Spottertour mit Torben

Right after the wall came down during the early ninties several aviation friends of mine and myself went on countless drives through the unknown GDR, exploring airfields. Regular stops included Harbke, near the former border, where an IL-18 was put up as a restaurant, Oschersleben, where at that time an old Tupolev TU-134 was displayed in the middle of the city (also as a restaurant) and Magdeburg - a major base for agricultural aircraft.
This weekend I decided to go an a similar drive along with my new aviation buddy - Torben. Our first stop was again Harbke. The old IL-18 restaurant is closed today and the aircraft is slowly rotting away (although it is still in one piece), our next port of call was the hospital in Olvenstedt (a suburb of Magdeburg). About 18 years ago this was the base for an Mil Mi-2 rescue helicopter. Today a much more modern Eurocopter EC-135 serves these duties.
Just a few more kilometers away is the very quiet Magdeburg "Business Airport". Not much traffic here, all the agricultural aircraft gone (since many years). But at least there is a nice attraction here: the Tu-134 which was before on display in Oschersleben. I already uploaded some pics on my flickr.com site (click Mehr Fotos / mehr Pictures).

Ana Bolika

Nice one! This is the only AN-28 in western Europe. She belongs to MD Skydive / Mitteldeutsches Fallschirmzentrum and usually lives at the Magdeburg airfield since late 2007. Her name is ANA BOLIKA. I flew in this colourful bird from Cochstedt, about 20 km to the south of Magdeburg on a paradrop mission. Along with 20 skydivers and birdmen we departed and climed up to 4400m. I was supplied with a parachute for myself but was told not to use it "unless the pilots are running past you".
Waht a great flight on a near cloudless noon in the wild east. Slowly my list of the Antonov aircraft I have flown in is becomming more and more complete. Actually it was planned to use an Antonov 72 jet aircraft for this boogie, but unfortunately legal issues kept it at home in Moldova.
Thanks again to Olaf for several useful infos that day!