Re: NOT OT, This is one of the best eulogies I have ever read.

[Brian Whatcott]

Tom wrote:
> Over the years, we had several WWII glider pilots show up at Ridge
> Soaring Gliderport for a glider ride. For most, it would be their
> first glider ride since a harrowing invasionary flight into enemy
> territory.
>
> Usually, the family would have bought a gift certificate, and they
> would all show up, cameras in hand, for what was a very moving event.
> Often, the man would wear some of the uniform he wore during his
> service. One gave us a photo of himself standing beside a CG-4A
> glider. The photo hangs on the pilot lounge wall.
>
> A great book is titled, "The Glider Gang."
>
> As I recall, they typically received 25 training flights, including
> night landings, then made their next, invasionary flight, some three
> months later. The casualty rates were horrific.
>
> Tom Knauff
>
>
>
There is a museum for WW2 gliders etc at a Dallas area GA field.

Brian W

[Frank Whiteley]

http://www.silentwingsmuseum.com/

[stephanevdv]

The Focke-Achgelis Bachstelze http://upload.wikimedia.org/
wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/22/FA-330_Bachstelze2.jpg/800px-
FA-330_Bachstelze2.jpg autogyro glider, meant as a crow's nest
for submarines, was indeed the father of the "Bensen type" autogyro.
It seems some GI's put a lawnmower engine on a FA-330 and thus created
the type.

There was also a prototype of a big troop-carrying autogyro glider,
the FA-225, being a combination of the DFS-230 fuselage with one rotor
of the FA-223 helicopter (2 side-by-side rotors on outriggers). It was
flown but not used in combat. http://www.aviastar.org/foto/
focke_225.jpg

Concerning the Eben-Emael attack: I used to think it was quite an
achievement to land "inside" a fort. But Eben-Emael is in fact a large
plateau with the fort built underneath the earth. So in 1991, there
was no problem at all to commemorate the 50th anniversary by landing a
couple of ASK-13 two-seaters on the plateau...