I went to the open day at D?sseldorf Airport today, they had a Ju 52, DC-3, An-2 and - drumrolls - DH.84 doing pleasure flights. I hope that those two pesky dustspots (which DO NOT budge, whatever I do) on the sensor of my camera left at least some of the 1000+ photos unspoilt.
Alright then, here we go:
This is the lovely quartet of historic aircraft that pootled around DUS for the day. I'm sorry about all the ramp clutter, but this was the only moment when all four aircraft fit into one photo.
To the left is
D-CDLH, Lufthansa's Junkers Ju 52. Don't be fooled by the "D-AQUI" markings, those are purely for decoration.
The neighbour to her left is
PH-PBA, a Douglas DC-3 from 1944 in a gorgeous KLM livery. This is the aircraft thomas asked about
earlier.
The red aircraft is an Antonov An-2 and aptly named the "
Red Baron". It seems to be based at Dortmund airport, its registration is D-FONE.
Finally, there's my new personal favourite: EI-ABI, Aer Lingus' de Havilland DH.84 Dragon, named "
Iolar" ("Eagle") and restored in time for the 75th anniversary of Aer Lingus in 2011. Sadly, I haven't been able to find too much information on it apart from an
official Facebook page.
This is "Iolar" returning from a pleasure flight. It really is as tiny as it looks, the red tail is that of an Air Berlin A320.
The "Red Baron" also returns from one of its many flights. They really worked this one, a flight on it was much shorter than on any of the other aircraft.
FINALLY, one of them waved!
Oh, that noise...
Now, for the flying bit - they're all going up where they really belong:
Sadly, they used the far runway (05L) most of the time, which meant that even at 300mm and with VR enabled, my lens could do little but struggle... anyway, I do think you can just about make them out, even in the air:
Those aren't any of the aforementioned dust spots, that's the Eagle scaring a couple of birds.
See you soon! Too soon for my taste, if I'm honest.
Level wings on final approach are for sissies.
Apart from the colour of the sky, sights don't get much better than this one.
Finally, a few more:
heading back to his friends
"I'm an airliner, too, you know!"
Lufthansa, new and old
Just 'round the tower, you say? OK, fine by me!
All in all, it was a fantastic day out. I didn't have the opportunity to fly on any of the four, but since there will be opportunities to do so in the future, seeing them all together was almost better. All that remains is for me to get my camera cleaned - as soon as there's nothing really interesting coming up for a couple of weeks - and wait for sunshine next year!