We Have Been Processing The Subscriptions Received For The Upcoming Memorial Hans Gutmann Rally 2016. We Have Now 13 Planes Participating With The Rally, Which Is A Big Success As We’re Now Fully Booked. Besides, We Have Some Pilots Participating In The Rally Who’s Spouses And Children Are Coming Over By Regular Airline To Georgia. All Together, We Have As Per Today 33 Pilots And Passengers And 7 Additional Persons, Totaling 40. Quite A Big Group. There’s A Group Of Three Other Planes (From Belgium), Who Have Planned To Meet Us In Batumi For The Evening Dinner. What Makes This Group So Interesting Is That It Consists Of Pilots Coming From Various European Countries. We Have Italians, English, German, Lithuanian, Austrian And Luxembourg Based Pilots In Our Planes.
Our Mike Kornev has created a social media page on Facebook page for the Hans Gutmann rally and the event, It will be feeded and please feel free to send your own pictures to them.
There is some more news. A press conference is organized on Tuesday July 12th in Luxembourg by our President Jean Birgen, whereby the details of the rally are disclosed. We’ll have a member of the Luxembourg government present to formally wave the Luxembourg based pilots goodbye with the red lion flag of Luxembourg.
In Georgia, our participating pilots shall be received on August 9th by the Georgian government, by either the State Minister Bakradze, First vice prime Minister and Economy Minister Kumsishvili or by the Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili.
Georgia has it all to become a new prime destination for general aviation. This country is even building new airfields such as the Mestia one, high in the Caucasus mountains. The main issue so far was the absence of AVGAS. Several of our participating planes fly on MOGAS, widely available in Georgia, but AVGAS was quite a challenge. We’ve made an agreement with Serviceair (same owners as Vanilla Sky in Georgia) and they’ve now ordered a tank with 4000 liters of AVGAS for our pilots. They’ll deliver AVGAS in both Batumi and Natakhari to our pilots.
Our team members Mike Kornev is collecting all information a-our pilots might need for their navigational preparation as most of us are flying VFR. You’ll find it on our website under the flight planning tab. Mike keeps on feeding the website as he collects more information.
But there’s more news: Our Turkish organization team member Turgut sent me some excellent news this evening which I like to share with you: the Turkish Antalya city municipality called Turgut and they are inviting our Hans Guitmann memorial rally group to Antalya after the Georgia visit.
They are offering the following free of charge :
– 3 Nights Stay At 5 Star Hotels,
– Free Entry To Antalya Museums,
– Free Entry To Side And Aspendos Antique Cities,
– All Airport Services Free Of Charge.
Turgut Contact Mentioned There Will Be Party With Live Music, Animations, And Dinner On August 15th. Antalya Is A Touristic City, 350 NM South Of Samsun, On The Mediterranean Coast.