DG Flugzeugbau sends it's Managing Director into the Desert
Rrrumms - I sit up in bed with a start. It's three o'clock in the morning, and another hard fruit off a tree has hit the tin roof of my "Rondavel". It's cold, too and I should get another blanket.
A step outside shows a few small lights of the Bitterwasser Farm, and an amazingly beautiful starlit sky. How did I get here?
Soaring has been a part of the Bitterwasser Farm, 180 km southeast of Windhoek, the capital of Namibia for the past 30 years. But only in the last four years has soaring become the main purpose of the Farm, when the farmer sold his farm to a group of German / Swiss soaring pilots, who with great effort, determination and infusion of capital restored the dilapidated buildings or built new ones, and started a proper soaring operation during a time of the year when European soaring takes it's winter rest.
At this time there are 35 partners and a few shares are still available - you could still join! DG-Flugzeugbau bought a share, which makes sense since many of our sailplanes are flying here. Because of the difficult desert terrain for out landings a motor glider is a great thing.
It's amazing to see what has been accomplished in the last three years here in the desert. The center piece if the farm is a dry salt lake about 3 km square of flat hard packed sand. This area is larger than all the runways and taxiways at the Frankfurt airport combined. There are 3500 hectares of farmland, which is leased out, and "Palm Alley" where the aircraft are parked and which leads to the utility buildings.
A hangar is available for repairs, bungalows and rondavels as accommodation and a very nice swimming pool for cool refreshment (the water is quite cool, since the nights are cool). Sustenance is provided by a German cook and her helpers, who serve up anything from ostrich filets to deer goulash to German cabbage rolls and "Königsberger Klopse"!
As a partner I had wanted to see this place in person for some time. It's supposed to have ideal soaring conditions from October to February. How to get there?
A depressing incident provided a reason for the trip:
A motor was severely damaged, through no fault of the SOLO manufacturer or ourselves. In any event, the customer had gone to the expense of shipping his sailplane to Namibia and now had seized pistons.
Ordinarily two people would have to make the trip, a mechanic and a licensed inspector. But luckily our Toni Uhl combined both functions in one person. We could send him by himself. But alone? All kinds of things could happen to him. As his boss I could not take the responsibility. That's how I got to Namibia.
Regular soaring pilots can simply book a holiday and bring their own sailplane by container, or charter one of the Farm sailplanes by the day. Frequently tour groups also stop at Bitterwasser on their travels through South Africa and Namibia, and wives can laze by the swimming pool or make excursions into the surrounding countryside.
After a 2 1/2 hour trip from Windhoek we arrived late in November and Toni had a wrench in his hand within 5 Minutes and started on his task. We brought a huge aluminum container through customs, which contained a compete workshop and a replacement engine. Since he was in no immediate danger from leopards or other wildlife I could explore the soaring possibilities with a DG-400 and a DG-800B.
It was great! The landscape is fairly monotonous, since desert stretched for 200 km in every direction. But thermal conditions are excellent. As a reasonably cautious pilot I stopped climbing at 4200 m because I had no oxygen, but others climbed to 5500 m. When you then red-line it you can start singing, especially when the weather at home is wet and cold.
Air space restrictions in Namibia are almost unknown, and close calls with other sailplanes are rare. But conditions are not suitable for beginners. On "bad" days the lift is 2 or 3 m/s. On good days one can get 6 m/s, it can get quite rough and requires clean circling in narrow thermals. But it does not take long, in 5 minutes you are 1500 m higher.
Without a doubt motor gliders are the ideal sailplanes for this territory. While we were there 2 DG-400, 3 DG-800B, one DG-500M, one Nimbus 4DM and a Ventus CT were available. But regular sailplanes are also in use with a powerful Maule tug and, on week ends, a winch which is somewhat underpowered and is using 3 km of fencing wire. That's how you get to the proper altitude.
And what makes the evening nice? A cool beer after a day in the dry desert air at 30 C. The climate is not excessively hot because the air is so dry, but one has to drink a lot.
Another tip: pilots should not wear T-shirts but regular short sleeved shirts. Why? If the sailplane has been parked in the sun for some time you can burn your neck on the parachute hardware. The heating of the aircraft on the ground is a bit of a problem. In the air it's quite comfortable because of the high altitudes.
When our repair task was finished the Maule took us to Windhoek and we rented a Cessna 182 and flew to northern Namibia to the Etoscha National Park for a couple of days and admired the wildlife.
Now when I look out of the window at the gray skies it all seems like a dream. One thing I don't have to remember - the jet lag, since there is only a one hour time difference (between Germany and Namibia). That I can do without.
If you want to fly out of the regular season, the Bitterwasser Farm is the place to go. Fantastic thermals, nice people, modern sailplanes and almost always superb weather conditions. Where else can you get all this? Australia is 2 1/2 times as far away.
Contact Address:
Lydia Caspar
Kirchfeldstr. 14
D 74564 Crailsheim
Tel: 0049-(0) 7951-5154
