VGC News/Newsletters - Lakes Gliding Club

now. As the club had to run the German aerobatic contest atthe same time, its members could not bring gliders to eitherthe Rendezvous or the main Rally, in Hungary. They were,however, represented at Farkashegy by one of their members,Jurgen de Vries.AventoftThis year we were excited by the emergence of a new Germanvintage glider group in Schleswig Holstein, near the Danishborder. This group has written the following:A HomecomingWe German Vintage Glider Club members are happy toannounce that again there resides a Minimoa on German soil,or rather, in German airspace. This particular one had beenowned by Jan Scott of Lovettsville, Virginia, and in 1989 itparticipated in the International Vintage Glider Club Rally inHungary after having been painstakingly restored by the socalled "Munster Mafia". The German Museum in Munich hadlabelled this beautiful bird part of the "Mobile technical culturalheritage" and a collector's item of historical value.Through the efforts of Gerhard Allerdissell, it was brought toAventoft, a lovely airfield close to the Danish border, There, aconstantly increasing number of vintage gliding aficionados isenthusiastic that with. this Minimoa they were able to add totheir fec,ently acquired Weihe, a most valuable treasure. Theircollection is, of oourse, tipped £01' growth in future years.On June Ist this year, they celebrated with a big weJcorningparty to the Aventoft Airfield. A number of eminent dignitaries(in addition to politicians. friends and Board members ofvarious aeronautical organisations) gave delightfully briefspeeches. Peter Selinger, author and gliding historian, talkedcaptivatingly about the history of the Minimoa in general andabout this newly acquired specimen in particular. The Mayoressof Aventoft, Mrs Christine Harksen, had an especiallyIf you have put a lot of time, effort andmoney into a vintage glider, you will want·to safeguard your investment. We canhelp you by providing a reliable andcompetitive insurance policy together witha friendly and efficient service.Phone, tax or write to:Stephen Hillell aviationI insuranceI services lIdhPhone: 01765-690777 Fax: 01765-6905444 Bedern Bank, Ripon, North Yorkshire HG4 1PEgood idea; she dedicated a cup for anyone to win who succeedsin a five hour duration flight in a vintage glider taking off andlanding at Aventoft. For us VGC members, this celebrationwas an immensely joyful occasion. Not only were we able toattract more members for our club, but more importantly, theidea of keeping vintage gliders airworthy in order to keep themin good condition, is gaining friends and supporters.I sincerely hope that now we shall often have the opportunityto admire this particularly beautiful sailplane in the skiesabove the country of its origin.We can now announce that the Aventoft club has obtaineda second Weihe 50, from Jochen Kruse, to escort theirMinimoa in triumph across the skies of Germany!!Jochen Kruse has again visited Grunau with his GrunauBaby 2b, Weihe 50 and Mg 19 Steinadler. He took with him asmall group of German youth to show them what Poles arelike, and to introduce the Poles to bungee launches and aerotows.ThePoles made available an aeroplane for towing thegliders from the airfield of Hartau, in the valley below, to thegliding site. Of course, as Grunau is Polish Silesia, we should,at least, giv.e it its Polish name, "Jesow Sudeski" andHirschberg is "Jelen'ia Oora". Both the latter names mean StagMountain. The Polish al Jesow are, thanks 10 Jochen, becomingvery sympathetic towards vintage gllidimg, but cannot yetget involved in it because they are very poor financially.Adam Zientek told Jochen that there had been 8Liegerkraniche (prone piloted from the front cockpit)Kranichs in the S,turm Halle, (an NSFK Sturm's hangar).Although some of these Liegerkraniche may have gone to theSoviet Union to belp train pilots for the prone piloted DFS346 which the Germans were building West of Moscow,others were reconvel1ed back to their original, seated frontpilot configuration in Poland in 1945.We have heard that Heinz Scheidhauer, the Horten testpilot, has had an accident in the Pyrannees, when his motorcaravanwent off the road. He himself suffered no brokenbones... but he is broken in spirit. We know that he has recovered~mm disasters before and hope that he can clamber backfrom this one. All the VGC sends him Greetings and wishes tosee him again.The Kranich 2A-2 0-8504, which was restored by WilliBergmann is la~guishing in its hangar and never gets takenout and flown because Willi had a stroke and he cannot workany more. He also was building a Minimoa 36 and had finishedmost parts of it, including the wing spars. We had hopedthat his son would continue in his father's footsteps but he hastoo much work. The Kranich was one of those which werebuilt in Spain (like the Kranich of Neelco Osinga in Holland).Willi's address is:- Fliedhofstrasse 19a, 6120 (old code),Michelstadt, Germany.ITALIAN NEWSAll our news is contained in the account of the Pavullo Rally.SWISS NEWSConcerning the Kranich 2B-1 built by Kittelberger after June1943, which had NSFK registration LX-WJ and the 1945Swiss registration HB-475 and which now belongs to thebrothers Hugo and Werner Roth, one has the wings to repair athome and the other has the fuselage at home. Possible completiondate is in two years time. There is also a Ka-4 Rhoenlerchewhich they may restore. Non member Attila Ziermanhas sold his Moswey 2a of 1939 and has just had his 1958Super Futar beautifully restored at Farkashegy, near Budapest.26