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The walkaround
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Akky and Cecilia, ready to go flying
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Cecilia flying..
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Berlin
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Tempelhof Airport
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German bridge
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Sanssouci Castle
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Near Cecilia's village
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Akky, Cecilia, Priska and Karola
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My dragon boat competitions were over. Canada did
well...bronze! We were third in the world! The World Dragon
Boat Championships were held at the Grunau Regetta in the outskirts of
Berlin, the site of the 1936 Olympics. Grunau regetta is a very
pretty place, almost like a northern Ontario lake. It was a wide
section of the River Spree with river traffic and the occasional barge
drifting by the race course.
But now it was time to fly. I had gotten in
contact with the German 99s of the International Women Pilots
Association. Cecilia Rentmeister met my husband Henry and me in
Trebin a small town south of Berlin easily reached by train. From
there we drove to her home airport of Schoenhagen EDAZ. Until
Germany's Reunification, Schoenhagen had been the central airfield for
military training in the GDR (The Socialist German Democratic Republic).
In Schoenhagen, young men from all over the GDR were selected for flight
training for the air force of the "People's army". Civil aviation
was almost non existent because of the fear that private pilots would
flee the GDR to the west by plane.
After German Reunification, many of the socialist air
force pilots became civil flight instructors. Cecilia's instructor
had been a MIG pilot. Schoenhagen airport consisted of several low
modern looking white rectangular buildings surrounded by forest.
The renovated buildings had been barracks, administration buildings and
hangars from the "Socialist Republic" days. We entered the flight
school where the planes were dispatched. Once again I thought how
much it reminded me of my home airport, Buttonville, with its dispatch
counter, classrooms and briefing rooms. Cecilia got the keys and
documents for the plane and off we drove to another low white building
where the planes were hangared. To my surprise the combination of
the gate to the ramp was the same as Buttonville's. Today we would
be using a seven year old French built Robin 200 D-EGJT. It
reminded me of the Grumman with its glass sliding cockpit roof.
Cecilia and I did the walk around ...me following behind.
Knowing what to expect, I could make out the ATIS in
German. We took off from the uncontrolled airport squawking 2100
indicating a VFR flight. Heading north over the village where she
lived, we spotted her house and yard. The distant cumulous clouds
and the odd rain shower added an interesting mottled light to the
landscape which was not unlike southern Ontario's.
Our first destination was Potsdam, southwest of Berlin.
It is the capital city of the state of Brandenburg. The Federal
Republic of Germany consists of eleven states which include big cities
such as Berlin and Hamburg. Potsdam is the former seat of the
Prussian kings. In 19th Century, the Prussian kings and "Kaisers"
moved to the fast growing nearby Berlin. We circled over the old
town and the tiered gardens of Sanssouci Castle, the residence of
Frederic the Great in the18th century. What a sight from the air!
I wondered if my dragon boat team mates who were sightseeing there today
would look up and see our small plane. From there, our route was
northeast to Berlin itself.
The airspace over downtown Berlin was partially closed
but Cecilia would see how close we could get. Most of the
communication on the frequency was in English. There was no hint
of German accents, but Cecilia assured me they were probably German
pilots speaking English. I thought of one of my instructors from
Buttonville who now is flying for Berlin Air who might be one of the
voices I heard. On the previous weekend when Henry and I had been
touring downtown Berlin there had been many small planes and an air
balloon overhead. We thought civil aviation was certainly more
active here than back home. We rarely see four or five planes at a
time circling downtown Toronto. Cecilia explained it had been the
last day that the airspace over the inner city was open and everyone was
out there for a last flight. It was closed due to an intentional
crash on the front lawn of the Reichstag, "The German Parliament", a
month earlier.
After clearance to enter the Controlled Airspace Delta
we headed northeast towards the center Berlin. We flew very close
to Tegel International Airport's runways without going into its control
zone. We would never get that close to Pearson! Even though
we did not get right over downtown Berlin, we could see most of it.
I spotted the Park Inn Hotel in Alexander Platz where we were staying,
the skyscapers of Potsdamer Platz, the Tiergarten now a park, but
centuries ago a private hunting ground for emperors, the communications
tower with its revolving restaurant.....and even the Reichstag with its
glass dome. What a view! Even better than from the Berlin
version of the CN Tower where Henry and I had a sunset dinner the
previous evening.
Turning a 180 degree semicircle to avoid the new ED-R,
restricted airspace, we headed towards Tempelhof Airport where in 1909
Orville Wright demonstrated his Flyer to tens of thousands of
enthusiastic Berliners. We could clearly see its semicircular
terminal. It was the largest "connected" building-structure in the
world until the Pentagon was erected. British architect Norman
Foster called it "the mother of all airports". In 1948/49
Tempelhof Airport was the scene of our of the most important events in
the history of Berlin, the Berlin Airlift. After WW II, Berlin was
divided into four sectors, each under the control of one of the Allies.
In 1948 the Russians closed all the routes to and from West Berlin by
land and by water to get control over it. The Berliners were ready
to resist, and
with the biggest airlift ever, the Allied American and British Air
forces provided the two million Berliners with everything, from coal to
foot, by air, for one year. Cecilia told me that she was born in
September 1948 in West-Berlin after it had already been closed for 4
months. She said that after her birth, "she was kept alive the first 8
months of her life, by this immense action of brave pilots". I
wondered if that is what got her interested in flying.
Then off we went back south toward Schoenhagen, over
lakes, fields, forest and small villages and Cecilia's home. This
time for my benefit, Cecilia got the ATIS in English. The option
was to receive it
either English or German. We landed on Runway 27. Henry was waiting for
us. We drove to Berlin passing many of the sights seen from the air.
Cecilia pointed out the call up points we passed. We met the other
99s Karola Schmorde and Priska Wollein who lived in the Berlin Area. It
was like meeting old friends. I recognized them all from a
story and front cover picture of the 99s Magazine. Dinner that
evening was filled with flying stories, camaraderie, fun and
laughter. To me, that is what the 99s and the flying community is
all about.
