Holbæk flying club was founded by the Odsherred’s flying club members on the 19th August 1992. By the end of 1992, the club had 53 members: 45 active, and 8 passive members. In 1993, a runway was establlished and a club house furnished. Permission was given to builld a hangar, nowadays called Hangar 1, where I also have a hangar place for my Aeroprakt (below left):
For the anniversary celebrations, we chose Hangar 2, the round-arch hangar in the middle (photo above). We moved one aircraft out to Hangar 1, and there was enough space for 6 tables. Around 35 people signed up for the event (out of 75 members). We were proud that eight of our most senior members, who were with Holbæk flying club right from the beginning, attended the party: Lars Petersen, Leif Olesen, Leif Hermansen, John Andersen, Henrik Mulvad, Søren Møller Olsen, Christian Petersen, and Jørgen Kristensen.
While people were mingling, Boye was busy preparing everything for the grill:
There was time to have a look at the aeroplanes:
Anders showed his latest project:
In his chairman’s speech, Boye mentioned all those god things we have in our flying club, and touched upon the near future plans:
In the end, Boye handed over a diploma of honorary member to one of our senior members, Jørgen Kristensen – for his great contribution with practical work to our club through all those 30 years. Jørgen was appointed as a honorary member at our last general meeting:
Now we have two honorary members; the other one is Leif Hermansen.
Then Lars told us the story of Holbæk flying club:
I’ve already mentioned about the first two years in the beginning of this blogpost. In 1994 our flying club opened its doors with a big airshow! On the same occasion, the Holbæk’ Town Council granted Holbæk flying club permission to use the town’s coat of arms as part of the club’s logo. You can see the logo in the upper left corner of our homepage ekhk.dk. The logo was designed by Theis Nygård, a well-known graphic artist and jazz musician.
1995 was the year when our club together with Air Holbæk (50% each) purchased the land area from Holbæk municipality. Next year, a refuelling facility was established in collaboration with Statoil. The airfield received ICAO approved designation EKHK. Danish Metheorological Institute established a weather station on the airfield in 1999, with a dispaly in our club house – it is still there, and we enjoy the opportunity to check live weather.
Holbæk flying club was approved as the first uncontrolled Schengen aerodrome in Denmark in 2001. This means, aircraft arriving from Schengen countris can land in EKHK when entering our country.
In 2006, the club acquired the Air Holbæk’ share thus becoming the sole owner of the flying club.
Year 2008 was quite remarkable: the town council gave green light to do a trial perion in 2009 for ultralight / LSA class 2 aicraft that could have been withdrawn with a day’s notice if there were any complaints from neighbours. Everything went fine – the noise from ultralight / LSA aircraft is a fraction of what you get from other types of aeroplanes, and in 2009 we were granted dispensation from the local plan.
Later, two new hangars were built. In 2013 – for ultraight / LSA aircraft, and in 2015 – for vintage aircraft. Our club purchased an area of 2879 m2 east of the hangars in 2017 that could be used for parking or new hangar(s).
On the 30th anniversary of Holbæk flying club, we have obtained building permission for Hangar 4. The construction is expected to be finished by the end of 2022, and there will be 20 aircraft stationed at the site then.
Lars also mentioned that over the years Holbæk flying club have had 4 chairmen and 3 treasurers – quite stable for 30 years!
After the applauds we got back to our glasses. Henrik and Vagn, cheering to the club’s prosperity:
Meanwhile, Allan and Boye were preparing food:
We had grilled beef and sausages, different salads, bread:
Both the Aviator and I were very hungry. We didn’t manage to have lunch (because of me beeing busy at work), and we had spent 2 hours in the traffic, driving from Copenhagen. Friday afternoon is normally the worse timing!
The food was really good, and everybody loved it.
We enjoyed our party till the late night.
I left before midnight, and just hoped to get a parking place somewhere close to my home, without having to walk home for half an hour or something. I knew, whole Frederiksberg Alle had been blocked for parking due to the Pride Parade the day after. You can imagine, how happy I was when I could park my car in my small side street! I slept well that night…