Bölkow G-EJBI

My German is not good and on this occasion at the museum cafe I resorted to ordering the first item on the menu. The food and drink provided by Hubert and friends at the airfield was excellent. Fifty aircraft attended including nine BO208, twelve BO209 and eleven BO207/KL107. Many thanks to Bölkow and Friends for their wonderful hospitality. As we left Müritz Airpark preparations were being made for the following weeks Fusion Festival. To quote Wikipedia – The festival gears to create a ‘Temporary Autonomous Zone’ and a ‘Transformational Environment’. It is a ‘Clothing Optional’ event. – Next stop Berlin.

On the second day of the fly-in we rented some bikes to explore the local area, there is lovely cycling in the nearby Mueritz National Park. We were a bit spoiled for aviation museums. Rechlin Lärz airfield (picture from busier times) where we were staying has a small collection of aircraft and Rechlin Nord a few kilometers away has the quite extensive Aviation Technical Museum describing the airfields role as a test and development centre for the Luftwaffe. The museum is well worth a visit.

Flying a straight line from Leer Papenburg to Mueritz, we talk to Bremen Information, it is quiet and with nearly all communication in perfect english we enjoy a very pleasant 1 hour 45 minute flight. Müritz Airpark has a large number of hardened aircraft shelters, a legacy from previous times, which provide a pretty cool place for a Bölkow get together. My son Andrew has done a few festivals, he does a good job erecting our matching blue tent which will be home for the next couple of days. Hubert Eckl the event organiser knows his crowd and we are soon drinking beer in one of the aformentioned shelters.

I find the price of fuel a little high in the Netherlands so from Texel we popped in to Leer Papenburg just over the border in Germany to refuel and take advantage of their reasonable rates. The steady stream of Dutch and German registered aircraft doing likewise suggests others feel the same. Dutch air trafic control are the best in the world (probably), they certainly make flying around their country a delight. Our lack of a mode S transponder has yet to be an issue.

It is June and we are off to the Bölkow and friends gathering in Germany. A direct flight over the water from Tibenham in 1 hour 20 mins and we are soon having lunch. Very warm welcome from the airport manager, apparently in years gone by they used to do pleasure flights at the airfield with a Bölkow 207. Here is a pic of G-EJBI flown by her previous owner, landing in 2012.

Andrew and I flew to Stapleford with G-EJBI as Andrew was doing some flight training there for a CPL. I was sitting outside the cafe enjoying a coffee when Andrew with his instructor flew a low pass which I thought was nice of them. It turns out it was not for my benefit at all, they were having problems with the gear and wanted the tower to check the wheels were down. They landed safely.

Time to catch up with the blog! A few days after our wonderful trip to Old Warden, Paola and I took G-EJBI to Cherbourg. I am still a little unsure how keen Paola (my wife) is, regarding flying in the Bölkow, I suspect it is more the pilot than the plane which concerns her. For a while I have wanted to check out Cherbourg as a gateway to France and the Channel Islands. It is well worth a visit, we didn’t leave the airfield but a reasonably priced refuel, nice meal and the purchase of a dozen bottles of wine made for a good trip.

We applied for a landing slot as soon as this event was advertised at the begining of the year which seemed wise as the event was a sell out. The weather was absolutely superb and the airshow excellent, starting with a Typhoon and ending with a Boxkite. Take a nice picnic and some friends for a perfect day out.

We flew a few local flights and made another trip to Duxford. My father was visiting and we were able to fly him on a couple of occasions and hence the visit to Duxford to see some of the planes he flew as an R.A.F. and B.O.A.C. pilot. It was a great pleasure to be able to fly him in G-EJBI again and rather poignant as he was to pass away the following month.

Not a great deal of flying in March but we did take G-EJBI to Duxford again. I like to stick with hard runways in the winter as I am not a fan of possibly damaging grass and cleaning mud off the wing. Duxford is the ideal winter destination, great value, good food and warm hangars. Oh, did I mention the rather good museum!