln airport as a part of the Bienenfarm Pipertreffen 2019 event. Hank and Vagn had a good chat about their aircraft.
What a nice garden decoration they had! An ultralight aircraft and an MLA sign (for MicroLight Aircraft):
Club’s office with the cut ties of the new pilots:
Vagn and I rented a car and drove to the Bourtange Fortress. Vagn read somewhere, the windmill there was the only one left in the north-east part of the Netherlands:
Bourtange is both a village and an open air museum. Around 450 people live there today.
Fort Bourtange was built somewhere in 1568-1648, during the Eighty-Years War. In 1851 the star-shaped fort was given up and Bourtange became a normal village. In one of the museums Vagn spotted a picture of the village, taken from air in the 1960’s – one couldn’t guess there was a fortress before. It was then decided that Bourtange would be rebuilt to its state of 1740-1750. We’ve heard the cost of restoration at that time was 5 million Dutch guilders.
When leaving Stadskanaal flying club the day after, we did a round over the fortress. This is how it looks like from air:
One of the streets with the church at the end:
Interior of the church:
In one of the corners there was an old church tower clock:
Central square of the village with a symbol of the fortress in its centre:
A couple of restaurants were open, and we had a meal in one of them. Vagn looking into his beer bottle – checking whether there is more beer left:
A torture tool (all those terrible things people could and still can do to each other!):
After Bourtange Fortress we drove to Stadskanaal, a nice provincial town. The statue of a man by the canal was funny – every 5th second it was spitting water out to the canal:
Evening was spent at the flying club. We were camping there, together with some other members from the club. It was very cosy to sit together, and talk flying trips.
They took great care of Vagn and me, and we felt comfortable in their company. We sat there till midnight, having a good time together.
