Saturday morning it began raining at 5 o’clock, and a heavy thunderstorm hit the area around Uelzen flying club about 6 a.m. Big and bright lightnings were flashing in the sky, and the thunder rumbled all over the place. The thunderstorm was raging over us for about an hour, and we heard the sirens of fire trucks. When the storm stopped, we got out of our tents to check whether everyone was ok. In a short distance, there was lots of black smoke in the sky. A farm equipment storage building in a nearby village was struck by a lightning. Fortunately, nobody was hurt. Because of the fire, the only one road leading to the airfield was closed. We didn’t know whether the catering company that was on its way to deliver our breakfast, and the shuttle busses that were supposed to pick us up for Fassberg, would get permission to drive through. But the fire was soon stopped, and the road opened again.
We were spoiled at Uelzen flying club, also at breakfast:
There were long queues on the way to Fassberg; we used the waiting time for taking pictures from our busses:
Fassberg Air Base was established in 1934; today it is jointly used by the German Army and The German Air Force. The event was very well organised, and it was easily noticed right from the arrival. There were big parking places around the air base, and they all were marked with a particular colour. Free shuttle busses, marked with the same colours, were driving guests to and from Fassberg Air Base. The bus stops at the air base were also marked with colours. It made the transportation easy. Busses were running non-stop, and all traffic managed. Though there were really many visitors for such an occasion, everything went smoothly.
The walk of fame – all those “raisin bombers” that took part in saving Berlin in 1948-1949:
It was clouded most of the time, and quite windy, but otherwise a very warm day. There were live concerts during the day, and big screens were set up in all corners of the air base. Our DC-3 from Denmark attended as well; it can be seen far away in the background on the photo below:
We came to say hello to our beautiful aircraft, we are so proud of:
An older version of Tornado that was jointly developed and manufactured by the UK, Italy, and West Germany:
And a newer version of Tornado:
Our group had VIP tickets that among other privileges gave us free access to a VIP restaurant with lots of gourmet food. It was very nice to have a break there (photo below). In general, there were so many different kind of food stalls at the event, it was simply unbelievable. Most of them – with real good food, like grilled fish or meat, veggies, crepes, you name it.
Jet engines on display:
More jet engines:
Fassberg Air Base is home to the army’s Transport Helicopter Regiment 10 which was established in 1971. Naturally, there were many different types of helicopters on display. The helicopters air show that day was outstanding, I’ve never seen anything like that. Up to five helicopters at a time were performing for the public, it was really special.
Airbus A400M, a military transport aircraft:
There were of course many other interesting things: museums, open hangars, tanks and military machines, tractors… Another thing I noticed were clean mobile toilets in convenient locations that never ran out of water, soap, toilet paper or paper towels!
When the air show was over, we were picked up by our busses that drove us back to the Uelzen airfield, approximately 35 km away from the Fassberg air base. A delicious dinner was prepared and served al fresco:
We exchanged our experiences from the day which we enjoyed so much. Someone from the club landed in this gorgeous yellow double-decker (Great Lakes 2T Sport Trainer), and Vagn and I spent some time running around it in admiration and taking pictures:
Before the dinner, I asked people from the flying club whether I could buy a small bottle of champagne, like the one I received as a welcome gift on my arrival. Unfortunately, it wasn’t possible – that was a special gift. But they didn’t forget, and later got a big bottle of champagne for me! We shared it with he rest of the group:
Later that evening we moved to the club house, as the air outside became cooler.
Some of the guests were singing for the group; we again had a very nice and cosy evening together.