After months of preparation, the wait was finally over: it was time to open the doors of my own club, Aeroclub Keiheuvel, for the Juniors Weekend.
A year earlier, I had asked my club whether we could host the next edition ourselves. The board said yes, the LVZC — the Flemish gliding association — gave us the green light as well, and suddenly an idea had turned into an event we actually had to organise.
And there was quite a lot to organise.
I will spare you all the behind-the-scenes details of organising accommodation, food, aircraft, registrations, flying lists and everything else that comes with putting more than a hundred glider pilots in one place. Although, if you are ever crazy enough to organise something similar yourself, feel free to ask — I will happily share the wisdom we gained along the way. 😉
Instead, let’s jump straight to Friday evening, when the first juniors started arriving at Keiheuvel.
As tradition requires, there was spaghetti waiting for everyone. And because people were travelling from clubs all over Belgium and the Netherlands, we kept serving it until after 10 p.m. for the last arrivals. By the end of the evening, nearly 50 people had already set up camp and the Juniors Weekend was well and truly underway.
Saturday morning started with breakfast: fresh croissants and pistolets straight from the local bakery. Once everyone was fed, it was time for the main briefing at 10 a.m.
We had more than 120 registrations, making it the biggest turnout I had personally ever seen at a Juniors Weekend.
During the briefing, we went through the local airfield procedures, weather and airspace for the day, and — rather importantly — how we were going to get that many people into the air.
Because there was a lot to fly.
Our final aircraft line-up consisted of a Ventus 3 TS, an LS8, a Twin Shark, a Rhönlerche Ka 4 and a Caproni Calif. On top of that, we also used our club’s ASK 13 and Twin III throughout the day.
We had prepared all the aircraft beforehand, so as soon as the briefing finished, flying could begin. From that point onwards, we basically did not stop until sunset.
I spent a large part of the day flying with people myself, both in our ASK 13 and in the 70-year-old Rhönlerche. The Lerche in particular turned out to be a favourite. Despite its age, or perhaps partly because of it, everyone seemed to absolutely love the Ka 4. Some of the pilots I flew with also had never experienced a winch launch before, which made it even more fun to introduce them to something completely different from what they are used to.
Meanwhile, the other aircraft kept flying as well. Many participants had signed up hoping to try several different gliders, which made the flying list quite a puzzle. Somehow, though, we managed to work our way through almost all of it. At the very least, everyone got to fly one of the aircraft they had requested.
By the time the last glider landed, we had completed just over 100 flights.
There was even some entertainment in between all that flying. At one point, operations made way for a display by The Penguins, a formation team of four SV-4 biplanes. Watching four beautiful vintage aircraft fly tightly executed formations over the airfield was a pretty good addition to an already very aviation-filled day.
Eventually, the sun started getting lower, the final gliders came back to the field and flying was finished for the day.
Which meant only one thing: BBQ time.
Our volunteers once again did an amazing job, preparing dinner for the entire group — including freshly made chocolate mousse for dessert. After a full day outside and more than 100 launches, I think everyone had earned it.
And then it was finally time to stop organising, and start the party everyone was still waiting for.
Looking back, it is difficult to choose one specific highlight from the weekend. I am very happy I got too welcome everyone to Keiheuvel.
And I think we gave them a pretty good weekend. 😉
See you at another club next year?
