Friends no longer flying

James Seyfert-Joiner

James was a great ballonist and balloon friend. I learned a lot from him. He died of a heart attack at a much too young age, leaving behind him my good friend, Barbara, and their 3 children.

Karl-Heinz Stegmeier

A flying friend from LSC Babenhausen.This picture was taken at my 50th birthday party. Karl-Heinz was a fun person… always smiling! He let me steer his plane a few times during my early years at LSC Babenhausen. It was a shock

Horst Neunhöffer und Karl Kapp

– 31.05.1987

Flying friends from LSC Babenhausen

Karl was one of my first flight instructors and Horst a very good flying buddy, at the Luftsport-Club Babenhausen. In 1987 they flew the power-glider Taifun on a trip to Greece and Yugoslavia. On their return trip, while flying over the Alps, they got into bad weather and crashed near the town of Ruhpolding.

Karl Kapp

22.08.1925 – 31.05.1987

Not to forget……

Horst Gebhardt

 – 07.12.1996

Aschaffenburg

Alvin Kurt

LSC Babenhausen

Peter Hildenbrand

LSC Babenhausen

Thorsten Koch

Aschaffenburg

Thorsten was my main Balloon

instructor

Harald Bausbacher

22.04.1958 – 04.07.2010

A flying friend from LSV Worms

Harald was one of my flight students. As a tax accountant he gave me many tips and saved me a lot of money. He was one of the biggest supporters of my English classes and was also one of the first to pass my English exam. Harald, you are missed!

Manfred Graf

A flying friend from LSV Worms  as well as instructor

Manfred was one of the flight instrutors in Worms, primarily for UL’s. He  was a great dancer! He danced with me at my 50th birthday party. It was so much fun and I have it on Video! Yes!! I recently found out that he died in the summer of 2012 of cancer.

Thomas Bäumler

A very dear flying friend from Walldürn u.a.

Thomas (Tommy) was a flight instrutor in Walldürn. primarily for  Segelflug. He introduced me to Glider Aerobatics. He was a Judge at various competitions. I accompanied him to Venlo, Holland, for the world championship. It was a very horribly organised competition! He was a very active pilot but at one time he gave it up….no one knew why. I think he was already suffering health problems but didn’t tell anyone, not even me. 

2010, Reichelsheim / Bad Nauheim

10. / 11. / 12. September 2010 
Finally I found time to take part on the annual meeting of the German
Women Pilots club / Vereinigung Deutscher Pilotinnen e.V.! This year it
took place in Bad Nauheim, a resort city located 72 km north of where I
lived. 
On Friday the ladies started arriving, by car, train, airplane, at the
Reichelsheim airfield. Here they were greeted by the clubs president,
Hedwig Sensen, and the organisers of this year’s event, Andrea
Schapöhler.
A barbeque was provided as well as flights in a helicopter or a
Gyrocopter. The flights with the ME108 Taifun had to be canceled
because of technical problems.

Flying a SeaBee

A friend of mine in El Cajon, Steve Esser, is/was not only the owner of Golden State Flying Club
but also owned a SeaBea water airplane. 

On one of my visits back home I was able to fly with him around the area. 
He actually let me try my hand at flying it. We landed on a local lake.....it was fun!!!





 

 

 

 

The club: VDP

My membership No. 279 since February 1988
  VDP Historie:

Gegründet am 6. April 1968 auf Gut Petersau bei Worms von neun
Pilotinnen, darunter so berühmte Namen wie Elly Beinhorn
(geb.1907), die schon in den Dreißiger Jahren alle fünf Kontinente
mit dem Flugzeug eroberte und Hanna Reitsch (1912 – 1979), die erste Hubschrauber- und Jetpilotin der Welt. Heute zählt die VDP ca. 300 Mitglieder aus allen Sparten der Luftfahrt: Berufspilotinnen,
Hubschrauber-, Motor-, Segel- und Ultralightfliegerinnen sowie
Ballonfahrerinnen. 
Wie der Name sagt, ist das VDP eine Deutsche Gruppe von Frauen mit einen Pilotenschein. Über der Geschichte kannst du mehr über der 
VDP Homepage erfahren. 
The VDP is a German organisation of women with pilots certificates. You can read more about them via their homepage.… sorry,
unfortunately only in German .

1990, Flight to Nordcap

Reise zum Nordcap / Trip to the North Cape                              June 14 to June 21, 1990

We started out under the worse possible conditions…. low clouds and pouring rain. „We“ were  5 members of the Babenhausen flying club, Janko Dspot, Mike Reining, Rainer Korff, Astrid Krone and me in 2 Piper Arrows.

The first leg was to take us to Westerland, Sylt, where we planned to refuel and continue on to Bergen, Norway.

Rainer and Astrid flew the D-EBES and Janko, Mike, and me alternatingly flying the D-ELGH.  For the first leg Janko was PIC and Mike his co while I made myself „comfortable“ in the back seat. One seat had been removed to allow for more baggage and to give us more weight allowance.

In spite of the rain we arrived in Westerland as planned, refueled, then continued on over Denmark toward Bergen. On this second leg Mike was PIC and I was Co. The weather was better but not as good as hoped for. Our route toward Bergen, after crossing the waterways between Denmark and Norway, was supposed to be over the inland mountains, but the farther north we flew, the lower the clouds became. Rainer and Astrid were already trying the coastal route. I soon navigated Mike westward „toward the bright spots“. We soon reached better conditions and were continured northward where we landed without any problems in Bergen.

But where were Rainer and Astrid? As it turned out, because of the deteriorating weather they had decided to land at a military airfield somewhere off the coast and couldn’t arrive in Bergen until the next day.

In the meantime the rest of us found a youth hostel for the night. The personel at Bergen were extremely helpful. In fact, during the whole trip the Norwegians helped us along, found hostels for us to stay in, drove us from our planes over to the tower, etc.

The next morning we checked the weather and planned our next leg. For this leg I would be PIC and Janko my Co. It was planned to fly to Namos for refueling before continuing on to Trompsø for the next over-night stay. According to my old documents, this leg was to be 330 km.

Soon Rainer and Astrid arrived, landing on Runway 36. They taxied to a parking position near the tower while we were parked farther south. After exchanging tales of the previous days events and discussing the details for the days flight, we went to our aircraft to prepare our departure.

 In the meantime the runway had been changed to 18. I began to taxi toward 18 and soon heard the tower calling „D-EBES , taxi to rwy 18…. „. Looking out ahead of me, I noticed a PA-28 heading toward me. Again the tower radioed the other plane to turn around. They kept coming. Rainer speaks no English at all and Astrid wasn’t used to it. Soon I realised that they didn’t understand that they were being talked to, so I grabbed the microphone from Janko and said in German „Turn around, you’re going the wrong way!“ Suddenly the PA-28 stopped and started making a 360 to reverse direction… finally! We decided later that we would alwas fly as a formation and that our aircraft would cover the radio work from now on…. and that worked fine…. there were no more problems after that. This leg took 3 hours and 5 minutes according to my log book and was 330 km.

Rainer and Astrid with the D-EBES in Namsos

4th leg from Namsos to Trompsø

Since it was my turn on the next leg to sit in the back,

I could finally take some pictures of the beautiful landscape.

After refueling we continued our trip up north. The landscape got bearer, wilder, more and more interesting…..and  between Namsos and Trompsø we also crossed the Artic Circle.

             with  the D-EBES in formation. and   flying over a fisherman’s house.

Occasionally we went lower, into the Fjords….

it was a fantastic experience.

If you look closely, you can see a white point on the side of the cliff; that’sthe window of the tourist center! On the top of the cliff you can see the entrance.

After two and a half days we reached the North Cap of Norway! The weather was hazy but quite flyable and we were able to circle the northern most point of Europe.

71° 10′ 21″

 Janko in front of the tourist center.

 

                  

                   Rainer and Astrid

We made it! Mike, our pilot-in-command, is happy to have landed at the airfield in Honnigsvåg.

We had radioed the ground and received permission to land.

The guy arrived at the field at the same time we landed…he had been at home, because his child was sick!

Where ever the Babenhausen flyers go, they leave one of their stickers!

So of course we added ours to the tower in Honnigsvåg. Mike did the honors. 

 After settling down, we got on a bus for the 2 hour drive to the „Top of Europe“.

  Yes, this was our „hotel“! It was actually quite comfortable
Our campground with wooden vacation houses.

Mike checking out our „accommodations“!

      

               Rainer – Mike – Astrid

                  seated: Janko

Yes, I really was on the trip, but someone had to take the picture!

The crew!

This photo was taken inside the North Cap!

There’s a big tourist center at the Cap and of course we left our decal there, too. We stuck it at the front entrance, over the door. I sat on Mike’s shoulders to stick it… there should be a picture of that… hopefully Astrid and Rainer still have it and can send it to me.

We had originally planned to return via Finland…. flying from Honnigsvåg to Kirkenes. The weather for our departure was fine, but Kirkenes was constantly in fog. We stayed in Honnigsvåg for 2 nights, taking time to visit the village.

Honnigsvåg a quiant little fishing villiage with not much to offer for tourists

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                  

  

We decided to change our plans and fly back along the coast of Norway.

Mike was again PIC and again we flew around the Cap before continueing on our way south.

Again we stopped in Trompsø to refuel and then continued on to Leknes on the Lofoten.

This time it was my leg to be pilot-in-command. The flight took 1 hour 24 minutes for 165 km.

The Lofoten are a group of islands off the coast of Norway. Again we found a nice camping ground to stay in and enjoyed the midnight sun at a local restaurant. It was really fun to walk back to the campground at one o’clock in the morning in DAYLIGHT!

 Janko at the campground in Leknes.

                                                                                                                                                                               

The next day, June 19, we headed toward Kristiansund where we again with the help of the tower personel found a youth hostel to stay at. After our landing we had been picked up by a bus and taken to the other side of the airfield where the tower was located.

The next morning we took the bus back to the airfield. After arriving, Mike realised that he had left his bag with all his papers in the bus! Again the tower crew helped us out. They called the bus company only to find out it was in the workshop! The bus company found the bag and brought it to the field via a taxi!

I can’t give the Norwegians enough praise for their helpfulness and hospitality!!

The next leg, from Kristiansand to Flensburg, was again mine as PIC and took 2 hours and 10 minutes.  It was to be a very challenging flight. First of all we had to fly over a long stretch of open water to the north Danish coast.

On we flew to Kristiansand on the south tip of Norway. Notice the names are similar…. one with …sand, the other with ….sund.

                  Kristiansund, Norway                                                                                                                                                            The below pictures show the changing coastline of Norway.

The next leg, from Kristiansand to Flensburg, was again mine as PIC and took 2 hours and 10 minutes.  It was to be a very challenging flight. First of all we had to fly over a long  stretch of open water to the north Danish coast.

The pictures above show beautiful weather and very much changing countrysides. But then the weather over Denmark became increasingly bad with thunder storms and heavy rains. I tried to keep my distance from all the thunderstorms yet still trying to keep eye contact with the D-EBES. We soon lost sight of each other and it was each on his/her own. The visibility decreased… it got to be barely legal and was definitely no fun.

Back in Germany!

With the help of old friends of my husbands family we found a very inexpensive hotel in the old town of Flensburg, Germany.

On June 21 we embarked on the final stage of our journey, arriving safe and sound back in Babenhausen.

2010, Miramar airshow

In 2010 I took my usual trip back home to San Diego. By chance the airshow at the Miramar airbase was taking place. Of course I went to see it. Also by chance my son was also visiting so we went to the show together. I can only put in a few pictures here, just enough to give you an impression of the fantastic event.

Here is my son taking pictures and also being shown one of the military weapons. For those of you who may not know it, Miramar is the airfield for „Top Gun“.

Of course there were lots of great flying demos.

My camera is not best for taking such pictures of the flying. I’m sure Carsten has better pictures…..I must ask him.

1984 Motorsegler Wettbewerb

Every year the flying club organised a competion for powered gliders. Planes came from all over to take part. And, of course, I voluntered to help out! Here are some pictures of this competition. As you can see, there were many different types of planes…..quite interesting.

Judges were various members and flight instructors of the club. I don’t remember who won that year, ok it was long ago.

Some of the judges:

Lothar Stang

Roland Dehn (our instrutor for use of the radio)

Gernot Broschat (a lawyer)

me

Rainer Korff

My first flight, 1983

After many discussions I decided to learn to fly. The flying club wasn’t far from where I lived, which made it easy. I learned on a powered-glider, a 2-seater called Falke, a fairly simple aircraft.

Then came the date for my flight test. The day before, a pilot managed to crash the plane, bending the propeller…luckily nothing else. The propeller got changed and we waited for the examiner to arrive. He came, we took the test flight which I passed.

At the time George Fengel was the clubs president.

My primary instructor was Rainer Korff.

Homepage

Why dancing in the sky? For one, I have been teaching folk dancing for almost 40 years now and dancing much longer. And for almost 30 years I have been flying small, single-engine airplanes. So, it’s just putting these two hobbies into one. I hope to, with time, add lots more information in these two areas….. but who has „time“ now-a-days?

For my non-English speaking German friends:

Sorry, wenn ich alles nur auf Englisch bringe. Es fällt mir halt leichter.  Ich hoffe, es gefällt euch trotzdem. Viel Spaß!!!

This homepage, as well as my other sites (www.floricica.de, www.dorrie.de) are purely private with absoletely no commercial interests. Most pictures published are my own, so there should be no copy right issues. Some graphics I may have taken from the internet, usually from sites that offer them free.

Dorrie Van Cleef,

Marie-Curier-Ring 7

64832 Babenhausen, Germany

At the moment the sites are being renovated so please wait until it’s finished. Thank you