Soaring clubs near Berlin?

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I am looking for recommendations for soaring clubs near Berlin, Germany, preferably one that focus or welcome owners of classic sailplanes (I have a 1965 Aer Pegaso M100S).

Any suggestions?

[Dave Springford]

I don't know about the Vintage part, but the Airfield at Lusse (Luesse) hosted the 2008 World Championship and is about 1 hour south of Berlin

Link to google map location:
https://goo.gl/maps/j5GHu

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You could try looking at various clubs here:

http://www.segelflug.de/karte/d_karte.html

Berlin itself has pretty complex & widespread airspace restrictions (multiple airports) which is why there is a "hole" in the middle.

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Whatever airfield you choose, it takes at least a one hour drive from city centre to get there. Stendal airfield offers nice and plenty of hangarspace for classic gliders, but it's a rather small gliding community over there (nice people, though). Reinsdorf is probably the best airfield to get away from (great thermals), but has only very limited hangar space. Neuruppin may also be worth a visit, there are also some pieces of wood flying around.

Cheers,
Christoph

[kammeyer]

There are a lot of choices around Berlin, most of them good. In any case you're looking at about an hour's drive outside of Berlin. There are a couple that are closer, but they have the disadvantage of being under low airspace shelves, so it is more difficult to go x/c from them.

The culture of German clubs is very different from American clubs. Generally, compared to American clubs, there can be more focus on the club itself than on the flying. Because of this, private ships are not looked upon favorably in some cases. If you are flying a club ship, you're generally expected to be at the morning briefing at 9am, and stay until the debrief when the sun goes down. When you're waiting your turn for a club ship, you'll be helping at the flight line. Most people with their own ships spend their time in the air instead of on the flight line, and so to some degree the private owners are seen as not pitching into the club.

Two clubs I can comment on are:

FCC Berlin (Lüsse): Extremely high standard of facilities and club equipment. Somewhat bureaucratic. They require a large deposit and rental fee to base a ship there. No real old-timer presence.

FK Brandenburg: Very friendly, slightly shabby facilities, some old-timer presence (the club has an SG 38 that they pull out periodically), officially not currently accepting new private ships, but you may be able to convince them.

It's also worth making a trip to Reinsdorf as there are three different clubs at that field. I don't have any personal knowledge of them though.

-Dave