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Last week we made a little VFR trip to Vienna. It was the first time I visited Vöslau aerodrome, south of Vienna. Fueling at Hof-Plauen A trip report with pictures can be found here .

Thank you. There was another failed attack against the Sorpe dam in October 1944 that used the Tallboy bombs (see The Dams Raid link at the bottom of the trip report). I am still to find out why the Sorpe dam was attacked again in isolation, 1.5 years after the first raid. Perhaps the intention was to first try to breach the Sorpe, before the Möhne was going to be attacked again? The British knew that both the Möhne and Sorpe needed to be breached to achieve a strategic impact. Were they perhaps only testing the (expensive) Tallboys against the Sorpe, or trying to demonstrate that, since the Dambusters raid, they now could also breach the Sorpe? Europe has achieved a lot after the war in respect of cooperation, stability and peace. I hope that the current nationalistic tendencies in Europe will not succeed bringing us back to the pre-war dark ages.

As a private pilot, I had flown already several times over the Ruhr district before I knew that, at one time during World War 2, dams in the area had been subject to air attacks by the British. As aviation interests me, I did a search about it on the internet, and the queries returned thousands of mostly British websites with stories, articles, books, movies, TV-shows, etc. about the "Dambusters". A raid against German dams had taken place, and it is a heroic story in Britain, although it is not commonly known in other countries. Most works on World War 2 European air war make mention of the Dambusters raid as a footnote if at all. The official assessment of the bombing campain (the British Bombing Survey Unit, The Strategic Air War Against Germany, 1939 - 1945) neglects to mention the raid entirely. Aerial pictures of the Möhne, Eder, Sorpe, Lister, Ennepe and Diemel-dam It was unavoidable to notice that the raid is fiercely debated in Britain, and further reading was required. For those who are interested, I made an extra page which reflects on the impact against the described goals and predicted results of the air strikes that were drawn-up during the preparation of the operation (link at the bottom of the trip report). The trip report with pictures can be found here .

(I wanted to add pictures to the original post, but that appears not possible; anyway, they are in the trip report)

Germany has an interesting aviation history. Part of it are sailplanes, all-metal airplanes and flying wings. End of 2013, we made a trip to Wasserkuppe and Dessau, and we visited Quedlinburg. The Wasserkuppe is the highest peak in the Rhön Mountains in the German state of Hessen. Between the first and second world wars great advances in sailplane development took place. Hugo Junkers was a major German aircraft pioneer. His company produced some of the world's most innovative and best-known airplanes over the course of its fifty-plus year history in Dessau. Although his name is also linked to some of the most fearsome German warplanes of the second world war, Hugo Junkers himself had nothing to do with their development. Quedlinburg is one of the best-preserved medieval and renaissance towns in Europe. A trip report with pictures can be found here

Remember the 1968 Alistair MacLean-scripted WW2 adventure film Where Eagles Dare with Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton? In 2012/13 we made trips to Austria, and also visited the movie locations The Where Eagles Dare movie starts with a scene of a Junkers 52 coming in from the distance, accompanied by the music of Ron Goodwin. The Junkers 52 that was used in the film is still flying today (HB-HOT, ju-air, Dubendorf, Switzerland). The outside scenes were filmed in Austria, near Salzburg. The Schloss Adler is castle Hohenwerfen. The walk to Werfen over the bridge is at Werfen, while the Werfen town scenes were filmed in Lofer. The cable car to the castle is the Feuerkogel cable car at Ebensee. Oberhausen airfield is in fact the military Aigen im Ennstal airfield. Landing there would have required paperwork in advance, but we were allowed to make a low pass. Schloss Adler (Castle Hohenwerfen) A trip report with pictures can be found here

In 2011 I made a VFR trip to the former secret rockets and missiles development center at Peenemünde, and to Rechlin-Lärz, the former testing ground for secret German air force experiments. Peenemünde is known for the Peenemünde Army Research Center, where the world's first functional large-scale liquid-propellant rocket, the V-2, was developed. The first launch of a missile into space took place here in October 1942. German scientists such as Wernher von Braun, who worked at the V-2 facility, were known as "Peenemünders". V-2 launch Rechlin-Lärz was once part of the Third Reich era's Luftwaffe main testing ground, or Erprobungsstelle for new aircraft designs. Construction of the first airfield at Rechlin started in 1916. In 1935, the Rechlin airfield became the official testing ground of the newly formed Luftwaffe. Also captured planes were tested at the airfields. Dornier Do 335 "Pfeil" A trip report with pictures can be found here

We made a trip to Dresden, with stops at Alt Lönnewitz (production site of the Arado 234-B in WW2) and Grossenhain (the Red Baron received training here). On the way we also passed castle Colditz. Alt Lönnewitz was already used in the 1920s as a civilian airfield. In the mid-1930s it became a military airfield of the Luftwaffe. The Arado 234Bs were built at Alt Lönnewitz. Dresden was all but wiped off the map by allied bombings in 1945. After the war restoration work has helped to reconstruct parts of the historic inner city. Grossenhain airport is one of the oldest operating airfields in Germany. Regular operations started in April 1914, and it was a training facility for the likes of none other than Manfred von Richthofen. Colditz Castle's notoriety stems from its years as Oflag IVC, where the Germans imprisoned officers who had already escaped from less secure camps and been recaptured. We also passed a small part of the former inner German border that was left as a memorial. A trip report with pictures can be found here

Thank you Thank you. I don't know yet if and when. It also depends on how easy it will be to get security clearance, licensing, etc Howdy dazza 38 Inverted=Down Under: indeed Trips/Events/Spare Seats :: VFR trip with classic movies theme Thank you Jij ook bedankt, eightyknots

In my introduction notice I made reference to our holiday trip to Spain and Portugal from last month. We also made a kind of theme trip to Spain in 2012 that may be interesting if you are a fan of Sergio Leone's 1960s movies with (most notably) Clint Eastwood and the music of Ennio Morricone. Have a look here.

Hello, I am interested in flying in Australia, and I will follow this site. As an introduction, hereby a link to a trip we made to Spain and Portugal this summer. Happy landings, all! [/url] Trip to Spain and Portugal