Friday afternoon 14th June my friend Vagn and I took off for Uelzen aerodrome in Germany. Uelzen flying club organised a fly-in weekend with a visit to the Fassberg air base that was a part of the Berlin Airlift 70th anniversary event.
The weather was fine in our part of Denmark, but in the Northern Germany there were thunderstorms. The air traffic controller was collecting the actual weather information from all airborne aircraft, and shared it where appropriate. That was very helpful.
It soon began to rain, and we were advised to head south-east in order to minimise the impact of thunderstorms.
Our route to Uelzen looked approximately like that:
As soon as we reached the German mainland, the turbulence became high. It wasn’t fun. There were thunderstorms around Lübeck, and we had to adjust our route.
When that part of the journey was over, we felt tired and dehydrated. A couple of carrots helped:
We had a strong headwind, around 30 kts, so it became a long journey. We enjoyed it anyway. The landscapes were beautiful, like the one below with Elbe:
We landed in Uelzen, parked Vagn’s aircraft, and cleaned the prop before going to the flying club:
Many of the guests had already arrived. Most aircraft were from different parts of Germany. There was one from Switzerland, and us from Denmark.
It was warm and sunny evening, and the dinner was served in the garden. The food was really good: freshly grilled meat, different sausages, and fish; lots of salads, grilled veggies, and more. The Uelzen flying club has excellent facilities; we were even offered towels for shower.
All ladies got a present – a small bottle of champagne – one of the reasons I look so happy in that swing chair:
And whilst Vagn was fixing our tent,
I was enjoying a sip of champagne:
I had a box of Danish chocolate with me that I shared with the group – it was perfect for the drinks and especially for beers 🙂 We had a nice and relaxing evening together, sitting in the garden till late night.
Everybody looked forward to the next day when we were going to visit the Fassberg air base, and to see the beautiful “rosinenbombers” that participated in Berlin Airlift for 70 years ago.