The Janusz-Korczak School has been a partner exchange school with the Erasmus project for over a year now.

After 2 successfully carried out projects revolving around the themes of time and weather, this time around the students got to deal with the interesting topic of gliding!

The adventure began on the 30th of June.

Four excited students ranging from classes 8 – 10 met with their teachers to get some more information and a deeper knowledge on the true art of gliding and also to actively participate in the flight operations.

On arrival, we were warmly welcomed by „our“ flight instructor Rene Theising , as well as Tim and some of the other trainee pilots like Jan, Michael, and Thies.

At the beginning, we helped open the hangar, where all the different gliders stood, as well as the motorized pull maschine, and the launching winch, which was inoperative at the time of our visit.

After a short round tour and some further explanations, we got a theoretical introduction. Apart from the most important behavior rules on an airfield, our flight instructor Rene told us about the requirements/preconditions that enable gliders to fly. Did you know? Well, we didn’t.

Sounds like a lot of theory and physics! Yes- you’re right. But, we also did learn some interesting facts, such as how the machine of the glider functions and what a glider looks like on the inside. That was exciting!

Tim, Thies, Jan, and Michael were so kind to prepare everything necessary for our flight, while we were still in our „Gliders“ class.

Our glider was an „ASK 21“ which was moved out of the hanger and was prepared for the flight. This happens every time someone wants to fly, it is merely a security procedure. Before every flight, the glider is checked for foreign substances or objects, for example; or if there are other maintenance problems such as a loose screw that has to be tightened.

The tow plane was also moved out of the hanger, onto which a glider was connected by a rope, in order to carry it into the air. Because in our case, the launching winch was not working, therefore the starting conditions might not be good.

And then we got started:

The dream of gliding became reality for Jana, Jeremy, Leander, and Rasim.

The glider was moved to the starting point, and the ropes were tied to the tow plane. Now it was Jeremy’s turn, he got a parachute and sat behind Tim in the glider. How exciting!

Leander and Rasim were next and flew with Rene. It was a dream come true, an unforgettable experience. We learnt so much on this day!

We did not only learn about the theory and practice and the preconditions that enable a glider to fly, but also that gliding is a team sport, which means that people have to work with each other to make it happen, everybody has a certain task which in the end makes gliding possible! This same teamwork also applies to football; no player is able to score a goal on his own, the player is always in need of other player’s help and they have to play together.

We would like to thank the LSV Eschendorf very much for the great opportunity they gave us, to experience the air operations from different angles. We got an insight into the Lepodriver, who is responsible for bringing the gliders back to the starting point after landing. We learnt about the air traffic controller, who organizes the take offs and landings, the employee who helped start the glider and the highlight was, of course, to be able to fly with the pilot and to experience take off, flying, and landing from the perspective of a passenger.

It was a great adventure and event for all of us, which we will remember for a very long time.

Thanks so much to Rene Theising and Tim Oberfeld, as well as the trainee pilots Michael, Jan, and Thies. Last but not least, we would like to thank Erich Wissing, our tug pilot, who made our day possible and helped us throughout, although the weather was playing against us.

 

Thank you to all involved!

 

Here you see the video of our test flights….