At the Danish Aviators Association, we love our annual gala party. This is an evening where many of us can get together, catch up on the news in our lives, and spend time with our dear friends in a beautiful place. The Danish Aviators is the oldest pilots’ association in the world: last August we celebrated our 104 years anniversary with a fly-in on the island of Samsø.
During this evening, we remember the members who are not longer with us, honour special achievements, welcome new members, and just enjoy this precious time together. Many arrive earlier, and meet in the lounge for a drink before the gala dinner begins.
I made myself ready, and joined Thomas and Rasmus for a glass of champagne, and talk about flying trips we are planning for next summer:
Soon we all were invited to the dining room. We hold our annual gala party at the Radisson Blue hotel in Copenhagen – they have good capacity, excellent service, and the food is great, too:
I was sitting at the table No. 5, in a nice company of (from left to tight): Erik, Frank, Finn, Werner, Leif Jørn, and Bo.
During the evening, there are speeches, and we hear interesting stories, among others about the Coriolis effect. The latter topic is a tradition, and we laugh a lot.
Starfighter pilots on the scene, after Karl told us an exciting episode from his Starfighter training past:
Then there was time to formally welcome all our new members to the association. We’ve got 37 new members, and 22 of them attended the event:
They received a wings-badge, a certificate of membership, and a personal welcome from the chairman and the general secretary. The rest of us applauded to each and every of them.
One of the newcomers – Lotta, who is a flight instructor – had a thank you speech on behalf of all new members (photo above).
Søren welcomed Steen as an honorary member, for his particularly excellent efforts for Danish aviation:
There were a number of breaks, and we had the time to talk and learn more about each other:
After dinner, coffee and cognac were served, and we use that time for moving around and engaging with others, meeting new people and talk flying:
Having a chat with Christian and Carsten:
We were 162 persons at the event, among those – 8 ladies (all either military- , commercial-, or/and private pilots). At the end of the evening, we asked Steen to take a photo of us together. From left to right: Lotta, Victoria, Liselotte, Simone, Anne, Dorthe, Natalie, Dorte.
Last year we didn’t have our annual gala due to the COVID-19 pandemic; we’ve missed each others company, and it was extraordinary good to see all those remarkable people again!
