Charly Zimmermann

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Karl "Charly" Zimmermann (* 4. April 1939 in Mannheim ) is a German officer and helicopter pilot, most recently in the rank of captain in the Army Aviation Corps of the German Bundeswehr . He became internationally known as an outstanding helicopter aerobatic pilot who won many international competitions with "his" Bo 105.

Life

"Charly" Zimmermann shaped his aviation career with the Bundeswehr, where he started in April 1961 at the age of 22. In the sixties and seventies he flew various types of helicopters, on which he completed many thousands of flight hours. However, he only achieved worldwide fame on one model: "his" BO 105. He flew it at many international air shows and competitions and at demonstration events in front of a trade audience willing to buy, mostly representatives of foreign armies. Several advertising and promotional films for the BO 105 were shot with him as a pilot.

"Charly" Zimmermann is known to a wide audience from many public air shows and appearances on television shows such as

Captain Zimmermann developed and perfected, together with Captain Wolfgang Kollmann, a variety of aerobatic maneuvers on the BO 105, in particular the looping and the roll. With this, "Charly" won a number of international aerobatic competitions in the seventies and eighties. B.

  • 1977 winner of the "Silver Sword" at the "International Air Tattoo" in Greenham / Common / England as the best non-UK participant.
  • 1978 world champion freestyle flight and winner of the "Rosemary Rose Memorial Trophy" at the 3rd helicopter world championships in Vitebsk (USSR).
  • 1981 World Champion and winner of the “Rosemary Rose Memorial Trophy” at the 4th Helicopter World Championships in Piotrków Trybunalski (Poland).
  • 1983 "Silver Sword" and "Sir Douglas Bader Trophy" for the best flight demonstration during the "International Air Tattoo" in Greenham / Common / England.
  • 1985 “Silver Sword” for the best flight demonstration during the “International Air Tattoo” in Fairford / England.
  • 1986 Vice World Champion in freestyle flying at the 5th Helicopter World Championships in Castle Ashby Gardens in Northampton / Great Britain behind Hermann Fuchs .

An article in ' DIE WELT ' on June 5, 1985 proves the extraordinary aerobatic abilities of “Charly” Zimmermann: NATO Commander in Chief General Bernard Rogers was the guest of honor at a reception for more than 1,300 officers and civilians that the German officer corps at the Allied High Command Shape in Belgium now gave it on the occasion of the German Constitution Day on May 23 (1985). .... Before the evening reception, helicopter aerobatic world champion Captain Charly Zimmermann from Heeresfliegerregiment 16 (Celle) demonstrated his BO105 in breathtaking dives, rolls and loops in front of thousands of spectators. American helicopter pilots among the audience then remarked: "That must have been a hallucination, nobody can fly a helicopter like this."

From 1980 "Charly" Zimmermann worked as a flight safety officer with the Army Aviation Regiment 16 in Celle. 1993 Zimmermann was FAI became the first German to the FAI Gold Medal Rotorcraft excellent. In addition, “Charly” received the Bundeswehr Cross of Honor in Gold and the Federal Cross of Merit on Ribbon for his services to the German aviation industry.

In 1992, at the ILA 92 in Hanover, Captain Zimmermann presented Dr. Vietz from the Lower Saxony Ministry of Economics and Transport successfully passed the civil aerobatics test with the Bo 105 with an entry in the supplement "E" to PPL No. 2847-NIOL.

After the terrible air show accident with machines of an Italian aerobatic team in Ramstein in August 1988, the then Defense Minister Rupert Scholz decided not to let the Bundeswehr take part in air shows, which inevitably meant that the aerobatic activities of "Charly" Zimmermann had to end.

"Charly" lives today with his family (as of October 2018) in retirement in the Celle area.

literature

  • Helicopter Freestyle with Charly Zimmermann , DVD-Video / PAL, approx. 45 minutes, VSP production e. K., Munich
  • Technology and history of helicopters, volumes 1 and 2 by Rolf Besser / MBB
  • The large helicopter manual by Helmut Mauch and Michael Mau

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Aviation (helicopter world championships)
  2. ↑ High distinction for German helicopter pilots ( Memento from August 2, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  3. ↑ The FAI Gold Rotorcraft Medal ( Memento from August 9, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Carpenter, Charly
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Zimmermann, Karl; Carpenter, Charlie
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer and helicopter pilot
DATE OF BIRTH April 4, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH Mannheim