German ,Namibian landing experience

Matters of general interest
User avatar
Grote
Passed radio course
Passed radio course
Posts: 72
Joined: Sun Aug 17, 2008 4:40 pm
Location: Moorreesburg ,Weskaap

German ,Namibian landing experience

Postby Grote » Mon Dec 12, 2011 7:01 am

It started like this . Saturday afternoon I was visiting my nextdoor neighbours, Andre and Marietha Carlile, on their farm Holstenhagen , Stampriet area , Namibia . Me and Andre was sitting on the stoep doing what you do on a saturday afternoon in the Kalahari !!!!!! At some time I heard a sound in the eastern side of his farm , sounded like a Quadbike , I told him that , a second or so later we heard the same sound , he told me that it`s only a car coming up the farmroad , Well later on I asked again what happened to the car and we could not figure that out.
Early yeterday morning a neighbour ,Barney Burger phoned me that a glider , NIMBUS 4 DM , from Bitterwasser Gliding Centre , pilots Horst Heimann and Harald Fritzfrom Germany , went missing late saturday afternoon at about 6.30 pm in this area , apparently the plane overflew Barney`s farm . He described me his farms position , I created a waypoint on the pc map , draw a line to Bitterwasser airfield and see that the flightpath will just take them north of Andre`s house . Thats when I realised that the sound we heard was the motorised glider . Andre got in Contact with Jossie van der Merwe at Bitterwasser , in the meantime Andre sent his staff out too look in that direction so long for a plane . Andre and Josie apparently had a position , so Andre descibed the place to Jossie over the phone , Jossie climbed on Google and with Andre`s help get a fix and coordinates . I rushed down to Andre`s farm with the GPS so we can go for help .Well, the farm helpers actually found the plane totally intact and undamaged just quickly behind the second dune , picked up the two tired but greatly relieved pilots and brought them home .
Marietha immediatly jumped into action whith a hearty breakfast for the two friends , and Andre supplied the beers.
What happenned is that they took off from Bitterwasser ,seven hours in the air for the day , later they ran out of thermals and when they started the motor they could not get revs and started to loose height , there was what they call here a pan but it looked more than A dam to me . The pilot did a superp landing from 400 ft AGL, 180 meters , never knew its possible in a glider , look at the pics and you will see the terrain.The recovery team came to the farm with a trailer and off they went .
At the end of the day , a very happy ending . Safe Flying my friends , and do what these to pilots did , they stayed at the plane ,!!!!!! Good luck to all , Francois Louw

1 Pilots.JPG
2 Landing.JPG
3 Landing run.JPG
4 Recovery team arrives.JPG
5 Everybody eager to help.JPG
8 Andre and Marietha.JPG
10 First dune over.JPG
11 Happy ending.JPG
User avatar
nicow
The Big Four K
The Big Four K
Posts: 4958
Joined: Tue May 24, 2005 7:09 am
Location: Potgietersrus
Contact:

Re: German ,Namibian landing experience

Postby nicow » Mon Dec 12, 2011 9:08 am

Dis mos gasvryheid!
Glad you found them,& that they are ok (^^) .
Nico
Limpopo Flight School
vliegskool@hotmail.com
ZU-AWA
ZU-DMM
ZU-AJO
ZU-AWF
ZU-BAI
ZS-WOR
ZU-TCT
ZU-DOD
ZU-CIE
ZU-BIW
User avatar
Grote
Passed radio course
Passed radio course
Posts: 72
Joined: Sun Aug 17, 2008 4:40 pm
Location: Moorreesburg ,Weskaap

Re: German ,Namibian landing experience

Postby Grote » Mon Dec 12, 2011 9:59 am

JA , NICOW , DAARDIE LOODS WAS ONGELOOFLIK , WEL MET 3000 URE AGTER DIE STUUR KAN N MENS DIT SEKER BEGIN REG DOEN , MAAR AI , DAADIE LAE VLERKE OOR DAAI KLIPPE ,MET NOU NEE EERS N SKRAPIE SO GROOT SOOS N MUSKIET BYT ,GAAN MY NET TE BOWE

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 39 guests