European BAC Fly-In #3 in Germany

peschi

Level Cruise
Our third BAC Fly-In in the heart of Europe happened last weekend in Merseburg (EDAM) just west of Leipzig! Weather was favourable enough for everybody to fly the planned route from different places in Germany to Merseburg. We had visitors from Elz (EDFY) , Koblenz (EDRK), Egelsbach (EDFE) and Rendsburg (EDXR).
Elke and I flew in already on Friday afternoon for the last preparations.
On Saturday we could welcome the first 2 planes within 4 minutes just after 11:30am and at 2:45pm the last touchdown completed our group of 6 planes, 2 Sierras, 2 Sundowners, 1 Aquila and 1 Katana Eclipse.
We started to serve coffee and cakes and could sit in the late summer sun on the nicely prepared terrace by the airfield manager and his wife. A lot of BAC knowledge was exchanged and Hans was quickly convinced to become a member now (joined on Sunday evening)! Our 3 other guests, who have heard about our Fly-In and came with their plastic planes, also received a warm welcome of course and maybe, someday...
Late afternoon we heated up the barbecue grill and our chefs Elke and Rickmer prepared very tasty steaks and sausages which were served with potato and noodle salads as well as coleslaw. As it became a little too chilly to sit outside we moved inside the club room.
After the relaxed dinner we organized the transportation for all to the nearby hotel where the day finally came to an end at the hotel bar.
Sunday morning after the group breakfast we drove back to the airfield and we could wave goodbye to everybody with the promise to see each other again next year!
The participants in the order of appearance:

Peter and ElkeD-EAPSBE24EDFY Elzpeschi
Rickmer and KathrinD-EHEYBE23EDFY Elzroverj
Hans and UteD-EOJHBE23EDXR RendsburgHans im Gluck
Michael TomschiSE-KLDBE24EDRK Koblenzmichael-tomschi
GerhardD-EPCBDA20EDFE Egelsbach
Jochen and DirkD-ESXTA210EDFE Egelsbach

Thank you all for coming, see you latest next year again someplace else!

Some pictures...

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Somehow the most important group picture disappeared, here it is:

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Rickmer - Kathrin - Dirk - Jochen - Elke - Peter - Gerhard - Ute - Hans - Michael
 
Great pictures, thanks for sharing. All nice looking aircraft, but those are the most massive hangar doors I have ever seen. What era do those blast proof things date back to?
 
Great pictures, thanks for sharing. All nice looking aircraft, but those are the most massive hangar doors I have ever seen. What era do those blast proof things date back to?
Short answer: the airfield was converted into a military airfield 1933 when Hitler prepared Germany for his vision of the future...
see the german website of the airfield https://www.flugplatz-merseburg.de/geschichte.html for the history.
We have many old military airfields not used anymore but still in operation for GA and those hangars are built so massive that there is no way to get rid of them.
There are other locations like Mueritz Airpark where the shelters have been converted into homes https://www.fliegermagazin.de/news/mueritz-airpark-hier-ist-wohnen-mit-dem-flugzeug-moeglich/
 
What a great, double-rainbow event Peter. Congratulations to all who made the trip. The European adventure continues to grow year after year. Seeing the hardened shelters brought back memories, but that's a story for another post. Thanks for providing the history links for the airports Peter, it certainly gives context to the European history. Well Done!
 
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