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It's been suggested that we arrange a meet in HAM to honour Stefan. Let's start talking about it.

First up, when? Best month for spotting and other activities? Availability? We can narrow it down later.

Then, what? Obviously hanging around the fence at HAM. Side quest to XFW? Of course. But can we do something to make this truly epic? Something worthy of Stefan. Something like:

- floatplane rides, if those are still going. Stefan booked it, twice, and never got to ride it because it crashed, both times...

- gliding, out at Uetersen. Stefan and I did that together once - in fact, we arranged it when we found out exactly why we weren't getting our floatplane ride (see above). Couldn't get him to shut up about it afterward, I think he was on the verge of taking it up seriously for quite some time. It was surprisingly good value for money at the time, too.

- again at Uetersen, arranging an air-to-air photo session with the GA crowd there. Stefan and I tossed the idea around a long time ago, think we were talking about hiring an Islander and taking the doors off. Would take some serious work to arrange and to do safely, and the locals would definitely need to take the lead in making it happen, but it would indeed be epic.

- ???

Throw your thoughts and ideas in here, let's get the discussion going.

Schedule permitting as always, but count me in

Regarding activities around HAM, is the Airbus plant still available for visits ? I've also visited the Lufthansa Technik hangars a few years ago and it was really interesting.
And I'd also like to visit Miniatur Wunderland again (there's an airport !), the place is truly impressive...

Get some dates going, I will do my best to make it.

airtrainer wrote:Schedule permitting as always, but count me in

Same for me. Will definitly try to make it possible

Airbus tours still happen - I'm doing one (as well as Miniatur Wonderland) with friends in October. However I'd definitely make a second trip to Hamburg for this (dates permitting, as ever)

If the meeting shall include photography it best should be held no later than around "mid-August" as sunset rapidly will move to earlier times after that.

OTOH, to allow people for some leisurely planning, about two months from now might be a good time point for "earliest date" of the meeting.

These two aspects could lead to a proposed corridor of between Friday, 12-JUL-2024 and Sunday, 18-AUG-2024 for the meeting.


As I only will have to hop onto a regional train (with several connections) with no need to pre-purchase any additional ticket, I am rather flexible for exact dates / weekends.
This is as long as I do not opt for "flying Hanover to Hamburg" (= 82 miles as the crow flies) going for some weird routing like via some Greek island. But chances are that any evening flight into Hamburg runs late and gets diverted to Hanover. Odds a good for this to happen if I step onto an aircraft...
But flying HAJ - VIE - WAW - HAM with a good Wiener Schnitzel at Vienna Airprt also sounds tempting.

Any ideas involving flying in light aircraft, especially sailing planes / soaring planes / gliders are out of scope for me as I exceed weight limits for this kind of aircraft.

-HT

HT-ETNW wrote:But flying HAJ - VIE - WAW - HAM with a good Wiener Schnitzel at Vienna Airprt also sounds tempting.

Hehe that's the Holger I know, my mentor who inspired me to create weird routings

As for possible dates, if we narrow it to mid-July to mid-August as suggested, my choice would be the last weekend of July...

Last weekend of July would fit perfectly round my roster as well

26(FRI) - 28 (SUN) JULY

That sound good?

miamiair wrote:26(FRI) - 28 (SUN) JULY

That sound good?

Sounds good to me. First look at airfares and hotel rates showed reasonable prices for the season.

Last weekend of July works for me too. I'm looking at incorporating a last 757 flight into the trip, so may well rock up from PMI or similar.

26(FRI) - 28 (SUN) JULY would be okay for me.

Should we start discussing dinner for Saturday evening ?
Any preferred cuisine ?
- German (in general)
- German (specialized in fish dishes)
- Indian
Other ideas ?

Depending on people´s (yet unknown) times of arrival to Hamburg ..: Dinner also for / on Friday evening ?

-HT

+1 for Indian, not sure if we can find any place matching the Cinnamon Tree
German specialities would be great too...

Another +1 for Indian. Perhaps make that the 'main' meal on Saturday with something more local and casual on the Friday for those that will be around (I should be)

Seems we're going for that weekend so I've booked flights. Having checked out interesting options that were similarly priced to chartering something myself, I'm headed in on U2 on the Friday afternoon, and returning to MAN on Avion Express (apparently) on Sunday afternoon.

Where is everybody staying?

mhodgson wrote:Another +1 for Indian. Perhaps make that the 'main' meal on Saturday with something more local and casual on the Friday for those that will be around (I should be)

I won't make it into Hamburg until 2100 on Friday, so might join you all for drinks later. Do we want to do German-Indian? It's not usually great by the standards the Brits will be used to. I'd rather go with some traditional German, but will happily go with the consensus.

I'll go from your experience of German-Indian. Definitely wouldn't mind schweinshaxe which is always great if we go for more traditional cuisine. And we won't struggle finding something to wash it down with.

Just exploring flights - nothing jumping out as particularly interesting, typically the Ethiopian flight to GVA which could have been a novelty doesn't run on Fridays!

JLAmber wrote:Do we want to do German-Indian? It's not usually great by the standards the Brits will be used to.

Valid point.
While my experience with Indian (sit-down) restaurants in Germany is very limited, spicing often best was "uninspired" - but still better than the Indian restaurant in Lisbon I sampled twice where also the Vindaloo-dishes were far from being called spicy.

JLAmber wrote:Where is everybody staying?

Me most likely arriving by train I considered to stay within walking distance of Hamburg`s Central Station ("Hauptbahnhof") as it is most convenient traffic-wise.
The hotels of chain InterCity hotel, usually located opposite or even "in" train stations, seldom disappoint.
A stone throw further away is a Barceló hotel which has good reviews.
Neither of the two hotels I currently have shortlisted for me is exactly cheap, but Hamburg ain´t the cheapest of cities in the end.

-HT

Flights booked - Eurowings (operated by Avion Express Malta both ways) MAN-HAM-MAN. Arrive HAM 1720 on Friday leaving 1315 on the Sunday.

I'm still looking for earlier options than the easyjet MAN-HAM flight, might switch to the Eurowings if nothing more interesting presents itself.

What are the plans for the Saturday? I guess we need an idea of thweather, especially given recent unseasonable conditions in Germany.