On April 15, almost 20 Polish glider and model pilots from Grunau visited the Rhön in cloudy, foggy weather. Comparable to the history of the Wasserkuppe, in today's Jeżów Sudecki, gliders were used very early on. Shortly after the opening of the world's first gliding school on the Wasserkuppe, a comparable school was founded in Lower Silesia.
And the parallels continue to this day: after the enthusiasm period of the 1920s and early 1930s, the training of military pilots then dominated until the end of the Second World War. But the desire of the passionate amateur pilots came back quickly, and civil and peaceful gliding and model flying started after a forced break.
The delegations from the local model flying club, which is a center of Polish model flying, and the gliding club were impressed by the gliding museum with model flying and above all by the many exhibits and connections between Wasserkuppe and Grunau. The directors of the museum gave a lot of information on this during relaxed guided tours. A 92 year old visitor talked about his (still active!) life as a pilot. The young club members who traveled with us, some of them still flying students, were enthusiastic and finally got to know exciting “history”.
The association "Antikmodellflug Deutschland" (AMD) also took the opportunity to get in touch. The AMD showed small, easy-to-build flight models for children and young people. Several sightseeing flights through the museum in a very light, remote-controlled motorized aircraft with an electric drive rounded off this demonstration.
After a hike to the aviator memorial, the group, fortified in the “Weltensegler” restaurant, started their journey home. But not without having issued an invitation to a return visit. The reason for the visit was the idea of expanding the existing regional approaches of a gliding and model aircraft museum - the motivation for implementation was further strengthened by the visit to the museum on the Wasserkuppe.
