Glider flying Mainz - Finthen

Saturday 20th August 2011. My plan was to take a bicycle on to a bus and head off to the model flying field ( http://flyingcircus.biz/ ) not so far from Mainz, Germany in order to pass a bit of time on my lay-off day from airline work.

Things started off poorly that early morning as I had taken along a bottle of fizzy drink in a cloth bag which happened to get caught in the spokes of the bicycle wheel and exploded. My sandwich got soaked and my phone got wet too, Hmmmm, very stressed.

I decided to get off the bus one stop earlier than planned to clean up the big mess, not knowing that this was all meant to be, and that my day was about to get so much better once again.

I got off the bus and rode a short distance to the small civilian airport at Finthen. That's where I saw a sign mentioning that there was an open day at the airport. They were celebrating their 100th year of the local flying club http://www.lfv-mainz.com/segelflugzeuge/and .

To top all that, there was about to be an air show together with rides on planes and gliders.
This video is a short recording of my first time experience in a glider (an ASK 21, spanning 17 meters, weighing 380 kgs and having a top speed of 280 km/h).

I couldn't believe how friendly everyone at the field was and how amazingly relaxed everybody in the glider team were.

I was very lucky to have had the opportunity to meet the gliger team at Finthen Airport that morning and to have had the chance to fly in a glider with a very friendly pilot along with the help from his entire team.

Thank you very much to everyone there that day and I hope that I will have the chance to visit again soon.

P.S. I also had a nice time at the model flying field afterwards too.............. :-)

This film was recorded using a Nokia telephone .....

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Glider
• flying
• Mainz Finthen
• Segelflugzeug
• Flugplatz
• Mainz
• Finthen
• segelfliegen
• Flugsport
• sailplane
• glider
• ASK 21
• Platzrunde
• Tiefer_Überflug
• low_pass
• anflug approach
• soaring
• gliding
• flying a glider
• gliders
• mrhelidude
• Qantas

[StarvingMarving]

Hi Nara! Wow!  What an awesome experience :-) Thanks for posting the video; I really enjoyed it. Matt

[MrHelidude]

@StarvingMarving

Thanks Matt. Time goes by so quickly. I want to be there again. Hopefully soon ..... :-)

[UTubeGlennAR]

Thanks to this glider club I ended up speaking German second best in our avionics platoon of a bout 3o guys (my grand dad was German).

25 summers later on a Sunday I had a 5 hour lay over at Frankfort, I found a half day rental car rate, zoomed off to Finthen and there leaning against the same portable control tower was my same instructor. We kindled a bit of a eM friendship but I guess he suddenly got sick because he disappeared from our eMing each other n I never know what happened to him :(

[MrHelidude]

@UTubeGlennAR

Yes, so true. Everyone speaks English perfectly in Germany nowadays but they still keep that little secret to them selves. I wish that I could speak German (and my mother is German) Hmmmmm ...... :-)

[UTubeGlennAR]

LotsO little things I forgot about my time at Finthen, one I now remember is my instructor saying that most everyone in the club spoke English but along with teaching me to fly a glider, we are going to teach you to speak German.....

[MrHelidude]

@UTubeGlennAR

Hi !!!

I am glade that this clip brought back some good memories. I am not sure of all the mechanics used in this gliding operation nowadays as this was only my first time there in a glider. But like you have said, it almost felt like flying in some kind of "old" past time.

It was a lot of fun and the atmosphere, people and student pilots there were very young, friendly and relaxed. That made all the difference...... :-)

[UTubeGlennAR]

Than the next spring I was transferred to Vietnam.

Nonetheless, I have a gerat time. A flight, tow n instructor was about a dollar fifty but the Mark to Dollar was 3.62 to $1.00, that was when the dollar was king, not like it is now.

I recognized the same old tractor pulling back the tow line. Did they still use a miniature control tower made out of a small trailer as they did 40 years ago?

If I remember correctly the winch had a Olds V8 motor in it......

Thanks for the memories..........

[UTubeGlennAR]

I hung out there all weekend n had a nice time.

Monday comes around and I get transferred to the avionics platoon stationed in Hanau some 30 or so miles away.

To make a long story short, I joined the club, took the train there every weekend I did not have duty. My instructor was a nice man named Carl Nagel. I soloed and on one of these solo flight I lost my canopy at take off.

I befriended a young man named Wolfgang Ermish, had a little crush on a young girl named Irean.

Continued below.

[UTubeGlennAR]

Similar happened to me in 1970. On a Friday in the spring the US Army dumped me off at this air field. The first sergeant said said since it wasFriday just come back Monday morning. Saturday arrives n nothing to do, the pace was empty, no friends, no car not even a bicycle. Than I saw a small yellow glider seemingly rising in the near distance in the air silently.

Due to the 5oo space limit-continued (below I home).

[MrHelidude]

@AllSingingAllDancing

Thank you for having a look a my video. It was a big mess at first but the day turned out great after that.

I like the goats in your videos on your channel but they eat every thing that has a leaf on it so no goats for us............ :-)