In October 2008 the City Airport will close. A fly in was organized to try to keep the airport open. With arrivals from all over Europe the old central Berlin airport revived in a splendor not seen since the ending of the Berlin Air Bridge in 1949. On Saturday evening the 15th of September 2007, with a minute-rhythm, private aircraft kept landing in a row. Online article (translated by powerglidertaifun.de) from Pilot und Flugzeug magazine, pictures by Manfred Garben who attended with his own Taifun 17E.

City Airport Berlin-Tempelhof: Taifun 17E base-leg for runway 27R

Flying weather that weekend was very good, visibility was excellent throughout Germany with a wind blowing mildly. During the morning already more than a hundred aircraft ranging from single engines to ultra light and motorgliders were parked on the wide apron area north of the Airport. This operation continued during the whole afternoon with arriving aircraft until late afternoon and some already prepared for departure.

The organizer of the Fly-In (Sundus R. Rifaat) came with a PA 28 of the ‘Hessenflieger Aeroclub’. He is a native born Berliner and as such came up with the idea to organize a fly-in with a non political input in mind. To a journalist from ‘Pilot und Flugzeug’ he told that the idea became concrete after he realized his dream when landing at Berlin Tempelhof.

Berlin Tempelhof, Final Approach for the 27R, View from the D- KKGG cockpit

In total almost 200 Aircraft participated during the three day Fly-In starting at Friday until Sunday evening all this to promoting for keeping the Berliner City Airport serviceable. The aircraft came from all parts of Europe, Germany, Switzerland, Austria , Netherlands and even Scandinavia and the Baltic’s.

A petition signed by all participating pilots was handed over to Klaus Wowereit (Wowi) the mayor of Berlin, with an associative sentence at the end: ‘The motto Berlin, poor but sexy’ which certainly evolved from a past morbid way of humor, however in the long term the image of Berlin should eventually become ‘prospering and sexy’. To enable this Berlin needs a good serviceable Tempelhof City Airport.


Mixed resonance in General Aviation
Excellent support was given to the demonstrating pilots trough AOPA, which for quite some years is advocating for keeping Tempelhof operational, together with the interest group for City Aiport Tempelhof (ICAT). On the day of the venue an open community political discussion was organized for the continued operation of the airfield. Traffic experts from different political parties were involved e.g. SPD and the green party together with the left parties and parliamentary group leaders from FDP and CDU, Martin Lindner, Friedbert Pflüger and a representative from the IHK.

No exemptions were given to the Fly-In participants, neither from the Berliner Flughafengesellschaft (DFG) nor from the Deutsche Flugsicherung (DFS). The dues are paid without price reduction, as mentioned on the Internet website.

Manfred Garben with his Taifun 17E D-KKGG at Tempelhof airport, probably for the last time ...

All participating aircraft below two tons, single engine aircraft, ultra lights and motor gliders have to pay the 72 € landing and handling fee together with the DFS departure fee. More details can be requested from sundus.rifaat@web.de.

Before the happening a discussion broke loose on the editor platform from ‘Pilot und Flugzeug’, some critical comments were made by for example the writer of the book Dr. Klaus Jürgen Schwahn („Fliegen in den USA“) who wrote: “I think when you fight for keeping an airfield open, organizing an action like this is the most stupid thing one can do. The anti airport community will certainly be thrilled with a headline like this: “When you leave THF open, you will have this every day!””

On the homepage of the ICAT you can read the following cynical comment: “Fun we need to have with the corpse otherwise nobody is coming to the funeral!’’

Berlin Tempelhof, Open Doors Day 1984 (source: wikipedia)

More on the 15. Sept. Berlin Tempelhof Fly-In can be read in Pilot und Flugzeug 10/2007 magazine.