N28Bu at the Delaware, Ohio airport
Sometimes in life, finally experiencing something you have dreamed of, or anticipated for a long time turns out to be anticlimactic. It would have been better, perhaps, if the dream had remained just a dream.
Not so with Bückers. Growing up in Europe, I read of Buckers and their pilots from when I was about 12 years old. I first saw one (Roy Legg’s Jungmeister) at 18, and I eagerly read everything I could find about these aircraft.
I was 35 years old when I finally flew a Jungmann for the first time (thanks to Woody Menear and Dick Farina.) It was even better than I had dreamed of for so long. I started what would become the 18 year odyssey of building my own Jungmann that very night.
Another dream that turned out to be even better than I could have imagined was this year’s visit to Switzerland.
At the beginning of 2010, we received an invitation from a family member who has a chalet in the Swiss Alps. The chalet was going to be vacant for a extended time in June, and he wondered if we would like to use it.
Perhaps like me, when you think of Switzerland, you think of alpine meadows, cow bells, edelweiss, fresh cheese, ski lifts, snow capped mountains, cog railways and the like. Well, you know what? It really is like that--at least the town of Wengen is.
We really did wake up to the sound of cow bells each day; we could see the soaring peak of the Jungfrau from our deck; and the steep hillside on which the chalet was built was covered in wild flowers, including the famous edelweiss. Wengen is a truly magical destination. But enough of the tourist board stuff. Switzerland is full of Bückers, too!
The first weekend we were in Switzerland, we took the cog railway down the mountain to Interlaken, then boarded the express train to Zurich, and on to St Gallen in the far northeast of the country. Here we had the great pleasure and privilege of meeting Elisabeth and Albert Zeller.
The Abbey of St Gallen.
There is a lot of Bücker history near the beautiful and historic city of St Gallen. The site of the former Dornier works at Altenrhine (Old Rhine), the spectacular grass airfield at Sitterdorf where two Jungmann and two Jungmeisters fly, and the Swiss Bücker Museum in Teufen are each just a few minutes drive away.
Altenrhine is on the western shore of Lake Constance, or "Bodensee" in German. It separates Switzerland from Germany to the east, and Austria to the northeast.
After WW1, when aviation was restricted in Germany by the Treaty of Versailles, the Dornier company, who were based in Friedrichshafen (also the site of the great Zeppelin works), packed up and moved across the lake to Altenrhine. Here they built their magnificent seaplanes and much later, the Jungmann and Jungmeister under license from Bücker.
Sadly, we were able to find no remnants of the former Bücker production buildings, but we did enjoy a wonderful couple of hours in the museum on the airfield.
Recognize this? It's an Argus powered Pilatus P2 . A two seat trainer that employed several parts from other aircraft, including the landing gear from a Messerschmitt Bf 109. That vaned spinner drives a hydraulic pump that provides power to the constant speed prop.
We next drove to the grass airfield at Sitterdorf, which will be so familiar to those who have viewed the Swiss pictures on this website. Believe me, the airfield is even better in person. http://www.flusi.ch/joomla15/index.php
Surrounded by apple orchards and historic countryside, Sitterdorf is my idea of the ideal airport. As well as the grass runway and hangars, it has a nice restaurant, a large scale model steam railway, a track for racing radio controlled model cars, amusement rides for children and even a small zoo. It seemed to provide an idyllic site for flying, as well as being a welcome part of the community enjoyed by pilots and non-pilots alike. All this within view of the lake and the mountains to the south.
The weather was not at its best on the day of our visit.
Albert allowed me the privilege sitting in his immaculate Siemens Jungmeister, which shared the hangar with “Anteres,” and two Lycoming Jungmann. I was happy that both Albert and Jeanne understood what this meant to me.
The following day, while Elisabeth, Jeanne, and Jeanne’s mother Elsa went sightseeing and shopping together, Albert and I visited the private Swiss Bücker Museum in Teufen. Here, Albert, Thierry Lestang and “Fritz” care for a number of exquisitely displayed aircraft including Hirth and Lycoming powered Jungmann, Jungmeisters, and some Piper L4 Cubs that the Swiss inherited from the US army after WW2.
I could write for a day of the treasures that are to be seen in the museum, but perhaps these pictures will do a better job of describing it than I could.
Albert, Thiery, Fritz and me standing in front of the "original" Swiss Army Jungmeister
I will mention, though, that perhaps the greatest treasures were a Jungmann and Jungmeister preserved exactly as they were on the last days they saw service with the Swiss army. These aircraft serve as reference models for the restoration and maintenance of all the other Bückers.
A very original Jungmann cockpit, just as the army last flew it.
The three boxes of tools that are supplied to maintain a Hirth HM504!
European aircraft use rib stiching, not rib lacing as is more common in the US. The fabric is sewn to this cotton tape, not all the way through the wing and back.
After some hours at the museum (is there ever enough time in a museum?), we were joined by the ladies and repaired to a local restaurant for lunch, where we ate a meal so excellent that Jeanne still regards it as perhaps the best she ever ate!
Although the completion and first flight of N28Bu was one of the high points of my life, our summer vacation in Switzerland and the kindness shown by Elisabeth and Albert Zeller proved to be at least as special, and at least as memorable.
Thank you Elisabeth and Albert.
If you would like to see the rest of the pictures we took, you can check them out here: https://picasaweb.google.com/sjbeaver/Swisspix#