My wife and I just returned from a 3-week trip to Europe, which included a week-long river cruise then driving around Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Czech Republic for two weeks. We looked at a ton of "really old stuff" and had a great time, but I was very unhappy about being away from my RV for that long. Fortunately, coincidence, combined with the worldwide friendly RV community, provided some much needed (and appreciated) respite from all things old and musty - as well as introducing me to some new friends.
You may have heard that the Danube River had record flooding a month ago - yes, a legitimate 500-year flood. That happened to be the week before our cruise on the Danube. The cruises just before ours were cancelled, but Viking River Cruises soldiered on to try to make ours work. The impact of the flood for us was that the water was still too high for the ship to pass under some bridges and a couple of the locks were INOP. That meant that we had to be bused for a couple hundred miles upstream and board a different ship to carry us on upstream. This particular ship was tied up at a
very obscure, unscheduled part of the river where they never stop otherwise. You can imagine the complaining by about half the passengers about this - despite the fact that our cruise was not cancelled and there was nothing Viking could do but try to minimize the impact.
Well (wondering how this is RV-related yet?), when we arrived at the new ship, we climbed on the top deck and noticed a small airport a short distance away. Hmm, now I'm beginning to think this glass might be half full. Back to the cabin to find out where we were (Straubing, Germany) and to post a VAF note asking about any flying or RV activity I could manage on the following day. No responses, but I walked over to the airstrip the following Sunday afternoon and snooped about. I happened to find that MT Propellers is located at the airport (alas, but closed on Sunday) as well as a nice little glider club running operations all day. A little inquiry with these friendly folks about getting my very first flight in a glider, and next thing I know I'm riding front seat with Fritz (of course) for a short but memorable glider ride.
The club consisted of a gaggle of teenagers who were enthusiastic, personable, spoke very good english, and spent all day launching, recovering, and flying gliders. I was very impressed with this bunch of young folks, all of whom were, I believe, pursuing their licenses and ratings. They were all very comfortable conversing with adults, even a stranger from another country. Ah, the aviation community again. It's not an RV grin, but it's very closely related.(This might count for a hat sighting as well)
As a bonus, we made a direct pass over the Viking cruise ship on final...moored at it's lonely, unscheduled stop on the Danube. The glass was definitely half full for me! If you look closely, you can see unhappy people moping about the deck wondering how their cruise could get any worse. I thought later that these kids could probably have funded a new glider giving rides all day to these stranded Americans with nothing to do.
After the flight, I stuck around to enjoy watching the operations and chatted with two of the four or so adults helping out with towing, instruction, and supervision. Turns out they are well along on an RV-7 that they are building with a group of 4. Sadly, I did not make it back to see their project later that afternoon, but it was an unexpected pleasure to meet them.
So, back to the tourist business, which was much more enjoyable after that nice little respite. However, the next day, I get a VAF PM from Hermann who lives only 20 minutes RV time away and offered to come see me at any airport nearby if my schedule would allow. He didn't see my VAF post until a day after we sailed on from Straubing. We didn't know our route or schedule after the cruise but I told him I would get back to him. After I found out where he was located and consulted a map, it turned out that our route a couple days later took us exactly by Hermann's home field. So, no secret what Bryan did...
Hermann has a stunning, new (65 hours), RV-7. He was kind enough to take me up for an hour or so above the beautiful German countryside. He showed me some good light acro and gave me the general scoop on flying in Europe.
Oh, and did I mention that for his day job Hermann works in the left seat of a 747 for Lufthansa? How cool is that? Of course, he says the RV is "real" flying!
Thanks again Hermann, for your hospitality.
I love the wingtip label he's got...you have to get real close to see it.
This was the second week of our trip and I had already scored flights during each week, so I was considering myself in tall cotton. However, I had pre-planned to meet with Bastien, whom you all know from the VAF forums, so the prospects were very good for some more airtime, or at least hangar flying. Now you may know that Bastien is from France (Vannes, France as it happens) but he is working at Xtreme Air as an engineering intern for several months, which put him about 60 miles from our last scheduled stop on the trip. Hmm, all I can figure is it's clean living.
Bastien is an impressive young man, personable, enthusiastic about aviation, and his English is excellent. He started his drop-dead gorgeous RV-8 on his 18th birthday and finished it before he turned 21. He did all the test flying himself, including the first flight, and now has about 175 hours on it in his first year. That's right, no girlfriend (I asked). He is obviously bright, hard working, and will undoubtedly do great things in the aviation world. Keep an eye on him, I strongly suspect you'll be seeing more of him.
He took me up for a great flight over northern Germany, showed me some really good acro, and the scenic German country side. Oh, and he is a very good pilot.
Thanks again Bastien, it was a real treat. It was a privilege to meet you and fly with you, we both enjoyed dinner that evening, and I'll look forward to seeing you on this side of the pond someday soon. My offer still stands.
That's the end of this story, but it was a marvelous example of the great community of folks we have, people who are passionate about RVs and aviation and are eager to share generously with others. I'm very happy to be a part of it. For goodness sakes, folks, all this happened in Germany!
RV Community, German Style
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