Sunday morning in Bienenfarm with Rolf Wittorf, the president of the Piper Cub association of Germany:
I met Rolf last summer on Öland, a Swedish island off the southeast coast of Sweden. I saw his beautiful Piper PA-18 in Borglanda airport, and came up to have a chat. It showed up, Rolf was also writing a blog. Every year, Rolf publishes a Piper calendar that can be ordered from his website; it features some stunning photos. We exchanged our contact details, and later that year, in October 2018, Rolf informed me about this Pipertreffen in Bienenfarm that would take place in June 2019. I first considered renting an aircraft from my flying club, but taking our club aircraft off our students’ training hours didn’t seem like a good idea to me. So I asked my friend Vagn whether he wanted to go, and in his own aircraft. Vagn answered “yes, why not”, and Rolf helped with finding accommodation – he recommended a place where he was going to stay himself – which we immediately booked.
We stayed in Pansion Karinenhof, a charming place about 5 km from the Bienenfarm airfield. It was clean, quiet, comfortable, and with optional breakfast that was very good. Bienenfarm flying club organised shuttles from the airfield to all hotels and hostels nearby, where the guests stayed – that was a really nice service. They had 2 club cars, and rented a couple of more in order to ensure sufficient transportation.
Before going back home, Vagn and I wanted to have a flight over Berlin. We sent a flight plan, and took off.
Though the flight plan was approved, we didn’t know whether we would get permission to fly through both control zones, close to Tegel airport, or even enter at all. But the timing was right, and after we affirmed our intended route, the air traffic controller told us “expect so”.
We flew in 2000 feet, and it was really an amazing experience – to see Berlin from that altitude.
Tempelhof airport on the photo below. It was constructed in 1927, and was one of the three iconic airports in Europe, built before the WWII. The two others were airports in London and Paris. Tempelhof airport’s main building was once among the top 20 largest buildings on earth! The airport closed all operations in 2008.
Coming closer to Tegel, the main international airport of Berlin, we were asked whether we wanted to make a low pass! Who would say “no, thanks” to that question?! Yes, of course, and the permission was granted. On right base we heard the air traffic controller giving a message to a passenger Airbus “an ultralight is in front of you”. We laughed, and couldn’t believe our luck.
Low pass in front of the tower:
Being on left downwind, we observed big airliners landing and taking off. We were told we could go for one more low pass, and we did it again, the same runway, just from the left side. It was such a great fun!
We thanked the generous air traffic controller, and headed back to Bienenfarm. A beautiful palace on our way:
In Bienenfarm, guests were enjoying the day:
We needed to unwind after the flight over Berlin:
During all these days during the event, many pilots were flying over the airfield, alone or in formations, low passes or aerobatics, at sunrise and sunset… The ones sitting on the ground appreciated it very much.
Unfortunately it was time to go home. Both Vagn and I like to make stops here and there, and to visit new places. So we decided to have a break in Barth, a small town in the Northern Germany.
We didn’t have the time to see the town, just stayed in the airport’s cafe, enjoying a meal on its terrace:
There were parachute drops – it always adds an extra dimension:
We waved goodbye to Germany and headed for Denmark. The tip of Darsser Ort (it would be nice to come there one day, on a bike):
The weather was very nice – sunny with cool air, and the views were magnificent:
Vagn dropped me off in Holbæk, and I took this photo of him and The Aviator (I need to buy him a bikini for those hot summer days):
It was such a wonderful trip! We really enjoyed the atmosphere of Pipertreffen in Bienenfarm, and we made new friends there. Many thanks to the organisers of the event – everything was simply perfect!