Bocian

Gørløse Gliding club is the place where I learned flying. I have many good memories from the years spent there, and love coming to the club to catch up with the latest news, to have a flight with some of my friends, or just enjoy a relaxing day at the aerodrome.

I thought it had been a long time, and decided to devote my Saturday for hanging around in Gørløse. It was an easy decision, because it is always a pleasure to be there. Many pilots and students met up; the day began from a briefing:

I was lucky to meet Klaus early in the morning: Klaus offered me a dream-tour in his Bocian! Kaj and Klaus, checking the documentation of their glider before we would taking it out to the launching site:

Klaus and Kaj met each other in their early teen age, when they learned flying gliders. They remained friends ever since. In 1969, together with 4 other friends, they bought a newly built Bocian glider for 28,000 dkk. After 5-6 years the aircraft was sold to the Århus gliding club, and was used as a trainer. A couple of years ago, Klaus saw it on sale in the Netherlands. He asked Kaj “Shall we buy it back?”. They did, this time for 48,000 dkk. Kaj and Klaus gave this glider to DaSK, the Danish Glider Vintage Club, so that any member of the DaSK can enjoy flying it, where Kaj and Klaus keep the first right for this aircraft. DaSK does a great job ensuring proper maintenance and restoration of vintage gliders.

Whilst they were preparing the Bocian, I went searching for a suitable pillow to seat on. In vintage gliders, pilots and passengers seat very low – and I wanted to have a good view.

Glenn was working in the hangar, as he often does, repairing something:

And soon the flying activities began:

In front of the gorgeous Bocian, with a parachute on:

I love flying vintage gliders; they have a soul and a long history. They’ve often seen many countries, and changed owners, but remained adorable. The Bocian (Polish: Stork) was designed and built in Poland, beginning in 1952. Bocian has a wing area of 20 m2, stall speed of 28 kn, Vne – 108 kn, and max glide ratio 26 at 45 kn. In total 616 Bocian were produced, of which 366 – the 1E type I was going to fly.

Klaus and I got to 4,000 feet.

We wanted to fly to Slaglille, a gliding club in the southwest of Zealand:

In Slaglille, they have an aircraft for towing, and we could get on wings again there. Unfortunately, we didn’t get permission to fly higher than 3,000 feet in Copenhagen TMA on the way to Slaglille, as Kastrup airport was using runway 04. It was too low for us, and we stayed in the skies over the Northern Zealand.

Frederiksborg Castle in Hillerød, my favourite castle in Denmark:

It was a nice sunny summer day, with not that high temperatures of around +23C; perfect for gliding.

After 2h 30min airborne time we landed. Kaj was also going to have a flight. It was a busy day, with good thermals, and both the winch and the towing methods were in use.

Lunch with Flemming in the club’s garden, with the best view – to the runway:

It was a pleasant day, and I hanged out in the garden appreciating my Saturday in Gørløse, enjoying the sunshine, and watching others taking off.

Later in the afternoon, Kim (who was the towing aircraft pilot) did his last flight that day, and parked the Pawnee on apron. The winch takeoffs continued till the end of the schedule.

By the end of the flights all gliders were washed, stored in hangars, and covered.