Friday, 09. October 2026

Leveling the Landing Area

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.

Jeremias walzt!

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You can see the dimensions on the diagram, and Jeremias drives up and down them in an east-west direction with a tractor equipped with a heavy roller—strip by strip—for four weeks, every day. The roller presses the small stones into the surface, compacting the ground so that by the end of the process it feels like concrete.

What does Jeremias do during this time, spending whole days alone on the tractor? “I’m writing an invisible book about me, Bitterwasser, and the world.” He’d have plenty to tell: He’s been in Bitterwasser since 1999 and is now part of the management team there, taking care of the vehicles, the airfield, the hangar, and the fuel and supplies. In the evenings, he takes guests on game drives.

Whether in a glider or a powered aircraft, he’s an enthusiastic co-pilot—and, as you’d expect, he prefers to fly in the Wild Thing. And the future is secure: Last season, Jeremias’s son joined the team at the Lodge as a line boy for the first time. Maybe someday he’ll follow in his father’s footsteps and take the driver’s seat on the roller tractor.

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Friday, 09. October 2026

Leveling the Landing Area

Thursday, 17. September 2026

The Long Journey to Africa

In early September, the containers holding the gliders for the 2026/27 season were loaded in Waghäusel. Transported by trailer, truck, and cargo ship, the gliders are now on their long journey to Namibia, to the Bitterwasser Flying Lodge.