Month: February 2018

I was back in Georgia last week, it is a great place for skiing and unknown by most Europeans. No long cues on the ski slopes (they haven’t got carnaval holidays), lots of fresh snow. The Gudauri station where we went for the second year is at 2200 meter and goes to 3300 meter altitude. We loved it. 

A second reason to go there was to visit my pilot friends at the Natakhtari airfield, the main general aviation airfield north of capital Tbilisi. With AOPA Luxembourg we are facilitating a private pilot VFR rally this June bringing French and Luxembourg planes to this place. Some 17 planes confirmed and as with every organisation, there were some issues to take care of.

Vanilla Sky – Cessna flying in Georgia, Europe

Airfield with a swimming pool

Dinner offered by Amiran Manjavidze, owner of Natakhtari airfield

Natakhari is a regional hub, terrain will be extended to 2500 m

old power lines at end of runway

Amiran’s newest purchase…to tow gliders

for glider towing

old timers 1

old timers – a gift for Amiran for his 60th birthday

old-timer Sovjet Gouvernment car

The Russian answer on Fiat 500

General aviation develops at Natakhtari airfield, Georgia

General aviation develops at Natakhtari airfield, Georgia

They install a Jet-A fuel tank, AVGAS is available in barrels

My role in general aviation is changing in 2018 as I have been elected to preside the board of AOPA in Luxembourg.  We have a gret new board team, I think as it is a match of experience and new talent. The challenges are high as general aviation in Luxembourg is facing an existential threat in Luxembourg. This Thursday I have my first board meeting and we’ve prepared an ambitious agenda. Food for discussion, that’s for sure.

I’m active since a couple of years in the board of the Luxembourg AOPA, which is called UPL-AOPA. The first year, I have been mainly a listener and organized some fly-outs , even long distance ones. I contributed to get AOPA Belgium on the fly again and am working on themes as digitalisation within UPL-AOPA as we need to reinvent ourselves to attract a younger crowd.

Our president is unfortunately not representing himself for election next Saturday at the General Assembly. It is a pity, he does a very good job. Our secretary, Marcel Felten, passed unexpectedly away some weeks ago and we have also two other board members who are not representing themselves anymore. 

Lucky for us, we have a couple of new volunteers to join the board. There’s also some news from my side. I’m running as president of our association next Saturday. Here’s the English version of the letter I sent today to the board members.