VGC News/Newsletters - Lakes Gliding Club

Work continuing at a great pace on the Reiher at the Wasserkuppe on 16 October 1998. The Oldtimerklub hope to have it completed
by the International Rally at Aventoft this year! Taken from a Christmas Card to Ian Dunkley from Karl-Heinz Kellennan
original Siemens-Halske SH 14 radial engine. Another
Flamingo replica, which was built by the 01dtimer Club
Wasserkuppe, has been flying for some time but, after the
OSC Wasserkuppe's bad experience with an original Hirth
engine installed in their replica Klemm 25, a Continental
power unit was fitted. The OSV Munchen has recently created
a workshop which is well equipped for restoring historical aircraft.
They have a qualified inspector/ workshop foreman and
a licenced welder and the OSV has 25 members. A further 5
gliders are awaiting restoration and among them are a 1942
MEISE and a Ka-6 CR. Among the gliders is an airworthy
T.2Ib. The OSVM hopes to proudly demonstrate these historic
aircraft at Air Displays.
The above has been extracted from Aerokurier December
1998.
The MUNICH AREA has another Old Glider Restoration
Operation. This is on the airfield of Oberschleissheim. This is
apart from the Flugwerft Oberschleissheim exhibition for the
German Museum in Munich. It is also restoring aeroplanes
and gliders, one of which is the sensational 1944 built
HORTEN 4A, LA-AD, which could well be finished and on
static exhibit;on by the time that this is in print.
The Wasserkuppe
Because Germany has now a Green/Socialist Coalition Government,
the situation may become more sympathetic for
gliding on the Wasserkuppe as the RhOn is a Nature Protection
Zone. We feel that Nature and gliding could co-exist, especially
if quieter tow planes could be used. As the military are
leaving Ihe summit for the first time since 1945, we feel that a
great new era for the mountain, where gliding began, may be
dawning.
On Page 39 of VGC News No.95, there was news concerning
the Deutsches Technikmuseum. Berlin, Herr Steinle,
the Chief Curator, is trying to create a museum of at least
equal stature to the old Berlin Museum which was bombed
during the war. Among the exhibits of the old museum were
the 12 engi ned Dornier X, a Spitfire, the ME 209 and the
FAFNIR sailplane. The museum's address is: Trebbiner
strasse 9, D-10963 Berlin, Germany. Tel: 030-2-54840..
Admission is: Tuesday - Friday 0900-1730. Saturday and
Sunday 1000-1800 hrs. Location is in the City Centre just
South of the Tiergarten. (Information from Aircraft Museums
and Collections of the World. 3:Benelux, Germany and the
Nordic Countries by Bob Odgen.)
Allied bombing destroyed many museums in Berlin during
World War 2. These included the Museum for Traffic and
Construction, which opened in 1906 and the Deutsche Luftfahrt
Samlung (German Air Travel Collection) which was
established in the mid I930s and eventually had over 100 aircraft
on show. At the D.T.M. is a superb model of the D.LS.
with its display dominated bya Domier X flying boat. At the
end of the conflict, a group of enthusiasts in the then West
Berlin started obtaining items for a Transport and Technical
Museum. The collection opened to ,the public in 1983, but lack
of space meant that few of the aircraft in the collection could
be displayed. Some of the former D.L.S.'s aircraft were discovered
in Poland in 1945. (They had been evacuated CW)
and most are now in the Museum at Krakow. Cooperation
between the two countries resulted ,in a 1913 Jeanin
S'tahltaube and a 1917 Albatross B 11 a being restored in the
1980s. The former remained in Germany and Ithe latter
returned to Poland. Hopefully, more of the historic Gennan
aircmft stored at Krakow may return hOlne in the future.
Gliders in Krakow include Weihe, Meise, Mu 13D, Rheinland,
2 Zuraws (Kranich 2B-2 s), Motorbaby, lilienthal, part of a
Horten 2, RhOnsperber, S0.38.. The above Museum has at
present Horten 2, Horten 3f, Horten 3h and Horten 6 on loan
to be restored, from the ,Smithsonian in the USA. The Ho 6
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