A European Wrecks and Relics trip.
A recent airshow at Nordholz in
So, just after midnight on Sunday, 3 WAG members set off from
I won’t go in to the details of the show which have been well reported elsewhere, suffice to say it was wet, but there were plenty of aircraft on static display even if the thunderstorms put paid the majority of the flying display. This beautifully painted Super Lynx will give a small flavour of the static (actually, this was the only aircraft I photographed as I was wary about getting my camera gear expensively soaked in the deluge – memories of Lake Zeltweg 2005!).
Anyway, following the airshow, we made our way round to the co-located Museum “Aeronauticum”, and this has a reasonable collection of aircraft types on display, with a Tornado and Atlantic being among the newer additions. Residents noted included:-
366 Su-22
22+98 F-104G
43+55 Tornado
54+08 Pembroke
59+19 Do.28 white
59+22 Do.28 grey
61+14
"91+02" PFW.149 (really 90+77)
94+01 Mi-8
94+14 Mi-8
D-AXDB VFW.614 ex 17+02
RB+363 Sea Hawk
"SC+601" Magister (really AdlA 388)
UA+113 Gannet (ex XG853)
VB+134 Sea Hawk (also ex IN238)
"WE+543" Sycamore (really 78+16)
After the museum we decided to curtail the day’s activities and made our way to
our pre-booked hotel in
Monday morning opened reasonably bright as we set off Southbound around 06:30. Our intention was to take in some of the flying action at Norvenich, home to JbG-31 and their Tornadoes, but as we proceeded further South the weather started to markedly deteriorate.
First stop was at the German Army base at Bentlage, near
Then, onwards again, deviating off the Autobahn to see the Noratlas 52+37 which is in use as a bar near Schwelm.
By the time we got to Norvenich, the weather was pretty poor, and there was no sign of any flying, so we decided to cut our losses and re-plan for a Wrecks and Relics day. The nearby Boelcke Kaserne in Kerpen has a recently repainted Starfighter on display, F-104F 29+19 is dramatically mounted in lizard camouflage, and is easily seen from the main gate.
A quick look at our GPS system showed that
Next on our plan were the large collections at Baarlo and Kessel in the
Kolonie was our next location, situated a few kms from Lommel in
With things still proceeding well we headed to the light airfield at Leopoldsburg (Sanicole) and found that the F-84 (FU-177) is still in primer, and that the ex Soviet AF An-2 LY-TED was parked out on the grass. The aeroclub and hangars were all shut by the time we arrived there, so were unable to confirm any other residents.
A quick stop at Peer to photograph another Starfighter, FX-94 is dramatically pole-mounted on a
roundabout, and then on to see the preserved frames at Kleine Brogel (F-84
FU-66, F-84 FS-17, F-104 FX-86) before heading for
Hope that gave an insight into an easy European trip, pretty much standard fare
for us really and typical of our regular jaunts.
Have a good
European Map (or a great GPS system like we use with all the locations
pre-programmed in), take European Wrecks and Relics with you, and for up to
date information check out http://www.eurodemobbed.org.uk