"We planned our vacation here a year in advance," said Christopher as an explanation. However, the two of them did not marry spontaneously after all. They got to know each other during their shared hobby at Akaflieg Frankfurt at the Ring Ziegenhein site. Christopher is also a flight instructor there, but he has not trained Marie, who started gliding four years before. “But he let me go for the first solo flight,” says Marie. In the meantime they have covered big distances together in the Duo Discus. With two LS4s they also covered distances up to 600 km. Sometimes the tasks were distributed differently: At the German championship of the 18m class in Stendal Marie was Christoph's helper. In Bitterwasser they now share an Arcus cockpit. Almost a 1000 k flight is already in the flight log.
After two weeks of gliding, they will go with a camper with a roof tent on a discovery tour through Namibia.
A stay at the Bitterwasser Lodge is usually beyond the financial means of young pilots. At the same time, the next generation is the key to the future of our wonderful sport—and of the lodge as well. That is why supporting young pilots is a core part of the Bitterwasser Flying Center’s mission.
Early October is the ideal time to prepare the runways for flight operations. You can land at the Bitterwasser Flying Lodge in every which direction—depending on how you look at it, on 8 runways (plus one emergency runway), each in two directions. Jeremias carefully levels the landing area over the course of several weeks.